A mucky little episode perpetrated by the Daily Telegraph occurred yesterday, with the filthy rag making up a story, kind of sort of retracting it and then following up with a directly contradictory story – without a hint of shame – all in the space of 24 hours.
It all kicked off with the explosive allegation made by Telegraph pygmy Dean “Grub Street” Ritchie that “the relationship between Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens and his star hooker has broken down to the point where Robbie Farah could be forced out of the club”.
Matching its usual standards of research and journalistic integrity, the Telegraph made a series of claims about Sheens and Farah with little or no supporting material (at a time, it should be remembered, where Farah is dealing with his mother’s potentially life-threatening illness – all class, Grub Street). The claims:
• “Sheens and Farah fell out during the recent Four Nations tour”.
• [Wests Tigers] “officials are aware both may not be able to remain at Concord”.
• “Farah has told close friends about his deepening issues with Sheens while Wests Tigers players are openly discussing it [sic].”
• [Farah] “has been tenuously linked with Parramatta”.
• “Farah'’ manager, Sam Ayoub, has discussed the situation with his high-profile client.”
• “Farah became irritated when overlooked for the major Four Nations Tests in England.”
Wow! It certainly seems that everyone’s in on this rift: Farah and Sheens, of course, various Tigers officials, Sam Ayoub, and presumably various people in the Australia and Parramatta set-ups. With a clutch of key sources from within those groups it certainly seems Grub Street has a hell of a scoop here.
Sadly, Grub Street actually has none of those sources. Not on the record – of course – and not even on background. In fact, the only supporting evidence offered for this series of claims is, unedited and its entirety, the following: “One source close to the Tigers said: ‘I am not sure they will both be there next year. I was talking to a high-profile Wests Tigers player the other day and he said teammates aren’t getting on great with Robbie.’”
I’m going to break the fourth wall here and offer a piece of direct advice, journalist to journalist: Grub Street, if you wrote for a legitimate newspaper and that’s your only source material, you ain’t got a story at all. Because – and this is the key – that is pathetic. A “source close to” whose only evidence is “I was talking to” is something called “hearsay”, and it’s rubbish.
Follow down
Even this source, however, was stronger than the basis for the Telegraph’s online follow-up article. Penned by one Tyson “Iron Shite” Otto, the piece claimed that “Tim Sheens and Robbie Farah will meet face to face in the next few days – the first time the pair have seen each other since falling out during the Kangaroos’ Four Nations campaign.”
Far be it from me to mention that the lack of a meeting since the tour might possibly have something to do with the fact that Farah left said tour early to be with his sick mother while Sheens was – amazingly enough – on tour.
What I will point out is that the Iron Shite article contained not a single source to confirm this explosive meeting between coach and captain (which actually doesn’t seem that explosive when you think about it – kind of like “company chairman meets company chief executive shocker”).
However, Iron Shite did drum up one actual-factual, on-the-record named source: Parramatta chairman Roy Spagnolo, to comment about Grub Street’s Farah-to-Parra line. And what did Spagnolo say, in its entirety? “There’s been no contact. I’ve got no knowledge of it.”
The plot thickens
Still, and predictably enough, Grub Street’s guff was enough to get Tigers fans in a right flap. Some panicking, others pointing out how miserably weak the source material is, others – the more reactionary and stupid – wading in with “there’s no smoke without fire”. Mission accomplished for Grub Street and the Telegraph, of course, with no acknowledgment of the outlandish possibility that Farah and Sheens might have had an argument but that their relationship did not completely break down as a result. You know, like happens in the real world every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
On this occasion, though, Farah and the Tigers weren’t willing to simply bathe in the Telegraph’s effluent and decided to fight back. By mid-afternoon, Farah released a strongly-worded statement through the club in which he said: “the reports create a totally false impression of things”.
While acknowledging he was “disappointed” not to be picked for Australia’s game against England, he added: “I totally accepted Tim’s decision. To now suggest that I would be seeking to leave the club that I love is just ridiculous and unfounded. Tim has been my coach since I came into first grade in 2003 and whilst we agree to disagree on things from time to time, our working relationship has never been adversely affected.”
Back on the front foot
Farah then got support from the same players he is supposedly not on speaking terms with. In a move that must have made the sports desk almost faint with excitement – well, that and the overpowering stench of fried onions and failure that presumably permeates the office – they got a call from none other than Benji Marshall. The same Marshall, it should be mentioned, who the Telegraph slurred less than three months ago over his shameful behaviour in being found not guilty of some bullshit trumped-up charge that should never have come to court in the first place.
Marshall’s call, it can be imagined, was not friendly. “Robbie and I are great mates and given the situation that Robbie is going through with his mum, something like this is really annoying,” he said – using, it would seem, remarkably controlled language.
To be fair, Marshall does seem a little naïve. Firstly by wasting his time calling the Telegraph at all. Secondly by saying: “I don’t where this stuff always comes from. Unless you see me quoted with my name, don’t believe it.” Er, Benji – there’s no point telling the Telegraph that. They’re the ones who make it all up in the first place.
Still, at this point it would seem inevitable that the Telegraph would have to back down on its initial story. The combination of outright denial from one party involved and angry calls from related individuals (it’s amazing how every direct quote the Telegraph gets is denying their rubbish) are pretty conclusive reasons for a retraction.
Of course not. What Telegraph “readers” get instead is a third article, penned by Josh “Bottom Feeder” Massoud, which makes no mention at all of Grub Street’s apology (which has mysteriously vanished from Twitter) and presents Marshall’s angry call as “in a pro-active move, star Tigers playmaker Benji Marshall last night approached The Daily Telegraph to silence persistent rumours about player disharmony”. Yeah that and to call you all a bunch of lowlife scumbags, I sincerely hope.
The whole affair reminds me of the classic Sunday Sport “World War Two Bomber Found On Moon” headline. The true genius of that story was not the headline itself, but the follow-up story the next week. The Sport, spiritual journalistic brethren to the Telegraph, covered its tracks perfectly with “World War Two Bomber Found On Moon DISAPPEARS”.
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