Comments on: Football is now all black and white, and we have lost the shades in between

By: goonergerry

goonergerry — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:55:34 +0000

The football media in England is also heavily laced with former players-these people often take the cynical values of their playing days into so called journalism and brainwash the public. One of the key values is-win at all costs-nothing matters except winning the next game and it does not matter how. These people are not interested in skill and entertainment in fact they often see it as a weakness, incompatible with winning. Well if that was the case Mr Hansen, why are Chelsea advertising their home games on LBC?

By: Armin

Armin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:34:07 +0000

Usually good article.
Thing which annoys me more than what media say (write) is fact that people who consider them selves as Arsenal Supporters (or they believe they are), sow this game, and they rather believe what journalists said than what they sow.
It is mystery to me, I am just wandering if Sky Sport would say Tottenham is best football team in history, wold they bite it ??

By: Gooneraside

Gooneraside — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:04:06 +0000

Good article, Walter, although I recommend a trip down Shite Hart Lane for those who wish to see thousands of tits!

By: biyi

biyi — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:14:44 +0000

spot on walter,,,,,,,,,,,,,,im from nigeria and u guys dont seem to care about us here.3rd world syndrome i suppose..but u have to see how die-hard suppoters we are here,,just extend some relevance to us here

By: walter

walter — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:52:19 +0000

Miki,

I think you summarized it very well but why is it that so many people think like the media expressed it.

Now I think of the words “humiliation” how were the headlines when MU lost to Leeds in the FA cup at home ????
Because as the defending champion and topclub in the PL with a full squad to lose at home from a league one team now THAT is what I call a humiliation.

So I wonder did the media express it like that ? Because if not than it could well be that it is just the anti Arsenal bias that comes in every time we lose ?

By: heffy

heffy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:52:00 +0000

good article, though nothing is ever truly objective is it? even history books are stories told by a man through his set of beliefs, no matter how objective one tries to be.

anyway, looking at all the media hype surrounding arsenal in the past few years, i am coming to the conclusion that arsenal has overtaken manure as the most hated/disliked club in england. the media seems to be on manure’s side nowadays.

By: walter

walter — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:43:32 +0000

Adam, the last thing that I intented to do was to bash the British or English people.
I have no problems with English people at all. If I would have anything against them I think I never would have become an Arsenal fan in first place.
I just noticed some differences between England and my own country in terms of media coverage on sporting events. And specific on headlines they use. And so I started thinking what is the difference and why do some people all see it black and white and I just was looking for an explanation.
I must say that in our fanclub over here in our forum we have all kind of fans. The (maybe) over optimistic like myself and the always pessimistic and the whole range in between. But when we argue on our forum you never see the black/white things I see on other blogs or in the media. The mood was very depressive the first days after Sunday but the colour was just more grey.
It could be a cultural difference between our countries but I think the press or the media is a substantial part of a society and certainly a very influencial part.

By: Abhishek

Abhishek — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:52:09 +0000

Hi well-endowed gooner

The reason why we are not able to beat the big teams is a lot due to the mental reasons. Last year we lost 4 consecutive matches against Chelsea and with fair ease. The previous defeat against United this season also seems to be playing in our minds. So though we can clearly see that our team has progressed a lot, we have heavily suffered due to those losses. We outplayed ManU at old trafford but lost heavily at our grounds. Beating Liverpool has not given us much confidence as it is no better than ManC or Aston villa.

I guess that hair dryer treatment is going on for this whole week as I read somewhere that Wenger was pretty angry on Maonday training. I guess beating Chelsea at Stamford should give us that confidence and I am waiting for it eagerly like all.

By: well-endowed gooner

well-endowed gooner — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:44:54 +0000

I agree that English media is sensationalist, but it was a poor performance by the Arsenal in a pivotal match. We should be doing better (we have the wage bill and finances to do better) but we’re not beating the strong teams this season. The question is why not?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:31:15 +0000

You are totally right in this article but feel it’s wrong of you to single out the doom brigade any more than those who won’t accept that wenger is anything less than god for arsenal and refuse to accept when wenger has made some bad mistakes in recent years. As you said the truth is grey and neither the endlessly negative fans nor the inanely positive fans are right most of the time and I think considering the nature of this article I think you’ve unfairly singled out only one side of the culprits with regards to the attitudes of arsenal fans

By: walter

walter — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:43:43 +0000

Cujo, hope all goes well tomorrow

By: walter

walter — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:42:13 +0000

Getty, I must agree on you that this is a factor that also can be seen in other parts of society. I even notice the same over here as it slowly slips in the media over here and this is something I really regret.
Now it is an exception when they make headlines like that but let’s say 10 years ago it was once in 5 years now we see this happening a few times in the year and so I really think that we are going down also but maybe a bit slower than in other parts of the world.

