{"id":971,"date":"2013-03-26T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T09:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/?p=971"},"modified":"2014-03-13T09:28:07","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T08:28:07","slug":"on-scandal-after-scandal-sports-journalists-drop-the-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/on-scandal-after-scandal-sports-journalists-drop-the-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"On scandal after scandal, sports journalists drop the ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year so far has been terrible for the reputation of sport.\u00a0Lance Armstrong confessed<\/a>\u00a0(sort of) to Oprah; Europol discovered\u00a0widespread match-fixing in European football<\/a>; the\u00a0Australian Crime Commission dramatically exploded<\/a>\u00a0the myth that sport\u2019s problems are all offshore; the AFL fined Melbourne FC for \u201cprejudicial\u201d conduct following\u00a0allegations of tanking<\/a>, and the Australian Olympic swimming team was\u00a0described in a report<\/a>\u00a0as afflicted by \u201cculturally toxic incidents\u201d involving \u201cgetting drunk, misuse of prescription drugs, breaching curfews, deceit, [and] bullying\u201d.<\/p>\n

But if sport is currently on the ropes, the section of the media dedicated to informing us about it \u2013 sports journalists \u2013 are looking more than a little dishevelled. The ABC\u2019s\u00a0Clarke and Dawe lampooned the discipline<\/a>\u00a0last week, with Clarke\u2019s \u201cexpert sports journalist\u201d, responding to a \u201crelease form\u201d question about silence or incompetence, with the answer: \u201cI just get stuff off the internet and stick it in the paper\u201d.<\/p>\n

This comic turn raised an important question \u2013 what is sports journalism for? Is it reasonable to describe the sports desk as \u201cthe toy department of the news media<\/a>\u201d? Are its journalists part of the fourth estate or simply a fan club?<\/p>\n

Sports journalists, it\u2019s fair to say, do not have elevated reputations among (also much-disparaged) fellow reporters on other rounds. That attitude might stem from professional jealousy of the \u201cnice work if you can get it\u201d kind, and also because sport tends to be patronised as \u201cjust\u201d popular culture. Nonetheless, sports journalists have found it hard to shake their unfavourable image as middle-aged men billowing smoke and swilling beer, as star-struck sport wannabes playing at being serious scribes.<\/p>\n

This cruel stereotype ought to be outmoded as the demographics of sports journalism change, and better educated younger people move into the game, including more women breaking into the locker room. A university education should raise the bar, replacing tunnel vision and back-slapping with critical and investigative sports journalism.<\/p>\n

But David Lowden\u2019s\u00a0recent piece for The Conversation<\/a>\u00a0gave little grounds for optimism of an imminent break with an often-inglorious past. The coordinator of the recently-established Bachelor of Journalism (Sport) at La Trobe University essentially absolved sports journalists of any real blame for their failure to discover cheating in Australian sport. He argued:<\/p>\n

Sport journalists might have their suspicions, they might hear whispers from certain quarters that so-and-so is \u2018on the gear\u2019 or selling inside information, but it still takes someone to confirm the story and up until now, that someone was more likely to be from law enforcement than sport.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a discouraging position for a sports journalism educator to take. Of course, investigative work of this kind is hard, often unrewarding, expensive and even dangerous. News organisations are also increasingly loath, in the context of their well-documented financial woes, to invest in long-running investigations. But the suggestion that sports journalists are at a disadvantage compared to law enforcement authorities and the other journalists interacting with them smacks of a complacency bordering on dereliction of duty.<\/p>\n

Are our expectations of sports journalists so lamentably low that we tolerate them waiting around until sports organisations gain newly legislated access to intelligence that they might share?<\/p>\n

Not everyone has taken such a passive stance. A quick sweep around the world finds Denmark\u2019s\u00a0Play the game<\/a>, Canadian Declan Hill\u2019s\u00a0The Fix<\/a>, Ralph Nader\u2019s\u00a0League of Fans<\/a>\u00a0and Dave Zirin\u2019s\u00a0Edge of Sports<\/a>\u00a0in the USA, and Andrew Jennings\u2019s\u00a0Transparency in Sport<\/a>\u00a0in the UK. These sites contain many pointers towards a proactive, challenging and investigative brand of sports journalism.<\/p>\n

Most of it, though, happens outside the mainstream institutional media, although even the UK\u2019s little-lamented News of the World pulled off an audacious cricket\u00a0spot-fixing sting<\/a>\u00a0using its notorious Fake Sheikh, while its News International stablemate, The Sunday Times\u2019s famous Insight team,\u00a0uncovered corruption<\/a>\u00a0inside FIFA\u2019s World Cup bidding process. Here again, however, sports journalists did not play a leading role \u2013 and, once more, it must be demanded, \u201cwhy not\u201d?<\/p>\n

If sporting corruption and malpractice are to be countered, more sports journalists should be sensitised and well equipped to expose it. Australia does have some excellent exponents of the craft, but too many of their number only condemn sport\u2019s failings when others ventilate them, while remaining remarkably oblivious to their own shortcomings and even complicity. Some never go beyond being standing apologists for Australian sport.<\/p>\n

A\u00a02011 International Sports Press Survey<\/a>\u00a0of 80 newspapers in 22 countries (including Australia, and in which I participated) found that sports journalism remains mainly fixated on results; typically relies on a narrow range of sources, and is still mostly produced by, and is mainly about, men. Coverage of the politics and economics of sport which might illuminate corruption, drug-taking and other problems, such as exploitation and discrimination, is dispiritingly slight.<\/p>\n

Australian sports journalism, then, is in good \u2013 which is to say, bad \u2013 company with its professional peer group around the world. If more sports journalists self-critically cleaned up their own act, they would be doing both sport and society a signal service.<\/p>\n

\n

This article was originally published at\u00a0The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Copyright \u00a9 David Rowe 2013<\/strong>
\nEmail:\u00a0d.rowe@uws.edu.au<\/a>
\nTwitter: @rowe_david
\nWebsite:\u00a0http:\/\/www.uws.edu.au\/ics\/people\/researchers\/david_rowe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year so far has been terrible for the reputation of sport.\u00a0Lance Armstrong confessed\u00a0(sort of) to Oprah; Europol discovered\u00a0widespread match-fixing in European football; the\u00a0Australian Crime Commission dramatically exploded\u00a0the myth that sport\u2019s problems are all offshore; the AFL fined Melbourne FC for \u201cprejudicial\u201d conduct following\u00a0allegations of tanking, and the Australian Olympic swimming team was\u00a0described in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-okategoriserade","7":"tag-sport-journalism","8":"tag-sport-media"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2JbBl-fF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}