LeBron and the Tension Between Respect and Fame
8th July 2010
My Rule states:
Persuaders Can Either Be Famous or Effective, But Not Both.
Of course, famous means more than simply widely known. All of my Rules are metaphors, images, parables. They generalize past the dead level denotative meaning of the words. Thus, famous also means wealthy.
ESPN used to be sincere as a sports fanatic channel, even if on cable. In fact, cable used to be sincere, didn’t it? But in today’s fragmented media world, you can make a fair amount of money even in cable, so ESPN has lost all sincerity and become . . . . famous or effective . . .
Nowadays it is merely famous and the LeBron James free agency announcement tonight at 9pm marks ESPN as a famous and no longer effective persuasion agent. Like Nike, another formerly effective persuasion agent now become merely famous, ESPN so desperately seeks attention and money that even teen-agers see the through the transparency of ESPN’s “news” coverage of LeBron’s announcement.
Nike, ESPN, and LeBron James – the greatest athlete to play basketball – have lost all persuasion props to the siren call of fame (fortune, sex, addiction, and other intoxications). They simply attract the attracted now. Certainly a large and paying audience. But, there’s no skill in intoxication or magnetics.