My Long Overdue Post

So I don't even remember if this was due a week ago, two weeks ago, or what. I just know I'm behind one blog post, so I figured I would get on it...finally.
Ok so this is lame as well, but I don't really know what else to write about. In preparation for this post, I did cut out an excerpt from the New York Times the day after the NCAA Championship. The front page article, covering the game between Duke and Butler, began with "The clock finally struck midnight on Butler's Cinderella story - barely."
Rather than discussing whether or not an underdog basketball team making a run deep into the NCAA tournament is truly a "Cinderella story," I instead want to discuss how, even in today's world, the fairy tale references are utilized in pop culture not just offhandedly, but decisively to generate media attention. In this case, for the entire week the main story line was about Butler, a relatively small school in Indiana, making a Hoosier-like run to the NCAA championship, and how great a story it was. The underdog, small school, playing within minutes of their campus, was done up to be one of the most improbable runs of all time. While I would agree that most people didn't have Butler getting to the championship in their brackets, this hype was completely over the top. Rather than being ridiculously overmatched, Butler belonged there. Period. They entered the NCAA tournament with the longest active winning streak, and were a preseason top 10 team that remained ranked for essentially the entire season. Just because they came from a smaller conference, did not mean that they were not a good team. And everyone knew that, based on their rankings. And yet, the media continued to hype their run as a Cinderella story, their matchup as David vs. Goliath.
As was shown in the game, despite the loss, they were clearly not overmatched. Butler did not shoot lights out, or get fluke calls for them from the refs, or have Duke play horrible. They didn't need that. Even with a relatively average effort, they came within two points of the perennial power Duke.
Regardless of the validity of a run by an "underdog" being labeled as a Cinderella story, it was quite clear that the story of Cinderella and fairy tales moves the masses, drawing their attention effectively. Otherwise, the media would not have hyped Butler as such an underdog. They weren't. Yet, Cinderella brings attention, and the media wanted nothing more than that.