interesting – i didn't think of the media aspect, but you are quite right, I think most of what they do is falls into the same category of pretending they are not active players and packaging other people's struggles as some kind of sports competition between semi-equal players – although you do occasionally get the brave investigative journalist willing to take on the powers that be (Gideon Levy wrote nd excellent piece in today's Haaretz about discreet displacement of Palestinian shepards in the Jordan Valley today, which may have contributed to the army backing down).

Anyway, your post causes me to think about politics as spectator-sport.. Perhaps it is the question of the difference and similarity between citizens observing politics and fans observing sports games. Or it might have to do with the question of how 'politics' is made to seem like a type of sport. If you think about it, a sport is basically a totally self-conscious, intentional attempt at fashioning a set of rules and guidelines followed equally by two sides made equal in every way but the elements that sport is trying to isolate: willpower, teamwork, skill, etc. What are the consequences of thinking about the relationship between different states (and pseudo-states like the PA, Lesotho, or Puerto Rico) as relationships between equal teams struggling against each other on the international diplomatic field, performing their displays, going to each other's summits, sending subtle and not-so-subtle messages to each other that comprise the corporate media's myopic view of what 'politics' is. The Israeli government's negotiators speak with the Palestinians', reinforcing their illusion of sovereignty. South Africa is the 'neighbor' of Lesotho, rather than an artificial bantustan totally dependent on it for everything. Rather than people empowering themselves to analyze and act to resolve their problems, the spectacle of politics presented by the media channels the often unnamed frustrations of everyday life into the idolization of powerful people who act on our behalf as agents of history. They know everything there is to know, and they are doing everything that can be done. All we can do is shake our heads and deal.

Anyway, maybe that's not what you meant to evoke at all, but I thought about that.