By: miki

miki — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:30:55 +0000

walter: great article as always..
I’m afraid it’s not just papers. Same story with the english people. So many people think it was destruction, humiliation and far easy..

By: Getty

Getty — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:17:36 +0000

Walter, isn’t bloodhound that sees images in black and white, no other shades? It looks like human evolution is heading toward four legged animal. It’s not just football media though, it’s media in general. What do they call it, out scooping each other? I don’t think there is time to do a thorough research when you want to beat your competition to the punch. That means, producing whatever it is as fast as possible has encouraged lazy journalism to sip into news reporting. Another point I want to make is that the proliferation of media outlets has a dramatic effect on the quality & quantity of news. On one hand, journalists are more interested to come up with eye catching titles to their articles at the expense of content. That’s called tabloid journalism. On the other, if you are a serious reader, you have more options to read various articles to make your own conclusions. Some media outlets’ motto here in the US is “Beyond the Headlines”, the fact is they never get there! This doesn’t say much about the average reader (consumer?) either, does it?

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:07:44 +0000

Walter, brilliant insights and spot on in terms of your calls for subtlety and nuance in coverage of sports. I would say, though, that I agree with don’t believe the hype, and I would go even further: all journalism is biased, and has been since word one, really. Journalism has never been “neutral” or “balanced”. Ever. This is not to say that the effort isn’t appreciated, or that journalism isn’t valuable.

Superb post, though.

By: Hartwick89

Hartwick89 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:07:18 +0000

PS when I joined this site I believe the title included just 130,000 (Check that Tony!) 10-09…Now it is up to 170,000…. This site has the algorithm for success because we don’t lie, we don’t belly-ache, we get on with it…and, it’s contagious!

By: Hartwick89

Hartwick89 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:01:09 +0000

Walter,

You brilliant ***tard! The irony of the UK press and or any of them is they are symbolic of the degradation of journalism. Parallel to that is the D&G Brigade Blogs who offer the same exquisite headlines but after reading the headline you are forced to look elsewhere for a real genuine story. So what that means is we all find our way here to Arsenal, Untold Story et al. Not even a fancy name for this blog…Never any misleading headlines but always good genuine stories. Clearly the UK press and the D&G Brigade could learn a lot from good journalism as is the case here. Shhhh! They might hear and then we might have other news outlets. But, the long and short of it is pretty simple; good work or journalism takes ethics, honesty, and hard work! So until then you will have these other outlets which highlight lies, D&G pessimism, and smut. I will be here reading and enjoying the fruits of hard work. Just my thoughts.

By: don't believe the hype

don't believe the hype — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:54:49 +0000

You have a point Billiken Gooner, but the moaning on the internet is much more damaging as it reaches a wider audience and the lazy hacks in search of a story use the comments on blogs as a barometer of fan opinion whereas your serial moaner down the pub would have a much smaller audience. The media are not interested in the balanced blog supported by generally positive posters. They tend to home in on the negativity because extreme opinions fit with the ‘everything is either black or white’ polarization Walter talks about in his article.

By: BillikenGooner

BillikenGooner — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:56:24 +0000

I agree that the media has become a product and not news, that to sell their product most media outlets push their views to the extreme to attract viewers/buyers.

However, I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that there are 2 camps: Doom and Gloomers versus Loyalists.

I’m very near 40 and have no problem with years of being trophyless or seeing/waiting for potential to be reached. I’ve endured them before. But I also don’t think having an opinion about a certain player or thinking changes would be best for the squad (out here in the ether of the internet with no real impact on the club) is in someway being a Doom or Gloomer.

If anything, this thing we are on right now is the culprit more so than the media.
In the old days you would sit with your friends at a bar (mates at the pub)and do exactly what happens on these blogs: complain, moan, rue every missed kick or players bungle, call the ones you like geniuses and the ones you don’t bums, have a beer or 3, argue and agree… and that’s that on to the next match.
Now people can voice those same complaints instantaneously and permanently on this thing called the web and those voices can find fellows-in-thought and build it up off one another.

By: don't believe the hype

don't believe the hype — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:34:31 +0000

Interesting article Walter, but I would dispute your claim about the Guardian and Independent. They are the same as the others as far as I am concerned. I stopped buying and reading newspapers after reading a racist article in the Guardian about Tiger Woods victory in his first masters. They might use bigger words, but the sentiment is the same. The concept of balance has gone and sensationalism rules. The media is a perfect illustration of that.