Growing up in southwest Kansas, one of the tenets of life I learned early is this: A good steak needs no sauce.
After moving around the country a bit, I got used to people dousing their steaks with A.1. or other goop. More recently, marinades and rubs have come into fashion. But I remain a firm believer that the best steaks, properly seasoned and grilled, can’t be improved by such additions.
It’s a belief that carries into other areas of life, which is why I oppose the plans of TV and radio companies to artificially add cheering-crowd sounds to sports telecasts.
The plans gained some media attention recently as European soccer restarted. Because of the pandemic, the games are played with no spectators in the stands. That means no cheering crowds and no chants from the multitudes.
Sports and media executives decided this was a problem, one that it must be “fixed.” So they decided to add cheering soundtracks, atop the usual commentary and play-by-play audio.
There’s now speculation about whether cheering soundtracks will be added to U.S. football, baseball, basketball and other sports that are televised.
Such a decision should make us wonder what else sports and media executive are willing to add — or delete — to make their product more appetizing.
How far are they from altering not just the circumstances in which an event occurs but other aspects of the game? Perhaps even the outcome?
It’s already common in areas outside sports and in so-called sports such as professional wrestling.
Our culture increasingly prizes what we like more than what is real.
For example, we think — or pretend to think — that the romances and family dramas seen on misnamed “reality TV” are somehow authentic.
We post and repost artificial, unsubstantiated and false information online —without caring enough to check if it’s true.
We no longer are alarmed, annoyed or angered when people lie, unless it affects us personally or we can use it to score political points.
What is true — what is real — matters less and less. That’s a worrisome thing.
Some might argue that smearing the lines between fact and fiction may be beneficial, or at least harmless. They might say it’s not much different from TV sitcoms adding laugh tracks or movies adding music to evoke certain emotions from the audience.
