Ever Wonder Why Other Dallas Media Outlets Don’t Rail Against The State Fair Of Texas Like Central Track Does? It’s Simple: Look At The Fair’s Sponsor List.

Unlike seemingly every other media outlet in Dallas and, to a degree, the whole goddamn state, we here at Central Track aren’t exactly enamored with the State Fair of Texas. Why? Because, for starters, we’re not kids any more, and we’re no longer oblivious to the ways of the world. But also for a litany of other reasons, which we’ll happily run down for you here, one per day, over the entire course of the fair’s 2019 run, adding to the list we ran throughout the fair’s 2017 run.

After 33 entries in this series, we’ve developed a pretty good idea of what we’re up against in the State Fair of Texas. We can say at this point, without a shadow of a doubt, that the fair isn’t just an abuse of the system, it is the system.

Consider what happened the last time we embarked on a series criticizing the fair: The fair was so thrown by our negative coverage that its CEO, a man who pays himself more than twice of what any other state fair CEO in the country makes because he claims his workload is so massive, personally offered to give free, VIP tours of the grounds and festivities — walk-throughs that he himself would personally lead! — as a thanks to anyone who spoke up on social media about how wrong we were about the fair.

This is telling in two regards: 1) It shows just how rattled the fair gets in the face of negative press, and 2) it shows that fair’s preferred model of dealing with negativity is to just get even cozier with its blind supporters.

None of this is surprising considering the literal millions of dollars the fair has spent to avoid answering questions about its methods when pressed. What is surprising, though, is how rarely the fair gets pressed on this (and other) issues at all.

Ever wonder why that is? Ever stop to think, “Hey, why is Central Track standing on this hill alone?”

Well, there’s an easy answer to that. Through essentially the same method laid out above, the fair has gotten in bed with its would-be area critics and quite cleverly partnered up with every area media outlet imaginable so as to curry their favor.

Seriously, the volume of media outlets listed on the fair’s sponsor page is staggering. In fact, media outlets make up 38 of the 96 brands that the State Fair of Texas counts as sponsors this year.

No need to wonder who those media partners are, either! Let’s look at them here:

  • NBC5/Telemundo39
  • The Dallas Morning News
  • Texas Monthly
  • WFAA
  • Univision 23
  • CBS 11
  • 92.1 Hank FM
  • IHeartMedia
  • 100.3 Jack FM
  • 102.1 FM The Edge (additionally curious since The Edge rebranded as Star 102.1 in 2016)
  • Now 102.9 FM
  • ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM
  • 106.1 Kiss FM
  • 94.9 FM KLTY
  • New Country 96.3 KSCS
  • 97.1 FM The Eagle
  • 97.9 FM The Beat
  • 98.7 FM K-LUV
  • 99.5 FM The Wolf
  • The Advocate
  • Al Dia
  • Alt 103.7 FM
  • Boom 94.5 FM
  • Dallas Observer
  • Dallas Voice
  • Entercom
  • The New Hot 93.3 FM
  • KLIF 570 AM
  • Grande 107.5 FM
  • Lone Star 92.5 FM
  • Primary Media
  • Seniorific
  • The Dallas Weekly
  • The Senior Voice
  • Suburban Parent
  • Familia DFW
  • Sportsradio 1310 AM/96.7 FM The Ticket
  • WBAP 820 AM1

🤔

Disregarding the fact that, for a supposedly statewide affair, the media outlets listed above almost exclusively are Dallas-based — whither the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, let alone the Houston Chronicle? — perhaps the better question to ask is this: Which area media entities aren’t in the fair’s back pocket or vice versa?

At this point, there are really only a handful of entities around whose vested interest isn’t in propping up the fair as something greater than the cash-grab it is.

This shit is systemic, folks.

Cover photo by Kathy Tran. 

More Reasons Why The State Fair Of Texas Sucks:

  1. Its history is super racist!
  2. It’s a major drain on Dallas police!
  3. It’s bad for your health!
  4. It’s so damn expensive!
  5. It’s not the economic driver it says it is!
  6. It’s a super shitty neighbor!
  7. It’s an altar to false idols!
  8. It makes Fair Park useless!
  9. It wastes city funds on out-of-towners!
  10. It exploits cute animals!
  11. Its executives take home too much money!
  12. Everything on the midway is a ripoff.
  13. It has willfully ignored its obligations and allowed Fair Park to fall into disrepair!
  14. It refuses to be transparent about the way it spends public funds.
  15. It can’t handle Fair Park’s long-term needs.
  16. Its lauded scholarship program is a joke compared to those of other, similar events.
  17. It uses fear tactics in its negotiations with the city.
  18. It goes out of its way to shield its crowds from the poor black neighborhood that surrounds Fair Park.
  19. Its low-level employees get burned by its executives’ bad business decisions.
  20. Its ticket-based economy is designed to squeeze even more cash out of attendees.
  21. It cares way too much about parking lots that go unused most of the year.
  22. It’s petty as fuck.
  23. It celebrates humanity’s fucked up relationship with livestock.
  24. It refuses to change.
  25. It can be easily debated.
  26. Its concert bookings could be heated up a few degrees.
  27. It’s tearing the Fletcher family apart!
  28. It’s spent a least $1 million to keep its books out of the public eye. What’s it hiding?
  29. It fired a beloved employee, claiming his request to attend a charity event was a contract violation.
  30. It has become a literal joke.
  31. Who’s buying what they’re selling?
  32. Its racist roots are still being unearthed by national scholars.
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