Imagine if all this time dedicated to basketball was allocated to Piketty's new book

[BainsBane]

36. It has gotten a fair bit of coverage in the media

I suppose it depends what you call mainstream, but in my book that includes NPR, PBS, and major print sources.

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/04/29/thomas-piketty-inequality-gregory-mankiw

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/fashion/Thomas-Piketty-the-Economist-Behind-Capital-in-the-Twenty-First-Century-sensation.html?_r=0

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/04/299182849/mystery-of-mounting-inequality-might-find-answer-in-brand-new-tome

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/30/308220349/why-is-a-french-economists-700-page-book-so-popular

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/pikettys-book-on-wealth-and-inequality-is-more-popular-in-richer-states.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/pikettys-book-on-wealth-and-inequality-is-more-popular-in-richer-states.html

As well as mainstream internet sites like Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/19/thomas-piketty-on-capital_n_5179355.html

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=piketty&oq=piketty&gs_l=news-cc.3..43j0l2j43i53.3120.4543.0.4915.7.3.0.4.4.0.113.264.2j1.3.0...0.0...1ac.1.Wsd-xhYgqXY

If you mean cable, I don't consider that news at all. It's entertainment. While the network news programs only devote a couple of minutes to each story, so they have time to go into nothing in substance.