Hypocrites Of The Press
Sep 20th, 2009 by 'holic
I don’t have a twitter account. Apart from the fact that some kid in Malaysia has already taken my nom de plume, it is not a fad I believe I have time for. I’m told however that the idea behind it is that you you record what you are doing or feeling at a point in time.
Well at this particular instant I am surveying the efforts of her majesty’s press, searching in vain for the pens of the great and good. What I am seeing is a particularly puerile reaction to a minor rebuke they received from Arsene Wenger in yesterday’s press conference.
He had the temerity to react to pointed questions about Eboue’s handball by reminding the assembled hacks, and some very good journalists yet to produce copy, that they sometimes overreact to such situations while ignoring more serious foul play that causes injury. Everybody knew what he meant, and just about everybody knows he was right to castigate.
So what do I wake up to this morning? A string of Eboue is a cheat stories. The Ivorian enjoyed one of his best games for Arsenal yesterday, but some low-lifes have decided he is to be the victim of this weeks irrational witch-hunt.
Isn’t that exactly what the guttersnipes rounded on Arsenal fans for in the corresponding fixture last season?
Oh, and while I am in rant mode, Mark Fleming at the Independent. Whoever bought you a typewriter for your seventh birthday did the world, and your better educated colleagues (which is just about all of them), a great disservice.
34 Responses to “Hypocrites Of The Press”
Quite right ‘holic.
Last year we were ‘the baying, rabid mob’.
Those words apply to a very small section in the lower west stand at the Grove yesterday, in the bearpit known as the press box.
Well said mate.
Well said. How amazing that the man with the typewriter saw past an attacking display which went from the first to last whistle. As a fan of 40 years I am so used to the jealous rantings of the press. However, as you so rightly point out, it seems to be that the Arsenal witch hunt is gathering pace. I have no doubt that soon outside the Emirates we will see gathering throngs of torch waving morons ready to burn Arsene and the stadium to the ground! It is so galling to have to endure every ‘experts’ view of how lack-lustre Arsenal are. According to Phil Thompson there is only a top three anyway! Deep joy to all true Gooners who hopefully at the end of another ‘they’re finished’ season can raise two fingers at the twats in fleet street, the BBC, Sky and Michel (I started the witch hunt) Platini!
Well said…
Not to mention the fact that Scholes for ManU was once carded for trying to punch the ball in the net (think World Club Cup/Super Cup) but of course, hes no cheat. He was merely showing the mark of a winner…
Never ceases to amaze me that the press in England have so little pride in their work! In any other job, even a journalistic one, the truth would be paramount, and being sensationalist and having double-standards would be deemed amateur.
Utterly pathetic.
‘holic, you are right about Fleming. Eboue did go towards the away corner when he celebrated but stopped in front of the supporters club seats not the empty section reserved for away support. I can’t find any mention of this ‘incident’ on any Wigan supporter’s blog.
They really do have it in for us don’t they?
I was really pleased with TR7 yesterday. He’s obviously loving being back on the pitch and showed great energy and invention. It’s a shame that Kirkland was equal to his shot with the last kick of the game. He was the last to leave the field and even threw his shirt into the crowd. I’m really looking forward to seeing him back on his game and fully fit. Add the quality of Nasri, Arshavin, Denilson and Theo to today’s squad and we a have a lot to look forward to.
Good tweet, ‘holic π
I’ll have an Irish Coffee please.
Sorry mate, but to diss Twitter as a fad just shows you up as a common old fogie who believes in the good old days, as every generation does. Twitter is the next step in the information age; an age every bit as impactuous as the agricultural and industrial ones. You really have no idea.
I just want to be abit of a counterpoint to the claims of an Arsenal witchhunt here. While I absolutely see where you’re coming from, it’s a paranoid attitude in general that I often find insufferable when fans claim they’re the subject of relentless press bias. It’s also something that fans of all clubs claim to be a victim of. Arsenal have a lot of admirers in the media.
I agree with this blog today though.
“Sorry mate, but to diss Twitter as a fad just shows you up as a common old fogie who believes in the good old days, as every generation does. Twitter is the next step in the information age; an age every bit as impactuous as the agricultural and industrial ones. You really have no idea.”
I’m quite young. It’s a fad.
You have a very fair point ‘holic, and well-expressed.
Unlike J who, it seems, has to invent a word in order for his post to be impactuous (sic).
J, I should point out there is many a good tune played on an old fiddle π
Fair point there Aus, but as you say I think my point this morning is a valid one. As oldgooner pointed out when a number of Gooners rounded on Eboue last season we were described as a ‘baying, rabid mob’. It is perfectly ok for the assembled scribes to do exactly that though. At least Fleming had his name put to his piece. The twat on the Sun website was presumably one of their day-release chimps who was asked to watch the game while his boss got well and truly lathered in hospitality.
spot on holic, lets forget about the useless press twats and enjoy the win…gin and tonic please barman!
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The one shocking thing about the press is that they didn’t mention it on motd! They actually had some nice stuff to say about how eboue turned things around from last season.
The press is a complete joke in general, particularly these murdock newspapers – but you’ve got to keep complaining, otherwise they’ll never learn.
The English press is a disgrace and I think it is high time we, Arsenal fans learnt to ignore them.
Edaurdo dived and was critized but no one has ever critized Rooney for diving agains Slovenia ( and maybe ARSENAL?).
We know what they are hyprocites.
I have a theory on this… and it’s all Arsene Wenger’s fault!
Many years ago the trusted guardian’s of the Fourth Estate decided on a hierarchy of journalism. At the top of the tree were the Political commentators, then the economists, then the environmentalists, all the way down the tree (or front to back of the paper) until they reached the poor old sports reporter.
