words of wisdom
January 12th 2007 08:09
i had the pleasure of attending the farewell to the ashes dinner last night at the mcg. the guest of honour was past australian cricket captain mark waugh, who was also part of the entertainment, in the form of a live interview between main course and dessert. i now have a different attitude toward sports journalism....
during the interview, which i must add was entertaining and flowed well on mark waughs' behalf, he mentioned something that annoys the hell out me. how often do we see it, when a person/team wins a sporting event, only to have some sport journalist run to the victor and enquire 'how do you feel?'. as if the entire audience, along with the competitor and journalist, doesn't know how they feel. 'yeah mate i feel pretty low at the moment, and can't wait for all of these people to stop clapping'.
on the reverse side, the response is always virtually the same. 'yeah it was pretty tough out there/they played well/good preperation from us/thanks to the fans'. it almost feels as though there is a media coach for these people that have made the sporting god or goddess rehearse this speach with a 'insert other team' and insert city name' here. i guess it takes more than muscle to be a compelling personality.
however, i have to say that the comment of the night, if not for its timing and wit, was by gideon haigh, quoting frank zappa on rock journalism - "it's words said by people who can't talk, written by people that can't write, for people that can't read." indeed! nice one frank.
during the interview, which i must add was entertaining and flowed well on mark waughs' behalf, he mentioned something that annoys the hell out me. how often do we see it, when a person/team wins a sporting event, only to have some sport journalist run to the victor and enquire 'how do you feel?'. as if the entire audience, along with the competitor and journalist, doesn't know how they feel. 'yeah mate i feel pretty low at the moment, and can't wait for all of these people to stop clapping'.
on the reverse side, the response is always virtually the same. 'yeah it was pretty tough out there/they played well/good preperation from us/thanks to the fans'. it almost feels as though there is a media coach for these people that have made the sporting god or goddess rehearse this speach with a 'insert other team' and insert city name' here. i guess it takes more than muscle to be a compelling personality.
however, i have to say that the comment of the night, if not for its timing and wit, was by gideon haigh, quoting frank zappa on rock journalism - "it's words said by people who can't talk, written by people that can't write, for people that can't read." indeed! nice one frank.
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