The expendable opiniators

At the front end, delivering the verdict whilst mouthing the opinion of your media overlords

While most of us with an interest in the case of Adam Johnson were at work, at home, sat around farting or a combination of the above, what we all had in common was likely looking out for the news online. Meanwhile, the press bench at Bradford Crown Court was occupied by some youthful types hooked up to the local 4g network. These plucky lads and lasses were tasked by their media masters with providing ‘live updates’ on the proceedings to be displayed on their websites.

The quality of their output which was online for our perusal, speculation and mild horror, was hampered by three things; one they weren’t really allowed to provide ‘live updates’, they were only allowed to describe what was going on at the judge’s discretion; two most of what goes on in court is so mind numbingly boring that 75% of it wouldn’t be worth reporting on and finally these plucky individuals were the most junior of the junior-est it was possible for a media organisation to send.

Take Johnson Press, publisher of the Sunderland Echo (the city’s once heralded newspaper, now printed in South Yorkshire and written on a bland industrial park mid-way between Sunderland and Durham, in fact closer to Durham city centre than Sunderland). Those live court updates were written by Daniel (a ‘trainee reporter’) and Debra, some reporter or other sent down to Yorkshire for the day. Amusingly, their senior, Fiona usurped their moment of glory by turning up at the end to lead the live reporting and deliver the news on the climactic verdicts.

The Guardian sent young bit of stuff Josh Halliday. Josh is a Staff Reporter. Josh is from near Bradford, which was handy. He did four weeks of work experience at SAFC so he’s something of an expert. He claims to be a Leeds fan which should never have got him past the screening process to be allowed into the Stadium of Light. He's got previous, as a blogger and twitter-wanker. That's all you need nowadays, blogs and tweets, make your mouth go, stick it on your CV and 'wahey', off your go, you're a journo.

Simmering with resentment elsewhere was Andy Dawson. Dawson, a some-time contributor to the Daily Mirror is an odd looking baldy chap who also has previous with Sunderland AFC. He claims to be a supporter in fact. He was last seen getting slated for mocking a disabled child who was a mascot at an SAFC match. That day, Dawson, hidden behind the façade of the Mirror's live match feed made some sneering remark about the boy's condition. Dawson is the epitome of twitter-wankerishness. His feed is usually littered with venom and angry outbursts against anyone who doesn't fit with his view of the world. A failed novelist, twitter is where he retreats to pour disdain. His latest book has the sum total of four reviews on Amazon. By the look of it, it’s one of those 'blokey' whinges against the world efforts. The problems of being a 'lad' in the 21st century. The sort of book that was popular back in the '90s when being a 'lad' was good craic. Think Men Behaving Badly.

Trial over, those media outlets needed an opinion and an article or two. What they obviously needed was some good old fashioned outrage. The recipe of child sex crimes and premier league football is an incredibly potent mix for headline writers. Dawson got a sniff and wrote a toxic piece decrying Sunderland as ‘rotten’. Of all the sensationalist adjectives that could be used to describe SAFC ‘rotten’ was the laziest, the lowest common denominator. For maximum impact he added a personal twist. Sunderland is his club you see, he said the furore showed how ‘rotten’ things were at ‘my club’. He went on to describe how the stench was reminiscent of Sunderland’s fish quay. Why he had to bring Brian the Fishmonger from down Hendon into it is anyone’s guess.

In the wake of his moment in the spotlight Josh was incredibly bland but unerring in his twittering wittering about his villain of the piece Margaret Byrne. The Guardian would not approve of Margaret Byrne. Her big house and Porsche driving husband are not the stuff of left wing liberalism. Three days after the trial concluded he was back to the day job, reporting on a “southern elite” Tory plot to move some photographs out of a museum in Bradford down south. “Down with this sort of thing” and all that.

What these opinion writers have in common tells you something about the current state of the former press media in the UK and its relationship with football. Gone are the days of the tabloid splash exposing a footballer for having an affair. The period of phone hacking and leaked details of super-injuctions has rendered the public bored of footballers behaving badly. Johnson was way beyond the usual hum drum of badly behaved cheats, party goers and play boy excess of course. There remains a small band of football journalists who tread a fine line between filling the pages with the humdrum of match build up and reports and maintaining their relationship with the club they so badly need to drip feed them. Johnson Press would not have sent Chris Young, Chief SAFC reporter down to Bradford to rip apart the soul of Sunderland Association Football Club. The lessons learnt from the embargo on the Evening Chronicle at Newcastle taught local newspapers to tread that line carefully. The Mirror would not have sought Simon Bird’s decimation of the morals of Sunderland, despite the obvious temptation to curry favour with media partner Mike Ashley. What were needed were anonymous, cheap plucky kids or a bloke with a faded career and an axe to grind. So long as those selected were willing to forgo any future relationships with the football club and its supporters they were good to go