Saturday, September 19, 2009

I shouldn't watch Infotainment

The hard hitting journalism of the Today Show's Matt Lauer amazes me. This past Friday they did a special appearance from the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Matt marveled at the enormity and the luxury of the world's most expensive football stadium. He went on at length with billionaire owner Jerry Jones. Mr. Jones talked about how "he built this stadium this" and "when we did that."

Never at any time was there mention of who really built the stadium: the taxpayers. Yes, this billionaire couldn't be bothered to spend ''his'' money. He needed to spend someone else's money. Oh, but there would be "countless amount of return for the city" is the argument. But ignored is that there is a countless return for Mr. Jones as well.

And no mention of the fact that the land on which this gleaming monstrosity sits was once a neighborhood where people actually lived. They didn't just wake up one morning and decide to sell their house for Mr. Jones's profit. No, their houses were, in fact, taken from them by force using eminent domain laws. You know the laws: the ones intended to allow for "the public good" of things such as highways and courthouses. And while arguments of property theft for building roads are dubious at best, stealing property for playing a god damned football game is just not justifiable by any stretch of the imagination.

Oh, but this neighborhood was "crime ridden" -- that's the story we were told. Yet the crime statistics for that area included the crimes that were occurring just across the highway from the new football stadium.... in the parking lot of Texas Rangers baseball stadium.

You want a big damn pretty stadium for your football team, Mr. Billionaire? Then build one yourself with your own money or the money of your investors. You want land to build it on? Then buy it at the fair market price. How do you determine that price? It's the price the owner charges and you will pay.

Hard hitting journalism indeed Mr. Lauer. I fully expect the next day he never even noticed the extra 2% tax on his fancy schmancy hotel room or the extra 5% on his rental car.

2 comments:

Kari said...

They did ask him how he could justify building such an ostentatious stadium in these "trying times", but they never mentioned how it was paid for.

bigjohn756 said...

I saw a tiny bit of this, but, I didn't watch long. As soon as I saw who it was, I knew it was all bullshit.

BTW, infotainment is neither.