This commentary I made
on a sports site applies also to political sites/"news" sites/ "issue" sites as well. So although it focused on sports the general criticisms of podcasts, shows etc. are valid across the broad spectrum of the vast sea of "information" that is out there today. So I put it up here and as I've said many times the people here at DU that post articles and comments are not the people I'm critical of. This is the best site for consistent, thoughtful postings and discussion.
I deplore people spending hours listening to or reading "fluff", propaganda etc. and then claiming to be "informed" on people or issues.
If someone wants to be marginally informed then that's their choice but instead they spend hours and then claim to be far more informed than what is the reality. Major network evening news for example is worse than reading USA Today as far as depth/context.
So here is the post that is very much about how horrible things are:
"Quite honestly all of the podcasts about the W are more about drama, stats, personal conflicts, personality, the business of sports, player merch etc. than they are about actual basketball. For example when is the last time you heard any podcast talk about zone versus man defense and the skills/recognition involved and how various players perform in zone versus man? Along with that when is the last time you heard any podcast go into that zone versus man scenario from the perspective of offensive play? Those two things are some of just the most basic of things in basketball. Let alone getting into discussing other topics about skills development as to which skills, methods to develop them etc.
But most sports podcasts are this way no matter the sport. I'm sick and tired of hearing hours long discussions about, for example, football player behavior and contracts rather than hearing about details of how positions are played etc. Another football example would be all of the podcasts and all of the "sports shows" always talk about how important the offensive and defensive lines are but none of them spend time highlighting the line play, the individual players, the techniques/moves/blocking/attacking schemes, skills of individual players etc. So they tell us how crucial it is and then never give us real information. As an example if you asked Screamin' A who are the top 5 offensive left tackles in the league, and why, do you think he could name them off the top of his head? Never going to happen despite his claims to in-depth knowledge of the NFL. So when it comes down to others it's basically even worse.
The shows and the podcasts are "infotainment" more-so than any serious discussion about the actual way the sport is played from the standpoint of "how" rather than "who". "How" takes actual knowledge from in-depth people whereas "who", and their contracts/stats/behavior, can be covered and yakked about incessantly after which a listener knows nothing more about the "how" than when the show began but they probably got an in-depth discussion about a contract or what bad non-game behavior the player has committed."