[Archived] Sports Journalism

[philipl]

Long, opinionated, but welcome article on the state of sports journalism.

He makes a lot of valid points and essentially argues that British sports journalism is contributing to making British sports bland and compares unfavorably with the USA.

From my standpoint, I hate:

- having ManUTV or BIG4grovelfest on supposedly Sky/ITV/BBC/Setanta TV

- a great deal of the LT's "coverage" of the Rovers

and I ignore all red top coverage unless a newslink throws up something interesting.

On the other hand, I think the quality of sports opinion pieces has improved and the advent of reader columns means that the routine howlers on facts that used to get published are now thankfully a much rarer occurence.

[Blackpool_Rover]

British sports journalism is surely the worst in the world. Its a circus. Anyone can do their jobs because 90 percent of the time they just make things up, putting two and two together and getting 5. Im sick of journalists thinking 'ok, hes been on the bench for one game, hes not happy, spurs have a few million, they need a left midfielder.' ....PEDERSEN TO SPURS FOR 4m. Its an absolute joke i can't believe people actually get paid when all they do is make things up, put a different spin on things, take words out of context or re-use an old story. Actually....i can believe why they get paid, its because of all the people in England who still buy these rubbish papers like the mirror, the sun etc etc

Its easy to ask a few fans, work out how much a club has to spend, check on available money and put a story together and maybe theres a chance it will come off...but most of what they write is rubbish. And don't get me started on the pathetic state of journalism during international tournaments, where, instead of getting behind the team our journalists would rather consentrate on finding scadal, problems with wags (they are wives of people who play football for a living, why to they have a bloody special name you idiots) and all the other crap. 'That's what people want to read' they say...rubbish...real fans don't want to read about wayne rooney going to a brothel...fair play, he can do what he wants...we want to hear about him performing for England and helping us win something...which is what the british press are stopping us from doing.

[EwoodGlory]

British sports journalism is surely the worst in the world. Its a circus. Anyone can do their jobs because 90 percent of the time they just make things up, putting two and two together and getting 5.

Try looking at the Spanish press, Marca in particular.

They are far more of a circus.

Yesterdays stories included.

- Madrid confrim they have cash in place for £100m Ronaldo

- Barca offer £20m + Ronaldinho + Zambortta for Kaka

- Barca offer Yaya Toure + Cash for Adebayor

- Valencia look to offloak Banega

And today will be more of the same.

[brian_gallagher85]

I think you'll find that the Irish rags win this title hands down....almost every eircom league preview page has the wrong team name above the line ups

[LeftWinger]

- having ManUTV or BIG4grovelfest on supposedly Sky/ITV/BBC/Setanta TV

Sort of related - but MUTV is actually very good compared to Liverpool TV and particularly the terrible Arsenal TV - which doesn't even broadcast at weekends!!!

[gumboots]

When you hear a comment from a respected media person that my daughter, on work experience, spoke more sense about football than many of his colleagues had in their umpteen years in football, you do have to wonder don't you?

[thenodrog]

Wrong targets in the cross hairs I'm afraid. It's the law of supply and demend and shytte that is is they only print what the socio class 5's and under want to 'read'!..... and their numbers seem to be on the increase unfortunately.

[trueblue]

problems with wags (they are wives of people who play football for a living, why to they have a bloody special name you idiots)

That's (W)ives (A)nd (G)irlfriend(S) BR and it doesn't just apply to female partners of footballers, you'll find the expression is used these days when referring to any sports/male celebrity and partner gatherings

[Iceman]

in south africa,we have doctors as sports journalists....Sports Journalists as doctors,policemen as teachers,teachers playing policemen to control violent school kids.lol so its not a circus here,more like a jungle full of animals.

[Alan75]

In defence of sports journalists, just like any other occupation, there are good and bad, and it will depend on which sport they have specialised in. Unfortunately some have limited knowledge of the sport that they have specialised in and whilst attempting to fill the back pages, do not research their facts fully.

The ever increased popularity and access to satellite TV news and the internet must have dented their ability to provide news worthy items for their columns. When match reports are flashed up on screen within seconds, gone are the days when the public rushed out to buy the sports pink or newspaper to read the descriptive match reports. The fact that McCarthy left early will fill more paper news column than the game facts, simply because the match facts are easily available on TV and the internet.

Over the years since I started doing the news section on this site as a hobby, it has got harder and harder, to find new news to fill the front page that hasn’t been covered elsewhere and when an editorial is written it’s impossible to please all the people all the time. It’s the nature of the human race, especially sports fans to have different opinions. One only has to read the player ratings on this or any other message board.

No offence intended to our resident journos, as it must be one of the most difficult professions when touting their stories around the publishers, however in my opinion journalism has declined as newspapers are no longer the main source of news, plus the fact that they are failing to undertake their research for the fear of missing out on the next scoop.

[AndyC]

There is a lot of rubbish out there, but there's also a lot of quality.

Take a look at Henry Winter or Simon Barnes - they are surely 2 of the best writers in the broadsheet world.

It's not all bad for the tabloid writers - often they are first to the major scoops. What lets them down is how many times they are either duped by agents, or duped by the PR machine at clubs.

Someone should start a journalist watch and note down how many times their 'exclusives' come true and how many times they are rubbish!

There must be some students on here who could do that !