Scraping the barrel

Sometimes you do wonder at what motivates the media when they run a news story.

On both the Stuff and NZ Herald sites today, there is a non-story about former New Zealand cricketer Mathew Sinclair possibly having marital issues.  The Herald has gone further by putting it on the front page of its printed paper, so let’s take apart that article.

It is a vulgar intrusion of privacy, augmented by random and irrelevant pieces of innuendo.

The term manhunt is used, which seems an overstatement given he took his children to the nearest McDonalds.

The children are named and displayed.  The first photo has their faces pixelated, as you would expect, but then there was another photo from two years ago where they are not.  A massive an unnecessary breach of privacy.

Then the innuendo begins.  Reference is made to the demons he battled as a player.  Get the context?

Next an interview he gave to the Herald last year where he said “”I can understand why sportspeople get depressed” is lobbed into the mix.  Building the picture, and putting the boot in.

Sinclair is trying to build a career, and life after a long career of professional sport is not easy.  But to ham up a personal incident (the neighbour talking about the police turning up with a notebook provides comic relief) and throw in unnecessary jibes is hardly helping anyone.  We should be better than this,

Note: The New Zealand Herald has some very good cricket journalists; they must be livid at this.