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by Malcolm Farr

09 Aug 05:40am

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Filed under: Bbc, London Olympics, Media

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If Australia’s coverage of the Olympic Games in 2000 was as narrow and nasty as Britain’s this year we should be apologizing to the world and examining the shallowness of our national self esteem.

It's amazing The Beeb let this colonial commentator through the door… Picture: Getty

In every Olympics the home media has been a cheer squad for the local athletes. It would be unrealistic to expect otherwise. Lord knows we’re good at it. The BBC’s coverage has been all that. Plus, it has included the usual appropriation of the individual efforts of athletes for the national credit. “We’ve done it and we’ve done it in style,” said a hugely excited chap after a British boat crossed the line for a gold medal last week.

Actually four British rowers had been stylish. Mr Excitable was merely a BBC commentator who had never pulled an oar in competitive exertion in his life.

But the coverage has gone further and the BBC has adopted North Korean modes of one-eyed and hostile perspectives. And for some reason Australia has been the target of much of the nastiness.

This was obvious from day one.

On the opening day the Brits did not win the men’s cycling road race. Other riders were accused of ganging up on the valiant Team GB riders and of not helping them win. This was a singular but persistent view of what competition was all about.

One BBC fellow worked out that after Brad Wiggins’ Tour de France victory the rest of the world had decided that Britain should be denied further road racing glory. And he was serious.

The Germans and the Americans were said to be part of this cycling conspiracy, but a particular venom was saved for the Australians. I still don’t know why. Even when British athletes started winning the animosity towards Australia did not relent.

When Anna Meares won at the velodrome the BBC told its considerable audience it was little wonder the Australians were happy because the nation had been so unsuccessful elsewhere these Olympics.

It was a churlish, boof headed remark which apart from slighting an entire nation was personally demeaning ofMs Meares, whose chief offense had been to defeat local star Victoria Pendleton. I have dipped into the BBC coverage of the Games while holidaying in north-east Scotland and so might have missed glowing testimonials for Australian performances. But I doubt it.

“It’s the London Games, not the British Games,” said an unimpressed Aberdeenshire cynic.

But others elsewhere were deeply impressed. “I don’t know if I can take any more gold medals,” gushed a BBC woman in mock exhaustion on Wednesday morning. Clearly, reflecting in the triumphs of others is hard work.

When the closing ceremony is completed the Brits will revel in their medal accumulation and snigger at Australia’s small tally. It will help take the minds of voters away from concerns about an economy in recession.

Maybe Australia deserves the special attention and sneers because of our lop sided coverage in 2000. But we couldn’t have been as bad as this.

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- Team GB says:
  
  06:50am | 09/08/12
  
  Absolute rubbish. The BBC’s coverage has been an absolute triumph in keeping with the Games. They have been all over it. And unlike what I can glean from Australia’s free-to-air coverage there has been plenty of coverage of non-GB events. Hell they’ve got 20 HD channels broadcasting every minute of every sport. The pundits have been great (and not all British, Ian Thorpe was a star at the swimming and Michael Johnson his usual classy self at the athletics).
  
  The key phrase here is “I have dipped into the BBC coverage”. As someone who has been glued to it, I cannot praise it highly enough. The national broadcaster is reflecting the nation’s excitement about hosting an Olympics and winning 22 (and counting) gold medals. This is once in a lifetime stuff! Can we not enjoy it? And if the Aussies are getting a bit of a feel up along the way then why not, it’s not like Australians ever need much of an excuse to give it to the Brits. Harden up petals.
  
  Seems that Mr Farr is just annoyed that Britain is doing well and hosting a great Games. Oh and thanks for the sly dig about the recession, really big and brave of you, it’s fantastic that it makes you feel good that millions of your fellow humans are doing it tough right now through no fault of their own. Enjoy the rest of your holiday, maybe you think contributing a bit to the UK economy gives you the right to be bitter and rude to your hosts. Sad.
  
  Reply
Badjack says:

08:12am | 09/08/12

a@ Team GB… one has to understand that Mr Farr is disgruntled and severely out of sorts at present because his beloved political party is “on the nose” and under extreme pressure. He himself is under pressure from bloggers on this site. Having said that, this is a typical Farr piece of journalism and something we poor buggers in Australia have to put up with on a daily basis. Like a lot of our athletes at these Olympics Mr Farr tends to crack under pressure.
jorgen flenswing says:

10:07am | 09/08/12

ah the schadenfreude Mal…...

