How the AFL controls the media

[Rabbit]

Six years ago, as editor-in-chief of the Herald Sun, I published a front-page story revealing that police were investigating possible drug trafficking at an AFL club. (And, no, it wasn't Essendon.) The response from the league, which likes to manage media more closely than most, was swift and predictable.
First came a phone call from the AFL boss, Andrew Demetriou, to Julian Clarke, then chief executive of the Herald Sun, now head of the entire News Corp operation in Australia, to tell him we had ''beaten up'' the story. Next, despite my assurances to the contrary, talkback radio started fielding concerned callers who wanted to denigrate me and the report. Media Watch contacted me, then The Age. They had both been ''briefed'' by a mysterious third party.
I was so convinced this bizarre campaign was being run out of AFL headquarters that I called to complain. While a senior communications executive denied it, I came away from that episode, and others, believing the league was one of the most controlling organisations in the country.
The Essendon supplements saga convinces me that if a Brownlow Medal were handed out for media management and manipulation, the AFL would win it by a street. Whatever fans, non-fans and Essendon members like me think of the eventual outcome of the AFL-ASADA inquiry - for the record, I believe the sanctions were at the upper level of acceptable - it was an engineering project to rival the Snowy River scheme. And crucial to the outcome were the media used by the AFL to weaken Essendon's defence, limited though it was, and sate a baying public.
Advertisement
Demetriou was at pains last week to deny any leaks out of the AFL. If that truly is the case, he should be mounting a full investigation into how so much of the inquiry's evidence made it into the public arena. So should ASADA. I won't hold my breath, though.
Print, radio, TV and online all played key roles at various stages of the supplements saga. The Age, led by the chief football writer, Caroline Wilson and investigative reporters Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker, had the inside running on the story, disclosing the inner workings of the inquiry and, ultimately, the likely sanctions against Essendon. Rightly or wrongly, many, including Hird's lawyers, put them in the AFL camp.
Certainly, most of the reporting and commentary in the paper reflected badly on Essendon and its coach. Then again, so did their actions. There was a sense the AFL got off very lightly, though.
The Herald Sun, which likes to think it ''owns'' football in Melbourne, ran second on the story, principally because it backed the wrong thoroughbred. It became pretty clear after weeks of pro-AFL leaks to The Age that the Hird-Essendon camp had decided to fight back using Australia's biggest-selling daily. But by then the horse had bolted. Ironically, though, I thought it made for well-rounded coverage. Two of the most significant developments came with emotional and revealing interviews, one paid and highly promoted - the Bombers' former high-performance boss, Dean Robinson - the other unexpected and defining - the mother who decried Hird and the club supplements program in an emotional outburst on Eddie McGuire's radio program.
I am surprised greater efforts were not made to track down the unidentified woman; indeed, it's a story still waiting to be done. I'd like a name and a face put to the voice.
The Robinson interview was similarly damaging for Hird and Essendon. After airing on Seven, the AFL's broadcast partner, a panel of experts endlessly picked over the detail and ramifications, while the league's own website very helpfully published a transcript the next day, tweeting a link just in case football followers missed it. I am pretty sure they would not have done any of that had Robinson's interview shored up Hird's defence or, say, contained criticism of the AFL.
Were the football media manipulated? In some cases, yes. Did they rush to judgment? Some did, yes. And did they spend enough time evaluating material before publishing? No - in this era of virtually continuous reporting, sadly that happens less and less.
Besides, the online clicks were enormous. Were there too few dissenting voices? Absolutely. I would have liked at least one considered piece in the mainstream media that examined the AFL's tactics and agenda, and the so-called ''tipoff'' story was allowed to die too quickly. A kind of group-think prevailed throughout, which ultimately failed followers of the saga and the simple journalistic test of presenting both sides of the story.
In the hours and days after the AFL Commission handed down its historic sanctions there was much talk of lessons learnt: the club had learnt valuable lessons, said Essendon chairman, Paul Little; there were valuable lessons for the league, said Demetriou's deputy, Gillon McLachlan. All of which was true. But who will speak for the football media, the other key player in the drama?
Because they should also reflect long and hard on their role. Like Essendon, they might not like some of what they find.
Bruce Guthrie is a former editor-in-chief of the Herald Sun, The Age and The Sunday Age.

