Online reporting of football is rubbish | Vital Football

Online reporting of football is rubbish

Mengee

Mengee

Vital Newbie
Every time I see a headline that includes phrases like: "I understand...", "From what I'm told...", "Information I have...", I know the journalist (journalist? not likely!) is making stuff up. It is infuriating and of no value to fans.

I only trawl for reporting on Spurs and much of the online reporting is just crap. Fantasy, made up stories of "maybe", "possible", "likely" - all designed to suck in the reader and leave us with nothing that is remotely based on fact. No real story, all fabrication and supposition dressed up as inside knowledge.

Sorry All, I know this is a vent, but some of these football portals need to be called our for this unethical, cheap, dishonest journalism.
 
Mengee said:
Every time I see a headline that includes phrases like: "I understand...", "From what I'm told...", "Information I have...", I know the journalist (journalist? not likely!) is making stuff up. It is infuriating and of no value to fans.

I only trawl for reporting on Spurs and much of the online reporting is just crap. Fantasy, made up stories of "maybe", "possible", "likely" - all designed to suck in the reader and leave us with nothing that is remotely based on fact. No real story, all fabrication and supposition dressed up as inside knowledge.

Sorry All, I know this is a vent, but some of these football portals need to be called our for this unethical, cheap, dishonest journalism.
Click to expand...
You just have to learn to filter what you read, there is a lot of trash out there but you can find some fairly decent information amongst the crap.
 
TQ2Spurs said:
You just have to learn to filter what you read, there is a lot of trash out there but you can find some fairly decent information amongst the crap.
Click to expand...
To be perfectly honest here TQ, filtering what you read, is one of the hardest bloody things you can do lol! for me its smile, "yeah ok!" leave it at that, and wait until I read or hear "Spurs have" simple really.
 
As some on here know, I have 2 mates who work for different media outlets and just so happen to work in football journalism. It's a really aggressive industry and a lot of people are fighting for their futures in a world where people need to know everything, yesterday.

We've had many-a-night sat chatting about the industry and all the real journo's hate it too. Too ad-driven, online-authors are barely qualified and do very little real-world interaction and the relentless competition to be the first to get the scoop is SO bad, people abandon all integrity in exchange for being the first.

All I will say is, there are still a lot of people working within this industry who take it very seriously and want to do the job right. Ultimately, like most things in the world now, it's money and power that ruins it.

And another thing to mention is the influence from within the footballing world. Agents and clubs are the absolute worst for putting a story into the ears of a journalist with the aim of controlling a narrative, despite it not being true. Even some of the best and most respected journalist have been roped in, and some might even know what they are being told is bollocks, but staying in the good books with a very influential source is sometimes the only choice they have.

Plus, even the most truest of true stories can become false with 24hours within football, because football can be just that fickle and turbulent, so a journalist can end up getting a bit of flack from fans when actually they were telling the truth at the time.
 
Matic said:
As some on here know, I have 2 mates who work for different media outlets and just so happen to work in football journalism. It's a really aggressive industry and a lot of people are fighting for their futures in a world where people need to know everything, yesterday.

We've had many-a-night sat chatting about the industry and all the real journo's hate it too. Too ad-driven, online-authors are barely qualified and do very little real-world interaction and the relentless competition to be the first to get the scoop is SO bad, people abandon all integrity in exchange for being the first.

All I will say is, there are still a lot of people working within this industry who take it very seriously and want to do the job right. Ultimately, like most things in the world now, it's money and power that ruins it.

And another thing to mention is the influence from within the footballing world. Agents and clubs are the absolute worst for putting a story into the ears of a journalist with the aim of controlling a narrative, despite it not being true. Even some of the best and most respected journalist have been roped in, and some might even know what they are being told is bollocks, but staying in the good books with a very influential source is sometimes the only choice they have.

Plus, even the most truest of true stories can become false with 24hours within football, because football can be just that fickle and turbulent, so a journalist can end up getting a bit of flack from fans when actually they were telling the truth at the time.
Click to expand...


