Thursday, March 26, 2009

RHETORICAL SONG AND DANCE

Long time ago in college, I learned about this rhetorical device call Inoculation. Basically, a speaker would use this technique to inoculate himself from some sort of criticism by giving his audience a weak version of the criticism. Today, Mike Francesa came out today using that technique to defend UConn head coach Jim Calhoun. He started off by using the excuse that everyone is basically corrupt in college sports. But then he began to inoculate us against any criticism by bringing up the idiocy of the rules. "They should be allowed to make as many phone calls as they want. Who cares?" and "UConn made 15,000 calls on the record! Obviously they weren't too concerned about the phone calls." Also, he used the 'Everyboy's doing it defense' which confirms that he is immature in many ways.

This screed by Mike was obviously a pre-emptive strike to ward off endless calls into the show today about Mike's relationship with Jim Calhoun. He rambled on about you can't fix the system and you can't police everyone. Mike apparently regards these accusations as trivial. "We go through this song and dance every year," Mike said. Of course, there is hypocrisy to the system, Mike. But the song and dance is part of checks and balances. If there were no investigations, then the current system would spiral out of control. That has already happened in the past. So sorry if this indiscretion ruined your love-in with Coach Calhoun but the rules are there for a reason. You can't just dismiss them because one of your guests is the target.

Here was First Time, Long Time's Take on the open:

Mike opened the show going on a tirade against the "establishment" that questions NCAA recruiting violations. Francesa is incensed at these people that get all up in arms over these moralistic qualms with the current system. While he admitted that the "NCAA is a joke" he then completely diminised that statement by saying "it's the only system we have." Essentially, Mikey is annoyed that once a year these people come out of the woodworks and cry foul at some little violation. Mike would prefer in the words of one Colonel Nathan Jessep that these people just said "thank you and went on their way." Otherwise, they better pick up an NCAA rules book and stand guard. But if you read between the lines here, Mike is just upset that people are going after his buddy Jim Calhoun. Francesa always comes to the defense of his allies. And he seems to be taking on the world right now. He is channelling Jessep. It's almost like he just wants to say to all those people investigating Calhoun "What I want is for you to stand there with your faggoty white notepads, and with your Connecticut School of Broadcasting mouths, extend me some fuckin' courtesty."

13 comments:

Brian said...

Neil Best just posted a story about Francesa being in a dunk tank at Citi Field

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/blog/2009/03/miked_up_is_willing_to_go_down.html

Anybody up for a Mike and the Mad Blog outing at Citi Field to dunk the big man?

Whatdoyouhave? said...

Haha, good job with the Jessup lines. If Mike is something he's certainly loyal to his famous friends. He will defend Calhoun no matter what the charges were. I don't remember how he reacted when former Oklahoma and short-lived Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson got busted for recruiting violations, but I'd be interested to hear what he said. And while I don't remember, I do believe Sampson's transgressions were prob worse and more rampant, the point is that they were against the rules. gman26 made a good point that if you don't police the system it will run rampant. I def agree.

Disclaimer: I hate UCONN and also how much Mike loves comraderie with anyone famous

Whatdoyouhave? said...

Mike has deftly steered this away from a UCONN / Calhoun discussion to a NCAA / student athlete discussion

gman26 said...

The student/athlete is a very legitimate discussion. There are big problems in the system. But this is strictly to deflect criticism from Calhoun. He's moved off the Inoculation technique to the distraction technique. I do this with kids sometimes when they are crying. Hold up something shiny to get their minds off what made them upset.

Whatdoyouhave? said...

Yeah totally dude. "Deftly" change the argument / topic if you know you're wrong. This is a common tactic when arguing with girls

DOCBILL33 said...

How Mike says there are only 10 kids in the country this happens to is insane. His boy Calhoun is finally gonna get buzzed.

Steve Cuce said...

I'm sorry did anyone just hear that ridiculous caller who called up to call out Mike about the yankees pitching staff. The guy ripped Burnett and Pettitte, then went out to say that he rather have John Maine than Joba Chamberlin????????????

Anonymous said...

It would really add some legitimacy to the show if Mike would come out and say, that if true, the UConn situation is bad and Calhoun deserves some grief for heading up the program. We know the blame will wind up elsewhere but as the head, he should shoulder his part. To me, though, NCAA recruiting violations are boring talk. I just don't care and frankly, unless you have a vested interest in the process or the development of a team competing against a cheating school, I don't know why anyone cares. Phone calls before a target date? Boring. That said, I do believe the arbitrary rules should be followed and when not followed there should be consequences.

I think Brian is onto something even though I can't believe Mike would risk messing up that beautiful head of hair.

Anonymous said...

Interesting call on Mad Dog's show today. We are still allowed to talk about someone other than Mike on this site right?

Anyway, Bruce from Flushing called in after 8 months of not listening because he was mad at Russo for leaving. Obviously was a long time caller of the old show cause Russo remembered him and all his favorite teams, and even that he is a history teacher. Says he called into Mike's show today, waited through 13 calls, only to be told by the producer "Mike doesn't want to talk to you today".

Well I guess that means this is still about Mike, but pretty telling about how this guy treats his listeners and even his most loyal of fans.

Anyone else hear this? The guy sounded pretty pissed at Francesa. Is he TRYING to destroy his show??

First Time, Long Time said...

Ryan T...we welcome all the mad dog talk in the world and that is pretty astonishing - even for Francesa...what did Russo say when he heard that?

Anonymous said...

To his credit, he always avoids the topic. Whenever someone brings Francesa baggage to his show he cleverly sidesteps it and moves on. This was more of the same, he didn't really address it.

Would be quite interesting though to have someone bring it up with Francesa. Call in and ask him what his criteria is for taking a call. Would love to see his reaction to realizing that his decision to not take a call cost him a listener... to Russo!

Whatdoyouhave? said...

Wow, whoever made the comment about Mike and his use of "trey" instead of saying three was spot on. Wasn't listening the other day but hearing him talk about Fields' "trey" is really annoying. That term was cool in the late 90s Mike when I was in high school

Anonymous said...

I was sitting here thinking the same thing!

Mike is overusing "TREY" like nobodies business.

I can't help but think his mouth is watering while thinking about a large tray of stuffed shells or something.

JD