News tampering
Cricket is only a game! The e-mailer, complaining to us at the Today progamme that the ball tampering row was our lead item, wanted us to be crystal clear about this - as if the exclamation mark wasn't emphasis enough - and demanded we give him, and our other listeners, a break! (Two exclamation marks in one sentence is a surefire shorthand for You're Wrong!).
And this listener wasn't alone. Or, indeed, wrong himself. It IS only a game. But that doesn't mean it can't, just occasionally, qualify as general news too. Some blokes booting a ball into a German net four times 40 years ago was also only a game, but I'm assured it grabbed a few headlines at the time, and rightly so. Running orders don't always have to be solely about events that alter society for decades to come, or retain significance beyond the notoriously stunted news cycle (although Moore & Co did pretty well by that standard too, as it happens).
Sometimes, a news story is a news story - even a headline news story - because it fires passions or generates debate or is just inexplicably interesting. And that's it. The father who threw himself and his children off a balcony in Crete, killing his son and injuring his daughter, is only a bloke. But he's news. As is that Gunter Grass SS-soldier-turned-author chap. It makes us curious, makes us want to find out more, makes us ask questions and try to crawl towards some tentative answers in our humble mission to explain. Oh - and entertain.
In the case of Tampergate - yes, I know it won't catch on, but someone's going to grasp wearily for the cliche, so it may as well be me - there was no shortage of entertaining questions. How do you tamper with a ball? What does a ball do once tampered with? Why doesn't rubbing it against your groin qualify as tampering? In fact why doesn't rubbing it against your groin qualify as illegal?
But, protests another listener, it is not the most important thing that's happened in the last 24 hours. Perhaps not. But then, what was? Another military death in Afghanistan? New selection procedures that could propel more Conservative Party women and ethnic minority candidates into Parliament? Saddam Hussein's genocide trial? Well, yes to all that, which is why they were all lead items today - with Saddam occupying the main 0810 slot.
But cricket was important too. Not life-threatening, not career-enhancing, not nation-building, sure - but just good old-fashioned interesting to a swathe of listeners who wanted to know how, why and whether this was cricket's blackest day ever, whether the Pakistan team had cheated and what would happen as a result. Events were moving in our time - we interviewed a representative from cricket's world governing body, and an umpire from the ECB clarifying the rules - and even Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf was moved to ring his cricket team captain to pick up a few pointers on what was going on.
And isn't that what news should be all about - learning about something new? Something that matters - to him and her if not to you. Finding out something you didn't know before? This was the first Test match in history to be abandoned due to cheating, or at least - according to the umpires - to a reaction to being caught cheating. Why shouldn't we help our audience understand how it had all come about and what its consequences would be? Because, chorus the complainants, it's only a game. "You have ghettos for overpaid men's 'sport' at around 25 past the hour," bellowed one. "Please confine all such items to these slots."
In other words, I don't care, I don't want it and I don't care if other listeners want it. But that's the odd thing about sport - our listeners tend not to take it or leave it so much as love it or hate it. There's very little indifference. To the chuck-it-in-a-ghetto-ers, sports fans tend to be tiresome stattos forever fretting about a pig's bladder or slab of willow or ping pong thing, while many sports fans label the ghetto-ers news snobs who are out of touch with the effort and vigour and heroism that sport provides.
Snob or statto: which are you? And which is right? Luckily, it doesn't matter - both are characterised by opinionated self-confidence. As is news. It's not an art. It's certainly not a science. It's just a judgement about what matters and what interests and what bears further analysis. News, in the end, is really only a game. And, like cricket, what a beautiful maddening game it can be.
Comments
I'm very glad you covered the cricket story. It is important enough to me and plenty of others to rate above a lot of the other detritus of the news day. In fact I was more interested in that than in Saddam and his unsurprising lack of plea (he didn't plead last time either, it was no shock).
So, thanks. And quite right too!
