A bunch of readers objected to my post yesterday about the arrival of Becks and Posh being a pseudoevent. Two objections merit a response.
First, lots of people think I didn’t know soccer is very popular around the world and in parts of America. Yes, I did know that. What I fail to see is the point of pointing this out. Indeed, I think a lot of the soccer boosters missed my point about the coverage. This wasn’t a sports story, but an entertainment story. Maybe ESPN’s coverage was spot on, but I’m talking about Entertainment Tonight’s coverage. The upshot of it all was, “Here’s a couple you’re supposed to care about because we’re going to cover them relentlessly like Brangelina’s vacation or Paris Hilton’s trip to the chiropodist.” It was canned hysteria about the need for hysteria.
Second, a surprising number of people said that all sports events are pseudo-events. I suppose I should go back and see what Boorstin himself said about sports before I venture my own opinion, but I don’t think this is really true. Games may have a certain manufactured importance, but the outcome of professional contests is unknown even to the participants. Maybe it’s the distinction between professional wrestling, which I would call a pseudo-event and, say, the World Series. One is choreographed, the other is not.