Very Bad Gilbert and Sullivan

There's a scene in the great, and largely forgotten, fifties political thriller Seven Days in May in which Burt Lancaster plays a general who is testifying before Congress when it becomes apparent that one Congressman is merely feeding him lines to allow him to expound on his own political agenda. Frederick March plays a slovenly and most often drunk, southern Senator, who interrupts by saying something like,"Gentleman, if you're going to work from a script, these proceeding will take on all the appearance of very bad Gilbert and Sullivan." It's a great line, and after reading the latest doom-and-gloom message from MLB, or rather from an unidentified "baseball executive, with knowledge of the financials," I am reminded of it.

His estimate nearly double the projections released by MLB yesterday. Both items mysteriously appear after Nelson Doubleday harshly criticized MLB's financial disclosures. Did anyone else notice that the Doubleday story has now been relegated to obscurity? It doesn't even appear on the ESPN MLB page. But each of these stories occupied the top spot on the site. ESPN is owned by ABC, and ABC is owned by Disney. Disney also happens to own the Anaheim Angels. Interesting, huh? So each time a story like this is released, please try to keep Frederick March's comments in your head. Remember that you cannot accept everything at face value. There is an agenda behind it.