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ have been spot on to cover this story and have done so in a effective manner. At times the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has scant regard for cricket i.e it's treatment for the game in last year's television deal. It would have been a scandel if it had not properly covered this huge story, but the whole of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ from the excellent coverage on TMS to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News 24 to Newsnight have given informative coverage.
Many people do care about cricket, this can been seen by the recent listening figures produced for Test Match Special that showed over 4 million are tuning in for cricket. There are plenty of people in this country that love the sport of cricket, even thou it's probably not enough for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to justify spending money on TV rights.
I believe it was Bill Shankly who uttered sport's most famous words when he opined that "some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that."
Sport does matter. Nations spend vast amounts of their tax-payers money to ensure a creditable medal tally in the Olympics; the football World Cup is the one month every four years that Planet Earth downs tools and sits glued to their new plasma TVs; and without the Rugby World Cup, what would be the point of New Zealand?
TamperGate (pithy) is important because it is likely to ignite more angst and debate over the water-coolers than the Conservative party's selection of women candidates (zzzz..). Incidentally, you tamper with a ball by picking its seam - i guess you have never played the game, Gavin.
Frankly Mr. Shankly you're way off the mark.
Mr. I.T. Botham put it much better,
"We have to try to keep cricket on the front, middle and back pages."
The Editor is right. Absolutely.
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News is a palette of multiple colours. People want NEWS that is, literally, the information about something they din't know before. And it is not always "world-making" issues. It might be a story about one peculiar game.
I didn't have a slightest idea about cricket and what storms may arise on its field until recently. And ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ made it an interesting news for me.
Well done! Don't listen too much to critics. They should go to the political columnists if they are not interested in normal life.
I'm quite surprised there hasn't been a rash of harsh debate in the comments on this one - perhaps they were not approved for being too harsh.
I didn't actually listen to the edition of the Today program in question but as a cricket fan would have been interested to hear a different angle to that of the usual Sports commentators.
As always, to the people who so wehemently complained, why not simply do as I do when I hear or see a program that doesn't interest me - scan the dial and listen to something else for 10 minutes...
I am happy you, among others, have covered the cricket story.
I am not a cricket fan, even though most of my friends here are, yet it is interesting to see the reaction of a nation in such an ocasion. I am Israeli and have some Pakistani friends here, I do believe most of them would agree that any argument should have been carried out after the game was finished. Even though this blog isn't about the justification of the reaction I have to mention that just as we criticise Zidane for his reaction we should do the same in this case. There is a time and a place for everything and the correct channels should be applied.
Just as the football teams and Jesse Owen's four with John Woodruff's black american team of 800m carried on and won in Nazi Germany 1936 olympics with no complaints, against all odds so should have the pakistani team. There is no reason in throwing things and storming off like a group of primery school children that will not bottle a loss.
As for this article I agree a 100 percent that news come from all sorts and the fact that you try and compare cricket test match, when it is clear that pakistan have lost regardless of the outcome of this match, with football's world cup is idiotic in my opinion. Even the world cup in cricket doesn't match the football's world cup. This is why it's called the world cup without the need to mention the word football (it is obvious).
Still your point was just and made.
To all you good people stick to the rules regardless of your activities (sport, politics, art, businesses, etc) and I mean everyone not just whom we like. After all when you're a role model and you don't like a decision made by a ref, or an umpior, and do what you like you might be telling people that if they don't like (i.e) the foreign policy they can do the same... Maybe that's far fetched but it's worth a note.
Well I have to say I agree with the overal comments from the editor.
Personally I dislike cricket, indeed most sports beyond a glance, but I caught the news at the right [or maybe wrong] time and was drawn into it all.
As a result I have used the internet [bbc.co.uk of course] to find out more about cricket, cricketing terms and such like.. probably all forgotten by the end of the year, but I've discovered, learnt facts, stories. I've grown to appreciate that there is more to this game than I thought was within my scope to learn about.
News should be about learning,. not just to see what is happening now !
