Fox Sports is undoubtedly giddy over the ratings its first-ever prime-time boxing match received on Saturday, but nonetheless seemed a bit tentative about garnering those ratings by going into business with a convicted rapist.
Not that you'd necessarily know that Mike Tyson served time in prison for rape from watching Fox's coverage of Tyson's fight with Buster Mathis Jr.In John Madden's otherwise fine interview with Tyson (which was taped before the fight), Madden danced around the issue by asking, "Did anything come out of being away? Are you a different person?"
Hmmm . . . "being away" is sort of an interesting euphamism for "incarcerated."
Ringside announcer Kevin Harlan was downright offensive in referring to Tyson's crime as "the Desiree Washington incident." (Washington is the young woman Tyson was convicted of raping.)
About as close as anyone on the Fox team came to referring to Tyson's criminal record came when analyst Bobby Czyz talked about Mike's "four-year stint away from boxing, three of those years in prison."
The fact remains that Fox drew its best prime-time audience ever - a 16.9 ratng and a 29 share, according to the overnights - by broadcasting a remarkably violent event that featured a rapist and was promoted by Don King, who served time for manslaughter. You know, the same guy who faces retrial on several federal fraud charges.
Not that you'll be hearing any apologies from anybody at Fox anytime soon. In television, all that matters is the ratings. And they'll take good ratings any way they can get them.
Even if that's by broadcasting a violent exchange that features a rapist. On that's promoted by a killer.
KUDOS AND QUIBBLING: KUTV-Ch. 2's Reece Stein did a nice job last week with a girls' basketball feature about a matchup between Davis, the top team in 5A, and Timpview, 4A's No. 1 team.
It was a good story, focusing on Davis' top two players and the fact that the Darts destroyed the Thunderbirds, 73-44. And it's nice to see the girls get some exposure on television.
Just a couple of quibbles (and you knew there would be quibbling) - why didn't the story run Tuesday, the day the game was played?
And Stein told viewers that when Timpview jumped out to a 4-0 lead, it appeared "the rout was on."
How's that? A 4-0 lead looks like a rout?