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/if-eli ... z2dbYUJHBZ


If elite sport had a spin bin, the AFL would be in a league of its own

[Drac]

[Raiderdave]

wow

typical response from a desperate cultist ... a religious zealot
shoot the messenger & everything will be alright

the dumbest sports fans on the planet
not an independent thought amongst them

[Rabbit]

The thing that interests me most about the AFL's control of the media is less the fact that AFL 'journalists' don't practice investigative journalism and more the don't ask don't tell attitude of the AFL fans.

I know this sounds like I'm just shit stirring (even if we are in the fight club), but hardcore AFL fans really do remind me of cultists! They refuse to believe anything that shows the AFL in a bad light, they refuse to question the AFL or it's blatant propaganda that they call journalism and they seem to be very reluctant to punish any wrongdoers in their game that do manage to have their crimes come to light. It's laughable some of the things they are willing to accept for the games image, even at the expense of it's integrity.

RL fans have many many faults, but if there is one thing that RL fans in Australia have done right (to a fault IMO) in the last 20 years it's been sceptical of the people running (and reporting on) our game and tried to make sure that the integrity of the game of RL comes before the various brands in our game.

In RL there is no player bigger then the team, no team bigger then the club, no club bigger then the competition and no competition bigger then the game. On the other hand in Aussie rules land there is nothing bigger then the AFL (the competition) and that's a huge problem with the integrity of the game in my opinion.

[King-Eliagh]

Yes, yes all very well said rabbit. Brainwashed is not at all out of the question here when it comes to the fans. They have been dictated to, read and fed some seriously pompous and incredibly insular propaganda like rubbish over and over by the afl. Think back to demtrious 10 point plan back on 05, one of which included the statement "AFL will be the sport of choice for all young Australian men". There's something psycopathic in such an ignorant and narrow view, carefully crafted and presented.

And the afl fans lap it up like lost kittens to a bowl of milk. They truly believe, like a pack of belieber tweens.

RL supporters on the other hand show a healthy concern and critique to issues presented by its governing leaders. There's something quite nice about that...isnt there

[Swans4ever]

Good on AFL at least they have control of their game - meanwhile RL is channel 9's bitch at their beck and call!

[NRLCrap1]

Not only that, you name one major elite competition that doesn't have it's hands in the media cookie jar! The AFL is doing nothing different to baseball and American football in the USA and soccer in Europe. They all do it. Carefully managed media. The NRL did it as well when News Limited was a major player in the competition.

EVERY sport controls the media in their own way. It's just like politics. Nothing to see here, people.....

[Xman]

Not only that, you name one major elite competition that doesn't have it's hands in the media cookie jar! The AFL is doing nothing different to baseball and American football in the USA and soccer in Europe. They all do it. Carefully managed media. The NRL did it as well when News Limited was a major player in the competition.

EVERY sport controls the media in their own way. It's just like politics. Nothing to see here, people.....

Yeah, hilarious how throwball fans taking this stance when for so many years their league was owned by a media group! :_<>

[pussycat]

Not only that, you name one major elite competition that doesn't have it's hands in the media cookie jar! The AFL is doing nothing different to baseball and American football in the USA and soccer in Europe. They all do it. Carefully managed media. The NRL did it as well when News Limited was a major player in the competition.

EVERY sport controls the media in their own way. It's just like politics. Nothing to see here, people.....

Yeah, hilarious how throwball fans taking this stance when for so many years their league was owned by a media group! :_<>

The NRL/ARL paid the price of being so farkin good!

[NRLCrap1]

Excuse me??