Like many good things, the interesting bits are on the outer edges of the subject.
Keep it up ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.
All I can say is thank heavens it's the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ that chooses what is termed as 'news' on this site and not those who were complaining! "I'm not interested, so it isn't important" is an awful attitude to have!
In the context of a culture clash and strained relationships between the Muslim and Western worlds this story is about more than sport. I'm surprised this dimension hasn't been explored further in the news coverage.
I'm a big cricket fan but people are being killed around the world, people are starving and to have this as a main news item is daft.
Thats why you have a seprate sports section on your bulletins and a seperate sports section on the website - leave it in the sports section as it is definitely NOT news worthy
It seems to me that given sport's mass appeal, occasions where something of magnitude occur within sport must become headline news in their own right. Hence in this instance the coverage given to 'Tampergate' seems entirely jusitified. If anything more depth on some of the wider questions the whole affair raises in the current environment may have been relevant. For example I am going on holiday at the weekend, will I be able to take a cricket ball in hand luggage?
The real question is whether it would still have been the top news item if it had been Australia or the W Indies or even India at the centre of tampergate.
The suspicion is that ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ editors saw this as a chance to further stir the pot about muslems, specifically people from Pakistan.
"They even cheat at cricket" was the clear editorial message I felt I was receiving and I honestly believe now that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is aping the tabloids and won't see the error of its ways until people are literally being murdered in the street like in Yugoslavia not many years ago.
You're not the Daily Mail or tabloid filth published for profit by pornographers like Desmond or Murdoch;- you really don't have to behave like them
This is the reason why ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ online is so popular.
People get to decide what is important to them - instead of having an editor chose what is important or not.
I personally don't think it should have been the lead item, but geuss what? I didn't know it was until now because I was busy choosing the news I wanted to learn about from ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ online.
So to all those who complained about the cricket leading the news - vote with your feet, you have the technology!
I agree with #10 Stephen Paton, the cricket story is a relatively trivial story in the big scheme of things, and should be left in the Sports section where it belongs.
Hang on - when England beat Pakistan in the previous Test, and so won the series, this didn't even merit a mention in the Sport slot the next day. Instead, the 7:25 sport bulletin covered a tennis match that hadn't happened yet, and a football match that hadn't happened yet. In other words cricket wasn't even "only a game" as far as the editors were concerned on that day. Come on - you can't have it both ways.
Sport should NEVER be a lead news item, and certainly no sport deserves the coverage on the main news that both this fiasco and the world cup have been given. Leave it on the back page for those that are interested, the majority are not!
Eesh. Editorial variation gives the media as a whole richness and texture. If you disagree with Today's news agenda tune to another station, put on the TV, go buy a paper. That's what choice is for. If you sit there expecting one news source to deliver exactly what you want every day of your life then of course you're going to end up disappointed.
Personally I think Today was right - this was a completely unprecedented occurrence at an international event. And yes, Number Twelve, of course it would still have been news had it been Australia.
I'm sure it was five times forty years ago, but as I was only just learning to walk at the time I may be wrong.
What has disappointed me the most is the apparent lack of discussion. Having a view on this either way is great, provided that a discussion is entered into. It seems that the anonymity of the internet means that people are prepared to state their views, rather than discuss them with others.
Personally, I'm not a cricket fan, but I do think that the story was newsworthy based on the fact that so many people wanted to know about it. I think that the news should reflect the issues in which people are interested. I'd be happy hear from anyone who thinks differently, not to bash heads, but to have a discussion - something which so often seems lacking on the internet.
Where has debate gone?
BoredAndCynical
Nice one Gavin for sticking to your guns,( or your bat i supppose). The "ghetto-er guy" is right, it is only a sport. A load of grown men playing a game. Sadly sport has always been intertwined with international politics. Who could forget the Cleese-like " Don't mention the war!" advice before this years world cup? or S.Africa's exclusion from world sport for years because of apartheid? Jesse Owen in Berlin? or the various boycotts of numerous Olyimpics by nations throughout the Games' history?
