This sums up everything i hate about the British press

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20611767

A rathed inncouous little article from Auntie beeb, with an embedded 5 min sit down chat with England's Tom Wood.

The headline gets my goat immediatley 'England's win over New Zealand came naturally - Tom Wood'. It's been levelled on many an occasion that both England players and their fans are cocky (to put it mildly) and from this headline that is exactley how it comes across; as if the man of the match from a surprise win is shooting his mouth off about an almost easy win over the multiple RWC champions and the consistently best performing international test team in the world.

Although a lot of non-verbal communication is taken out when writing, the next 2 quotes from Wood also come across as almost preening and taken compeltely out of context. The paragraph regarding the Springboks and the 'potentially match winning try' is also skirting issues that have already been talked about by the players, and duely ignored by this hack, a hack that hasn't even put his name to this dribble.

What do we see from the embedded video? a level headed man, who humbly thanks his lucky stars he can still play Rugby after a long stint off injured and quite professional in his approach to playing for both club and country. In fact he talks about his upcoming HC match more than the international!

With the millions of hits and foot traffic the BBC recieves worldwide it is no wonder with such appauling writing, quotes taken out of context, game play explanations ignored to suit the 'style' (hatchet job) of the peice, it really isn't hard to understand why so many of the world Rugby playing community think of us as cocky.



/Rant over

Alastair, you must forgive them mate, the Press is notorius for blwoing things out of preportion. They haven't had the opportunity to celebrate a win for some time.

I bet they have been saving titbits of cliche's, one liners and powerful statements for some time now

Let them blow their steam, at the end of the day England had a great game, ireespective of how misplaced the journalists are.

Somewhere deep inside I am sure they mean well.

If Wales could just get a win over the Kiwi's I'd allow the western fail to write whatever they like!!!

I see what you mean Bilt, and i'm sure a lot of people do take it in their stride if they're from another Rugby playing nation and see this article, but we shouldn't have to make excuses for them. I know (believe me ) they haven't had an excuse to celebrate for a little while, but still, when the opportunity presents to celebrate you'd think they could do it in a way that isn't borderline disparaging. My parents dragged me up to believe that you didn't have fun at the expense of others, and i take that ethos into other areas of life.

These people are meant to be some of the cream of the crop (espcially in a flagship institution) specifically paid to condense and articulate the essence of a story, from an interview or other methods; to resort to scrapping the bottom of the barrel for tenuous links made in an interview for their own agenda is at best 1) hackery worthy of utter contempt 2) down right dangerous (thank god it's about a ball sport!)

Just a week before, the same press were steaming on about how crap England were in coaching decision making etc, and wanted the heads of Bomber and Robshaw on a plate.
The press behave like spoilt teenagers on substance abuse and extreme mood issues writing in theschool magaizine. (Apologies to any genuine young sufferers).
The 'adult' press have no excuses. This is same lying cheating press who now promise (again) to behave next time, to self regulate, we'll be good now... etc... etc...

The British Press went to the last world cup and made a big deal about the dwarf adventures of players relaxing in between games.

Now if the readers didn't take into account all those greatly sensationalised boys nights out - that should have remained private anyway - then nothing would have happened to Martin Johnson when he came home after the disappointments of the WC, caused in part by the vulture attention to every detail by the hungry press.

Why was he put to the sword when he came home? Because the media got exactly what they wanted. They got attention, they got readers and viewers and they got the righteous indignation of those readers who wanted heads to role for the fiasco.

Avid readers are as much part of the shoddy media deal as the journalists who furnish the 'stories'. Journalists know what readers want - if their headlines turned off readers they'd stop because editors would be getting it in the neck from profit motivated owners.

righteous indignation

Wasn't that Bucky O Hares spaceship?

I'm afraid I'm a littleout of Bucky's timeframe, bluesman. But I do think he shamed himself that night in Los Vegas with the Playboy bunny and the slot machine.

EH???

Are we thinking of the same cartoon character bunny???

? Who?


I had to look up Bucky, bluesman as yep, I said he was a little out of my synch in cartoon watching terms.

And as for his trip to Los Vegas? Well the Star had it all over their front pages back in 93.....

Headline has changed. It's now

England win over NZ 'no surprise'

.

I love the way they put the 'no surprise' to make is seems like a quote but they haven't "no surprise" so they can away with it. What he actually said was

It came pretty naturally. I know everyone's surprised that it came out of the blue. But from within the camp we were feeling very confident.

The Press in Britain are quite unique.... Whereas those in other countries will stand firmly behind their team and their country... The British press are interested in only 1 thing... the number of newspapers they sell and the reputations they can personally get from it.

Hence the Wayne Rooney prostitute story in 2010 weeks before the World Cup, the mike Tyndall story in 2011, the dentist chair fiasco in 96 etc etc etc.

They manage to steamroll the morale of the squads and the players.

They can't wait until post tournament....they want it all in the build up because that's when it has most impact.

I myself know an ex test international reasonable well and knew him whilst he was playing. He was at the tail end of his career and in a big test match he won man of the match....

What happened the next day... Some tabloid published a story they'd had for 2 years about an affair he had years ago. I was friends via his partner so obviously I took sides but I could not feel sorry for the guy, it was a one off thing, it was years ago at the beginning of their relationship but the papers had just held onto it for a rainy day... It wasn't news worthy a the time because rugby players aren't playboys like footballers... Only when he did something notable did they decide to publish. They don't care who they hurt.

Just like what they're doing with poor Kate Middleton... Dragging her emotions through the mud all in the name of "public interest".

Tom Wood

It came pretty naturally. I know everyone's surprised that it came out of the blue. But from within the camp we were feeling as confident as the Bok before the RWC final 95.

SecretFly wrote:Journalists know what readers want - if their headlines turned off readers they'd stop because editors would be getting it in the neck from profit motivated owners.

In a way that makes it even more unforgivable. I've called the press most names under the sun, most of which are an insult to the vultures i compare them to, but i've never called them stupid. They're not. They're rather intelligent, and as such should above the easy buck sensationalist BS. They're entirely complicit in the bringing down of many a savvy player/coach/you name it. Partially its is RFU that are stupid enough to listen to them, and part, as you say, that they know what makes sales. That turns into a very detrimental downspiral though which damages the on field sport.

Hell, even G Henry said words to the effect of 'if you got behing them a bit ...'. It speaks volumes when the head coach of another international team says their own press should have just a bit more decency/vision and longtermist out look.

maestegmafia wrote:Tom Wood

It came pretty naturally. I know everyone's surprised that it came out of the blue. But from within the camp we were feeling as confident as the Bok before the RWC final 95.

Was that in the video? I just read the quoted text. See they've done it again!

thebluesmancometh wrote:righteous indignation

Wasn't that Bucky O Hares spaceship?

My user name sums up what many British rugby journalists are for much of the time. Very often the word 'unwarranted' should be applied.

The BBC long ago gave up on all of its quality reporting and insightful news stories instead preferring to follow the gutter press example and get as grotty as possible. Sadly it's part of human nature that a huge selection of society enjoys this type of news and laps it up.

I did also read that the BBC now use a lot more students and gap year placements so the standard especially online will go continue to fall.

I'll just call it Facebook Journalism... or Vicki Pollard professionalism.

"Yeah buh, no buh, yeah buh, OMG yeah!...but you said it first!coz-you-smashed-my-'ead-in-with-a-pint-glass-last-night-coz-I-was-sleepin'-with-you're-boyfriend's-best-mate-because-you-really-love-him-and-not-his-mate-and-want-to-snog-him-and-buh..yeah!"

Secret
you should be society editor on the STUN