Monday 14 June 2010

I may not support England,but I do not support this.

In my last post I hinted that my ABE attitude had perhaps gone too far. However yesterday as I passed the ranks of the Sunday Newspapers, I was disgusted by the headlines. The English tabloids are insufferable when England win (but so are we Welsh when win at Rugby). But when England fail at anything they are truly venal.

The coverage of Robert Green’s blunder with the banner headlines like 'Hand of Clod’ on the front page and 'Stars and Tripe’ on the back in the N.O.W.(and others were just as bad)  showed exactly the sort of people who work in the media today. A player makes one (admittedly costly) mistake and he is vilified. Not withstanding that Goalies are seldom praised, to treat one player in this way for an error such as this (for which the new designed ball may have been partly responsible) is appalling.

The Tabloids in particular relish in building people up only to knock them down again. It is bad enough when they do it to celebrities, but they will do it to ordinary members of the public with glee. Especially those who may have sold their story to another paper.

This gutter journalism although not started by Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of the Sun in1969, has grown worse over the years and one of the great tragedies of this  is that a once fine paper like the Daily Mirror was brought down to the Sun’s level.

The Tabloid treatment of Green left me sick in the stomach. I really don’t know what I want. Clearly their attitude if England win the World Cup will be to much for me: But to see decent players like Green, metaphorically  hang drawn and quartered if England go out early by English Tabloids editorials is something I do not relish.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

as a Welshman who doesn't support England (not out of hatered but tactically because if we all supported England the London press and politicians would say we weren't a nation but an extension of England which needed no particular attention to our culture and economy), I agree.

The poor guy make a mess of it. I guess he knows that. Does he really need to be ridiculed for it? No.

glynbeddau said...

To extend your argument. If we in Wales, and Scotland were to enthusiastically support England. I am sure that some members of FIFA would use it as an excuse to question our having a team at all and that there should be an UK team. Most England supporters would not mind this as they would se no difference bit for Welsh and Scottish identity it would be disastrous.