'College athletics is sacred'

At last, amid the noise and waste of the Don Imus tale, somebody finds something new and interesting to say. Here's Bob Entman, who has done some of the sharpest work of the past couple decades on media, framing and race, as quoted in the Times:

In this case, he chose a college basketball team. College athletics is sacred in our culture in a way. We tell ourselves that it is a place that we have transcended race. This was an attack on the purity of sport, student athletes who are not paid to perform.

And that's enough on that topic, except for this spectactular mixed metaphor from earlier in the same article:

The drumbeat was not going to stop. The controversy metastasized and by Monday, the media began to lock and load.

Form square men! When drums stop, bass solo begins! More later, gotta tickle some numbers for a while.