Your writings has been fully deconstructed…and found wanting of talent accuracy and relevance….

someone…tell him he"s dreaming
Adam says:

02:53pm | 09/08/12

I was watching BBC for 5mins last night and they took a cheap shot at Australia. Mal is totally on the money!
Team GB says:

10:02pm | 09/08/12

They’re not cheap shots Adam, they are hard earned. Did you cry?
- gobsmack says:
  
  06:56am | 09/08/12
  
  “But we couldn’t have been as bad as this.”
  
  Yes we could.
  
  Reply
Mayday says:

10:07am | 09/08/12

The Channel 9 ‘commentary team” should be sent home.
- Steve says:
  
  07:32am | 09/08/12
  
  Australia is only being paid back for years of bashing the Poms as being crap at all sports.
  
  Harden the f**k up Mal.
  
  Reply
Mahhrat says:

08:28am | 09/08/12

+1. We give it in spades; we have to take it as well.
- Warren says:
  
  07:44am | 09/08/12
  
  “we couldn’t have been as bad as this”
  
  yeah, we were ...
  
  Reply
- Public Savant says:
  
  07:58am | 09/08/12
  
  Poor Mal. Illusions shattered. Eyes opened. The venerable leftist BBC seems to be much the same as the despised Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun or Channel 9 - jingoistic, insular and so creepily, embarassingly, icky bogan. Maybe its all Tony Abbott’s fault?
  
  Reply
- Emmy says:
  
  08:02am | 09/08/12
  
  And we have never stuck it up the Poms in the past? Farr should have done a little research on our media before sticking it to the Pommy media. With our athletes not living up to the media’s expectation and in most cases the athletes own, the Australian media could not give the Poms the usual treatment. If he had watched Australian media he would have noted the ridiculous and inane questions the media asked our athletes after their events and then portrayed the athletes as self serving. The Australian media are self serving and lack substance, and show themselves up as “flakey” at best but probably best described as “egg shells”.
  
  Reply
bazza says:

08:50am | 09/08/12

@ Emmy….... he did as much research on this article as he does on his political scribblings.
- Martin says:
  
  08:31am | 09/08/12
  
  A petty article that smacks of desperation and sour grapes (the european economy ffs ?) Aussies and Poms have been sticking it to each other since federation. This year the Poms soundly beat the Aussies in various sporting endeavours. Let them gloat and enjoy their victory for a bit ... they’ve earned the bragging rights.
  
  Reply
- daniel says:
  
  08:36am | 09/08/12
  
  Never could stand the Australian network(s) coverage of the Olympics. As soon as Joe Blog completes their race finishing 8th it’s labelled a brilliant effort whilst the person who actually won gets little attention.
  
  Look at the headlines on most of the Australian news websites. Some even have dedicated sections at the top with “Aussies going for gold”. Maybe you (Mal) should take a look at Australia’s coverage and see how one-sided it is.
  
  Reply
- chuck says:
  
  08:38am | 09/08/12
  
  Christ with the number of so called journos and other hanger ons covering the games for Oz I reckon our “talking heads” would win a gold for the most hysterical, jingoistic, self promoting, lame, comments since the last coverage by Ch 7!
  
  Reply
- Charlie says:
  
  08:43am | 09/08/12
  
  Troll, troll, troll. Another wildly inaccurate article Malcolm, so to give you the benefit of the doubt, I’ll assume it’s an attempt to generate some sort of self-serving controversy. You’re definitely the weakest Punch contributor mate. You must be better at something else than you are at writing? Perhaps you should try it.
  
  Reply
TimB says:

09:46am | 09/08/12

Whilst I’m no fan of Mal, I would have to say I can think of quite a few contributers who are much worse.

A few of the green activists & the union hacks come to mind.
Rose says:

11:10am | 09/08/12

At least he’s nowhere near as bad as Sophie Mirabella!
- Jon says:
  
  08:58am | 09/08/12
  
  Give the Brits Mr Far. They have a zero growth economy, zero interest rates with banking, are flooded with illegal and other immigrants from the third world and many talented people can’t wait to get out the country.
  
  Reply
- CD says:
  
  09:18am | 09/08/12
  
  So how’s this piece going for you so far Mal?
  
  Reply
- Tony says:
  
  10:12am | 09/08/12
  
  Man up, Mr Farr! We were always called the whingeing pommies and, oh my, how things have changed.
  
  Reply
- cynic says:
  
  10:19am | 09/08/12
  
  Mal, jim brayshaw commentating at the rowing “did not row” either so the cheap shot about the brits 4 kinda shows how well informed you are not, again. Keep up the good work comrade, jooles needs frieids like you.
  
  Reply
- Darren says:
  
  10:19am | 09/08/12
  
  The Brits can’t celebrate too much. After all they are a few countries combined into one. No other countries do that so in a way they are kind of cheating. Go in the next Olympics as England & see where you finish.
  
