Media Aware or Media Afraid?

I am watching Game 2 of the finals. The commentators are talking about how immediately after Game 1, LeBron James went back to his hotel and watched the game straight through twice.

Jeff Van Gundy: What else are you going to do in San Antonio for two days?
(Laughter)
Mike Breen: Aw, no. Here come the letters. Oberto inside banks it in. Mark, you and I want to go on record as saying this is one of the greatest cities we've ever been to.
Mark Jackson: Oh, I've had a blast. The Riverwalk. This is phenomenal.
(Light laughter)
Mike Breen: You want to apologize now or later?
Mark Jackson: Tee-hee.
Jeff Van Gundy: I just meant, you know ... I don't know what I meant.
(Laughter)
Mike Breen: James to the basket, banks it off, won't go ...

I started thinking about being media aware. It comes up on another of my favorite shows, Mythbusters, all the time. Those guys work soooo hard - you should see the boat build in the channel marker episode - and they know (know!) when a particular and annoying demographic in their audience is going to wave off the whole thing as bullshit because of some absurd perceived mistake.


On the one hand, I admire anyone who's media aware, which I think of as being able to get your message across to people without saying something that can be taken out of context or could become embarassing. Being media aware also consists of being able to predict the way a comment will play in the press or with the public, or even being able to manipulate how the press interprets statements.

A former member of the press myself, I know if I talked to the press about anything I would almost certainly humiliate myself and my family, and one stupid turn of phrase can ruin a career.

On the one hand, we all have to be more careful what we say and how we say it. And who's to say that people shouldn't be held accountable for an off-hand comment that seems to reveal a hidden way of thinking?

Of course, who am I to say that one of the men I just linked to was victimized and the other was rightly punished? Maybe the media or popular perception is justice. Or maybe knowing each of us could easily offend an entire country is just making us unduly paranoid.