Blog: johnloguk

A CHALLENGE TO THE BRITISH SPORTING MEDIA

OK OK, I know this isn't easy, but come on you guys and girls of the British sporting media, how about a bit of balance in your reporting?

Whoops, sorry, did I shock you? It's OK, I'll give you a bit of time to get up off the floor and gather your thoughts.

Now I love sport, almost all of it, well except for horse racing, which I don't consider a sport anyway. And I love reading about sport, any sport, well apart from horse.... well, you get my drift. But recently I've been getting really annoyed every time I pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV news. It isn't a sudden thing, I guess this has been building for years, but I think I've reached a personal tipping point.

I know how newspapers and TV advertising/ratings work, the more sensational the better, make everything snappy, glossy and fashionable etc. Everything is marketed to the hilt, image over content, as with most things in 21st century life. But I think that mainstream sport is really starting to suffer now. Everything is about the big personalities, whether or not their sporting abilities and skills match their PR machine doesn't come into it. When someone, or some team, wins a trophy they are heroes beyond imagination, with almost superhuman powers. When they lose they are hopeless, below contempt, with journos speculating endlessly about conflict and innuendo that could explain their failure.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story eh lads? The England football team suffers the most from this treatment. Our "golden generation" turned into overnight idiots when they failed to win the last World Cup and Euro Champs. But actually they did reach their rightful position in the world rankings. Expectations are ridiculously high, fueled by insane tabloid nationalism, verging on racism at times.

The cricket team are the same. We win the Ashes, narrowly, at home, with the Aussie's best bowler sidelined for most of the games, and suddenly we're world beaters. Then we lose them in Australia, to probably the best team that has ever played the game, who actually beat everyone on the planet in a record breaking run, and suddenly "our boys" are total nonentities. The press focus on pedalos and rows within the team, but we were just beaten by a better team, end of.

Andy Murray is going to win a Grand Slam tennis tournament soon, I'm sure of it, but until he does the press will see him as an under achiever, even a failure. When he lost his first round match in Australia the vultures circled. He we go again, the next Henman, losing to an unknown Frenchman, bottler, can't take the pressure etc. The fact that his opponent Tsonga was far from unkown, and went on the narrowly lose the final, was lost on the British media. Murray is now making steady progress in another tournament, but it will probably only make the mainstream press when he loses. Henman suffered the same way. He was only reported when he lost, or when he was putting on his plucky little annual fight at Wimbledon. Tim Henman was our best tennis player for decades, and yet most Brits will remember him as a failure, how ridiculous is that?

OK I'm ranting a bit. There are some great sports reporters in Britain, but they are way off to the side, well out of the mainstream spotlight. It is the sensationalists who get read the most. There are things wrong in British sport, and we have a right to be able to debate these issues. But let us just have some balance.

When the World Indoor Athletic Champs come along next month I wonder what will be reported? Dwayne Chambers, that's what! It will all be about the drugs cheat, cameras stuck under his nose permanently. His fellow athletes won't be asked about their own performances, reporters will be pestering them to say something controversial about Chambers. Craig Pickering failed badly at the British trials last weekend. I think that was largely down to the Chambers factor. On form Pickering should have won. But the media set him up as the man who would save us from the embarrassment of having to pick Chambers for the team. Every interview I heard with Pickering was about Chambers. Young Craig managed to deflect them well, but in the end they still managed to misquote him on every bulletin. How could this guy concentrate on his own race?

Maybe as sporting fans we get the media we deserve? Its the old argument. If we didn't read the sensationalised nonsense they would keep printing it. But is anyone encouraging serious sports writing anymore? I doubt it, not if they want to make money anyway. Far easier to search for innuendo and hyperbole, turn the whole thing into a soap opera. But sport is much more than a soap opera, or should be. Let's not keep debasing and trivialising it. Bring back balance and honesty to sports reporting. It is harder to make the stories interesting if you don't resort to stereotypes and conflict all the time. But ultimately it is a better read, and better for sport in the long run.

I'll finish by making a suggestion. Maybe a lot of the problems dogging British sport over the last few years have been down to the standard of reporting? Not many sports are really driven by the desire for long term success anymore. Not many sports administrators are able to seriously plan long-term. Everything is knee-jerk, instant results, easy short term answers to placate populist tabloid journalism. Is this the best way to plan sporting success? Our most successful sports team in recent years has been our cyclists. They have been able to plan and train well out of the glare of publicity, and it shows.

by johnloguk on 09:57 on 15th February 2008