Manning's the Man

During Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning’s nine seasons in the National Football League, he has done almost everything flawlessly, never missing a start, refraining from egotistically talking about himself, and finally last year, winning the NFL Super Bowl. Because Manning is such a likeable guy, the news media is always doing their best to bring him down or point out his flaws. This article imitates that objective, but, in a sarcastic manner, evasively suggests that it is altogether ridiculous. One similarity that I detected between the author of this article and the author of a typical news story is that the author told his audience what it wanted to hear, rather than what actually happened. However, the author did take this to an extreme level by using untrue facts and making up quotes. Of course this is not allowed by a true news reporter or newspaper editor. Another similarity is the way in which the article is about a subject which really is of no importance. Many times the media will report or write on subjects simply because they need to fill up space rather than because they are truly informatory. A difference that I discovered is the way in which the author is not afraid to use creative, unprofessional, and inventive phrases, such as, “clipboard-mishandling incidents.” Most of the news media goes with a safer selection of phrases that is deemed more professional by their audience. Finally, never at any moment in the article does the author deviate from his style of brutally comical sarcasm. His whole work is based upon this principle. A real news reporter would never dare attempt such measures, likely being afraid of the response he would receive. Overall, I enjoyed the article immensely, especially it’s daringly humorous style. The author used his sarcastic and creative work to send a message: the news media needs to give up trying to use small, unimportant stories to tear down Manning’s image.