January 25, 2007
The Mercury Newspaper is Biased
The Mercury newspaper is biased in the extreme. There is no recognisable effort to improve the standard of football (soccer) writing during the off season apart from an obligatory half page on the English Premier League on Monday mornings and a few lines on the A-League and the league table.
Yet the Mercury has, in Walter Pless, a well respected and articulate gentleman of the game. I know for a fact that Walter submits articles during the off season on various facets of the game (local, national & international) but for whatever reason these never appear. Has anyone read anything on the local game from October through to February?? I have no recollection of such an event.
The Mercury is BIASED against football. There is no other way of putting it. I have had numerous clashes with various editors and all I have ever got is this offended sub-editor telling me that “Soccer” doesn’t have the following and support from the Australian public. Well in plain terms, that’s BULLSHIT!!!
55,000 packing into the Telstra Dome to see Melbourne Victory versus Sydney FC, 34000 jammed into Suncorp Stadium to see Sydney FC oppose Queensland Roar is a pretty clear indication that football has very good support. It must be remembered these are CLUB games, not internationals. In many cases the AFL would be thrilled with these crowd numbers. Yet the Mercury’s report on these two matches amounts to a few lines tucked into the corner deep inside the paper. Extremely poor and totally unacceptable.
Walter Pless is at home and has submitted articles over the summer but we have not seen one of them. The poor man must be completely demoralised and frankly, must be questioning why he should even bother. After all who really does care about local & A-League football?
When you hear plans about expanding the A-League, you always hear Tasmania mentioned, not because we are well organised and have the infrastructure in place to submit a bid for inclusion but mere because Tasmania SHOULD have a team in the A-League to make the league a true national competition. Support for this plan cannot be taken seriously when the local tabloid can’t see their way clear to write about the game. It’s as though they are afraid of seeing our game become successful, as if it might detract from Aussie Rules.
There must be an organised letter writing campaign (Letters to the Editor) stemming from this blog to support our game. I want to see off season articles from Walter in our local paper. I want to see reports and opinions on A-League football. I WILL NOT accept the tired old argument that there isn’t the support in Australia.
In addition, I call on ALL clubs and Schools to organise a petition at be freely available to be signed by every attendee at senior, youth & junior fixtures. This should be actively promoted by clubs. It would also be benefitial to have clubs with websites to have an ‘online’ petition available to be signed by readers.
FFT could also take a proactive stance on this matter and have a delegation approach both the editor or sports editor to demand a more equal representation for our game in the Tasmanian Press.
I’d also be interested to hear further comments and suggestions from our readers on how to maximise our efforts in this goal.
Blackjack
I had no sooner finished this article when the following ‘landed on my desk’. A huge vote of thanks to the author and equally thankful to the individual who forwarded it. I have made a few minor changes (stale mail to the correct ’snail’ mail & the inclusion of a few additional names that are seeking football careers interstate).
Blackjack
Comment by Blackjack — January 25, 2007 @ 9:34 am
I think you are right on Blackjack because this is the world game and i think people are afraid of it taking over AFL. i bet you couldnt find a Melbourne Demons AFL CLub supporter in London yet every second person supports English Premeir League and possibly The Championship. I’m going to take a petition to my club, workplace and to my mates as i knwo they all feel the same and send it to Mercury.
Please keep this blog going Blackjack. you are a one of a kind supporter.
P.S. Are you going up to the tournament in Launie on the 10th and 11th of February?
Comment by Player — January 25, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
Thanks Blackjack.Have just sent the emails, good idea the epetition
What tournament is in L’ton?/A’League stuff??
Blackjack..do you know when the calendar for the summer cup is gonna be available?Is the summer cup for Pr.League or Div.1?
Comment by Vivailcalcio — January 26, 2007 @ 9:57 am
great idea the petition.
I Have just sent my email to the
Mercury.
What’s the tournament in L’ton??A-League’s?
When the Summer cup roster will be available?
Comment by Vivailcalcio — January 26, 2007 @ 11:45 am
I like many others have long been disillusioned with Soccer – Football as reported by the freedom of the press “ Hobart Tabloid Mercury” , in fact have had many arguments with ex Manager David Smith and old President John Barker , about we should be doing more to get local coverage increased in the paper .
They like most others did not want to rock the boat, in fact the problem probably started when we stopped advertising weekly matches in the Tabloid.
In fact I think Soccer Tas as it was known, did put together a letter writing campaign and petition a few years back when Walter’s space was reduced further and his articles/ reports were cut to shreds and it worked , with him receiving more space - space that has dwindled in time as AFL gets more and more worried about the growing popularity of the real football.
Around the same time the web page became an outlet for Walter and those keen to read the full story – at various times the articles no longer seem to be posted with the regularity they once were.
However we have to be honest , the Tabloid Mercury is a business , it’s job is to sell papers – fill it with articles – pics that sell papers – photo’s of kids playing sport are a great seller why do you think it is a double page spread on a quiet weekday.
Stories of Harnwell slugging Webster in an A League game or Muscat – dropping Kosmina – will always make Tabloid Mercury – not only is it sensationalism – it shows the side of Football the tabloid has continued to push at Hobart people – go back and think when soccer ever made front or back page — violence – sensational issues or those that were so big they couldn’t hide well inside the cover, ie Australia qualifying for world cup and then the world cup campaign – everybody was interested the whole nation wanted to be part of the new football revolution.
