Limited Things to Say

One of Jason Koo's banners. (www.smh.com.au)

Every week there are an increasing number of conspiracy theory articles claiming that News Limited is now in the business of censorship. It is unfortunate though that these articles seem to be of the crazed fan type - where journalists go out to games in search of the craziest, most devoted fan they can in an attempt to find a story.

This is what seems to have been undertaken by Brad Walter of the Sydney Morning Herald who has written a story about a fan's anger at AAMI Stadium staff who allegedly asked him to take down his supporter signs because they provided anti-News Ltd sentiments.

You can read this thrilling piece of news here.

This particular article provides the reader with what seems to be only one (very opinionated) side of a dispute.

The article begins by making reference to the election, claiming that the free speech our democracy strives for is being taken away from football fans by media conglomerates. However, the article goes on to only offer the view of the crazed fan who believes he is being censored due to his wayward opinion

Only in the final paragraph are we offered any sentiments from the opposing side – a legitimate excuse is made being that the man’s signs were blocking advertising - which we can even see in the provided picture.

To sum it all up, the sensationalist nature of the man's remarks perhaps blinds the reader to the fact that this article has very little factual basis and is merely an over the top, one sided opinion piece.

Role Models or Roll Models?

Ben Cousins (Image Courtesy of The Age)

Ah, yet another Ben Cousins scandal. It's as if Journalists need as much of a fix as he seemingly did in his drug taking 'glory' days.

Now, there making a documentary!

Will Brodie of The Age Newspaper in Melbourne writes about how the Richmond Tigers (the AFL bad boy's current employer) are still backing his playing skills, despite the emergence of this rather controversial documentary to be released during Grand Final Week.

Read his article here

The most interesting part of this article is the attached video, which previews some rather risque sections of Cousin's documentary - mainly scenes with him high as a kite, participating in his favourite hobby of being half naked. Whilst the scenes are interesting, they do not actually give further insight into the character of Ben Cousins, simply being sensationalistic in nature.

The article itself is well written and straight to the point, or rather points. The first angle the writer takes is whether the documentary will affect Cousin's career - as would have been already discussed as the documentary was 'voluntary' in nature. The second angle is the more well-circulated issue of the AFL's drug testing effectiveness. Of course, bringing up this issue in relation to any news on Ben Cousins is hardly news at all. So why do we care?

Probably because, lets face it, Ben Cousins is a hot, football playing bad ass who wants to teach children by documenting his bad lifestyle choices.

Awwww

Let The Fans Have Their Say!

The Sydney Morning Herald website posted an article a week ago concerning the editing of fan posts on the Melbourne Storm Rugby League fansite, which is subsequently owned by News Limited.

You can view the article here.

This article is a very interesting hard news story that mixes the current Melbourne Storm Salary cap scandal (If you've been living under a rock and have no idea what i'm talking about click here) and the more ongoing and eternal issue of Free Speech.

The article is obviously well written, answering the who/what/when/where/why questions within the first two sentences and playing on the news values of currency, prominence and timeliness.

But what makes this article worthy of reading all the way to the end is the way in which the writer is able to make contradictory accusations while playing on issues already on the public mind. Basically, News Limited is the media company that owns the Melbourne Storm Rugby Club and were then instrumental in bringing the club into disrepute over it's salary cap scandal. Of course, it was big news and it is the duty of the media company to keep the public informed therefore there was nothing they could do except cover the issue as best as possible.

What the public has issues with is the fact a media company has a large vested and financial interest in an areas (Rugby League) where they are meant to be impartial.

More importantly, the writer reveals that the head of the News Limited Corporation, John Hartigan, has always been an avid supporter of Free Speech, thus the idea that his own corporation is censoring fan posts on a website he owns is a heavy idea indeed and one that is thoroughly newsworthy.

However, the accusation that the reason behind the censorship of some posts is due to their defamatory nature towards News Limited seems a little far fetched with the company's communications manager revealing that it was in fact due to the use of foul language.

We may never truly know - and thats what makes this piece of sports journalism remarkably interesting.

(Image Courtesy of SkySports.com)