I lived in a perfect world once, in my dreams, and its media respected quiet news days for what they were. Journalists were allowed to start drinking at breakfast instead of lunchtime. Newspapers just printed banners saying “No news is good news”.
Episodes of “Yes, What?” and “The Simpsons” ran in place of radio and TV news bulletins.
That was a good system.
The system that delivered us the Herald-Sun and its infamous “Soccer fans the worst” front page a couple of months back works along very different lines, and quiet news days are often the worst days of all.
The football community was right to be angry over the Hun’s treatment of it.
But what could it do? Arcing up over it with the venom it deserved would only draw attention to something unworthy of attention, risk reinforcing some negative stereotypes and generally play into the WUM’s hands.
So what did we do? We arced up, gave it the venom it deserved and drew attention to it as if Pavlov’s dog wasn’t a drooler, as if the workings of the mass media are a complete mystery too us, and thereby maximized the chances of a similarly bent headline appearing in the future; a sacrificial bunt, if you like.
Right on cue, on the next available deathly quiet news day, another football-related incident makes the papers and the bell rang again, the dog slobbered and in rushed some football supporters to feed it, turned a molehill into a mountain and set the table for the next meal.
It gets you thinking; or it does me.
How many Victorians are actually dumber than me? The feedback I’ve been getting says I’m down there with the two-bricks at the bottom of the barrel.
But it’s actually been measured by the government and there’s a lot more Victorians who are thicker than me than you’re probably thinking.
The official number is seven and I know them all personally.
That might be why I’m probably more relaxed than most about tabloid hatchet jobs; when you’re living in the poorest house in a rich intellectual street, you don’t have to worry too much about what everyone else is thinking – if I can cope with it, I can’t see you having any problems dealing with it.
How many Victorians out there who pick up a newspaper are too dumb to separate fact from fiction or a big story from a beat-up?
Close to zero – seven in 4.5 million at the most.
Nope, thank God I’m one of the least sharp tools in the shed because it sounds like hell on earth being an Einstein surrounded by simpletons: How will those idiots ever operate machinery safely, understand the physics of the rising sponge cake or handle their alcohol?
You’d have gut trouble, you’d be looking over people’s shoulder all the time, you’d be terrified of flying or letting anyone else drive or even use the whipper-snipper.
Worst of all, you’d be worrying yourself sick about what the all idiots were reading in the tabloids on the grounds that they’re probably all dumb enough to believe it.
I’m dumb but I’m not so dumb I haven’t twigged that I’m not actually the smartest bloke going around, which is why those seven morons I know are ranked beneath me – we’re all technically the same IQ (53) but they got marked down for thinking they’re cleverer than me.
Tabloid trolls appeal to prejudices and probably hardens them and crucifies a lot of innocent images and ideas in the process, but about the only minds tabloids are ever likely to change are those ones hanging beneath mine of the IQ tree down there in sub-Neanderthal class.
Why any sport would even want them on its side I don’t know but it’s obviously not a matter of pride.
I remind myself of that when I see the pitched battles for the hearts and minds being fought out by the code warriors in the Herald-Sun’s comments section on quiet news day.
The smartest of the smart have made up their minds and dug their trenches long ago and tortured Einsteins wander among them trying to swing the non-existent fence -sitters over to their point of view.
“Soccer should be banned, it’s for violent thugs.”
“At least it’s international you wig-wam for a goose’s bridle.”
There’s thousands of observations just like that, all cleverly designed to win the hearts and minds of the seven Victorians dumber than me who, like I said, are all friends of mine.
The good news for football is that none of them can actually read so even they’re not vulnerable to tabloid beat ups, and we already sit together on the wing at Victory matches.
My mates only follow football because I spray-painted “Sokkah Sucks” all over their cars and front fences and told them it was some guy in a Collingwood beanie.
“That does it,” they said as one, “We’re off to the soccer.”
They just wanted to stick it up whoever the spray-canner was, which is why I think there’s probably more for football to gain by either ignoring the Herald-Sun’s bait or if one can’t restrain oneself, by at least doing it constructively and weighing in with a deadbeat anti-sokkah message and signing off “Go Pies”. It works every time.
As does slagging off at other sports and signing off with “Go Sokkah” – it’s a great way to put them off the world game.
