CRAP Football Journalism Hall of Fame

[Forum Phoenix]

Just read that football article that truly bored you to death?  Left you totally bewildered as to why the hell they even bothered printing this trash? Or just thoroughly pissed you off? Be it ineptitude, da sexy futbol tossers, or half brained prejudiced NRL journos masquerading their slander under the guise of genuine football articles! Then this is the thread for you!

This is the "Football Journalism RANT thread" 

Lets share our collective repulsion, they certainly do...

I'll kick things off...

Anyone else read the recent so called "Season Previews" published on fox sports site recently? They're all rubbish to be fair and so ABSURDLY brief as to earn their spot on this fact alone... But the Mariners preview...

Hey, maybe it's actually a piece of clever journalism depending on your viewpoint, as being able to get across so many potential negatives of a club in such a short space whilst still pretending to actually be just doing some kind of preview, makes this piece of utter journalistic crap, truly worthy of its place in this thread.

Please remember, this only went up about a FORTNIGHT ago... fortunately being completely out of date at the point of release is unimportant as long as you say it was accurate at the time it was written...



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Foxsports.com.au previews Central Coast Mariners' A-League season
By Anthony Raineri
foxsports.com.au
July 23, 2009

At the time of publication, Central Coast Mariners owned the most staggering statistic in the A-League: they have not won a match of any description in 2009. They last won on New Year's Eve 2008, against Perth Glory. That fixture marked star midfielder Mile Jedinak's last match for the Mariners before joining Turkish club Genclerbirligi, and foundation Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna is still trying to fill the hole. Worryingly for McKinna, rumours have surfaced that Socceroos assistant coach Graham Arnold is being courted to join the coaching staff. The Mariners have strenuously denied this. Despite McKinna's troubles, he still boasts a proud record with the Mariners reaching two grand finals and a semi-final. The club has recruited former Scotland Under-21 defender Chris Doig and Shane Huke, a midfielder who formerly played in the English lower leagues.
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Any chance of a sticky on this thread mods?

 

[serious14]

Love it.  ;D

Foreign articles permitted??

 

[FFC Mariner]

Who writes this drivel - rumours of Arnoldout? LG had to admit he had spoken to him.

Can I also cite just about anything by Rebecca Wilson

 

[midfielder]

FP

Two points 1) have you spoken to the mods about serve size this thread has the potential to cause the server to go down tho overload ....2) Maybe it should be in the the Australian or Other threads..

 

[Jazzie]

Who writes this drivel - rumours of Arnoldout? LG had to admit he had spoken to him.

Can I also cite just about anything by Rebecca Wilson

They probably read this forum and others like it to get info for their "stories" .... lazy stuff, tossers they are.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Love it.  ;D

Foreign articles permitted??

*Tips new Mariners bucket hat back*

Absolutely! Gather, condemn and laugh at their crap from far and wide I say!

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Who writes this drivel - rumours of Arnoldout? LG had to admit he had spoken to him.

Can I also cite just about anything by Rebecca Wilson

lol, excellent point, save a lot of time if we could set up a link so that anything she writes is immediately posted here. Be great if her  would only appear on here! 

 

[Forum Phoenix]

FP

Two points 1) have you spoken to the mods about serve size this thread has the potential to cause the server to go down tho overload ....2) Maybe it should be in the the Australian or Other threads..

Point 1.
Especially once you get a hold of it eh MF ;D
No I don't even know if they'll consider making it a sticky as yet...

Point 2.
Yeah, I just don't know. Not really just Aus football specific as Serious helped clarify. Nor overseas specific... and other stuff is non football specific... I guess ideally it belongs in a "world" football thread... right next to Enya and those south american guys who play pan flutes at Erina Fair I'd expect ;D

 

[serious14]

From Football365:

The Dumbing Down Of Journalism

According to the dictionary 'journalism' is the profession of gathering, editing, and publishing news reports and related articles for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio.

'Sensationalism' is the practice of emphasising the most lurid, shocking, and emotive aspects of something under discussion or investigation, especially by the media.

The two are oxymoronic and should not go together, but recently it's all I see happening in newspapers.

Take this morning for example. Jack Wilshere has had two good friendly games for Arsenal. But already he is being touted for a place in the World Cup squad. It's unbelievable. Does anyone remember Theo, and the inquest behind his inclusion?

It seams to me that all the editors care about is the banner headline. The actual job of reporting is second to the legend.
How many times have people read a match report that has been loaded with inaccuracies? Reporting is the gathering of information, but the reports I see these days are just a vehicle for second-rate journalists to get across their agenda. Here's a tip, to get on in life why not do your first job correctly!!

There is the old saying 'Today's headlines line tomorrows rubbish' (or something to that effect). But the fans have long memories and journalists can quickly get a reputation. Take Antony Kastrinakis for example.

F365 does help by keeping articles from yester-years to show the level of hypocrisy that goes on in this profession. But to me it seams as though the people writing the articles do not care if they get it right or wrong.

