Kinnear: Nutter or not?
Sunday, 5 October 2008
I was discussing Joe Kinnear’s foul-mouthed press conference tirade with friends over the weekend and have been surprised to find quite a lot of sympathy for the nutter. The popular view, expressed also by football pundits in the past couple of days, seems to be that although he probably went a bit over the top, the interim Newcastle manager was probably justified in going apeshit at some football journalists, including calling one of them “a cunt” because, well, most of them are.
My initial reaction was to side with the hacks. I’m not sure whether this is because I’m a journalist myself. It got me thinking that perhaps the reason much of the coverage has been implicitly skewed against Kinnear (including idly flung insults such as “nutter”) is because the media in general tend to side with fellow journalists. Everyone else just sees a bloke trying to do his job while a bunch of know-alls try to undermine him before he’s got his foot in the door.
I can’t imagine it’s the first time a football manager has lost his rag like that. The only mistake Kinnear made was requesting that the exchange be made public. The most cringeworthy part of the entire episode is where the squirming Newcastle press officer waits until halfway through the press conference before requesting that the earlier bit is kept off the record. Which, of course, is just a really, really bad idea.
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