Journalism and Christmas

Shizzmadizz has been good lately, with the fantastic news that our Sunday cricket side has been promoted after all after a league re-alignment. This is really very good for us, the kickstart we desperately needed and a platform to build on for the future. The news certainly pleased my team-mates, all of which want the season to start next week, along with me! To fuel my need for cricket, I've spent most of my evenings this week watching England's triumphant Ashes-winning series in 2010/11 Down Under, and I'm pleased to announce I am now sufficiently supplemented for now!

Christmas is just around the corner, (what happened to 2012!?), and you know what? I am absolutely DELIGHTED about this! Looking back on past Christmas', in 2010, I was working night shifts throughout the whole Christmas period, wistfully looking out the window at the cold night sky, knowing everyone else was enjoying their quota of alcohol, food and Christmas TV whilst I wasted away in that blasted garage... 2011, I was still recovering from my failed university venture, facing what was possibly the worst bout of depression I've ever had, having to face time with people when I would much rather have spent it alone with a slice of cheesecake and cream in my bedroom. 2012 promises to be so much better. With a secure job, that offers a fantastic amount of time off, (at the right times!) over the Christmas period, I'm pretty damn sure this Yuletide is going to be superb. I feel like a little kid again and I cannot wait! I have a 6 days off in a row from Saturday 22nd December to Thursday 27th, (including the now confirmed trip to Old Trafford on Boxing Day), and then a few more days off for New Year, which is pretty cool. It's incredible how much I appreciate that after the last couple of years. I look forward to it immensely.

Work is starting to pick up, getting noticeably busier as people begin their seasonal complaints about the price of stamps, of which most buy on bulk and return a look of utter horror as I tell them 5 books of 12 second-class is indeed £30 exactly. The last few days have been spent sending cards and parcels to Australia and USA, which will change to mainland Europe in a few days. I'm frankly amazed how many people have large amounts of relatives living in Australia. Spending Christmas in 30 degree heat in the suburbs of Sydney or perusing Perth must have its perks I suppose!

However. The bulk of this particular post is to be filled, I'm afraid, by an article I saw earlier today in the Daily Mail, about homosexuality in football. A lot of people complain about this particular newspaper, and rightly so and today I am inclined to scathe in an angry manner in the direction of one of their journalists. Martin Samuel. He managed to fit in an agenda, some homophobia and a sprinkling on xenophobia in the space of 9 paragraphs and for the minute it took to read it, my jaw had hit the floor. Whether it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, slightly humorous or whether its completely serious, I have no idea but one thing is for sure. For a journalist to publish something so ... ill-concieved, is really very substandard. And that is putting it kindly. For those that haven't seen it, he suggests that Joey Barton should come out as gay to "tackle the culture of fear" amongst football. Two problems being that I'm pretty sure that Joey Barton is a straight as a plank of wood, and secondly, to suggest that "coming out" is simply as easy as that, ("Just one? It's not much to ask surely!"), especially for someone in the limelight, is ludicrous. And I won't even start on suggesting that Barton is "halfway there" after putting on his French accent last week... Talk about stereotyping!

Is the British media really that bad? I read a really poor article last week on the attitude of Kevin Pietersen, with a particular journalist from the Daily Telegraph I seem to remember, (who I ended up arguing with on Twitter!), who thought that KP's innings of 186 vs India, no mean feat for those not accustomed to the ways of cricket, was a selfish and egotistical effort at restoring faith in him. It was utterly stupid, but this Daily Mail article goes much further. It upsets a large amount of people, and for a newspaper to allow such rubbish is really very worrying indeed. Personally, I'm not sure how to take it. It's just so, so bad. I can take a bit of banter about being gay - Frankly, it proves that people are comfortable with it, and I'd prefer a bit of banter than people acting awkwardly around me - but, I'm not even sure this article is banter. If it is, he hasn't worded it very well!

It seems journalists will fill their column inches with anything these days. I won't dwell on it, but it is slightly concerning to say the least...  Bearing in mind the one and only footballer to come out publicly, (Justin Fashanu in the 1990s) ended up committing suicide due to the hate he received, maybe it is too much to ask for someone to follow in his footsteps Mr.Samuel?