As the old saying goes, “They can print whatever they want about Mark May, as long as they spell his name right.” ESPN’s college football coverage has long since ceased to be about information. It is sports entertainment. If the ESPN brass had to choose between being balanced and factually accurate or being entertaining, they would choose the latter. In true Machiavellian style, they must maintain the aura of credibility. Enough credibility to be, as Stephen Colbert might say, “truthy”, if not truthful. But getting a rise out of people proves their watching, and that’s all the WWL really wants. Unlike political pollsters, Arbitron tracks whether you’re watching, not whether you agree or disagree.

This is why I don’t write about him much, or link to his comments. It is why I absolutely refuse to link to Terrance Moore’s “writing” in the Atlanta Journal. Because in the information age, web traffic equals dollars. If you want to “vote with your wallet”, you must deprive the yahoos of their web traffic/chatter.

By contrast, if you want the Yahoos (proper name) of the world to employ more Dr. Saturdays and Doug Gilletts, you must likewise support them. Mark May finds work because people watch him. If his schtick becomes stale, he’ll go away. That is sports in the era of short attention spans.