That’s been known for years though. World-game supporters have been thinking a step ahead since circa-1927, leaving moronic anti-sokkah diatribes in public places trying to make footy supporters seem like bigots and boors. It worked with me.
Footy does look to be catching up tactically and strategically though because these days AFL supporters are flooding the net with deliberately thickheaded anti-AFL messages that are clearly designed to make world game supporters look bad.
Who on this earth ever picked up a newspaper or logged on looking to have their mind changed or their prejudices challenged? Reading isn’t for education, it’s for recreation, or it is in my neck of the woods anyway.
Unless you’re fond of seeing anti-football stories in the press, ignore them.
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
Fancy that Fussball -- an independent review into football governance. Out of the blue, just like that. Who'd of thought? Enjoy.
woodsman
Guest
No one reads the HS.
UD Almería
Guest
Great link Dugald. Unlike others, you have the sources to back up where you're coming from, and for those who are willing to do the reading, the info is there. This has been the gist of what you are saying, and it's backed up by these court documents, that the governance structure has not changed, all that has changed is that some players have been pushed to one side, while others have remained just under the surface ready to make their move, precisely because the governance structures remain the same as always, ready to be exploited by those with the inclination to do so.
chris petes
Guest
Dugald Massey sounds like you'd make a great politician
RedOrDead
Roar Guru
Dugald, I know all of us commenting on your article has got you thinking "this just proves my article's point", but seriously, what is your point? You have an opinion, great - write an article about it...oh wait. Fuss, myself, AL, Dasilva, etc. have an opinion also, it just happens to be different to your's. We're not unreasonable people and our opinions don't seem to be of an extreme view either and since the general consensus (and what we're taught at school) is that our opinions cannot be wrong your ranting is almost void. You become one with those 'tabloid style' newspapers and as you have witnessed we will not just sit here and applaud because in the end, our opinion is that these negative articles are all a load of bull.... By the sounds of it, you would make a terrible teacher because it seems every time one of your students questions a theory you'd shut them down with a comment like, "you should not question what I teach you, you should just shut up and listen otherwise you are deemed a bad student". I'd love to see the reaction from their parents...or should they just shut up too and not question the education their children are receiving? Yeah, that's exactly how life and reality goes... Using that analogy, we, football loving people - just like the parents standing up for their children - will continue to stand up for football. We will not just sit down, be silent and do nothing just because the 8th thickest person in Victoria wrote an article telling us to.
RedOrDead
Roar Guru
Speaking of which, I enjoyed getting up to watch El Classico on Sunday morning and this morning Arsenal Vs Liverpool, both 1-1 draws, both decided only by penalties!! Go Liverpool :-)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Sorry, I'm confused ... ... When you ask "now in lehmans terms", are you referring to Arsenal's new - albeit very old - GK, Jens Lehmann; or, perhaps, the now defunct - but once MOUs - Wall St powerhouse, Lehman Bros?
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
Keep it coming Fuss, it all helps later.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Oh dear, oh dear Dugald ... there's something really sad about watching you implode like this. You don't happen to support Arsenal, too, do you? I only ask, because Arsenal also seems to implode badly around April each year! I particularly like your comment in which you describe: "other members of our football community, many of whom were around this sport before your (i.e. referring to my) parents were born.". When one considers that the life expectancy for males & females in Australia is 79 and 84 years respectively, the facts suggest there aren't too many people living in Australia who were "around football in Australia before my parents were born".