This incident has been catapulted to that level. Sadly this world is full of folk who will use what has happened to demonstrate racism, islamaphobia or the high level of corruption in a game worth millions of pounds. I do not exaggerate, i have been trawling a few of the sports sites since this all kicked off and they are full of it. Officials from the PCB even reffered to the current global situation when laying out Pakistan's position on it all in their press conference.
I think that what was a sporting molehill has been turned into a political moutain, and that makes it news. Personally i think both the umpire and the team were at fault but like my wife said," They're grown men playing a schoolboy's game - how do you expect them to behave."
Stephen Galbraith #12, you are seeing an "editorial message" which simply wasn't there, and extrapolating a political interpretation that even the most hardened conspiracy theorist would find difficult to swallow.
As it happens, the entire set of "expert opinions" published on the day by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ website favoured Pakistan. Not an opinion I agreed with, and I was suprised to see such unanimity, but hardly evidence of an editorial line against Pakistan, eh?
I heartily agree that this deserved to be the lead story on the site. The incident was about far more than just a sporting match, and can clearly be seen to be a more epochal event than the other matches in the series (no Test Match team has ever lost by forfeit before in the 130 year history of the sport). It involved not only a hugely embittered row, but also cast an interesting glance at the differences between the two parties and the relationship between East and West.
Robert Tedford's assertions that the majority are not interested in sport, and that no sport ever deserves a front page spot are both wholly inaccurate. This can easily be seen due to the amount of money generated and the interest levels around the country for all sports (especially for the demographic likely to be using the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News website), and also by events such as Hillsborough and the South African sporting ban due to Apartheid.
Sport often transcends being 'just a game' and becomes something whole nations get caught up in. To argue otherwise is surely just to bury your head in the sand.
It seems obvious to me that the emergence of the Russian mathematician Grigory Perleman at just the right moment in history as the winner of the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in mathematics and evidently the greatest living authority on spherical objects should be called in to make the final determination as to whether or not the cricket ball was tampered with. I'm sure his decision will be one both sides could live with.
Here when are you all going to get over winning the world cup, what was it, nearly forty years ago, just acept the fact that england is useless at sport at internation level!
Football's only a game as well and not a very good one, to boot !! Yet, the game and even it's exponents get on the front page, the TV and in the way of conversation almost every day from around now until the middle of next May, and possibly beyond !! Let cricket have it's "15 minutes", so that I can carry on moaning about football.
PS I don't like cricket either !!
I find Steven Galbraith's comment above utterly offensive and in poor taste - his reading of a story about breaking the rules of 'just a game' says more about his prejudices than anything else. I have just gone back and reread the story and could find no inferences that any of it was racially motivated. And the references to past rule-breaking by Pakistan were based on fact - just like the references about Mike Atherton's cheating and Darrell Hair's past dodgy judgements.
I fully agree with the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ leading on this story, and I'm sure it was interesting to a large number of readers. Another attack in Iraq, another insurgency, another day of Saddam in court: how many times can the same 'news' remain the lead story before readers start looking elsewhere for interesting content?
Stephen Galbraith - what's the weather like in la-la land?
Inzamam and his team have behaved like sulking schoolchildren (i should know, as i have one - a sulking schoolchild, that is). Javed Miandad (an ex-Pakistani captain) was correct in asserting that Inzamam should have queried Daryll Hair's controversial decision after the game had finished.
As the video evidence subsequently proved, it was only 3 times in the back of the German net in 1966 - not 4.
Perhaps when this ball is finally produced in evidence, we will learn the truth.
Did anyone say anything memorable after Darrell hair knocked the bails off? Such as 'Some of the crowd are on the pitch. They think it's all over....'
Robert Tedford makes a good comment.
The difference in having a sports items as news and having it as a lead item are significant.
