Watch the crawl

It's often interesting to note the choice of words various networks use at the bottom of the screen. For example: in explaining Alabama's victory over Texas in the national championship, ESPN stated that Bama "survived a late surge by Texas."

This is true, yet only half true.

The other half is that Bama's powerful running game and stifling defense staked them to such a large lead at halftime, that Texas--without its star quarterback--was ill-equipped to mount a sufficient comeback. Had Alabama scored no points at all in the second half, it still would've won by three points.

And still, it's the late surge by Texas that gets ESPN's notice and also their postgame discussion. These choices of words have a way of framing how the game is viewed and remembered. He who controls the nature of the debate often determines its outcome--even if the facts may say otherwise.

So watch how the crawl and the words spoken by the anchors function as mirror images of one another.