Self-perpetuating story

The biggest problem with the press in general, and with sportswriting in particular, is the self-perpetuating story. Before the baseball season, the question for the Yankees (as posed by the press) was "what happens if this team struggles, ever?" After both of the Yanks' losses this year, the reaction has been "what happens if the Yankees lose tomorrow? Will Mount Steinbrenner erupt?" Joel Sherman, who can somehow both recognize the fallacy of conventional wisdom while indulging in it, offers the paradigm of this Yankee-writer Syndrome here.