I don't really agree in the degree but sports, human interest and water ski-ing dogs all make the pages of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and newspapers. They shouldn't however be front page or be lead items except at the very bottom of the gutter press. I for one expect more from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳.
bordandcynical: your point is well made but the question is not is it newsworthy but is it a lead item.
To all of those who suggest turning on the TV or buying a paper, I suggest turning on the TV or buying a paper. The amount of column inches and airtime given over to sport is already well out of proportion to any significance without making it front page news.
The only papers I buy are ones where the sport section pulls out to be dumped into the nearest bin. I only wish they put "news items" regarding sport celebrities in the same disposable section where it could at least keep someone warm at night.
All I can say is there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that puts reality TV shows and sports as front line news and when more poeple by far vote in reality TV shows than elections and the press has a lot to do with this phenomenum.
I really don't accept that it is as clear cut your child's behaviour as you put it. I am inclined to conclude that both parties are to be blamed for the adverse damage to the of cricket.. I think the empire should have allowed the game to reach its natural conclusion.. The matters of impropriety should have been referred to the governing body for their examination and consideration.
If teams have reservations about the empire then the governing body or the match organisers should be sensitive to that. In this case, the potential for conflict was there before the game started... because of the animosity that existed between the empire and the team. Had the right empire been appointed in the first instance, then the situation which resulted in disagreement/punishment even could have been pre-empted.
Finally, I encourage people to have a balanced view.. on this rather contraversial. subject.
Cricket has degenerated from a game, just like Football, Tennis and many other sports. They are now a product. Consumers consume a product and that generates an income. This is a pity. I personally don't like Cricket or Football, but on a field close to where I live every Sunday there is a kick-about. Ok, so it is Football and not professional, but here it is simply a sport and played as such. The kick-about is not a product!
So the professional associations are arguing that Pakistan has brought the game of Cricket in disrepute? Only because there is a loss of revenue. On the weekend kick-about I've seen some damn good disputes, but at the end everyone are still friends and not a lawyer or contract in sight.
Remove the gold diggers and prospecotrs from all sport and maybe then I might take a keen interest in sport.
Mr Lord (Post #29),
I appreciate the attempt to engage in debate over high-handedness:
"bordandcynical: your point is well made but the question is not is it newsworthy but is it a lead item.
[...]
All I can say is there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that puts reality TV shows and sports as front line news and when more poeple by far vote in reality TV shows than elections and the press has a lot to do with this phenomenum."
Unfortunately, your implication seems to be that it is the responsibility of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to dictate the morality of the country. Perhaps it's also the fault of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ that so few people vote, considering how little coverage they gave to the last election?
BoredAndCynical
A lot of the comments about this defence seem to be that the Today programme was correct to carry the cricket story. The complaint and defence were actually about the cricket story being the lead item, not about whether the item should have been part of the main news as opposed to sports news. I was directed to this defence from Gavin Allen as a result of a similar complaint I made about ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Evening News Sunday 20th August, where the tampering story was also the lead item, ahead of the death of a UK soldier. I am disappointed to be pointed at such a light-hearted defence in response to a serious complaint. "But, protests another listener, it is not the most important thing that's happened in the last 24 hours. Perhaps not. But then, what was? Another military death in Afghanistan?" Yes. You don't have to chuck the cricket item in the ghetto, but it should never be more important that the death of one of our soldiers in a conflict.
I thought it was highly topical.
A middle-aged Australian tourist (Mr Herr) noticed some men of Asian or Middle Eastern Appearance gathered together in a park near the centre of London. Reportedly a number of these men were bearded, and all are believed to have been wearing 'whites', a traditional style of dress associated with the Asian subcontinent. He further noticed that they appeared to be passing a small object between them at random intervals, inspecting it and handling it in a way that this gentleman soon found disturbing. He formed the view that the object (believed to have been a cricket ball) was possibly being tampered with and quite properly voiced his suspicions to the appropriate authorities. The Authorities (Mr Herr himself) then took the appropriate action. Coincidentally a cricket match being played nearby was disturbed by these events and various parties hurriedly made themselves available to offer the gentleman every assistance, including believing everything he said.
