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Media circus Rugby World Cup throws journalists into a frenzy
Posted: Tuesday November 02, 1999 04:46 PM
With the Rugby World Cup Final just days away, the finalists, France and Australia, opened up to the media on Tuesday for one of the customary grillings that always accompany the big sporting occasions. For those not familiar with these kind of open days, just picture a scrum with the stars as the ball, and that's about the half of it. Here's how it goes. For a start, etiquette goes out the window. It's every journo for themself. You think facing a Jonah Lomu is tough? Try tackling an irate Frenchman whose interview you have just ruined by sticking your microphone in his camera shot. Never mind that you don't share the same vocabulary, the only language necessary is body language, and you'd be surprised how much an index finger can convey. Not that you muscle in on people intentionally, it's more like accidentally on purpose. But when you've only got an hour to get the pictures, sound or words you need to fill hours of air-time and miles of column inches, the rules of the game are that you better get down and dirty, because none but the brave survive. "I think the Wallabies are a very good team," French Back, Richard Dourthe told me, while an Australian soundman jammed his microphone pole in my back. "They are in very good form physically and psychologically." ... Unlike myself at this point I might have added.
And don't runaway with the idea that the boorish behavior is all down to an overdose of testosterone, because the women are just as ferocious as the men. "The French produced some of the best games of football I've seen in a long time," Aussie goal-kicker, Matt Burke explained, while behind him a camera woman jostling for a place in the melee surrounding Aussie skipper, John Eales, swung round and caught an unfortunate scribe on the eyebrow. "They really took the All Blacks on at their own game," Matt continued. Rather like the camerawoman really. The problem is that nothing is ever as we, the news gatherers, think it should be. You see whoever you work for, whether it be the Tiny Town Gazette, or, dare I say it, CNN, the organizers always fail to realize that YOU are the most important. Sure, people may tune-in to this station or that station, read this paper or that magazine, but whatever they glean from those reports will be as nothing compared to the masterpieces you could create if only someone got their priorities right. So it is that yet another meet the media session finishes, with everyone, bar the players, battered and bruised. If you've got your story of course, it was all worth it. If not, well you'll do what you can with what you've got, and plot your revenge for next time. Playing in the Rugby World Cup Final ... kids stuff!
Terry Baddoo is a co-host of "World Sport," the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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