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CBS Off Track With NASCAR Comments
‘60 Minutes’ criticizes racing as
‘hucksterism’ despite its enormous success.
By Dan Gainor
Director, Free Market Project
October 10, 2005
| Â Â Â Â Even when journalists try, they just don’t understand Middle
America. CBS proved the point with a story on the multi-billion
dollar business of NASCAR. Even in a story made possible by the
enormous success of the sport, CBS’s “60 Minutes” depicted racing
promotions as “hucksterism” and advertisers as “not wholesome” while
the product itself was portrayed as an “good ol’ boy Southern
Confederate flag sport” hostile to minorities. |
Race car driver Richard Petty on
NASCAR
CBS's "60 MInutes,"
Oct. 10, 2005
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Video |
 Â Â Â Â Reporter Lesley Stahl’s October 9 piece described the
depths of the free market that NASCAR was willing to delve into:
“They'll even rename a race for a sponsor. Warner brothers got the
“Batman Begins 400” this summer.” Stahl overlooked the fact that
sporting events, like college football bowl games, are often named
after advertisers.
    Stahl also criticized NASCAR’s aggressive marketing,
telling CEO Brian France, part of the sport’s founding family “You
are unabashed in the hucksterism category.” France had nothing to
apologize for. According to a September 5 Fortune magazine story,
“NASCAR had total corporate sponsorship revenue last year of $1.5
billion, compared with $445 million for the NFL and $340 million for
Major League Baseball.” Fortune added that 106 of Fortune 500
companies are involved as sponsors – “more than any other sport.”
    That wasn’t enough to keep Stahl from criticizing
NASCAR’s sponsors. When France told her, “I mean, we have limits,”
about which sponsors are accepted, Stahl replied: “You do? Could’ve
fooled me.” The exchange continued and Stahl complained that “You do
Viagra, you do liquor.” Stahl then got to the heart of her critique:
“You promote this sport as family values. You are sponsored by
things that are just not wholesome. I mean, for years it was
cigarettes. I mean, come on. Now it's liquor.”
Stahl never mentioned that all of the products she criticized were
legal. She was unhappy because they were “just not wholesome.”
    Fortunately, NASCAR’s all-time winningest driver
Richard Petty was on hand to explain the free market beauty of the
sport and its founding family. “They took nothing, and kept working.
And over 55 or 60 years this is what you see, okay? That's
capitalism.”
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