He was interviewed by a Foxtel reporter. Foxtel is a joint venture between
Telstra (50%), News Corporation (25%) and Consolidated Media Holdings (25%)

I dont think Jesse’s love child Carle would have helped them out last night.

And I take it your last post was written before the Jets ACL match mate
Look, Australia does develop some decent players, but the same can be said of pretty much all competitive sports. Its our culture, being a small country, to be fierce on the field. It has in some ways forged our identity. I would expect every Aussie team to go out and give an account of themselves. Adelaide did fantastically well, and it was a fine advertisement to what we can do. Sydney played some good football in teh ACL under Culina. But the A League is a mediocre league generally. Im not saying its bad, or that it cant be entertaining, but its just not that great.

“Wouldnt it make more sense to give equal access to all codes allowing the DT to attract a wider variety of sponsors to their paper? That to me is a pretty simplistic argument of a way to make more money? Rather then saying, your sport is anti our way of making money so we intend to discredit it in all means. In other countries around the world, the USA the UK have a number of different sports that compete for space in their papers but you do not see this “my sport is better then your sport bullshit!”. It makes no sense to me at all.”

My point is this, why does the DT just concentrate on one code and not give the same coverage to all and discredit them? In regards to ethics, it was Rothfield who talks about the ethics of covering sport. Thats my point champion, all sports should be covered and all sports should get a fair go. If other countries papers can do it and still make money, why cant the DT and other papers do the same. I guess being a grubby Tabloid is the answer. Its better to get a smutty story which sells rather then a story about how well the code is doing. The sad thing is, is this what we want form our media. Do we want smutty articles over quality reporting?

We all have a vested interest in our code and only want the best for our code. But it does get back to his mantra “if your code gets us more advertising, we will give you more coverage.” The reality is, if Rothfield had a spec of moralty in him, he would just come out and say we will not cover Football as it gives us no money. Just be honest about it and stop the Bullshit attacks on our code. He also said that its the World Cup when we give it serious coverage. To me if I was in the FFA and was the media person, id be telling the DT to get stuffed at all press conference or give questions to other media outlets and get the players to distance themselves from Mobbs, Wilson Rtohfield if they turn up at the press conferences. When the World Cup does come around, I hope the Sydney market boycott the paper and get thier fix from other sources for the four weeks.

Jess, what are your thoughts on this issue. Should Sports Journos give fair go to one code or all of them?

My opinion is that this is not a philosphcial comment, its suppose to be a thing that journos get into the business for…to try to tell the real story. The thing is, if journos really did have ethics, stories like the cahill one would never have come out as it was such non so called “incident” whic was the headline story in the DT for multiple days. To me the only reason why it was covered was to try to a) make Money as they are a tabloid paper and like to sensationalise every story and B) blanket all sports people with the same brush as NRL players to try to justify that what the NRL players do is normal.

I also have to disagree with another of your points, I would not call the A-League a mediocre league. For Adelaide to get to the final of the Asian Champions Leguae proves that for a league with one of the smallest budgets in all of Asia, we are doing pretty well in development in such a short period of time. Lets hope the Jets do Pohang tonight.

I agree also that journos who specialise in league or afl shouldnt really write opinion pieces about football. However, at the end of the day, journos should be skilled enough to report on any sporting event. The problem lies with essentially “opinion piece” journalist start writing match reports.

Youre clutching at straws mate, talking about ethics. Is this a sports blog or a philosophy class. If people were interested, they would write about it, cos it would sell papers. Rothfield didnt say anything that would shock an even moderately intelligent person who understands reality.

If Football doesn’t sell papers then they should just ignore it? Why would Rugby League journalists who know nothing about the game be writing Football articles? Don’t they have any Football journalists?

The only time he will do justice to the code is when the World Cup is on and I quote here “Obviously the space we will throw at it will be determined by advertising support.”

Members of the jury, I rest my case.

Big names make for big stories that seel papers, and get hits on websites.

Get over yourself ya wanker… you just play footy.

BTW, Anyone who has worked at News knows that the inter-code rivalry is FIERCE amongst the sports journos. This nonsense that News has an anti-football bias is just that, nonsense. There is no favouritism to any code on the sports desk. The editors just acknowledge that NRL sells papers in QLD and NSW and AFL sells papers in Victoria. Simple business and pure fact!

The email was genuine but it was from the players agent and not the player, someone who hates Tim’s guts.

The full interview to be screened on SBS World Game on Sunday arvo.

The things is, I agree with you 100%

The question is, why is it that News Ltd papers want to discredit a code when at the same time they (News Ltd) own Foxsports which Televises the same code? That to me makes no sense at all?

I honestly think that the NRL is very worried about the growth of Football and when it does eventually hit Free to Air, this I think will be the turning point in how the game is reported on in Auatralia. When the new deal does come up for the A-League and the Socceroos, the Socceroos will be back on the Anti Siphoning list thus there is no stopping FTA viewing of all socceroos games.

This is my “paranoid Opinion” here. I think that there will be more stories like the DT’s on Cahill will come out as a way for the NRL to say to adverstisers if you are thinking of leaving the code by giving them examples of Footballers behaving like NRL players. Their argument would be “why give them your dollar when they are excatly like us?”

I have read all of the comments on this post as well as the ones in 442 and TWG and a lot of them agree that there is a clear Anti Football media. We have always known that. However the question I propose is this, we all know its about money and sponsorship for the NRL, but why do they want to discredit our game. Think about it…

Wouldnt it make more sense to give equal access to all codes allowing the DT to attract a wider variety of sponsors to their paper? That to me is a pretty simplistic argument of a way to make more money? Rather then saying, your sport is anti our way of making money so we intend to discredit it in all means. In ohter countries around the world, the USA the UK have a number of different sports that compete for space in their papers but you do not see this my sport is better then your sport bullshit?! It makes no sense to me at all.