Is it all about sales? Is it all about your website getting the most hits? Is it right to eulogise one day and then vilify the next? Is this journalism? No it's fully-blown sensationalism brought on by editors and executives thinking that all people care about is Jordan, Russell Brand and whatever Cheryl Cole is wearing today.

There is a columnist for the Daily Man, a man with the hilarious title of 'Hatchet Man' because he 'Goes in Hardest' (I think he's compensating for something!!). His columns are solely based on his views but they are backed up with little or no fact. For example, he criticised Rafa Benitez for spending 17m on Glen Johnson, fair enough it's a lot of money. But he then states it's a waste of money, like the signings of Arbeloa, Dossena, Degen and Aurelio. Well this criticism has no substance as two players were signed on free transfers and one was bought for 2.4m (became an international and sold for 4m). It's a moronic argument and he is just trying to provoke a reaction on an emotive subject.

It makes me sad that again people with an IQ above their age are being sold a media that is targeted at the lowest common denominator. TV has been aimed at idiots for years with shows like 'Big Brother' and 'I'm a Celebrity...So Please Operate on Me'.

But the written word is a thing of beauty. If used correctly it can transport you to places you have only ever imagined, it can make you laugh and cry. But like TV, reporting has been dumbed down, even the sports coverage is being wrote for the fickle fan that has the attention span of a goldfish.

With the way the profession has gone I honestly feel that Woodward and Bernstein must be rolling in their graves (metaphorically speaking).

 

[Jazzie]

From Football365:

The Dumbing Down Of Journalism

Terrific article ....   

 

[serious14]

The scariest part for me is how spot on it is..... the dumbing down of journalism reflects a general dumbing down of society - I've even noticed in the last year or so the SMH leaning towards more tabloid-esque headlines and stories.  It's still light years above the Telegraph in every respect, but there's a worrying trend creeping in of late, and I don't like it.

 

[midfielder]

The scariest part for me is how spot on it is..... the dumbing down of journalism reflects a general dumbing down of society - I've even noticed in the last year or so the SMH leaning towards more tabloid-esque headlines and stories.  It's still light years above the Terrorgraph in every respect, but there's a worrying trend creeping in of late, and I don't like it.

Spot on about the smh ... remember for all the shit we throw at News .. maily the TerrOR ... but News have never reduced their journalist... smh either last year or the year before laid off heaps...

 

[midfielder]

The scariest part for me is how spot on it is..... the dumbing down of journalism reflects a general dumbing down of society - I've even noticed in the last year or so the SMH leaning towards more tabloid-esque headlines and stories.  It's still light years above the Terrorgraph in every respect, but there's a worrying trend creeping in of late, and I don't like it.

Spot on about the smh ... remember for all the shit we throw at News .. maily the TerrOR ... but News have never reduced their journalist... smh either last year or the year before laid off heaps...

To a increasing extent the future is somewhat in our own hands.. sites like... 442, Goal, The Roar, Soccernet who pay journalist to write about football but are not seen in the street are very important.. to the future of football media in Australia.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Bloody hell Serious?  It's the... "CRAP" Football journalism hall of fame!!
Couldn't you have gone and put up any number of fox's mind numbing releases for the day? Were you more thrilled than I to learn that Kemp will be allowed to go and be with his wife when she has their baby this year!? No! I didn't think so, but you still just had to go and find a rare really decent piece of football related journalism and f**k the entire thread up right from the get go didn't you! Right thats it, I'm off to certain thread to talk about all the teams around the world that I love and adore!!
f**ker!



Great article, and I agree about the herald. Be nice to see people put some genuine effort into their sports journalism. But so much easier just to mislead, fabricate and hype.

 

[serious14]

Hahaha, sorry chief, I'll do better next time. 

Thing is, there's so much crap out there, you've really gotta dig deep to find the utterly and memorably shite stuff - it's worth the laughter when you do though.

And speaking of Football365 - they have a section on their website updated daily dedicated to this exact sort of thing.  Always worth the visit.  http://football365.com/mediawatch

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Ah yes, so many sphincters... so few buckets...
Thanks Serious. Hadn't been to that page. I enjoyed it ;D

 

[serious14]

And the fact that F365 is based in England, with such beacons of journalism as The Sun, News of the World, The Daily Mail and so forth, that Mediawatch page is never short of material 

 

[serious14]

As Football365.com points out:

The Sun have produced a lovely double spread to celebrate the fact that they have procured an exclusive interview with Sir Alex Ferguson, accompanied by a graphic of '5 Fergie Classic Line Ups!' (their preposterous exclamation mark, not ours).

The final one of the five is the 'classic' 2008-09 side that won a third successive Premier League title.

The slight glitch? That line-up never featured once for United in the Premier League last season.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

 

[FFC Mariner]

We can link just about every single, lazy preview of this season in here.