Comments on: Experts and plebs

By: derek

derek — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:35:07 +0000

thanks for flagging the Tom English article, and your thoughts on it here are great. i watched the usa england game on an ABC stream, after which Steve McManaman of Steve McManaman fame was asked what the draw meant for the other teams in the group, to which he replied:
“if either of those teams can get a win, they can take the group by the bull of the horns”

i’ve fortunately been spared the british coverage of this world cup as i’m overseas, but i always used to think martin o’neill was the only one who ever knew more than the average fan in the pub. ian wright and alan shearer are utterly devoid of charisma and demonstrate so little knowledge of football it makes you wonder how they ever played

By: Gareth

Gareth — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:27:15 +0000

Great post. I’m listening to some downloads of the Radio 5 commentary, and it seems pretty… informative. Lots of good background about the South Korean players during the run up to the match against Argentina. I can’t comment personally on the television commentary as I’m in China, and it’s not accessible. The best solution might be to do what I used to do when I was in the UK: television on mute, commentary from the radio.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:41:35 +0000

Tell you what though, having millionaire ex-footballers tell me about poverty in South Africa has really brought it home to me.

To be fair I suppose the fact that the BBC has done reports about South Africa’s past has been admirable. I’m sure Fifa don’t want it mentioned.

By: Unconvention

Unconvention — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:25:12 +0000

This treatment of actual experts is surely connected with the growing trend for wheeling out average joes on the street to give their opinion (particularly on TV news). Experts, you see, aren’t to be trusted, they know too much to have a proper opinion.

By: Lunchtime list for June 18th « Talk Issues

Lunchtime list for June 18th « Talk Issues — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:56:54 +0000

[...] Experts and plebs – Tne TV World Cup pundits are revelling in their ignorance of anything outside the Premiership [...]

By: Julia Smith

Julia Smith — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:31:53 +0000

On this blending of experts and plebs, I think there’s also another point, that experts don’t want to be seen as such any more. The experts have been so torn apart on a variety of different subjects by the media that many of of the plebs would rather believe anything other than what they are told by them.

How many times do you see stories that go along the lines of the ‘so-called’ experts getting it wrong, on everything from the Mail claiming tomatoes can cure for cancer to the MMR scandal, to mention just two, I’m sure you can think of others.

So then you have people who should be in the expert group, such as Shearer, who are actively choosing to disassociate themselves from it, because – as with Mark Lawrenson – they’d rather be seen as the authentic voice of the pleb, speaking to equals without authority. Sadly, that also means without any facts, as it’s all straight from the gut/heart, with no intervention from the brain.

By: El Chuffo

El Chuffo — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:16:30 +0000

Is it just me that thinks Lee Dixon is quite good as a pundit?
The commmentators aren’t up to much either. When he’s not banging on about Man United, Tyldesley spends the entire game trying to come up with a Wolstenholme-esque line that will etc carve his name in commentator history. And fails.
Peter Drury thinks commentating requires you to yell out the surname of any player you think might be about to score. Jonathon Pearce squeals like a fat boy in a cake shop while on Radio Five Alan Green is just misery with a microphone. I’ve not heard him do a game yet that wasn’t ‘poor’ or ‘shockingly poor’.

By: BenM

BenM — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 07:48:42 +0000

I know he’s not at the world cup due to being paid by Sky, but Jamie Redknapp is by far the worst. Banal, lightweight, amateurish. I cringe every time he’s on.

And as for Robbie Earle?! LoL!!

By: We’re Not Plebs | erhebung

We’re Not Plebs | erhebung — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:10:46 +0000

[...] highly recommend reading this post about World Cup football commentators in the UK. It’s from Enemies of Reason, a great blog [...]

By: Wireman

Wireman — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:10:27 +0000

Just watched Match of the Day. Danny Baker said more interesting things in 30 seconds than Alan Shearer has in his entire TV career.