I still think that in this country there is room for all codes. I watch league, I like the cricket as well. But for me Football is my life. However I still think that there is plenty of room for all codes and it is muck raking fools like Mobbs, Wilson and Rothfield want to discredit the code for some crazy reason?

Is it me, or is that just plain simple?

So is this a precursor for things to come? Why is football being seen as a credible threat to Rugby League yet the same type of articles are not being written with as much regularity by pundits which support Union or AFL? Surely football is as much a threat to their support base as it is to League. Hence are these articles about football at all or are they an attempt to deflect the heat that League is currently feeling? Perhaps this is why Cahill is feeling particularly aggrieved, he is being used rather than reported upon. This to a guy whose family play league and some of whom play professionally.

Chances are that footballers, and media pundits alike, are going to have to be on their toes as in Europe they have media out looking for gossip whereas here there is media out to tarnish the entire code.

I havent read all the comments so if somebody has already stated this – sorry.

You get respect when you earn it. All you have done ever since you came on this site is use every available opportunity to complain and find fault. On this blog you came out and called me patronising to women, said there was a sexist undercurrent in my writing and possessed a supposed agenda against Tim Cahill. And you ask for respect?

You, sir, are not only a dropkick but a gutless one. It’s easy to come on here under various pseudonyms and spray anyone you like, whether it’s me or Mike Tuckerman or whoever, protected by your anonymity. I’m sorry you don’t have a forum for your bile where someone pays you to write pieces under your own name, but when you do be sure to let us all know.

The fact is, if Jesse had not commented, neither would you have. Therefore you are influenced by and react to what he writes. Simple logic.

You can call me a hypocrite all you like, but surely even you can see the irony when someone writes an article demanding a contrite apology from a Socceroo because “Cahill acted like a child. He was disrespectful” – when all Cahill did was the blogging equivalent of an off-topic response – and then the same writer feels entitled to call someone a “deadset dropkick” on a public forum.

What’s that word again? Hypocrite? If the shoe fits…

I actually very rarely agree with Mr Fink, and cannot say that I am “influenced or encouraged” by his opinions. I have my opinions that I have developed all by myself. FOr the record, I also think Rove McManus is crap as well. He is the most over-rated “talent” in Australian television history. If that makes me biased against short Victorians, then so be it. You can find a bogey-man under any bed I guess.

Im sorry Limpet, but you are a hypocrite of the worst order. As you point out, this is a place where opinions should be allowed to be expressed and discussed. Hysterical and puritanical people such as yourself satisfy their bigoted views of reality cocooned in the comfort they they have the moral highground. If I think a person has a bad voice and seems to be lacking confidence in their ability, and it shows, then, by virtue of the fact they are on television, I should have a right to an opinion on their abilities. Just like Fink has a blog andf you can comment on his writing skills I guess…..

The point is the action makes it so, regardless of how your friends view you or how you prefer to view yourself, whether it is racism, misogyny or any other unsavoury attitude.

These attitudes go on to influence and encourage others, as shown by sledgeross’ comment about Mel’s personality.

And you are only further underlining the exact points Tom has made by your insults, Jesse.

Calling one of your long time readers a “deadset dropkick” is unacceptable, but sadly not a terribly surprising reaction from you considering your personality and what you have hurled my way in the past. I’m not even going to report this comment as I want it to remain a testament to the kind of chap you really are.

It’s your blog and you are welcome to it. I hope your writing career continues to blossom and grow so that when you attain a level of success and self esteem you can feel less challenged by those who express opinions that differ to your own.

Shes picked because she is decent looking and knows a bit about sport. I find her cringeworthy when it comes to those sideline interviews. Still, she is good as a newsreader though.

Slippery, please stop flirting with Jesse. Look, Im an advocate of the whole “treat em mean, keep em keen” philosophy, but its getting a bit mundane now. I havent seen this much latent homosexual tension since “Top Gun”. Besides, Jesse only has enough room for one man in his life, and he aint slippery. He is elusive, tanned, and plays for Palace

Funny you are offended by the description of the woman in the Brisbane restaurant because my girlfriend at the time, who was there, thought it was bang on the money.

You really need to get out more, SJ, and stop following my career with the weird relish of John Malkovich following Clint Eastwood in “In the Line of Fire”. It’s unhealthy.

If you don’t think physical appearance is part of the reason why presenters such as Lee Furlong and Mel McLaughlin are hired at Fox you need your head examined. It’s part of the deal. It’s a fact and that’s that.

And, on my Bible, I’ve never read a bigger load of tripe in my life than “the ploy in using Mel as the ‘victim’ in this story is because the author is likely to obtain maximum sympathy and bring people onside in greater numbers if he portrays her as some sort of innocent damsel in distress. Would he be calling for sanctions or an apology to Robbie Slater if he had been the one pitch side waving a mic in Cahill’s face? I think we all know the answer to that one.”

It wouldn’t have mattered if it was Mel McLaughlin or Robbie Slater or Simon Hill or Santa Claus, Cahill acted like a child. He was disrespectful. The gender of the reporter is and is not and has never been an issue. But the fact that it happened to be a woman and I dared to describe her “telegenic” and “bright” and “pleasant” seems to have convinced you and your new pal Tom that there is some sort of sly patronising-cum-sexist element to the column.

You couldn’t be more wrong. But I don’t have to explain myself to you and frankly I’ve wasted so much of my life answering your inane posts that I really need to start desisting forthwith.

btw..http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/06/22/we-cant-have-sports-stars-bypassing-the-media/

I appreciate the humorous sending of tripe, but the Terror will merely turn it into something far more… and before you know it ….Whammo, another “headline” about the “hooligan” element of “old sokka”…