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
Yes, Fuss, we're well aware of the narrative you and your mate's you're angling for:- - Without your active support Victory would be a basket case. - Without your psychotic anti-AFL ramblings the A-League would have died. - Without you and your mates alienating legions of genuine football supporters by labeling them "anti-sokkah" for not sharing your pathological hatred of the AFL ....? All bow to Fussball to whom football owes all; the good, the bad and especially the ugly. There is another very different narrative around football that you and your multi mates have worked overtime to suppress and to this point have largely suppressed with your duplicitous nonsense about the football culture -- of all people! -- not understanding "football culture". Your clandestine extremism has inflicted more than enough damage on our football community. Your two-faced forked-tongue football zealotry does not give you the right to insult and abuse other members of our football community, many of whom were around this sport before your parents were born. Your duplicitous games are soon to be revealed -- as will the abject lack of good faith your crew have shown in negotiations with our football community. The full gamut of your manipulations will be exposed. That's right, Fuss, someone else has decided "we won't put up with this rubbish any more". Our football community -- OUR football community , not your collection of troublemaking nutters - has had enough of your cynical and destructive manipulations. http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/vic/VSC/2009/123.html
BSG
Guest
And now in lehmans terms
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Well, football fans must be doing something right. Check out this story in today's Brisbane Courier Mail ... http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/brisbane-roar-a-league-grand-final-victory-only-for-those-who-stayed-till-the-death/story-e6frerf6-1226040153489 Who would ever think that the normally anti-Football, News Ltd tabloid would ever run with such a powerful, feel-good, positive Football story ... and, remember, this is the OFF-SEASON for the A-League. Slowly, parts of the media are changing their antiquated attitudes to Football in Australia and, in my opinion, it has a lot to do with Football fans having the attitude: "we won't put up with rubbish any more".
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I like to think of it as "quality control" and is only possible when an organisation is totally confident that its product or brand appeal will always be strong and demand will always exceed supply. For such a scenario to eventuate you need a product that people desperately want - it could be a luxury product that bestows exclusivity; or, the most basic product that people cannot live without. And, I submit that the true football fan simply cannot live without "the Beautiful Game" - it's why we get up routinely at odd hours of the morning to watch matches on the other side of this planet. Of course, if a product is sub-standard, then you have to obsequiously pander to the needs of the customer and gimmicks, PR and enticements are required to encourage customers to continue buying the product.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Dugald Massey asks: How’s it going? We winning yet? Well, we no longer have the media openly saying football is a game for "sheilas, wogs and poofters", so ... yeah, we're certainly winning on that front. It's the off-season for the A-league yet, each Saturday morning in the Sports Section of the Age, there has been a 2-page spread totally devoted to football ... so yeah, we're making in-roads there, too. A huge percentage of people, from outside the football family, watch the National Football team and want to talk about football - this did not happen in the late 70-early 2000s .. so yes, we've made massive changes there. So, yeah ... I reckon we're winning more battles than the non-football mob.
dasilva
Guest
When the person is only presented with fiction from one side than yes, people won't be able to differentiate. It's nothiing to do with intelligence and more to do with what their current knowledge of the issue. If I don't know anything about soccer/football and never attended an a-league game and I never watch TWG and read 442 etc. The only source of information about the a-league is with news on tv and the newspaper. If I'm only presented with one side, I can at worst choose to believe it or at best, say I don't know, that may be true or it may be a beat up but I can't conclusively say it's right or wrong either way. Still even then, it will be in the back of my head thinking that the A-league could be dangerous as I haven't read any articles or anyone who has dismissed it as wrong to say it isn't. I may be open to the idea that it isn't dangerous because I know that media do beat ups know and then but I can't rule it out because I don't have the facts on the table. These media beat up articles put seeds of doubt and suspicioun in people's mind. People may not be stupid enough to buy it at face value but it's fair to say that people are influence it and it creates legitimate concerns from the community. In any case, I don't normally comment on hatchet job articles by other football media (unless it's actually publish on the Roar as I normally read roar articles anyway) because it's not exactly my idea of fun but if people want to do it then that's find and their choice. No need to mock them for doing that when they have a legitimate reason to do that. Also When have I ever say it was all the anti-soccer media fault I believe that most problems on football today is self inflicted but that doesn't mean that other people pouring salt on our wounds is justified (in fact, I think the whole negative coverage on football started when Soccer Australia rejected a proposal by Kerry Packer to bankroll a new league which was a rather idiotic decision by Soccer australia) Yes, I agree that the soccer community is divided. We are divided by "old soccer" vs "new football" we are divided by Europhiles and a-league supporters and this division is hurting the game more than anything the AFL and the shock jocks in the media can throw at us. However football fans, recognising that the media can harm the game doesn't preclude the possiblity that the same football fan recognising the self-inflicted harm from inside the community as well. You know people can multi-task you know. Yes, some soccer fans can have persecution complex and are too easily offended by criticism. Insteado f arguing the points, people have a tendency to question the motives and are quick to pull out the "agenda" card which I probably never ever used. However I don't believe they are a reflection of soccer fans as a whole. In fact, I'm wholly disappointed by the reaction of the soccer community about AFL response to the world cup bid and I believe that their position is absolutely faultless. However I just see this article and some of the comments here just as bad. Simplistic generalisation about football supporters as a whole and it seems to me, you made some assumptions about me as well.
