To the Point

Athletes, Professional Sports and the Culture of Violence

Images of Friday night's brawl between NBA players and fans are now part of the national consciousness. There's outrage and indignation from sports talk-radio to the editorial page of the New York Times. Nine players suspended for more than 140 games will lose many millions of dollars, but students of sports say it's only a matter of time until it happens again. We speak with sportswriters, investigative journalists, experts in the business aspect of sports and African American popular culture about the growing rivalry between players and fans, the increasing incidence of violence in the NBA. Making News: Protests, Parliamentary Inaction over Presidential Election in Ukraine In Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, some 200,000 people are in the streets protesting the official results of Saturday's presidential election and the Parliament has been called into emergency session. David Holley, who's on the scene for the Los Angeles Times, says protestors and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko have found a sympathetic voice in Senator Richard Lugar. Reporter's Notebook: Dan Rather to Leave CBS News Today, Dan Rather announced that he will leave the CBS Evening News in March. Absent from today's statement was his involvement in the 60 Minutes Wednesday controversy, when CBS had to admit that a story on President Bush's National Guard service was based on questionable sources. Jill Geisler of the Poynter Institute, laments that journalists like Rather and Brokaw are being replaced by hosts and personalities.