Deceptive Journalism: Mislabeling

By Bobby

Was it Rush Limbaugh that reminded us in the Clinton era of "symbolism over substance" frequently when he noted the tactics of President Clinton?

I read articles in the newspaper regarding Saturdays's GoDaddy.com 500 at Darlington Raceway in the Florentine suburb, and a few articles referenced Jeff Gordon with the possibility of "tying Cale Yarborough's record of five Southern 500 wins" in this week's race, which is the Rebel 500.

Bob Colvin, the president of Darlington Raceway, envisioned the Rebel 300 convertible race in 1957 (because a Grand National race in 1963) as a Confederate Memorial Day event. (Currently, the holiday is May 10 on the state's calendar.) While it has moved around the calendar, in 2005 the Rebel was moved back to the Saturday closest to Confederate Memorial Day, owing to the state's traditional (but now repealed) ban on Sunday motorsport (currently, the start time must be 1:30 PM or later, unless the race is set for a minimum of 250 miles), and the Ferko settlement that cost the track its prestigious Mountain Dew Southern 500, which had been moved from second to last race in the regular season to the second to last race in the playoff. I remember commenting that this could lead to precedent if someone in Los Angeles decided to sue the National Football League and demand the Green Bay Packers be sold to them, and moved to Los Angeles, or even the Minnesota Vikings. (Speaking of which, Daytona 500 champion, Cambridge (WI) native, and longtime Cheesehead Matt Kenseth had something to say about the Farve to Minnesota rumours.)

Reading all of the hype of Darlington and the "return" of the legendary Florentine fall showdown's name is inappropriate, considering this is the Rebel 500, as it has been since 1957.

And I wonder if the FCC Censors will be prevalent, and the Danica Patrick rumours be flying, during Saturday's race because of the sponsorship of the race by GoDaddy.com, and of the Sprint Cup entry of Brad Keselowski, GoDaddy.com's Nationwide Series driver who drives for Dale Earnhardt, Jr, in that series. I hope they are because of the raunchiness of the advertiser's commercials.