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
You're in health sciences dasilva so you'll have heard of harm minimisation. Same deal with anti-sokkah stuff as illicit drugs -- you can shoot for complete eradication and watch on as the free market gets you the exact opposite result to the one you were seeking, or you can swallow your pride and do what most minimises the damage. One course of action is morally upstanding and uncompromising, wins a lot of votes, lots of applause from thickheads and is unequivocally a failure that brings a miserable dividend to those very same thickheads. Or you can swallow your pride and behave as if one were of an intelligent species.
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
That's covered in the article dasilva -- if you think everyone else is too dumb to separate fact from fiction, then you will be busier than a fly with a blue backside trying to set the ignorant straight on football culture. How's it going? We winning yet? Moreover, why the keenness to eradicate prejudices against the football community in the non-football community when the football community itself is so bathed in ignorance, bigotries and prejudices about itself? It's laughable, innit? It's all the anti-sokkah media's fault, yet if you take the anti-football media away, what are you left with? You're left with football supporters slagging off at football supporters ... if it ain't club versus club insults, it's HAL supporters slagging off at old soccer for being too violent and too ethnic and generally no good -- as if that was something any of them could have gleaned from anywhere other than that same wicked media. That is, some football supporters are happy buying into media-driven bigotries when they are applied to others but get deeply offended when it's they who are the victims. It doesn't get a lot of sympathy, that kind of selective what-about-me moaning. What about them, mate? Moreover its indicative of an underdeveloped brain that's yet to recognise that one's behaviour now determines how one will live later. We've seen that in glorious living colour in here -- kids trying to trash the landscape because they think it belongs to someone else and they'd like to pwn it. They haven't twigged that they also get to inherit it, and sooner than they think, and everything dumb thing they do and say now will set the culture that they will have to live in -- endure -- later on. We were hoping to bequeath you a Rolls Royce but some teenagers trashed that and all we've got left in the will is this rusted car body in the backyard. Enjoy!
dasilva
Guest
I don't ignore the reality of that I just recognise that there is a catch-22 element that the general public that includes potential future soccer fans will get mislead by it. If you don't respond, people get misinformed It's quite possible that even if no soccer fans ever respond to those articles. That there are enough people of the general public will still read about it to warrant continuation of writing future negative articles (or conspiracy theorist may say there is a vested interest irrespective whether it's popular amongst soccer fans) and you end up just getting unchallenge anti-football articles that misinform the public with no one defending football point of view. When it comes down to it, bad arguments have to be exposed for what they are. I'll tell you most other professions do not take the same passive response to media beat up or media sensationalism and with good reason. As they don't want people to be mislead about it. If the media reports that vaccines are dangerous (which has happened in the past, although fortunately it hasn't happen recently in the mainstream media). Do you really believe doctors will sit by and just let that be unchallenged. You could argue that them challenging gives it more media attention and encourage the media to repeat offend or you can argue that leading it unchallenged misinform the public. If you look at the holocaust denial. There are two schools of thought as well, one school who just ignores it as it feels it gives them legitimatcy and the other school that challenges them and make sure their claims are rubbish to ensure that people don't get influence by them Who is right? I don't know, perhaps their both right and both wrong. I recognised the dilemma in the methods in how to handle outlandish claims made by people and it's not a black or white issue.
BSG
Guest
Soccer is the only sport in this country that tells its own supporters to piss off we dont want you to support our game, ridiculous
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
... and you ignore the reality that responses to negative articles - no matter how sensible, polite and non-confrontational the responses -- beget more negative articles. We all know that -- know, not surmise -- but some folks prefer to feign ignorance -- it's called believing what you want to believe and there's a bit of it about -- because then they don't feel feel so guilty about not changing their own behaviour. That is, it saves jerks feeling like jerks just because they're behaving like a jerk.