Gas Prices May Be On the Rise

Well....ARE gas prices on the rise?!

RIP The Feel-Good Story

What has the 24 hour-news cycle done to our society?

It's an honest question with many different answers. Some feel that it is good because it is an evolutionary way of learning of news and represents the hyper-connectivity of our world.

Others say it is bad, because it is causing things to move too fast. Media is constantly trying to find the hot new scoop and many times over-reports a story or blows up a story to make it bigger than it really is.

Personally, like most of us I fall in-between. There are many times that I find it positive. This Sunday twitter will be at its finest with my feed's response to the Oscars.

There are many times it is negative, like last week when an entire day was devoted on CNN with the pulling of the Carnival Cruise "Triumph" to Mobile, Ala.—As an aside, I think I'm out on the cruise thing. It's got to be the top "no news is good news" topic and quite frankly I've seen way too many Dateline NBC's where two newlywed's go on a cruise for their honeymoon and only one comes home.—In general the world is made for a news cycle that is faster than the daily newspaper and half hour nightly news of years past, but is not made for constant news with real-time updating like cable or the internet.

With the increase of the population's thirst for news, increased awareness is heightened. One classic tactic is obviously the feel-good story. The story of the underdog fighting through adversity is the foundation of this country.

Literally.

But with recent events, the feel-good story has been slaughtered. Examples:

• The top plot line to tug on your heartstrings from this summer's Olympics was that of South African runner Oscar Pistorious, born with a malady that lead him to have no legs. "The Blade Runner" was a symbol of will and was a great story of battling the odds. Last week Pistorious was charged with the pre-meditated murder of his model girlfriend. Also news of his alcohol and steroid abuse surfaced.

• Manti Te'o captained a Notre Dame defense to an undefeated football season and birth in the national championship game in light of the in-season deaths of his grandmother and long-time girlfriend. In reality the girlfriend never existed and Te'o was the subject of a bizarre prank by a former friend/obsessive closeted homosexual/possible extortionist. The term "catfishing" immediately became the most annoying term in our lexicon supplanting "elite quarterback."

• Lance Armstrong beat testicular cancer to go onto win six Tour de France titles while simultaneously raising hundreds of millions of dollars through his Livestrong foundation. Actually he was using the latest cutting-edge performance enhancing drugs to do so. For many this was bad enough, but the fact he took several to court and disparaged many publicly to vehemently deny his drug use is probably his worst offense. Personally I think his worst offense was admitting his sins while giving Oprah publicity, but I'm in the minority.

• To a lesser degree, Baltimore Ravens captain Ray Lewis lead his team to a Super Bowl victory in his final game. For the casual observer this was a great story, but for any football fan who isn't a Ravens enthusiast, there is that whole series of events where Ray Lewis was in a limo with two other people, they ended up dead, and Ray's white suit from the evening was never found. He now publicly speaks to NFL rookies, and anyone who will listen frankly, about how he is a reborn man and has learned from his mistakes. He never specifies what they are, but something tells me deep down it isn't about fathering six children with four different women. I can't wait not to watch him do fake speeches on NFL Sunday Countdown next season on ESPN as Chris Berman acts like he's inspired.

So here we are four very recent examples of feel-good stories that have been eviscerated.

The question I pose today is this: Has it always been this way? 

In the past have our favorite underdogs been just as fragile? Made up? If the news cycle had been then like it is today would we know more about what the 1980 Olympic hockey team did after hours? Would Deadspin have been able to uncover that the Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match was fixed? Would we learn that Hulk Hogan didn't get so big by purely training hard; saying his prayers; and eating his vitamins?!

I seriously wonder.

In light of recent events, it's a good question to ask.

Infographic: Get To Know Me

I am getting a lot of new followers and attention while I campaign for the Fan Cave. I cannot stop thinking about what a great opportunity this is. I thought today would be a good day to share some facts about me that (maybe?) relate to baseball, as well as my extended audition video featuring my interview with former "cave dweller" Lindsay Guentzel!  

With one week left make sure you continue to 'like', share, and vote!