Saturday, March 15, 2008

Why bother with truth?

Fiction is more interesting. It only took a week for the rumors to percolate into full-fledged allegations. All of it began when Victoria told British Vogue (she's the cover girl this month) about future plans for her family.

"If we lived in England full-time, which at some point I'm sure we will, we would have to have a house in London."

So she's talking about someday living in England again, sometime in the future. It didn't take long for that story to pick up some speed and variation, though, thanks to anonymous sources who added a whole bunch of information about how unhappy the Beckhams supposedly are with their lives in LA.

David may be a better actor than people give him credit for, because in every interview I've been at where the subject has come up, he's expressed a lot of happiness with life in L.A. There may still be some incredulity from the public at large that Beckham even signed with the Galaxy. A lot of people said after the signing that Beckham was completely worthless, but then he went out and helped Real Madrid win La Liga and contributed to England's games. Now it's harder to say he's a waste of space, so instead, the new story is that he doesn't really want to be in the U.S.

Someone, at least, is buying that.
Interesting how tabloid rumors become fodder for a columnist who, as far as I know, has never even spoken to Beckham, but yet presumes to know how he feels about playing in MLS and living in Los Angeles.

I'm not saying Becks is thrilled to be here. I'm saying that's what he's told me and other reporters. If anything, I find it telling and intriguing that so many people have trouble believing that. I guess some just don't trust Becks to tell the truth.

7 comments:

artnsue said...

Somebody tell this reporter that his schtick is not new, Jim Rome as already got it covered.

just another one of you said...

There will probably be knee jerk,ignorant articles like the one that NBCsports reporter put out until most sports journalists over 45 years of age retire. Thanks for showing that, once again, the MSM doesn't understand and underestimates soccer fan base in this country.

Anonymous said...

While no one knows how Beckham and Victoria feels in LA. I find it naive in a way that you being a journalist take anything that someone tells you at face value. Beckham can say he loves it in LA all day long, but even if he hated it, would he honestly just say, "I'm unhappy here, I want to go home?" Of course not.

A.C. said...

I didn't say I believed him, but I reported what Beckham actually said. Celizic did no such thing. It's all speculation without a shred of evidence. Other things in his column were flat wrong - the MLS minimum salary is NOT 10,000 dollars, Beckham has been anything but a financial albatross for the league - that's his one obvious success, in fact. Plus, idea that AEG can't afford to pay Beckham's salary is a flat joke. Beckham may not be transparent, but in another example, Beckham's unhappiness at Manchester United (and Fergie's with him) wasn't exactly a secret, either.

Anonymous said...

@anon March 15, 2008 6:39 PM

when did Andrea say she took Beckham 100% at face value? She said that's all she's heard about him which is the opposite of this tripe trumped up from a quote about the future. I mean she even provided the trail of evidence for you.

This kind of thing is not new for the UK media. It reminds me of last year when they took Lalas' wuote about MLS being more competitive than the Prem in the sense of any team being able to beat any other team and twisted it into 'Lalas thinks MLS is higher quality than the Prem' It's a joke.

This 'journalist' on MSNBC should be ashamed of himself. Lazy writing, no research no class and no dignity to be totally honest.

justanotheroneofyou said it right. I notice most of the younger writers (under 35 years old) actually appreciate the athleticism required to play the game at a high level even if it isn't their favorite sport.
These cliche 'soccer is for homos' typs of rants are so old and lame. They are also kinda ironic considering many of them prefer a game where one man puts his hand on another man's ass who is wearing capri pants, skin tight lycra tops and thight high stockings before wrestling with other men. I love NFL too, but I'm just saying, it's not exactly a testosterone fest all the time. :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, its hard for me to comprehend where the soccer hate comes from in journalists like the NBCSports reporter.

If the sport is irrelevant to them, why make the effort and the time to hate it? Why not just ignore it like so many other people do in this country?

Is the basis xenophobia? Do these guys hate immigrants and foreigners and relate soccer to a game loved and played by immigrants and foreigners?

Is the basis homophobia? Are these writers so convinced that soccer is gay in comparison to baseball, basketball and American football? What's the connection with soccer and homosexuality? Has someone actually shown any kind of analysis that soccer players and fans are more likely to be gay than the players and fans of any other sport? And why would it be remotely acceptable for the main stream sports media to imply that soccer is tied to homosexuality?

Is it insecurity that soccer may actually gain popularity in the U.S., somehow displacing our other "beloved" sports?

Is it nationalism that Americans and American sports are superior to every other nationality and the sports loved by those nationalities?

I just want to understand the motives they have to hate. I want to get to the bottom of it. Because if soccer was meaningless in the American sports landscape, why would it provoke such strong emotions in these writers?

Dan Haug said...

I read a lot of Celizic's columns, and often they're pretty good. He's not generally a soccer hater. I've seen him write some other articles that were pretty even-handed.

My guess is (from the tone of his other pieces) that this is a knee-jerk reaction to the the hype surrounding Beckham. I think he was just waiting for an opportunity to pronounce this a failure, and he whipped this thing out at the first real opportunity.

I really hope that the Galaxy come together as a team, and becks plays well this year. Nothing I hate more than when ignorant guys like this end up being right for all the wrong reasons.