Now for years this worked well. A wannabe headline writing superstar began by interviewing people with red noses and frontal lobotomies, you know the sort.. Ferguson, Allardyce, Redknap et al. before moving on to more worthy subjects.
After a few years of writing whatever the reporter had made-up, because most of the red-noses couldn’t remember what they had said and those who could remember couldn’t actually read, the reporter was promoted to fashion, or something of equal seniority.
But then along cam Arsene Wenger, and suddenly the table were turned. Suddenly the reporters became the intellectual pygmies; suddenly they felt inferior… and we all know what inferiority and ignorance breeds… Aggression!
Sorry Arsene… it’s your own fault!
Just because your’e paranoid dose not mean that there not out to get you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Too right, sir!
I think ‘J’ (comment 6) works for twitter… What do you think????
Too right mate! We dont get the crap in Australia as much as England (obviously) but if you did that here you would be without a job pretty quickly. I think the positive Arsenal voices will just have to talk louder in the press.
Yeah J
‘holic’s got a fax machine and everything these days
Don’t forget about ‘holic’s hip new pager and that awesome CRO television.
Great stuff mate.
In reply to Davi above, don’t complain to the press. They’re not interested. Rather, make it as personal as they do. Don’t buy their newspapers. Your quality life will only be positively impacted as will your wallet. They will eventually be out of a job as the print media succumbs to the inevitable commoditisation of news. And lo, the natural balance of things is restored.
Ausgunner,
No press bias against Arsenal ???? Like the nicely balanced Mirror piece today:
“Arsenal fans donβt deserve the privilege of a season ticket to the Big Four, writes Michael Calvin” ….
They’vs had a go at the manager, the players and the board, now it’s the fans turn. As for me I gave up newspapers about ten years ago and I’m as informed about the world, sporting or otherwise as I have always been. Don’t read anything by these talentless scumbags, it only encourages them …
I’ve been watching Arsenal since 1956, thats 53 years in all and Arsenal baiting in the press is nothing new. I remember in the run in to the 1971 double some of the press were quite insulting, one suggested that we shouldn’t be allowed to win the doulbe as we were a bunch of boring cloggers. At the time I thought ‘f**k them’ and I haven’t taken seriously anything that the bastards have written since.
I love this club of ours and if they don’t then just ignore them, as mikeB said in post #15 they’re all intellectual pygmies anyway (well said mate!).
Holic at his best π
This morning on ‘Sunday Supplement’ one of the journalists said: ‘I can’t see where the goals are going to come from for Arsenal this season’, to which the others all agreed.
Hello?! We are the leagues top scorers and we have played a game less than most of the top teams. FFS!!!
That’s too funny — I watched the game on Setanta in Canada and the announcers thought that Eboue’s was the cheapest yellow card ever. The colour guy was still talking about it deep into the second half — about how the referee kept the card in his pocket for several heavy Wigan fouls but thought it necessary to book Eboue.
Then BBC shows that picture of Eboue with his right hand up. One second later you’d see the ball going off his *left* arm but that’s not as entertaining.
Cheers ‘Holic. Your articles are always a pleasure to read. Most of the press seem to be anti- Arsenal and their articles are laced with a general hint of xenophobia.
I make you spot on ‘holic. Before I sign off for the evening to a bbq with the family I’ll say that I’m regularly astounded by how much our UK press celebrates their own ignorance and stupidity (as well as their rampant lover affair with all things Liverpool as very quick and easy example). Minimum requirements for the job…it would appear.
They are not worthy!!
Well said holic. The real problem for the press yesterday is the fact that we comfortably won 4-0 and there was really very little else to report about.
Its the hardest form of flattery in the world, Holic, but that’s what it is — unreasonable, unwavering resentment.
London is the hub of the UK, and Arsenal is the hub of London, no matter how many clubs the city and its environs can support. Arsenal is London’s team — the Queen’s team; Spike Lee’s team, and of many famous and infamous people world wide. It’s not Chelsea, it’s definitely not Spurs.
And no matter how good the teams from up north are, London stirs the drink, and Arsenal stirs London.
Of the Top Four, Arsenal are the only one to have a world-wide following without huge efforts to market it — and that will soon change.
Get used to it — its easier to slag off Arsenal than almost any other club. Liverpool are boring, their manager is an incredible wastrel when it comes to personnel, and in the end they’re not a very interesting story. City is too easy for the cheap shots. United are legitimate contenders, the Red Sox to Arsenal’s Yanks, but beyond them?
Be worried for Eboue. The press will target him now.
I saw the handball yesterday, and my commentator thought it was weak, too. I thought — have I ever seen Eboue go up for a header? He’s still learning to finish on the ground — going airborne is a whole new matter, and one to be enjoyed!
Pint of cider please guv.
Excellent job ‘holic.
Get on Twitter. It’s a good time during games
Clearly im in south africa and havent seen or read any of the media reports that u guys are speaking about… however i do wish to point out that Ebuoe does cheat, quite often and he is rather bad at it!!! without having the UK press clog my brain, I am always disgusted at his cheating antics! he had such a good game yesterday and really did not need to cheat!! no matter what ne1 says, cheating is cheating and its bloody dispicable!
I was disgusted when dudu took his dive, and very disturbed that we scored a handball equaliser in belgium!! When our players do those things, it only serves to put them in the class of man untd players, which we all knw is low…
No Arsenal player should ever cheat, and if he gets overly critisised for doing it then he deserves to get the abuse from any and every1!!
DONT cheat… its not the arsenal way!!!