What's the most annoying is something written based on something someone else has written.
 
80deg16minW said:
What's the most annoying is something written based on something someone else has written.
Click to expand...

Totally, that truly is lazy journalism but why waste hours on work when you can just paraphrase another article and possibly get more hits if you get it out into the world asap.

It is very easy to tell who the real journalists are these days compared to a desk-jockey who is paid by hit. Fans even give the real ones a hell of a lot of abuse, despite them actually having genuinely decent sources within football. It always comes back to give certainty to a somewhat unpredictable landscape.

A good comparison between styles is Fabrizio Romano vs Ali Gold. Obviously Ali is mostly a Spurs journo and Fabrizio casts a wider net, but Ali is very restrained with his reporting. He says himself that he doesn't like to run with a story unless he has multiple sources that line up. Fabrizio has no filter. He gets the story and puts it out in the world as soon as possible, and has built a reputation as the 'Here we go!' guy. It doesn't means the information he is getting from sources isn't correct, but he is way more willing to run with a rumour whether it ends up knocking his reputation.
 
Matic said:
Totally, that truly is lazy journalism but why waste hours on work when you can just paraphrase another article and possibly get more hits if you get it out into the world asap.

It is very easy to tell who the real journalists are these days compared to a desk-jockey who is paid by hit. Fans even give the real ones a hell of a lot of abuse, despite them actually having genuinely decent sources within football. It always comes back to give certainty to a somewhat unpredictable landscape.

A good comparison between styles is Fabrizio Romano vs Ali Gold. Obviously Ali is mostly a Spurs journo and Fabrizio casts a wider net, but Ali is very restrained with his reporting. He says himself that he doesn't like to run with a story unless he has multiple sources that line up. Fabrizio has no filter. He gets the story and puts it out in the world as soon as possible, and has built a reputation as the 'Here we go!' guy. It doesn't means the information he is getting from sources isn't correct, but he is way more willing to run with a rumour whether it ends up knocking his reputation.
Click to expand...

Yep, which is why we should vote with our feet and just ignore Romano until he goes away. My only advice to Ali Gold would be to stop taking 5 mins to say what can be said in 1 min. He lets himself down all the time with this.
 
muttley said:
Yep, which is why we should vote with our feet and just ignore Romano until he goes away. My only advice to Ali Gold would be to stop taking 5 mins to say what can be said in 1 min. He lets himself down all the time with this.
Click to expand...
Surely it's more like an hour Mutts! lol

Romano drives me nuts, he talks as if he is the authoritative voice on all things transfer related but much of it is just BS which he has probably imagined in his own mind. Can't believe so many people apparently idolise him.
 
muttley said:
Yep, which is why we should vote with our feet and just ignore Romano until he goes away. My only advice to Ali Gold would be to stop taking 5 mins to say what can be said in 1 min. He lets himself down all the time with this.
Click to expand...

Aw I don't mind that about him. He's not a public speaker so he can't be knocked for doing those vids. He is a massive Spurs fanboy though. I've only met him once and spoken to him a few times online, but he's a lovely guy who really does care about the job. Rob Guest is the same, but obviously isn't a Spurs fan.

Romano gets flack from A LOT of people, which I think he brings upon himself because he has fallen into being a marketable character and he has gone with it (cos money), but he is actually an incredibly nice guy too. He is wrong, alot, but he does have a fairly decent network of contacts that gets him ahead of a lot of stories. It is quite common within the media to hear 'Romano has got the exclusive on this' because a lot of people see him as the best outlet for transfer news.

Once again, I think people ignore the money that drives this market and how find it easier to call out the journo's when most of the bullshit mind-games and tactics is fed to them from elsewhere. The journo's who value integrity above all else are either unemployed or have given up and turned to writing books.
 
Pompey Yid said:
Thanks lads, some very interesting info there, does do a bit of clearing up, only a bit though lol! thanks again.
Click to expand...

