By Noel Dundon (Tipperary Media)
The GAA needs to respect the work of the local media in the promotion of our games.
The recent spat between Kildare senior football Manager Glen Ryan and local Leinster Leader journalist Tommy O’Callaghan received a lot of press exposure this last week and brought into sharp focus the role of local media in the GAA – a role which is often wrongly viewed as being one of service on the part of the Association.
In this particular instance, the experienced and highly respected journalist had reported on comments at a County Board meeting, but when asked about those same comments, the Kildare Manager claimed that they had not been properly reported. When challenged by O’Callaghan as to what exactly was not proper, Glen Ryan admitted that he had not read the comments but had been told by a third party.
There had been criticism of Kildare’s performances in the Allianz National Football League and it seems that the under pressure Ryan didn’t appreciate some of the commentary.
However, the sharp reaction and accusation of inaccuracy leveled at O’Callaghan was unfounded though perhaps not surprising considering some of the expectations which exist as far as the local media is concerned. Local journalists and columnists are often expected to wear the county jersey; defend rather than question; and be a mouthpiece for the local Boards, rather than being independent voices, free of influence and impression.
Depending on regimes, there can be consequences for those who don’t follow the party line – well known Clare Champion journalist Peter O’Connell was banned from press events in Banner land after a spat with the then senior hurling Manager Davy Fitzgerald. Even yours truly had this very column pulled by the Tipperary County Board over perceived ‘inappropriate content’ – the content was of the questioning kind and speaking out when the feeling was that it was necessary.
Without doubt the relationship between County Boards/team managements and media has changed over the years. Media gets little access to players now without prior approval for instance. Interviews will not be granted outside of pre-arranged events; and any attempt to get an interview must go through the County PRO. It has all become stale, staged-managed and frankly, a bit bit boring to be honest. The same old sound bites are being paraded out all the time and deviation from the script is rare, if ever.
And, even more annoying from a local media viewpoint is the fact that many interviews are now being conducted in private and used on websites and local on-line YouTube channels thereby denying the dependent media the chance of having decent content.
God be with the days when journalists were free to chat to any player they wished – it was up to the player if they wanted to chat or not and they were trusted to say what they wanted to say without saying anything untoward.
County Boards depend on local media to promote their games as much as local media depend on the GAA for access to their games. Thankfully in Tipperary, the relationship has been a good one for many years with only the occasional tiff – both sides appreciate the value and necessity of each other and that has been the case also with team managements.
Yes access has been restricted greatly from days of yore but, by-and-large, officials appreciate that media people have a job to do and do it very well I’d venture to suggest.
The GAA needs to mind the media – especially local media. Try running the Association without it – Croke Park ought to remember that.
To the games
The footballers look to have ended their prospects of promotion to division 3 of the Allianz National Football League with that narrow defeat to Laois on Sunday – two more home games await but the word is next weekend’s match against Waterford will not be in FBD Semple Stadium as the field needs rest.
Meanwhile, the hurlers continued winning ways against Westmeath – Limerick are up next in an away tilt in TUS Gaelic Grounds . We’ll know a bit more about where we are at, after that one.
More from The View anon. Don‘t miss it.
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