The (quantum) mechanics of TV…
There are all kinds of interpretations of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. One is that the observer necessarily changes the observed. We might also call this the TV Camera in a Crowd Principle:
The result is a complex dance between the observers and the observed–the news crews want the fans, but not all the fans. And the fans want all the news crews. Sometimes the transaction can be sublime, as when, during a particularly tense moment for the Yankees during the World Series two years ago, Fox’s cameras found two nuns in the stands, their heads bent in prayer. Or it can be less than sublime, as it was the night the Cubs beat Atlanta and local newscasts went into extended broadcasts to air what seemed like 30 uninterrupted minutes of fans on the streets saying “Dusty Baker is awesome!”