That so far there is no evidence to confirm that a crime was actually commmitted is a conclusion only afforded us by the luxury of hindsight. The question remains, and is one well worth asking the general public; what would we have done in this gentleman's place?
In response to your comments which refer to my complaint regarding the positioning of the 'tampering' news item in front of the soldier being killed in Afghanistan, I don't think you have justified your decision at all. I am also a cricket fan, but think that this item is 'sports news' and should be broadcast with other sports news and not take priority over more serious matters which non-sports fans would prefer to hear and see in your main news.
I absolutely agree with Nick Goodall's comments, I also made a formal complaint to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ about this issue and am dismayed to have been directed towards such an arrogant and offensive blog by the Today Deputy Editor.
Like Nick, I complained not about the fact that 'Today' carried the cricket story, but rather about the fact that it led with the story and then contiunued with excessive and obsessive coverage throughout the programme.
(Just for the record, in the previous 24 hours as well as the death in Afghanistan, there was a dreadful head-on train crash in Egypt in which 58 people died, and in Budapest, a terrible freak storm left 3 dead, 250 injured, and the city flooded. And there was probably a lot more besides, but how are we to know with editors such as Gavin to help us?)
Lastly, although 'Today' was almost certainly the worst offender, I should say that my experience was that the tedious obsession with the cricket match continued on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ for the rest of the day: I switched on 'Newsnight' that evening to try to find some real news only to find yet more coverage of cricket balls and umpires. And guess what: Even as I started to write this, 'Any Answers' on Radio 4 was featuring the debate about the cricket match.
It really is time that Gavin Allen and others in the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ developed a proper sense of proportion in the reporting of sport in what purport to be news programmes.
This blog by the Deputy Editor of 'Today' has given me new insight into the minds of those making editorial judgements on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s self-proclaimed flagship news progamme. How difficult it must be for you trying to balance the needs of the snobs and the stattos!
I too complained to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and have been directed here.
For those of you suggesting that I change channels or turn off, certainly. May I then also have the license fee back?
To place a sports story ahead of the death of a human being is both crass and insulting. It insults the victims, their families and listeners/viewers. I am an avid sports fan. I enjoy TMS and MotD and a multitude of other lesser known events. However, sport is sport and life is life. For sake ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ get some perspective or your no better than the rest of commercial radio/TV. Or is that your intention.
My letter of complaint was sent to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ as the cricket ws the lead story over the death of a british soldier and I have been directed to this Blaagh site.
I am not a very keen fan of cricket but watch rugby and football support the England teams in competitions. My hobby is dog showing and we get very little TV coverage and apreciate the fact the the Best in Show (not supreme champion as is stated!) is aired on the news this to the dog fraternity is as good as winning the world cup but nothing and I repeat NOTHING should be put before the death of a soldier doing a job, yes he knew when he signed up it could be dangerous, and fighting for a cause he may not believe in. Our troops are not cannon fodder andshould be treated with respect and honour perhaps it would be a good idea to send those that occupy Westminister instead I certainly wouldn't mourn them.
Gail Simmons
Nick Goodall (24th Aug) hit the nail on the head. I too was directed to the blog site on complaining of the "1st" news item on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 10 o'clock news being that of cricket & the "2nd" news item being the death of a British soldier. Maybe Gavin Allen misinterpreted my complaint - unlike he purports to, I have no objection to the item being on the news but totally disagree that it should be the "main" news item. He does go to great length to justify the cricket being "1st" but then he would anyway..... I'm an avid fan of sport of all kinds & do not have any connections with the army but lets' have some realism - you may agree or disagree with "our boys" being in Iraq but it sure is (in my humble opinion) more important a subject than cricket.