  As for the coverage by Nine..CRAP. Got an English bloke covering some parts who is bloody annoying & Karl & Lala McKinnon. Did anyone really expcet there to be decent coverage with htis lot in control
  
  Reply
Team GB says:

11:27am | 09/08/12

This “few countries combined into one” thing really has to stop, for your own sakes. It just makes you look so so dumb. Considering Australian history is so intrinsically entwined with British history you really would think the historical, political and geographical background would be a kind of fundamental basic in the Australian education system. How can you know what Australia is if you don’t know what Great Britain is?

But okay Darren, just for you, once more with feeling. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the sovereign state, with permanent security council seat at the UN, made up of three historic nations England, Scotland and Wales, with Northern Ireland incorporated after Irish independence. The UK came into being in 1707 with the union of Scottish and English parliaments, long before the convict colony was a twinkle in Capt. Cook’s eye.

I am Scottish but my nation state is the UK of Gb & I, it’s on the front of my passport. I vote in UK elections, the UK Prime Minister is my Prime Minister (even if I didn’t vote for the swine). In some sports like football and rugby we still compete as England, Scotland, Wales etc for reasons of tradition as we invented international competition in these sports back in the 19th century. In most sports, and Eurovision of course!, we compete internationally as GB. At every Olympics since 1896 we have entered as Great Britain.

Even if England, or Scotland, wanted to compete separately at the Olympics, they would not be permitted as they are not UN-recognised nations. It would be like Queensland wanting to compete separately. Anyway there is no appetite for it. Scots like Chris Hoy and Andy Murray are proud Scots and Brits. There are fierce sporting rivalries between the Home Nations but it is also nice to come together at the Olympics, like we do with the British Lions rugby team every four years.

Hope this was of help. And you always have the old population argument to fall back on. Oh no, you don’t it seems as at last count GB was not only ahead of Australia on per head of population medals but every single country in the world as well. Oh well, weather and economy it is then, hit us with your best shot!

ps. I spent a great year living in Australia, made many great Aussie friends and was absolutely delighted for Sally Pearson (less so for Meares) so all in good fun. Cheers
I love BBC says:

11:52am | 09/08/12

@Team GB

I’m handing you a virtual bottle of ‘77 Glenmorangie Sir.

One day when the Australian flag doesn’t feature a Union flag I’ll be able to excuse the ignorance of many Australians on this matter.
Bec says:

09:10am | 10/08/12

Team GB - while you are of course technically correct, there is more to national identity than laws of parliament.
Having studied in Wales and being married to a Welshman who refuses to sing God Save the Queen has made it clear to me that not all feel as you do.
In fact Welsh players Craig Bellamy, Joe Allen, Neil Taylor and team captain Ryan Giggs all refused to sing the English anthem at the Olympics.
Further, when the Union Jack is raised it does not represent Wales in any way and so for many it is an additional insult.

Their only choice is not to compete, which in reality is not a choice at all.
- Sam says:
  
  10:32am | 09/08/12
  
  “................“I don’t know if I can take any more gold medals,” gushed a BBC woman in mock exhaustion on Wednesday morning. Clearly, reflecting in the triumphs of others is hard work…..............”
  
  Uuummmm, this is exactly what Australia does ! My family and I do not sit and watch sport, doesnt interest us, actually the only time we see anything about sport is on the news, we havent watched one second of the Olympics as it just doesnt interest us.
  
  All you have to do is see the news media interviewing people that watched a certain sport event and you see the armchair critics carry on as if they scored the winning try, the final goal or the winning basket.
  
  Australia has always had an inferiority complex, it seems that alot of Australians actually think that because someone won a Gold medal at the Olympics then the viewer has also somehow won a medal, its the same with cricket, League, Union, AFL, Soccer etc etc etc.
  
  If you ever watch foreign athletes or so called movie stars being interviewed when they come here you can see the desperation in the interviewers questions - “Do you love Australia ?”, “Why do you love Australia?”, “When will you be back?”. Seriously its like watching an unpopular child begging for friends on the playground, and its embarrassing.
  
  So the Brits have got the Olympics, the media is supporting their athletes at the expense of others using smart ass comments or accusations, I see no difference in what Australia does and has done.
  
  When the Soccer world cup comes around again I will once again have to avoid the TV because all we will hear is about the Australian Soccer Team (WHO WONT WIN), but will be treated as if they are the worlds best, we will have em on ads selling breakie cereal, and we will see giant screens erected with the maddening sense of optimism that they will be in the final.
  
