Real TV Critics

Maybe it’s the Beverly Hillbillies meeting The Real Housewives of Orange County comparing the TNT coverage of the NBA on TNT with this weekend’s coverage of college basketball on CBS.  Low brow, low end at TNT, meet the class of televised sports.

We’ll see what happens with TNT’s coverage as The Road to the Final Four begins this week.

I’ve spent many of my waking hours watching TNT’s pro basketball coverage and there are no questions asked about my displeasure with Charles Barkley’s antics during those games.  I think I might have given him Negro status, very close to being colored as he does nothing more than act like Step’n Fetchit during those broadcasts.  He takes African American broadcasting of professional sports to a low end level.

He’s an embarrassment.

Well they will have none of that at CBS Sports.

With this weeks full coverage of every game leading to the Final Four airing somewhere on network TV or cable, TNT gets in the mix for the very first time this year.  And Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, two of the announcers during the halftime coverage of the NBA on TNT, were part of the team in-studio at CBS this weekend.  And Greg Gumbel, probably the most professional announcers in sports, made sure that Charles Barkley’s Step n Fetchit routine was not going to be part of CBS Sports.

Way to go Greg.

Charles Barkley now has to actually work.  And you can tell he’s uncomfortable with this new role because he is way below everyone on the set.  But he has to  realize that working for CBS Sports is not an episode of Def Comedy Jam. I worked for CBS for 8 years and say what you want about the company for those of you inside or outside the corporation but I can tell you one thing.  There was an expectation of being on a higher level, thinking on a higher level, acting on a higher level, doing everything on a higher level when you work for CBS.

Period.

Sometimes it was a bit much but guess what?  CBS still maintains that expectation from everyone from the janitor to Leslie Moonves.  The best training I ever had in my many years in broadcasting.

Charles Barkley, welcome to the real world of professionalism and class.  TNT, well please go back to that hip hop, low end broadcasting of the NBA.  I don’t watch much any more  A bit too low end for today’s African American.  I’m sorry but those of us who are relatively educated seen Charles Barkley as a buffoon.

And Greg Gumbel, great work.  Great job at managing this weekend which must have been a difficult challenge yet you pulled it off really well.

Rick Thomas

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