Running away from the circus

Abstract

Professor Boyle bemoans the number of former sports stars now dominating sports journalism. He writes: "Over the last few years, sports broadcasting, from athletics to football, has become less journalistically driven and increasingly populated by former sports stars with little or no background in journalism. Framed by entertainment rather than journalistic values and with too many vested interests involved, football coverage on television tends now to be driven by soft opinion rather than hard analysis. Television often appears to see its role as promoting sport, rather than reporting, investigating and analysing." And he asks: "Surely sports broadcasting is too important to be left solely to ex-athletes and players at a time when, as sport becomes bigger and more complex, there has never been a greater need for journalistic rigour?"