Only media Images Matter (not silly denials)

Flyer's.Finale!

Commercial sports are about two things:

Creating excitement and selling the sponsor's product.

The Circus Ring Master Promoter (organizer) collects a large fee for packaging a sporting spectacle and protecting the brand.

The Olympic Games gross $12 BILLION US in endorsement fees for example.

Anyway, the athletes are typically disposable unless they become popular with a media created consumer fans base. (Not just a sporting fans base---but the larger audience of non-athletes)

Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods are the two greatest examples of US sporting icons that market deeply beyond sporting fans.

Fraudulent events which were very successful on televison are:

1957 Quiz Show 21 whereby the contestants were given the anwers to on-screen questions days IN ADVANCE. Charles Van Doren became a Lance Armstrong-Jan Ulrich of the viewing audience. He was both handsome and single and thus an especially high 'Q rating' with the ladies.

'Q ratings' decide if someone is a drug cheat or fraud. Not evidence, not even a confession. TV 'Q ratings' control the legacy.

Charles Van Doren and NBC's Quiz Shoq 21 was eventually disclosed as a fraud, a fixed and rigged show. Charles Van Doren a clever cheat.

That was in 1957. Today, everything on TV is patterned after that corrupt NBC show.

The Super Bowl, NFL, WWE, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, The Olympics, and the Tour de France are all packaged, promoted with false demigods, themes and mythogy.

Soap opera is what consumers demand. Without a very few personalities to follow and root for and/or against, the TV ratings quickly decline.

Frauds with microphones and laptops keep the show and action moving like a casino. Phil Liggett and Bob Roll are especially good at lying and cover-ups of doping and apparent fixes. (eg: Tour of EPO-Amgen)

Insofar as recent doping embarassments only Lance Armstrong remains squeaky clean.

His many teammates appear dirty (Heras, Hamilton, Joachim, Swartz, Andreu, Ferrari, Landis)

His many TDF competitiors appear guilty as drug cheats: Ulrich, Basso, Museeuw, Pantani, Zulle, Virenque, Rumsas, Herve, et al....

Jan Ulrich had a low international 'Q rating' and was discarded as a drug cheat by T-Mobile. They canned him and abandoned him to his fate.

Lance Armstromng is a Nike paid Chemo Therapy hero and icon. He never quit nor did his sponsors abandon him, therefore he is a 7-time TDF record holder.

That's how show business operates---on cheating, lying, deception and denial.