  Mal Australia is one of the worst countries for sports mania (why i will never know). When the Olympics are over there will probably be parades for them, AND I GUARANTEE YOU we will hear on the media the athletes being refereed to as HEROES ! This is what annoys me the most, they are not heroes, they run or swim or jump, they do not run into burning buildings to save people, they do not confront armed criminals, they do not save lives on the operating table and they do not make the world a better place to live in, they simply run, swim or jump and get a shiny medal.
  
  Reply
Soos says:

11:06am | 09/08/12

I agree wholeheartedly with every word you typed; does that make me un Orstrayan?
- Our Myopic World says:
  
  10:41am | 09/08/12
  
  I watched the ABC this morning they only talked about the Aussies.
  It was like we just went like magpies to London to get gold.
  There was no interest in the other teams, oh it was soo boring. My 10 year old son was aghast at this insular coverage and in insisted we change channels.
  
  Reply
- James says:
  
  10:42am | 09/08/12
  
  Are you serious?! 9’s coverage has been terribly one-eyed! At leask the UK has a right to be cocky!
  
  Reply
- Shane From Melbourne says:
  
  11:25am | 09/08/12
  
  Tell all the British pensioners in Australia to shove off and go back to Britain. That will reduce the burden on the health system. Then start thinking about the KIwis…....
  
  Reply
- Love the BBC says:
  
  11:39am | 09/08/12
  
  Malcolm, you’re being a childish.
  
  The thing I love about the Brits is their bragging is so much more eloquent than us.
  
  I heard the following on BBC radio last night:
  
  “You’re on BBC radio five live proudly covering a veritable multi-faceted assault on world sport, live of course from the home of world sport. Frankly, If we weren’t broadcasting this to the great British public, we wouldn’t believe it was happening ourselves….now we go back live to the Olympic Stadium where Boris Johnson contests the first heat of the Mens 200m. At this point in time one has a genuine sense that even that may be possible…”
  
  I thought it was fantastic.
  
  Reply
- Gordon says:
  
  12:52pm | 09/08/12
  
  Wrong in every possible way.It’s so wrong it’s like someone put you up to writing the wrongest thing you could think of. Did you lose a bet or something? Better stick with the politics please Mr Farr where you views are at least debatable.
  
  Reply
- McNifty says:
  
  01:10pm | 09/08/12
  
  Tsk tsk, Malcolm! You’ve really upset the Poms, expat and otherwise! They don’t understand the subtle difference between sledging and whingeing.
  
  No wonder the Scottish - with the exception of “Team GB” (does that stand for “Team Gordon Brown”?) want to leave to leave the Sassenachs behind…
  
  Reply
Team GB says:

01:57pm | 09/08/12

Opinion polls suggest otherwise McNifty, 55% no to independence, 10% undecided, not looking good for the lunatic nationalist fringe. You’ll be stuck with Team GB for a few more Olympiad yet I’m afraid!
- Esteban says:
  
  02:36pm | 09/08/12
  
  It is ironic that Malcolm Farr has made a career out of inobjectively reporting politics which is a field that really calls for objectivity.
  
  The one occassion when a dose of inobjectivity is pretty normal is home town reporting of Olympics.
  
  Yet Malcolm Farr has taken exception to it.
  
  The only thing missing from Farr’s article is blaming the UK conservative Government for the quality of the BBC.
  
  Reply
- Coocookachoo says:
  
  03:56pm | 09/08/12
  
  Gee wizz. All the Brits took the bait on this one! Ocean trawler MV Farr has scored a massive haul of pommy whingers with this gem.
  
  I say let the British have their vitriol… after all the only thing they’re really sore about is that they’re not Australians.
  
  Suffer in ya jocks!
  
  Reply
Gordon says:

04:30pm | 09/08/12

I think you’ll find most of the posters are as Aussie as you are mate, and realising that any country’s coverage of their own victories is as pumped-up as the next, so pot/kettle. Besides Poms usually crap at olympics so if they do go OTT sometimes it’s probably out of shear suprise
- Jim says:
  
  10:10pm | 13/08/12
  
  Your comment:
  Fair dues mate, true the BBC have made no effort to be impartial at all—they wouldn’t claim otherwise, but they gave Oz credit where credit was due, see below:
  
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19218805
  
  Reply

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Team GB says:

Badjack says:

jorgen flenswing says:

Adam says:

Team GB says:

gobsmack says:

Mayday says:

Steve says:

Mahhrat says:

Warren says:

Public Savant says:

Emmy says:

bazza says:

Martin says:

daniel says:

chuck says:

Charlie says:

TimB says:

Rose says:

Jon says:

CD says:

Tony says:

cynic says:

Darren says:

Team GB says:

I love BBC says:

Bec says:

Sam says:

Soos says:

Our Myopic World says:

James says:

Shane From Melbourne says:

Love the BBC says:

Gordon says:

McNifty says:

Team GB says:

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