There is no question that soccer is gaining popularity in the US. However, if you look around the major US media outlets this morning, we’ve got a LONG way to go. If you’re a US Soccer fan, it isn’t very encouraging. If you’re a terrorism freak who wants ALL TERRORISM, ALL THE TIME, then the US outlets have made your day.
(UPDATE: ThroughBall has a great idea about contacting local media outlets)
Granted, this is a fairly random selection of international news sources, but I grabbed most of the major US daily news sources, both TV and Newspaper. I’m not as familiar with the international news outlets and grabbed the more popular ones I had heard of. I expected most international news outlets to have heavy coverage and the US sources to have some. What did I find? Internationally? World Cup! World Cup! World Cup! In the US? All Al-Zarqawi ALL THE TIME. Who knew one ugly dead guy who never set foot on US soil could transfix a nation.
Lets look at which media outlets are covering the World Cup ‘above the fold’ and which don’t even know it’s happening. These snapshots were taken within 2-3 hours of the first World Cup match (June 9th, 2006 16:00 GMT) I’ve highlighted the World Cup related sections in purple squares and ovals.
Al-Jazeera – Right at the top. Funny, I could never get the English version of AJ to load. Thanks NSA!
BBC News (Europe/England) – Top Story
CBS Sports – World What? One link and a headline. We’re taking the country by storm!
CNN – All Al-Zarqawi – All The Time. He’s dead already! Do we really care if he was alive for 5 minutes when our troops got there? Oh look, the World Cup gets a single link at the bottom of the main list of stories.
CNNSI – OK, since many US media outlets have sister sports sites, maybe CNN SI will have more coverage than the main site. It’s a little better with the gray teaser box in the middle. No commentary though – cause Inside Golf is burning up the pages!
The Prague Post (Czech Republic) – Well they are ranked #2 so top story.
Der Spiegel (Germany) – Sure, Germany is hosting, but you gotta like this. All World Cup!
Die Welt (Germany) – You’d think the World Cup was in Germany or something. Heck even the ads are World Cup related.
ESPN – Before you get all excited – don’t forget ESPN is carrying all the cup matches, so they have a vested interest. Still – kudos to ESPN for carrying them all with full saturation coverage.
Fox News – All Terrorism All The Time. BE AFRAID! BE AFRAID! The SKY IS FALLING! You get one tiny link.
Globe & Mail (Canada) – Gee – you’d think there was a huge sporting event going on! Lots of coverage.
Guardian (England) – A little lower than I expected, but still decent coverage.
Herald Tribune (France) – I’m not familiar with the main French news outlets, so this may have been a bad pick.
Iran – This is a state run news outlet so you expect mostly politics and propaganda, but the Cup still gets a nod.
Le Monde (France) – You wouldn’t even know there was some dead terrorist somewhere…
MSNBC – Look at that – top story. Oh wait, it’s about security and the risk of terrorism at the World Cup, not the actual, you know, event. All terrorism ALL THE TIME.
NY Times (US) – Nada. Nothing. Not on the top screen anyway (I hate their new longer format)
Sydney (Australia) – Look at that – huge worldwide sporting event and it is considered news. As for not being the top story – hey sex sells!
Washington Post (US) – While the Washington Post has a very impressive World Cup section, you’d have to look for the link on the main page. Besides, if it’s a US media outlet it’s ALL TERRORISM! ALL THE TIME!
There you go. Exactly what I expected. It is so depressing to see nothing besides ALL TERRORISM, ALL THE TIME on TV and the web. The biggest sporting event in the world is getting underway and all you hear about is some dead guy who MIGHT have been alive when the troops got there and MIGHT have been double crossed by his buddies.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! Its 12:05!!!! What am I doing blogging!
July 10th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
Uh, maybe a few things for you to consider.
Soccer is Asinine Because:
1. The clock runs up and the refs can bend and fold time as they see fit.
2. The offsides rule destroys high scoring.
3. It is highly boring watching people do nothing but play keep away for 120 minutes.
4. It is sad to end competitive matches by lining up for kicks.
5. Ending in a tie in any regular game is pathetic. Worse than losing, you are pathetic – you tied.
6. The only sport I know where you need no talent as a kid to play.
7. Far too boring – which is why the fans in most country sing the entire time.
8. The players too often feign injury – and they are really good at acting like it. You hit your shin? Wow. Wimp.
9. I have never seen a stretcher come out for ankle sprain, but I have in soccer. In real Football, you have to be severely injured to get the stretcher. Otherwise, MAN UP and walk it off. Wimp.
July 10th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Uh, maybe a few things to consider yourself:
0) Mocking a sport you don’t understand makes you seem, well asinine.
1) The clock runs up because there is always 45 minutes in a half and the clock never needs to stop for commercials or timeouts. The ref adds time at the end to account for game delays to ensure a full 45 minutes are played. Unlike other sports where 80% of the event’s time is spent in TV timeouts, huddles, etc, in soccer the game rarely stops. You play for the FULL time.
2) The offsides rule ensures more players are able to help in attacking on goal. Without offside, the defense would never stray more than 30yds from their own goal since there would often be a cherry picker hanging near the goal.
3) It is also boring when the last 2 minutes of a basketball game take 30 minutes between all the fouls, timeouts, and commercials. The same goes for baseball where its scratch, spit, check bags, read sign, wave off, read sign again, check bases, pitch, swing, miss, catcher throws back, repeat. With random hits in between. All sports have their boring moments. Soccer played well is much more than keep away.
4) PKs are great. You’ve played 120 minutes of soccer and are evenly matched to the point where you’re unlikely to score more. Might as well let your shooters and keepers show their stuff. Granted – allowing a 4th sub in overtime and perhaps moving the PK mark back to the 18 would liven things up a bit. But after a close match, PKs work for me.
5) A tie means two very closely matched teams played their butts off and the battle ended in a draw. Can happen in any sport.
6) Yeah – the kids hitting balls of a tee are real skilled. Basketball? They run up and down the court and heave the ball at the rim. Any sport needs skill for you to be successful. When I see a 9 year old execute a scissor move or helicopter on their way to a goal, its no different than a 9 year old making a sweet spin move on the court and laying it in for 2 points. All sports cna be played with no skill and in all sports, kids learn and improve their skills to play better. Soccer is no differnet than any other sport in that regard.
7) You know what – if you don’t like soccer because it’s boring, thats fine. Why do you feel the need to say so? I think baseball and golf are the most boring sports on the planet, but I don’t send my time tell fans how boring it is. I find soccer extremely exciting. To each their own.
8) Yes, diving is a problem and FIFA is trying to reduce that. But you know what – players in EVERY sport where there is the concept of a ‘foul’ will ‘dive’ trying to draw a call. The whole concept of ‘drawing the foul’ in basketball is legend.
9) Yeah – unlike football where an injured player stays on the field until they can finally get them off, because time stops and everyone hangs out while commercials play, a soccer match goes ON. The stretcher is simply the fastest way to get a player off the field. You go down, the ref asks if you can get up and play. If not, they stretcher you off to the sidelines and unlike other sports, you can’t be replaced unless you’re subbed out. Your team plays down until you’re well enough to come back on. Works for me.
You don’t like soccer – great – watch whatever sport you like. But why do you and all the others who don’t like soccer feel the need to tell everyone else how bad it is? Hundreds of millions of people around the world love soccer, myself included and we’re happy with how things are. I like basketball and football too, but I don’t feel some urge to tell baseball fans how crappy I think their sport is.