Normally the genres of News Talk and Sports Talk radio are well defined within the industry, with one format rarely crossing over to the other. The Super Bowl, however is such a big event that those lines are often blurred or they disappear completely. Such was the case with Super Bowl LV on Sunday. Many local News Talk personalities from across the country took to Twitter and the airways Sunday into Monday to discuss various aspects of the big game.
Some hosts like Bernie and Sid of WABC in New York hosted an hour long Super Bowl Special on Sunday afternoon, breaking down the matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs in true Sports Talk fashion. The duo also ranked their favorite commercials on Monday’s Edition of Bernie & Sid in the Morning. Others such as Chicks on the Right, Michael Berry, Bill Spadea and many other took issue with the perceived political slant of the commercials and the coverage of the game itself by print and other media.
“We might get into the politics later in the show,” Bernie McGuirk said. ”But the Super Bowl is supposed to be fun and we want to start by naming the best and worst commercials.”
According to Bernie & Sid, the best commercial was by Cure Auto Insurance that used the word “Opinion “as a double entendre and the worst being the Tide Jason Alexander shirt commercial.
Other hosts seemed to be triggered by what they saw as political agendas and media coverage of the Super Bowl. Joe Pagliarulo was particularly critical of the Jeep commercial with Bruce Springsteen calling for unity and for Americans to “Meet in Middle”.
Bill Spadea was not just critical of a commercial but of news media icon Dan Rather, retweeting the phrase “F You” in response to Rather’s tweet concerning the lack of people wearing masks at the Super Bowl.
“Ya gotta ignore old bitter Dan,” Spadea’s tweet read. “Irrelevant. It’s obvious that the masks have run their course. They have never prevented any virus. It was all bullshit virtue signaling. And now everyone sees it. Maybe the fake scientists will keep screaming but adults know it’s time to unmask.”
If a commercial calling for unity was met with criticism, it comes as no surprise that news headlines characterizing postgame celebrations suffered the same fate. Chicks on the Right tweeted a pair of New York Times headlines that read, “Super Bowl Celebrations Bring Super Spreader Concerns” as opposed to “Rollicking NYC Celebration for Biden Win”.
“I mean, everyone sees the bias at this point, right?”, the tweet read. “Or are there still idiot deniers out there who refuse to see what’s right in front of them?”
Michael Berry insinuates that the media paints a different picture of Tampa Bay and their quarterback Tom Brady because, according to multiple news outlets, Brady is friends with former President Donald Trump.
“Tom Brady credits Donald J .Trump for inspiring him to victory.” Berry tweeted. He also tweeted that “Tom Brady’s win proves God favors Donald J. Trump” along with retweeting the statement, “The intent of many in the media today is to humiliate others, strip them of dignity, reveal their pathetic fallibility — all to confirm a worldview in which they are good and their perceived enemies, for reasons personal and political, are bad.”