I think the most important thing to consider as a football fan reading football news is that the entire industry is like a storm in a teacup and because of the money and power involved in every aspect within the industry and the sport, 95% of what you read is primarily agenda.

What really blows my mind is it is quite common for journalists to sit on an absolute fact and not ever write about it because they are asked not to.
 
Matic said:
Aw I don't mind that about him. He's not a public speaker so he can't be knocked for doing those vids. He is a massive Spurs fanboy though. I've only met him once and spoken to him a few times online, but he's a lovely guy who really does care about the job. Rob Guest is the same, but obviously isn't a Spurs fan.

Romano gets flack from A LOT of people, which I think he brings upon himself because he has fallen into being a marketable character and he has gone with it (cos money), but he is actually an incredibly nice guy too. He is wrong, alot, but he does have a fairly decent network of contacts that gets him ahead of a lot of stories. It is quite common within the media to hear 'Romano has got the exclusive on this' because a lot of people see him as the best outlet for transfer news.

Once again, I think people ignore the money that drives this market and how find it easier to call out the journo's when most of the bullshit mind-games and tactics is fed to them from elsewhere. The journo's who value integrity above all else are either unemployed or have given up and turned to writing books.
Click to expand...

The Romano thing is as much the Sky Sports thing. They are supporting each others agendas. Dharmesh Sheth seems to be part of it. He mimics the Romano persona and makes out he knows stuff as well.
 
Thanks Matic, these have been really informative posts.

Based largely on what you've written above, I decided this transfer window to just wait and see what materialises (although I still get sucked in - Bastoni etc.). It's hard enough analysing football matches when you have all of the information in front of you without speculating on snippets of unconfirmed data which is largely bullshit and very often deliberately misleading.

It's good to know that there are still good, honest journos out there. I read The Times and I often post parts or all of articles I read on there if I think they're of interest.

There's a couple of very good football journalists on there, one of whom I suspect is a Spurs supporter. I'm inclined to believe what he writes because he reports in good faith and he does appear to do proper background checking before publishing. He may not always get it right but that's usually because the story has changed from the time of writing.

Mind you, without the transfer window, we probably wouldn't have much football to discuss until the new season.
 
There is still plenty of football to watch between now and the new season. Once the Nations League games end it won't be long until the womens euros start and they run almost through to the new season, certainly until pre season matches begin.
 
The other part of this, is the landscape of "information", changes all the time.

Someone who might have a source, may not have that source anymore the next season, or at anytime for that matter. Some execs/coaches/etc have relationships with "Reporters" and will actually use them to get stuff out into the ether. With Fabio, its rumored that DiMarzio is the guy in the know. With Conte, it does appear Romano has some extra-insight, whether that's on purpose or not 🤷‍♂️

The aggregators are fun, but I dont put much stock in what they gather. And it does take a bit of work to track down where, if anywhere, that original nugget came from.

I sometimes hear things that seem interesting, but arent able to be corroborated by anything publicly stated, but I wouldn't go blasting that out without something confirming its veracity.

Big media outlets have been bitten in the ass for this type of stuff recently, so treading more carefully these days. When Darmesh reported the talks between Spurs & Inter for Bastoni, that was a pretty solid bit of info, that many others had for days as well.

This current 'regime' in our front office does seem to be much more adept at using the resources out there to propagate whatever info they want, whether truth or propaganda. Compared to the total info shutdown of the recent past, its a very different landscape & tactic.

Much more fun tho!

.
 
I'll happily admit, I love it all. My mates went into the industry because we all enjoyed discussing rumours as kids, cutting out newspaper clippings and making predictions about who will sign who. I used to want to get into the industry too until I had some personal issues, so I settled to scratch that itch writing pieces for the VS front page back in the day.

It is very easy to get swept up in it all. Sometimes it's depressing, sometimes it's exciting. I absolutely understand why a lot of people deteste the reporting on transfers, but I promise you all that there are people doing the job that do it very well and to keep an eye out for them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.