{"id":910,"date":"2024-11-12T11:21:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T11:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/?page_id=910"},"modified":"2024-11-15T15:31:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T15:31:34","slug":"pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Prof. Michael L. Butterworth<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director of the Center for Sports Communication & Media<\/a> and Professor of Communication Studies<\/a> at The University of Texas at Austin. His research explores connections between rhetoric, democracy, and sport, with particular interests in national identity, militarism, and public memory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twitter: @BurntO_Butterwo
Email: michael.butterworth@austin.utexas.edu<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

U.S. Election 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

51. The powers that aren\u2019t: News organizations and the 2024 election<\/a> (Dr Nik Usher)
52. Newspaper presidential endorsements: Silence during consequential moment in history<\/a> (Dr Kenneth Campbell)
53. Trump after news: a moral voice in an empty room?<\/a> (Prof Matt Carlson, Prof Sue Robinson, Prof Seth C. Lewis)
54. Under media oligarchy: profit and power trumped democracy once again<\/a> (Prof Victor Pickard)
55. The challenge of pro-democracy journalism<\/a> (Prof Stephen D. Reese)
56. Grievance and animosity: Fracturing the digital news ecosystem<\/a> (Dr Scott A. Eldridge II)
57. Considering the risk of attacks on journalists during the U.S. election<\/a> (Dr Valerie Belair-Gagnon)
58. What can sentiment in cable news coverage tell us about the 2024 campaign?<\/a> (Dr Gavin Ploger, Dr Stuart Soroka)
59. The case for happy election news: Why it matters and what stands in the way<\/a> (Dr Ruth Palmer, Prof Stephanie Edgerly, Prof Emily K. Vraga)
60. Broadcast television use and the 2024 U.S. presidential election<\/a> (Jessica Maki, Prof Michael W. Wagner)
61. Kamala Harris' representation in mainstream and Black media<\/a> (Dr Miya Williams Fayne, Prof Danielle K. Brown)
62. Team Trump and the altercation at the Arlington military cemetery<\/a> (Dr Natalie Jester)
63. Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media<\/a> (Prof Michael L. Butterworth)<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Following Donald Trump\u2019s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, political observers have focused considerable energy trying to explain the outcome: Joe Biden waited too long<\/a> to drop out of the race; Kamala Harris expended too much energy courting centrists and neo-cons<\/a>; Trump exerts a charismatic hold on many voters<\/a> in spite of his obvious flaws; global trends<\/a> point to voters rejecting incumbents; political media normalized an abnormal candidate<\/a>. A recurring theme in these explanations is that political practices\u2014and media coverage of those practices\u2014have fundamentally changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typical campaign coverage frames elections in purely strategic terms<\/a>, a perspective that parallels the language of sports<\/a>. Campaigns are most often characterized through the metaphor of the \u201chorse race<\/a>\u201d and other sports<\/a>, especially boxing<\/a>. Verbal exchanges become \u201cjabs\u201d and \u201cpunches,\u201d and a particularly effective statement might be a \u201cknockout blow.\u201d The vocabulary is so familiar now that audiences may not even recognize the connections to the sport. Such language risks positioning audiences as passive spectators and reducing substantive policy discussions to gameplans and playbooks. It is also frequently the case that sports metaphors fail to capture campaign developments in accurate terms. As political scientists Peter Schrott and David Lanoue conclude<\/a>, \u201cdespite the promiscuous use of the word, no presidential debate has ever resulted in a knockout. Even the worst performers go the distance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The September 10th debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was an emphatic victory for the Vice President, and the clarity of her superior performance lent itself especially well to the familiar boxing metaphor. MSNBC\u2019s<\/em> \u201cMorning Joe\u201d suggested<\/a> \u201cthe vice president knocked the GOP candidate off balance the moment they touched gloves.\u201d NPR<\/em> declared<\/a>, \u201cif he was a boxer, Trump was cut and bleeding in the middle of the fight, and by the end, was TKO\u2019d.\u201d A Republican operative told NBC News<\/em><\/a>, \u201cthat Harris was able to \u2018bait\u2019 Trump with her comments about his rallies and that \u2018he hasn’t been off the ropes since.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One example of the boxing metaphor stood out: the \u201crope-a-dope,\u201d a strategy made famous by Muhammad Ali in his \u201cRumble in the Jungle<\/a>\u201d bout with George Foreman in 1975. Although it requires the boxer to take repeated blows, the payoff results from a worn-out opponent who is increasingly vulnerable to a flurry of counterpunches and a potential knockout. The presumed parallel in 2024 was found in Harris\u2019 strategy of baiting Trump into rambling, at times incoherent, diatribes about the sizes of his rallies or (discredited) allegations of immigrants stealing and eating pets. Headlines invoked the famous boxing strategy, including\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(\u201cHow Harris Roped a Dope\u201d) and\u00a0The Nation<\/a><\/em> (\u201cWith Her Rope-a-Dope Strategy, Kamala Harris Baited Trump into Scaring Swing Voters\u201d). Elsewhere, columnists claimed Harris \u201crope-a-doped Trump<\/a>,\u201d \u201chad the\u00a0dope on the ropes<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cused a carefully constructed<\/a>\u00a0rope-a-dope strategy to derail Donald Trump during their debate.