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Lance Armstrong admitted taking performance enhancing drugs during his career
failing to tackle the big issues? for 13 years before his confession. In his book Seven Deadly Sins, Walsh explains the lengths Armstrong went to control the press. “The ‘trolls’ [journalists who criticised or speculated about Armstrong] were a small minority,” writes Walsh, “and the plan was to isolate them.” Walsh claims that Armstrong would watch journalists and note who sat together in press conferences. “He needed to know the enemy and the enemy’s companions.” Neither Walsh, nor any other journalist associated with him, was allowed near Armstrong or his team. Football managers have also been known to wield their power over sports journalists. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson refused to speak to the BBC for seven years after it made allegations against his son, Jason, in a TV documentary aired in 2004. In 2011, Ferguson was overheard at a press conference requesting a journalist to be banned for asking about Ryan Giggs, who was then embroiled in a super-
injunction scandal. Others, such as Matt Hughes, deputy football correspondent at The Times, say journalists are not easily cowed. “I don’t think journalists would compromise their story for fear of being excluded.” Although sports journalists may develop good relationships and contacts with people in the industry, ultimately, he says, journalists’ “reputation and credibility” is more important. “In football journalism, access is so restricted,” says Hughes. “I can’t think of anyone you could accuse of being too close to the people they write about.” According to Whittle, the situation varies by publication. “Somebody who works for a specialist sports title, the survival of which is so closely reliant on access to the big names of that sport, is potentially risking everything by being blacklisted by a Lance Armstrong type figure. They could lose readers, advertisers and ultimately their jobs — and the jobs of others — by asking difficult questions. “It’s not the same for sports journalists at a national newspaper, particularly chief sports writers, who will not be so deeply immersed in one sport. Their jobs won’t be at risk if they criticise one superstar.” In big money sports, access to players and managers is usually restricted to a post-match interview or pre-game and post-game press conferences. “It’s not really an interview,” says Whittle “because there’s a whole bunch of people asking
different questions. You don’t really get to the nub of the matter.” Instead, journalists must build good relationships with clubs’ PR teams to get additional access. “Interviews are choreographed and controlled,” says Hughes. “Some PR companies demand that you submit a list of questions.” Among the criticisms, it’s important to recognise the work of dogged sports journalists like David Walsh who helped to expose Armstrong. And while journalists are under pressure to produce more content for ever more platforms, this has also led to more variety and diversity in sport reporting than ever before. Even sceptic Andrew Jennings has high hopes for the next generation of sports reporters. “They have an enthusiasm, an appetite,” he says. “They understand that it’s fun to catch the bad guys.” X
Sir Alex refused to talk to the BBC
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