Don’t get me wrong. I know that time is a precious commodity, particularly these days, and I value the decisions made by each and every one of you to read what I write each week.
For that reason alone I thought long and hard about the subject I slaved over most of Sunday for you this week.
Because?
The main reason is that I am commenting on a comment – several actually – made by others in the wake of the second (Sunday) race at the ITM SuperSprint round of the Virgin Australia Supercars championship meeting at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
And one of the things I find particularly (let’s see) tiresome, grating, galling, etc, etc, about the way my colleagues in the mainstream daily media cover their precious bloody stick ‘n ball sports is the ‘comment on a comment.’
Actually, the more I think about it, the more this particularly abhorrent form of ‘lazy journalism,’ has infiltrated every level of mainstream media…with the ‘Sunday papers’ particularly bad.
It’s sport I want to talk about specifically this week, however; in particular the response to Red Bull Holden driver Jamie Whincup’s Safety Car-passing brain snap and subsequent ‘spray.’
Yes, I – like the worst offenders from the local media ‘commentariat – will be commenting on a comment. I’ll justify myself, however, by pointing out the fact that I was actually there, at the track, on the day in question. So I’d like to think that I have a fair idea of how the large crowd saw it; before the mainstream media decided – on our behalf, apparently – how the event would be remembered.
So my first comment on a comment refers to fellow Talk Motorsport columnist Richard Craill’s Friday column titled ‘The Media Cycle Spins On’ in which he criticises those involved in motorsport for – on the one hand – constantly moaning about a perceived ‘lack’ of media coverage, yet on the other clamming up because ‘it doesn’t look good’ when the mainstream media finally sees something controversial to talk about.
As what I probably can best describe these days as a ‘lapsed motorsport PR man’ I can sympathise with Craill’s frustration.
Imagine how different your average broadsheet or even tabloid newspaper, or 6.00pm TV news bulletin, would be, for instance, if the ‘rugbarati’ and ‘crickerati’ didn’t have all those blackmail-perfect pictures of newspaper, radio and TV execs ‘behaving badly’ (only kidding here but stay with me!!) on file, and motor racing in all its many and varied forms was treated as the #1 source for sports news by the mainstream media.
Now. Hold that thought.
Like me you are probably thinking about a Monday morning bulletin with a catch-up of how every Kiwi driver, rider, or even talented race engineer or team manager got on in whatever event they were competing at over the weekend, then a focus on Tuesday on who did the best and why/how, a longer in-depth backgrounder on a ‘historical’ figure or event from time’s past on Wednesday, then the first of a number of ‘the weekend coming’ previews starting on Thursday, and continuing into Friday.
The reality, sadly, would be so much different as to make your average, everyday enthusiast (you know, the people who stumped up around $200 per person for tickets, food, and a team trinket (T-Shirt, Beanie etc etc) wonder if they had attended the same event.
Post the Pukekohe race, for instance, Monday’s newspapers and TV New shows would have all focused on ‘the controversy,’ rather than the race’ with inevitable ‘calls for an enquiry/fine/judicial review/Jamie’s head on a platter’ and narry a thought for who actually won the race.
Tuesday would then be dedicated to ‘in-depth analysis by diagram’ plus a breathless litany of other times when drivers have ‘wilfully’ passed, run into or otherwise disrespected the Safety Car. By this stage the action by Whincup to pass the Safety Car would have lost its natural grey and would now be seen only in black (those agin him, including everyone with an axe to grind) and white (those for Whincup and willing to go on record and defend his actions).
If – whether he was advised/forced/encouraged/threatened/etc – Whincup wades in with a ‘statement’ but declines the many requests for a subsequent interview, Wednesday would be the day that it ran……….though pissed off that he wouldn’t ‘front to answer his critics’ I’d imagine the mass media would still be in ‘lynch him’ mode….and any previews on Thursday or Friday would inevitably make some mention of the fact that ‘officials were hoping they wouldn’t be seeing a repeat of ‘the Whincup Affair.’
Which all might seem a little far-fetched. But if you don’t believe me check out the story and utterly bizarre headline the NZ Herald newspaper actually ran when it published Jamie’s real-life ‘mea culpa’ story last week (which you can read for yourself at https://www.driven.co.nz/news/motorsport/jamie-whincup-s-regret-over-passionate-pukekohe-scandal/) …’Jamie Whincup’s regret over ‘passionate’ Pukekohe scandal.’
You like that? Good isn’t it. And either just to rub it in, under the ‘Related Articles’ header on the right hand side of the web page the lead story is entitled ‘Bathurst Blog: Why do people hate Jamie Whincup……and no there is no question mark, a sign – as if the subject matter was not indication enough – of how low the majority of mainstream news outlets have sunk in recent times, as they race each other…to the bottom of the barrel.
Speaking of which, the second comment, I – er – would like to comment on also appeared in the NZ Herald (print and web versions) last week and came from F1 pundit Bob McMurray in the motoring lift-out, Driven, (which you can read here https://www.driven.co.nz/news/motorsport/opinion-the-other-side-of-supercars-safety-car-drama/)
Bob wouldn’t be Bob if he didn’t slip a mention (or two, or three, or four etc, etc) of his beloved bloody F1 (which by the way I am absolutely not missing since it disappeared off the face of the earth here at the beginning of the year) but he was right on the money when he said that some events are remembered for the wrong reasons.
Thank goodness then for the aces in what is now a 5-strong pack of Kiwis who made such an impression at the annual ITM SuperSprint meeting at Pukekohe.
Because the same ‘live’ feed viewers see at home – give or take – seems to go to the big screen TVs dotted around the circuit those of us either sitting in the main grandstand or bleachers, or up on ‘the hill’ were well aware both of Jamie’s SNAFU and the effect it had on the likes of Lee Holdsworth.
Like most of the passionate Kiwis in the crowd (who you could identify by their Shell V-Power Ford red/Red Bull Holden Racing blue attire) I can honestly – hand-on-heart – say that I only had eyes for eventual race leader/winner/record breaker Scottie McLaughlin and compatriot and eventual round winner Shane Van Gisbergen.
Neither had what you could describe as perfect weekends, but when the chips were down both reverted to type; Shane with that stunning pole lap and emphatic race win on Saturday, then head-down/tail-up run from P6 to 2nd on Sunday to claim round victory and with it earn the coveted Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.
And Scottie? For the first time in a long time his was not the fastest Ford Mustang in either qualifying session. But absolutely undeterred the 26-year-chipped away and chipped away until he had the best Mustang in race trim, his Sunday win – and with it a new season-high win record – the stuff of dreams.
So, as I allude to in the headline, when it comes to wanting more media coverage for our fantastic sport, ‘be careful – very careful – for what you wish for.’
Because?
Because as the response to what will no doubt go down in history as ‘The Jamie Whincup Affair’ is wont to prove, sensation-seeking journos could just as easily turn your and/or my ‘stuff of dreams’ into a ‘horror show of comment-lumped-on-comment nightmares’…..and bar the odd mal-adjusted journo and/or sub-editor/sports editor out there I don’t think any of us want that.
Do we?
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