Sport's philosophical bent:
Letter to PM Howard, Aussie sports moralist
JH, I'm writing you this out of concern at what some of your associates are doing to sport because I've noticed you've often taken the moral high ground when it comes to sporting controversy. I'm concerned particularly for my game, rugby league, but really the whole sports thing in general. I'd like to firstly ask a question. What do the football code of rugby league and the Olympic movement have in common that's dragged them into the media shock-horror-revelation spotlight? Well JH, there's a growing band of opinion it's because they've both been corrupted by the pursuit of profits. The mass media thrives on it, and makes it worse. "Why aren't people concentrating on the game" they cry and then hungrily lap up the latest spill of sensationalism. The newest discovery is that football players drink grog. Steady, I know this comes as a shock. Better sit down. And wasn't it just this year that the mass media also discovered corruption is rife in the Olympic movement? It was hidden so deep even the mighty forces of the Packer, Murdoch and Fairfax empires — not to mention CNN, CBS, NBC etc — couldn't root it out and expose it. The whole mess must just have floated to the surface. Now, I know you shoot all responsibility home to individuals, that being your philosophical bent. But I should put you on notice that not everyone's taking that approach on board. This Olympics thing and the ongoing saga in league are pretty good examples. I know you're naive in a kind of upper class, 1950s way but even back then footballers drank and athletes did the little extras to gain a competitive advantage. Things have got steadily worse as many of your mates in big business — like those who're funding your party and gave you a leg-up into government — gained control over sport everywhere. Don't cover your ears and shake your head, others have a right to express their ideas too. Take this code of conduct the National Rugby League wants to impose on players. You don't really think they're doing it to protect and help the players, do you? We all know that part of the profit-making process in sport is image. Negative public perception — as the PR people put it — might stop some people encouraging their kids to play the game or keep wavering supporters away from the grounds. But a worse thing as far as Murdoch, Packer and company are concerned is that it would discourage people from forking out their hard-earned dough for pay TV. At the start of the Murdoch takeover bid for rugby league most supporters saw News Ltd as the bad guy in the black hat and the league administration as the good guys. But now that people can step back from it a little they're coming around to the realisation that the game had been sold out long beforehand to the likes of Kerry Packer and various tobacco and beer conglomerates. The News Ltd coup was simply a part of the whole process. With this code of conduct business, you may have noticed that the players' union stepped in and demanded player representation in forming any rules. Otherwise the administration, who are really there representing the interests of corporate sponsors and the media barons, would have put all sorts of restrictions on players and actually interfered with their civil liberties as citizens. I know you would have preferred that to happen, JH, because you believe that the powerful elite should have all the say, that being your philosophical bent. But I should warn you that, just like it dawns on people that some thieving mongrels are messing with their game, so they're starting to conclude that the same people are messing with their lives, and with your help. Sport's like that; it can be a mirror held up to life. Look at the number of Aboriginal players at the top level of the game, far more percentage- wise than the population as a whole. A lot like their numbers in the prison population. But then, maybe that's my philosophical bent. Sincerely Juan Workman, Grassroots Supporter, Struggle Street, Redfern Oval