Media bias for FourFourTwo

[Lucky Toma]

Mods please merge if you feel its warranted (and sorry for the mither if so)

I've been asked by FourFourTwo to write about the media bias against City. Got the BT Sport and BBC angle nailed down but opening it up for newspaper bias.

Won't be able to name individual journalists but any stories that have particularly stood out in recent times? Any newspapers that are worst offenders than others?

All contributions welcome. Promised them it wont be 'ranty' but have free reign apart from that and really want to put together a persuasive case to illustrate the snidey crap we have to put up with.

 

[jrb]

At last, a good news story.

Right everyone, dust of those article's and get posting.

Every f***ing Dog has it's Day. WHOOF!

 

[Shirley]

The Sunday supplement clip where that **** has a go at us stands out.

 

[@BluePhil8]

How about the nice back page splash The Sun or Star did "THE £54M REJECT!" when we signed De Bruyne.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

The most obvious, demonstrable and repetitive example is the difference in the reporting in the press of Sterling's transfer fee with that of Martial. Whilst the latter has recently been looking the better investment, the manifest dichotomy in the way the two fees have been reported was established in the summer.

I think that is the best example I can think of because it is much less open to subjective interpretation. A figure is a figure.

 

[RyanP3609]

The most obvious, demonstrable and repetitive example is the difference in the reporting in the press of Sterling's transfer fee with that of Martial. Whilst the latter has recently been looking the better investment, the manifest dichotomy in the way to two fees have been reported was established in the summer.

I think that is the best example I can think of because it is much less open to subjective interpretation. A figure is a figure.

To add to that, across all media platforms, whenever one of our players does anything (good or bad) the cost of said player is added to it. For example, De Bruyne scored against Arsenal over the weekend as you know, and during the goals replay it was said (on my stream which was NBC and Andy Townsend I think) "...the £54 million pound man...", then went on to talk about the goal.

Meanwhile anywhere else the players cost never seems to come into the description of said player (using Martial as an example but can be said for other teams and other players also).

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

To add to that, across all media platforms, whenever one of our players does anything (good or bad) the cost of said player is added to it. For example, De Bruyne scored against Arsenal over the weekend as you know, and during the goals replay it was said (on my stream which was NBC and Andy Townsend I think) "...the £54 million pound man...", then went on to talk about the goal.

Meanwhile anywhere else the players cost never seems to come into the description of said player (using Martial as an example but can be said for other teams and other players also).

You are right, of course, but with Sterling and Martial's fees it is so much more difficult to construct a worthwhile argument against the widespread inconstancy that is inherent in reporting: they are two young players, signed in the same summer, for big money, with sizeable uplifts built into their transfer fees (the latter's being significant greater) and yet as a matter of routine their fees are reported in entirely different, inconsistent ways. I expect many journalists don't even realise they're doing it, but that doesn't make their bias any less real as a consequence.

 

[Shaelumstash]

Mods please merge if you feel its warranted (and sorry for the mither if so)

I've been asked by FourFourTwo to write about the media bias against City. Got the BT Sport and BBC angle nailed down but opening it up for newspaper bias.

Won't be able to name individual journalists but any stories that have particularly stood out in recent times? Any newspapers that are worst offenders than others?

All contributions welcome. Promised them it wont be 'ranty' but have free reign apart from that and really want to put together a persuasive case to illustrate the snidey crap we have to put up with.

Please, please mention the guy off Sunday Supplement a few years ago that was exasperated that we were psying 24m for Yaya Toure. I'm sure the video is called "hate filled bile" or something similar.

There was an excellent Mark Ogden peice on here a few weeks ago about the "diabolical" decision to sack Mark Hughes.

The worst thing I've personally seen was the guy in the Mirror, think he was called McDonnell, before the Everton semi at home who absolutely slaughtered us for not selling out, having players "beg" for fans to come, only for us to sell out a few hours later.

There was numerous examples before The Shite played Leicester where the price of Leicester's squad was compared with City's, despite the Shite's costing more.

There was the fact most of the nationals didn't bother to carry any story about City prior to the Real Madrid semi, but then all absolutely slaughtered us the day after when we'd lost.

