Emotion need not apply
Credit:
Tom Bowles is unlikely to be a name that will register to any great extent with many readers. He had racked up 100 columns for Sports Illustrated when his career was temporally derailed on February 23rd. His crime? The fact that Tom, in the view of his superiors, had committed what is judged to be a cardinal sin in American press boxes – expressing sport induced emotion. Bowles was a freelance writer covering this year’s Daytona 500, the climax of which would make for an ideal pitch in a script meeting should a sequel for Days Of Thunder ever be under consideration.
On the final bend, after 200 laps, 20-year-old Trevor Baynes held off the challenge of Carl Edwards to win and in the process became the youngest ever victor of the sport’s most prestigious race and also the first driver since its inaugural staging in 1959 to win it in their first attempt. Bowles joined the 150,000 fans in attendance by rising to his feet to cheer the achievement and thus began the process that would cost him his job. The incident has received widespread coverage in the States launching debates on radio and television talk shows about impartiality and integrity within sports journalism. Rather than report the story Bowles became the story despite, and here lies the key issue, his coverage of the race showing no bias in favour of the winner or against those who had been seen off.
The matter became a topic of discussion last Friday at Richmond Park as Bray Wanderers came from 2-0 with just twenty minutes to play to beat St Patrick’s Athletic. As Joe Kendrick’s deflected free kick went in it would have been near on impossible to sit there stoically. Not because of any inherent desire to see Bray win or Pat’s beaten more so because of the great drama fuelled journey that the game had taken us on. Bray suffering the sucker punch of conceding an own goal, playing on with vigour only to concede a second from a set piece before conquering the mountain that Pat’s had placed before them. An absorbing, entertaining, dramatic and debate generating game.
I doubt there is an individual working within sport journalism who can’t trace their career path back to a time when they were first exposed to their chosen discipline, developed a love and interest in it before deciding to use whatever knowledge they had built up to establish a career as a scribe or broadcaster. Of course there is no place for journalism through which the author or broadcaster uses their platform to promote their own agenda or allow their allegiances to shape their work but equally they shouldn’t be criticised or made to suffer overly for the occasional lapse into the world created through the magic of a sporting moment.
I’m not for one minute suggesting that journalism students in the country’s institutions rush out to channel the spirit of Bjørge Lillelien the famous, or should that read infamous, Norwegian football commentator who evoked the memory of Lord Beaverbrook, Winston Churchill and a litany of other English figures when telling Maggie Thatcher that her “boys took one hell of a beating” after Norway saw off Ron Greenwood’s side in 1981. Lillelien also offered another example of how those involved in sports media might approach their craft. After he passed away a colleague remembered his strong assertion that "We shouldn't necessarily make a boring radio program even if it is a boring football match. We should make a sports show that excites people". If that is achieved surely one is just reflecting the essence of what sport is - where is the crime in that?
On the final bend, after 200 laps, 20-year-old Trevor Baynes held off the challenge of Carl Edwards to win and in the process became the youngest ever victor of the sport’s most prestigious race and also the first driver since its inaugural staging in 1959 to win it in their first attempt. Bowles joined the 150,000 fans in attendance by rising to his feet to cheer the achievement and thus began the process that would cost him his job. The incident has received widespread coverage in the States launching debates on radio and television talk shows about impartiality and integrity within sports journalism. Rather than report the story Bowles became the story despite, and here lies the key issue, his coverage of the race showing no bias in favour of the winner or against those who had been seen off.
The matter became a topic of discussion last Friday at Richmond Park as Bray Wanderers came from 2-0 with just twenty minutes to play to beat St Patrick’s Athletic. As Joe Kendrick’s deflected free kick went in it would have been near on impossible to sit there stoically. Not because of any inherent desire to see Bray win or Pat’s beaten more so because of the great drama fuelled journey that the game had taken us on. Bray suffering the sucker punch of conceding an own goal, playing on with vigour only to concede a second from a set piece before conquering the mountain that Pat’s had placed before them. An absorbing, entertaining, dramatic and debate generating game.
I doubt there is an individual working within sport journalism who can’t trace their career path back to a time when they were first exposed to their chosen discipline, developed a love and interest in it before deciding to use whatever knowledge they had built up to establish a career as a scribe or broadcaster. Of course there is no place for journalism through which the author or broadcaster uses their platform to promote their own agenda or allow their allegiances to shape their work but equally they shouldn’t be criticised or made to suffer overly for the occasional lapse into the world created through the magic of a sporting moment.
I’m not for one minute suggesting that journalism students in the country’s institutions rush out to channel the spirit of Bjørge Lillelien the famous, or should that read infamous, Norwegian football commentator who evoked the memory of Lord Beaverbrook, Winston Churchill and a litany of other English figures when telling Maggie Thatcher that her “boys took one hell of a beating” after Norway saw off Ron Greenwood’s side in 1981. Lillelien also offered another example of how those involved in sports media might approach their craft. After he passed away a colleague remembered his strong assertion that "We shouldn't necessarily make a boring radio program even if it is a boring football match. We should make a sports show that excites people". If that is achieved surely one is just reflecting the essence of what sport is - where is the crime in that?
