Arthur SolomonOf all the facets of American business, PR's greatest success arguably has been promoting the sports industry, (followed closely by the investment industry).

But as Wall Street needs “investment journalists” to spread its message, sports PR practitioners couldn’t have done it without its willing partners, journalists who cover sports and sponsors, who never see the dark side of sports.

The two sports that have benefited most from the symbiotic relationship between journalists and sports PR are baseball and football.

Now as baseball is about to enter its playoff scenario, the hype leading to the World Series will soon reach a crescendo level.

So we might as well begin with what is the longest PR success in sports -- baseball – and cite some examples about how baseball writers and TV journalists have long helped promote the sport.

It all started when baseball was in its infancy and reporters wrote glowingly of players they never saw play, which is continued today as reporters continue to write and talk about players that passed on before the reporters were born, discounting that baseball has changed dramatically over the decades.

TV analysts seem to be fixated on the “good presence in the club house” player, as if a manager would rather have a .260 hitting good guy than a not so good guy who hits .324 with 30 home runs, and drives in 100 runs.

Specifically naming the bad guys publicly is largely a no-no because baseball is presented as apple pie, ice cream, and family fun, despite its long dark side: racial discrimination, players using early era PEDs, team owners building outfield fences of concrete, knowing that outfielders can run into them, building playing field so close to the stands that every time a player chases a foul ball there is a risk of injury, and, of course, the unholy symbiotic relationship between baseball, tobacco, hard alcoholic and beer sponsors.

Football commentators are famous for reporting on what a “great person” or “true gentleman” team owners are and the super human abilities of coaches.

At the same time sports writers and announcers were singing the praises of team owners and coaches, the journalists also praised the “big hits,” glorified the big hitters and ignored the medical consequences of the hits, as did the “true gentlemen team owners” and “great coaches,” who also ignored the off-the-field criminal acts of their players.

The glorification of coaches and team owners still continues; so does the praise of “big hits,” but in a more low key way, since the New York Times’ground-breaking series regarding concussions.

The only other sporting event that attracts as much attention as baseball and football is the modern Olympics Games.

Long sustained by American business sponsorships, it is a European creation that was resurrected by the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games.

The Olympic Games is reported as if it is the most important sports event, which it probably is.

But as in baseball and football (and the NBA and NHL) reporting the dark side of the Olympics being awarded to totalitarian regimes – Nazi Germany, Russia, China, Yugoslavia – is largely ignored.

Even the human rights violations and public whipping of the feminist rock protest group Pussy Riot by Cossacks with whips (and tear gas) during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, received scant attention from the “legit” media; compared to coverage on social media.

“Stop godding up” ballplayers, Stanley Woodward, the great New York Herald-Tribune sports editor is reported to have said when admonishing the famous columnist Red Smith.

“Godding up” has greatly diminished, especially in the print media. The initial blemishes of athletes are now as big a story as their achievements on the field but unfortunately the “bad” is usually ignored in a day or week while the athlete’s “good” is always praised.

Nevertheless, “goddng up” of athletes is still a basic part of sports reporting, as anyone who watches a baseball, football or basketball game knows.

Listening to analysts and play-by-play announcers, and reading print stories, too often makes it seem that if you can hit a baseball or throw a pass, unlawful acts off the field by players are to be discussed as little as possible.

Only the adoration of athletes by sports reporters can match the puff magazines of Hollywood of years past.

Sports marketing PR people are a major part of the problem of sports reporting puffery.

Journalists need to write and report, even on days when there are no “good” stories. Too few PR people know how to create programs that include interesting feature publicity facets that journalists can write about on days when hard news is lacking. A good program should work for the client and the journalists, not just for the client.

So enjoy the entertainment folks, but remember you’re not just watching a game but a multi-million dollar business built on commercialism and symbiotic relationships, not all of them healthy.

* * *

Arthur Solomon, a former senior VP at Burson-Marsteller, contributes to PR/sports business publications, consults on PR projects and serves on the public relations and sports business publications, consults on public relations projects and serves on Seoul Peace Prize nominating committee. He can be reached at [email protected].