The best example to prove there is something in it is the Guardiola story. Everyone in football knew he was coming to City. Every fan, player, pundit and journalist knew it. Yet all the papers dragged it on for weeks linking him with United because that story gets more clicks.

The papers now have a conflict of interest. They are supposed to report the truth, but the truth doesn't generate the same amount of clicks and therefore revenue as a story that is bollocks that involved United or Liverpool, so they report the bollocks story that involves United or Liverpool.

Also a bad story about City generates more clicks than a positive one. That's obvious if you look on the comments section of an article on the Daily Mail online for example. A positive City story will generate a couple of dozen replies. A negative one will generate replies running in to the hundreds, or sometimes thousands.

That is where the attendance and "Emptyhad" myth comes from. The statistics show we have had a 98% capacity this season. Our increase in attendance is second only to Watford in percentage terms, and they were coming back from a promotion. Our average attendance of 53k plus, which is nearly 10k more than Liverpool have ever managed in their entire history.

Micky Quinn on Talksport regularly talked about the "empty seats" at the Etihad. He's an ardent Liverpool fan, I wish someone would point out that however many empty ones we've had, we've had 10k more full ones this season than Liverpool have ever had in their entire history.

How about the fact Sergio Aguero has never made the football writers team of the year?

How about the fact David Silva has never won football writers player of the year?

How about the fact Mancini and Pellegrini are the only two title winning managers not to win manager of the year in recent memory?

How about the fact all of the press are now reporting that Guardiola failed at Bayern because he took over a CL winning team and didn't win it himself. This despite the fact that no other manager in history has taken over from a CL winning manager and gone on to win the competition himself with the same club. Except Guardiola at Barca. Interestingly, the second best record in such circumstances is getting to the semi final. Funnily enough, also Pep Guardiola at Bayern. 3 times.

He has an 82% win percentage at Bayern. The best in their history. Jupp Heynkes was 62%. They've just won the league for the 4th time on the spin for the first time in their history.

Guardiola has reached 7 CL semi finals in 7 years. It took Alec Fergurson 26 years to reach 7 CL semi finals. Jose Mourinho 14 years. And yet Guardiola is getting reported as a failure at Bayern. I wonder if the press would be so unkind if he was arriving at Old Trafford this summer?

How about Ian Darke saying in minute 2 of our CL game with PSG that the City fans were right behind the team from the start singing songs and creating a "wall of noise" and then Rio Ferdinand after the match saying the first chant was on 78 minutes?

I don't think there is a grand conspiracy to bring City down, that would be ridiculous. But the national press and media have a vested interest to report negatively about City and positively about our rivals. It's market forces. Negativity about City generates them more revenue than positive stories, so they are bound to report about us negatively. They want to keep themselves in a job.

 

[RyanP3609]

You are right, of course, but with Sterling and Martial's fees it is so much more difficult to construct a worthwhile argument against the widespread inconstancy that is inherent in reporting: they are two young players, signed in the same summer, for big money, with sizeable uplifts built into their transfer fees (the latter's being significant greater) and yet as a matter of routine their fees are reported in entirely different, inconsistent ways. I expect many journalists don't even realise they're doing it, but that doesn't make their bias any less real as a consequence.

Yeah I definitely agree, it's almost like the first few did it then the rest have just drawn on to it without even realising (for the most part, I can bet a fair few of them peddle it purposefully in the hope that it will continue to be that way).

Sterling - http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...eem-sterling-dropped-manchester-city-11064042 (The sub-heading reads "£44m England international hasn't started....)

Martial - http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...er-anthony-martials-start-manchester-10126188 (Note: It doesn't even mention the fee AT ALL, instead opting for,

"From being plucked from virtual obscurity - albeit for a hefty fee - to scoring a wonderful solo goal against his new club’s fiercest rivals on his debut, Martial is already this season’s fairytale".

A HEFTY FEE!

 

[balotelli's back pocket]

Pep is a coward, steven howard i believe?
Constant jibes about player prices.
Sterling v martial prices like gdm says
The 60 million flop
That **** off sunday supplement a few years back, the only time we have actually got an apology.