\u201d Meanwhile, a range of observers on social media echoed the theme as well, including\u00a0journalists<\/a>,\u00a0academics<\/a>, and\u00a0celebrities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the problem here is that the specific metaphor is ill-suited to the occasion. Ali\u2019s gambit against Foreman required not that he distracted his opponent, but that he withstood an onslaught of legitimate punches. In the debate, Trump flailed wildly but he rarely made any impact on Harris. Ali exhausted Foreman; Harris let Trump self-destruct. Yet, therein lies the larger problem with the metaphor: in 1975, a rapidly tiring Foreman faltered in the eighth round, leading the fight to be stopped; in 2024, a comprehensively defeated Trump simply ignored his own performance, avoided additional debates, and focused on his own peculiar campaign tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no causal link between political media\u2019s misuse of boxing metaphors and its confusion over the election\u2019s outcome, but they are similarly symptomatic of an inability to interpret a political landscape permanently altered by Trump and a changing electorate. Voters no longer rely on either the conventional architecture or wisdom of legacy media; and boxing, once among the most popular sports in the United States, is now the subject of marginal interest. There was a time when being \u201cheavyweight champion of the world\u201d was a revered status; today, there is more enthusiasm for mixed martial arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the risk of oversimplifying the politics of UFC and its fan base, it is clear that the emergent sport appeals to younger white men<\/a>, a key constituent for Donald Trump. To that point, Slate<\/em> describes<\/a> a UFC event from the summer of 2024 in which the various ingredients of white masculine political identity\u2014MAGA, podcaster Joe Rogan, MMA, and Black Rifle Coffee Company<\/a>\u2014constituted a recipe for Trump\u2019s eventual triumph. In short, the contexts in which electoral politics are staged and the rules by which they are judged have shifted. Boxing is an artifact of the past. Increasingly, so too is legacy political media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not mean to suggest these shifts explain all of the factors that affected the 2024 presidential election. Nevertheless, political media cannot continue to rely on the historical practices that have guided our understanding of elections in the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century. Trading punches and knockout blows may provide color to campaign analysis, but they reflect a frame that rarely characterizes modern campaigns. It isn\u2019t merely that the \u201crope-a-dope\u201d doesn\u2019t apply to Harris\u2019 debate performance in a way that could forecast the election\u2019s outcome; it\u2019s that her opponent was engaged in an altogether different contest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. Michael L. Butterworth Director of the Center for Sports Communication & Media and Professor of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. His research explores connections between rhetoric, democracy, and sport, with particular interests in national identity, militarism, and public memory.  Twitter: @BurntO_ButterwoEmail: michael.butterworth@austin.utexas.edu Following Donald Trump\u2019s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, political observers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1014,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-910","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nPulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media - Election Analysis - United States<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media - Election Analysis - United States\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prof. Michael L. Butterworth Director of the Center for Sports Communication & Media and Professor of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. His research explores connections between rhetoric, democracy, and sport, with particular interests in national identity, militarism, and public memory.  Twitter: @BurntO_ButterwoEmail: michael.butterworth@austin.utexas.edu Following Donald Trump\u2019s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, political observers […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Election Analysis - United States\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-15T15:31:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Michael_Butterworth_-_Butterworth_UT_Photo_Hi_Res.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/\",\"name\":\"Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media - Election Analysis - United States\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Michael_Butterworth_-_Butterworth_UT_Photo_Hi_Res.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-12T11:21:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-15T15:31:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Michael_Butterworth_-_Butterworth_UT_Photo_Hi_Res.png?fit=453%2C453&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Michael_Butterworth_-_Butterworth_UT_Photo_Hi_Res.png?fit=453%2C453&ssl=1\",\"width\":453,\"height\":453},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"U.S. Election Analysis 2024\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Section 5: News and journalism\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/\",\"name\":\"Election Analysis - United States\",\"description\":\"Election Analysis reports from the U.S. Presidential Elections\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media - Election Analysis - United States","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media - Election Analysis - United States","og_description":"Prof. Michael L. Butterworth Director of the Center for Sports Communication & Media and Professor of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. His research explores connections between rhetoric, democracy, and sport, with particular interests in national identity, militarism, and public memory.  Twitter: @BurntO_ButterwoEmail: michael.butterworth@austin.utexas.edu Following Donald Trump\u2019s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, political observers […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/","og_site_name":"Election Analysis - United States","article_modified_time":"2024-11-15T15:31:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Michael_Butterworth_-_Butterworth_UT_Photo_Hi_Res.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/","url":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/","name":"Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media - Election Analysis - United States","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Michael_Butterworth_-_Butterworth_UT_Photo_Hi_Res.png","datePublished":"2024-11-12T11:21:42+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-15T15:31:34+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Michael_Butterworth_-_Butterworth_UT_Photo_Hi_Res.png?fit=453%2C453&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/Michael_Butterworth_-_Butterworth_UT_Photo_Hi_Res.png?fit=453%2C453&ssl=1","width":453,"height":453},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/pulling-their-punches-on-the-limits-of-sports-metaphor-in-political-media\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"U.S. Election Analysis 2024","item":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Section 5: News and journalism","item":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-5-news-and-journalism\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/","name":"Election Analysis - United States","description":"Election Analysis reports from the U.S. Presidential Elections","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1089,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/910\/revisions\/1089"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}