Sports have long provided viewers with a sense of their own special importance as privileged spectators.  US media is now perfecting a meld of militarism, patriotism, manipulative propaganda and team-identified obsession for its special spectators.  Any remaining traditional boundaries between commercial, commentary and actual sport have been blurred into oblivion.  To wit – The Super Bowl Telecast of 2002.  Goebbels would have been proud.  Before the game the undead presidents and Nancy Reagan read poetry in praise of Lincoln accompanied by a live symphonic performance of Copland’s hollywoody brassy work.  Offensive and defensive players for both football teams received high-tech video introductions by saluting soldiers in full dress uniform.  Soldiers would morph into the players they were introducing as military uniforms became NFL uniforms.  Also gracing the broadcast – live shots of troops behaving like rowdy idiots in Kandahar, Afghanistan.  At half-time Bono literally wrapped himself in the flag and sang Street With No Name and other U-2 hits as the names of the Dead from 9/11 were laser-projected on a rising Star Wars curtain of light behind.  Sir Paul McCartney proved that Paul was/is dead by putting in his three cents and singing A Hard Day’s Night with Ex-Quarterback/commentator Terry Bradshaw.  The New England Patriots wearing super red-white-and-blue colonial soldier helmet insignia won an exciting game in the last second.  Red White and Blue Confetti was sprayed everywhere.  Also prominently mentioned in the commentary were stadium-wide facial recognition surveillance via fiberoptics, and a total lockdown of surrounding airspace and waterways.  Two thirty second spots of US Govt. sponsored ads stated an undocumented connection between drug money and terrorism, providing the last trimmings for a truly frightening media event.  The office of National Drug Control Policy designed the ads for $3.2 million.