Obviously President Steve Gaspinatos and CEO Martin Shaw – by promoting the article by Jon Price , that you Blackjack have included in your comments section , have shown by this action that they are willing to take on the tabloid – and one would presume push the arguments presented by Jon Price when meeting with Paul Malarski – the Sports Editor .
I only hope that this doesn’t bring more grief to Walter Pless , he has been for many years a crusader for clubs and the game in Tassie – he has not been frightened to question the actions of the Directors and or management – so much so that last year for a period of time his articles / reports were not published on the Company web page , nor has he been afraid to put the sword to the actions of clubs whose actions have left a lot to be desired. .
Has anybody of authority spoken to Walter ?? maybe he can advise what is the best direction to take ?
Blackjack is it possible to conduct an email interview ( recognising you desire to remain anon ) with Walter on his thoughts for the Blog , he has contributed in the past .
Having said all of the above I shall along with I hope all the rest of you write to the Tabloid with my John Citizen letter and await in hope of reading with anticipation reports and articles written by the cream of football writers Australia wide.
For those of you looking for a non Tabloid article written by Walter – do a search on google you are bound to find a number of articles
Comment by Sent Off — January 26, 2007 @ 12:40 pm
Hi
This is the reply to my letter to the editor…
I am baffled by your letter. Let W Pless do his job. Walter has
not written a story for this paper for the best part of four weeks.
This is summer. There is no soccer on.
Paul Malarski
Sports editor
________________________________
From:
Sent: Friday, 26 January 2007 8:01 PM
To: Mercury, sport; Mercury, news
Subject: More Coverage for Soccer
Dear Sports Editor,
I write this letter to express concern about the lack of
soccer/football coverage in the Mercury.
As you are aware the level of popularity of the game in Tasmania has
increased immensly over the last few years but The Mercury looks like
hasn’t realized it yet.
Please give soccer/football the coverage it deserves, let W.Pless do his
job!
Yours sincerely,
Comment by Vivailcalcio — January 27, 2007 @ 4:55 pm
Blackjack, why dont you put up a post on here where walter can forward or even place his articles that arent getting acknowleged at the mercury, so we can all enjoy the read??
Just a thought.
Comment by Borat — January 29, 2007 @ 11:21 pm
Is paul malarski any relation to the olympic player ben malarski?
Comment by Borat — January 30, 2007 @ 4:28 pm
Paul is Ben’s Farja
Comment by Austin Powers — January 30, 2007 @ 11:43 pm
It’s nice to see the Mercury sports editor, Paul Malarski, has deemed it appropriate to publish a few words on the noble round ball game in this mornings edition (3.2.07). It’s just damn shame that we have to resort to letter writing and e-mails before The Mercury will agree to just being fair and giving football the coverage it deserves. Afterall it is ‘The World Game’
We even got a few words from our friend Walter Pless. Way to go Walter!!
Comment by Roundball Specialist — February 3, 2007 @ 11:28 am
The following article is from:
http://www.footballnews.com.au/article.php?id=685
Channel Ten slams Adelaide Advertiser
Tue 30th Jan, 2007
Adelaide television station Channel Ten has slammed the Adelaide Advertiser for its biased reporting of crowd problems at the major semi final between Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory on the weekend.
The Advertiser ran a front page headline claiming there were clashes between both sets of fans and also police. Channel Ten has hit back at the Advertiser setting the record straight.
“The crowd behaviour from both Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United fans was terrific.” Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick told Channel Ten.
“It was a great spectacle and an exciting night and one local newspaper focussed on the two fans that were arrested.” he said.
Channel Ten reporter Jodie Blewett added that the match was relatively incident free with a couple flares let off and only five people evicted from the ground. She added that the police were happy with the crowds behaviour.
Adelaide football fans are accustomed to the biased reporting of the Adelaide Advertiser and its agenda of linking football with crowd violence. As pointed out by Adelaide coach John Kosmina, the last time these two sides met there were 27 people evicted at the cricket on the same day but that did not make the front page.
The tactics of the Adelaide Advertiser in covering the story raise some questions on its motives. Why would the Advertiser send two journalists who are keen Aussie Rules followers to cover the match armed with a photographer? It already had its regular football journalists at the match. Could it just be possible that the Advertiser had decided to run the story before the game had kicked off?
So it seems like we’re not the only Australian capital city that has newspaper problems. Do our media moguls have an agenda?? Or is it just the twits who have been put in charge of individual newspapers?
Comment by Blackjack — February 5, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
Well maybe we start our own exposure with a black and white A4 4-8 page newsletter that football fed could start up with it new moneys or maybe just ask each club for 50 bucks to print this thing fortnightly. I’m sure if it was full of all the senior game results, player profiles etc people would want to read it. then charge 50c on the gate for it and put it in clubs and they could charge or give it away so younger and old people can follow whats happening in depth, but still keep with a tiny bit in the mercury. football Tas could even offer walter to take the photo’s and do the wirte up’s as another job for him, and still put his little peices in the mercury when they let him.
Comment by Mr Football — February 11, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
IF paul is Ben’s father i wonder if he ever watches his son play our game at all and realise’s there is people out there who will still read his paper if Football(soccer) is in it more often….? It’s not just players who want to read about games and results, it’s also, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfreinds, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters etc etc. you get the point.
Comment by Mr Football — February 11, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Does any one remember the Soccer Tas publication GOAL.
Failed for lack of input by members. The ultimate fate of any Tasmanian “football” hardcopy publication.
Comment by Brian — February 11, 2007 @ 3:39 pm