babytiger2001
14 Apr 2004, 09:01 AM
On my day off from work, I spent the afternoon in Melbourne today, where I saw something very humanly disturbing: the overkill coverage of the David Beckham sex scandal across Australia.
And across the UK press, I assume, as well.
But has it hit the American press yet to the point of ad infinitum yet? In a strange way, I am curious about that.
For the somewhat uninformed, here’s a Cliff’s Notes version of the highly superficial and sensationalistic piece of news: The marriage of David Beckham and the former Victoria Adams, alias “Posh Spice”, has been rocked by the hints that Mr. Beckham has been sleeping around with his former personal assistant. And since then, another mystery woman from Perth, in Western Australia, has come forward, saying that she had an alleged relationship with the current Real Madrid ace for the better part of two years, via SMS messages on their mobile phones.
And no doubt there might be another bimbo or two who will come out of the woodwork with the same claims, all in the name of the inevitable dash for cash.
In one way, I blame the industry that I have referred to as my proud calling over the last 14 years for exacerbating this story: the news media, and especially that of the print variety.
Some of you may know that I work as a sportswriter and journalist-at-large for the Ballarat Courier here in Australia. The Courier is basically a smaller paper in country Victoria, and I have referred to it as “the most reputable paper in the state of Victoria” -- mostly because we don’t have to succumb to the same type of tabloidy type of content that the papers in Melbourne, specifically in the News Ltd and Fairfax chains, happen to run just to sell papers.
Most of my work there comes as a sub-editor, and last night, I was aghast when I found out that we were going to run a full-page spread on the Beckham scandal. My initial reaction was, in a nutshell, “We are giving this non-story way, way, way too much credit.”
Yet lo and behold, on my trip to Melbourne today, on every street corner I went, was a constant reminder about the Beckham scandal. Of course, I expected the main Melbourne papers, the Herald Sun and The Age, to splash that type of content all over their front pages -- and then at any of the various newsstands around the city, there it was, all over publications such as MX, the Herald Sun’s sister afternoon publication, as well as the supermarket tabloid-style magazines such as NW, New Idea, and Woman’s Day, all publications whose front-page sensationalism makes The National Enquirer seem tame by comparison.
And undoubtedly, the tabloid-TV “fake news” programs here such as A Current Affair and Today/Tonight will follow suit, if they haven’t already.
I won’t mince words here -- I am sick and tired of hearing about David Beckham. Absolutely sick and tired of it. And I’m referring to David Beckham the pop-culture icon, and not so much David Beckham the soccer player. Beckham, while he seems to me like an overrated soccer player to some great degree, is ubiquitous around here, and spread all over the mass media to the point where his pop-icon status not only come close to exceeding anything like Elvis-type proportions, but has done so in eclipsing his exploits on any soccer pitch.
Regardless of what silverware he’s helped his former club Manchester United win, no wonder Sir Alex Ferguson appeared to be in a great hurry to get him out of Old Trafford at the end of last season.
However, seeing that he is the England captain, and if what he has done off the pitch is indeed true, then he is scum. Scum for betraying poor Victoria and their children, and to put it lightly, it sets a very bad example for someone in his leadership position in representing his country. Yet, with regard to the news coverage, this seems to be somewhat lost in the equation.
But that’s just part and parcel of the type of news coverage that we’ve become accustomed to in this day and age where the lowest common denominator keeps getting lower and lower.
And it’s incidents such as these that makes me a bit embarrassed to call myself a journalist.
And across the UK press, I assume, as well.
But has it hit the American press yet to the point of ad infinitum yet? In a strange way, I am curious about that.
For the somewhat uninformed, here’s a Cliff’s Notes version of the highly superficial and sensationalistic piece of news: The marriage of David Beckham and the former Victoria Adams, alias “Posh Spice”, has been rocked by the hints that Mr. Beckham has been sleeping around with his former personal assistant. And since then, another mystery woman from Perth, in Western Australia, has come forward, saying that she had an alleged relationship with the current Real Madrid ace for the better part of two years, via SMS messages on their mobile phones.
And no doubt there might be another bimbo or two who will come out of the woodwork with the same claims, all in the name of the inevitable dash for cash.
In one way, I blame the industry that I have referred to as my proud calling over the last 14 years for exacerbating this story: the news media, and especially that of the print variety.
Some of you may know that I work as a sportswriter and journalist-at-large for the Ballarat Courier here in Australia. The Courier is basically a smaller paper in country Victoria, and I have referred to it as “the most reputable paper in the state of Victoria” -- mostly because we don’t have to succumb to the same type of tabloidy type of content that the papers in Melbourne, specifically in the News Ltd and Fairfax chains, happen to run just to sell papers.
Most of my work there comes as a sub-editor, and last night, I was aghast when I found out that we were going to run a full-page spread on the Beckham scandal. My initial reaction was, in a nutshell, “We are giving this non-story way, way, way too much credit.”
Yet lo and behold, on my trip to Melbourne today, on every street corner I went, was a constant reminder about the Beckham scandal. Of course, I expected the main Melbourne papers, the Herald Sun and The Age, to splash that type of content all over their front pages -- and then at any of the various newsstands around the city, there it was, all over publications such as MX, the Herald Sun’s sister afternoon publication, as well as the supermarket tabloid-style magazines such as NW, New Idea, and Woman’s Day, all publications whose front-page sensationalism makes The National Enquirer seem tame by comparison.
And undoubtedly, the tabloid-TV “fake news” programs here such as A Current Affair and Today/Tonight will follow suit, if they haven’t already.
I won’t mince words here -- I am sick and tired of hearing about David Beckham. Absolutely sick and tired of it. And I’m referring to David Beckham the pop-culture icon, and not so much David Beckham the soccer player. Beckham, while he seems to me like an overrated soccer player to some great degree, is ubiquitous around here, and spread all over the mass media to the point where his pop-icon status not only come close to exceeding anything like Elvis-type proportions, but has done so in eclipsing his exploits on any soccer pitch.
Regardless of what silverware he’s helped his former club Manchester United win, no wonder Sir Alex Ferguson appeared to be in a great hurry to get him out of Old Trafford at the end of last season.
However, seeing that he is the England captain, and if what he has done off the pitch is indeed true, then he is scum. Scum for betraying poor Victoria and their children, and to put it lightly, it sets a very bad example for someone in his leadership position in representing his country. Yet, with regard to the news coverage, this seems to be somewhat lost in the equation.
But that’s just part and parcel of the type of news coverage that we’ve become accustomed to in this day and age where the lowest common denominator keeps getting lower and lower.
And it’s incidents such as these that makes me a bit embarrassed to call myself a journalist.