During the Covid19 lockdown the mainstream media has really shown its true colours, looking to tear apart Rugby League at every opportunity.
In between spreading misinformation about the game, its financial standing, misquoting officials and using buss words like “chaos” and “confusion” the media has been actively running a campaign to undermine the broadcasting rights of the game, while pushing the NRL CEO out the door, as it trawls through the social media accounts of players looking for a story, while also promoting crazy rants by their own employees, tarting them up as news of course.
It has been one hell of a sight to see…
Channel 9 has been the worst of all media outlets. Outside of putting out two “public statements” by an unnamed network spokesman, they have pushed their employees to tear the game apart in a campaign I have not seen anything like since The Super League War.
This has crossed over to their newspapers, particularly the Sydney Morning Herald, and you just have to listen to any of their radio stations for an hour to hear one of their presenters trashing the entire sport in some way. It is a pretty disgusting effort by the self proclaimed “home of Rugby League”.
Fox Sports Australia, normally a trash factory of garbage, hasn’t been as bad, but their on air talent has been pretty gross at times. To be fair Fox Sports is struggling for content right now. With every sport shut down they have moved to having a hundred thousand panel shows, and at some point someone is going to get angry or say something stupid.
News Limited in general has basically been all over the place. They seem to be reading the mood of people on social media and going from one side of their own arguments to the other, trying to score points and get those all important clicks.
Channel 7 has been shown to be bloody clueless. They don’t really commit much effort to reporting own the game. As for Channel 10….do they even exist any more?
How many times does RLPA CEO Clint Newton have to come out and re-state what he has said about the game after being grossly misquoted? How many times do we need to hear the NRL has no idea when the competition will re-start when they have stuck solid to the May 28th kickoff date from very early in the piece?
Look at the absolute hysteria surrounding footage of 4 NRL players caught not socially isolating. They are the worst people in Australia according to the media. Meanwhile you’ve hardly heard about AFL players who have been caught doing the same thing, and in some cases, worse things.
You’ve also heard that Rugby League is being selfish and arrogant to even think of restarting. If you listen to old old fart that dresses up like a pirate for attention, you’d think the NRL should never look to get their season back under way!
We’ve also heard the lie that the NRL is flying in the face of government officials, when the opposite is true. The NRL has been working with the Federal and State governments to get the season up and running again, making sure they abide by all the laws and recommendations to make sure the season starts in the right fashion and is as safe as possible.
In short, the media has been lying about the game for a few months now.
This has all seen people look for alternative news sources, and independent content creators in Rugby League has seen a huge surge in interest over the last couple of months.
Many people have been looking to podcasts as a way to get their Rugby League fix. There are so many fantastic podcasts being produced, many of them covering overall Rugby League news while others focus on single clubs. They are a great way to stay in touch with what is going on while avoiding the mainstream media.
You then have independent websites, like this one you’re reading, that are also coming up with some amazing content from different points of views, its been fantastic to see.
After all that you have what I call the microbloggers, people who have social media feeds that are pumping out great content as well. Different stats, good discussion and really keeping a perspective on what’s happening in the game.
A lot of people are switching off the mainstream media and looking at these independent content producers in Rugby League. When look to them, as well as official NRL content you can get a great overview of the game while cutting out the commercial stations and outlets.
If you cut out the mainstream media, you’ll find a funny thing happens. You will enjoy the game more. You’ll be calmer. You’ll talk about the actual football more, rather than all the created bullshit the mainstream media creates about it.
Give it a go. See how you feel. I promise you’ll enjoy the game if you remove the screaming weirdos that make up the mainstream Rugby League media!
