Media restrictions spark debate

SEOUL -- In my last article on this Web site, I talked about how hard it is to cover the World Cup when there are so many restrictions on where we can go and what we can do. I was glad to see that I started a discussion... Here now is my effort to defend my points.

Stop whining -- amazingly, we fans are enjoying the finals despite your self-pitying restrictions...
--d.r. turgeon, dallas, texas

I was not whining; I was only expressing my opinion on how things could be different. Probably the only reason you are enjoying the finals is because you can watch the games on TV. If cameras and reporters weren't here, how could you know what was going on?

Pedro, I just read your article about the media and not having access to the players in WC. Well get used to it; these players are not baseball players where media dictates what and when should be done. If you don't like it go back to doing American football or baseball, and watch them swing and miss the ball and scratch themselves... Football is the only sport in the world worth watching... let it go and enjoy it..
--Alex Benarba, NJ

I don't expect the media to dictate what players do, but the only reason why they are as wealthy as they are and have the life they have is because the media and advertising companies pay for television rights. And, I don't normally do American football or baseball. I was raised in Portugal, watching and playing football every day of my childhood.

Pedro -- stop complaining. You journalists created the situation you have yourselves in. If I was a press officer no, stop, and don't would be the most charitable thing I would be saying to you.
--Steven Dorst, milwaukee

Mailbag

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Well, good thing you are not a press officer, then. I do agree that a lot of people in the media have no regard for the truth and are big bullies. I realize that some of these guys are more concerned with selling newspapers and making up stories than covering the events. But we are not all like that. That was my point.

Why do you want to commercialize soccer like other American sports? i.e. why the emphasis on what Kobe Bryant or Marshall Faulk have to say after a game instead of just watching them play the game? If given the kind of media access you want, I can see the American press making a WWF-like drama out of the World Cup. The restricted press coverage has obviously not prevented soccer from being the most popular sport, nay religion, for 5.8 billion people out of a possible 6 billion (i.e. except the US).
--David Rubia, Newmarket NH

First of all, I have to tell you that I dislike what the WWF has done, and I would never want any other sport to become as commercial as that organization. Secondly, soccer-addiction is a disease I suffer from, but the only reason I contracted it was because I could see games from all over the world on television. All I am saying is that our work is necessary for the good of the game. Not every media person is good, but many of us are.

How can 40 billion people watch the world cup when The total world population is only 4 billion people?
--Stuart, Richmond, VA

Actually Stuart, the world has around 6 billion people. And the games will be watched by a combined 40 billion people. For example, 4 billion can watch Senegal-France, 5 billion more can watch England-Sweden, and so on.

Thanks for your replies and questions and keep them coming! Oh yeah, and VAMOS LA GANHAR, SEUS TUGAS!

World Sport's Pedro Pinto will be reporting regularly from South Korea during the World Cup.

 

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