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Barry Davies quits MOTD, slamming partisan commentary

(September 2004)

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UB
Uncle Bruce
Luke posted:
I personally am glad to see the back of Barry Davies. Never quite warmed to his pompous, superior way of commentating.


I used to turn him off and put Greeny and Ingham on Radio 5 on instead ...
DO
dotdotuk Founding member
Of course we are talking about the British Broadcasting Corporation here so they should not show bias to the England region if they are playing the Welsh region.

~~~~~~~~~
All the best,
Henry
~~~~~~~~~
BR
Brekkie
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Wonder if they could do something similar to what Radio Leeds does when there is a local derby, have two blatently biased commentaries from the same match, one on FM, one on AM and let the punter choose which they want. Something like that would certainly be possible on digital I would imagine.


dotdotuk posted:
Of course we are talking about the British Broadcasting Corporation here so they should not show bias to the England region if they are playing the Welsh region.


You do have audio options, but that's not entirely the point. It's not just for England v Wales, it's for all England matches which are shown across Britain (which all of them are!), should have a neutral commentary.

The most annoying thing about the BBC team is Alan Hansen (Scottish) and Mark Lawrenson (NI) referring to England as "us" and "we" as said by Barry Davies himself.
GB
GavBelfast
Brekkie Boy posted:
The most annoying thing about the BBC team is Alan Hansen (Scottish) and Mark Lawrenson (NI) referring to England as "us" and "we" as said by Barry Davies himself.



Mark Lawrenson is not from Northern Ireland, nor did he play for Northern Ireland.

On the other hand, Alan Green on Radio 5 LIve DOES continually refer to England as "us" or "we" or "our", which with his broad Belfast accent really does grate on a lot of people.

If he does it at Old Trafford next March, or worse still at Windsor Park next October, he mightn't get out!
GB
GavBelfast
TVPhil posted:
"You're sacked!" "No, I quit!" "I quit first!"



He allued to this 'suspicion' on Football Focus earlier.

But where has Barry's neutrality come from? Remember the Olympics in 1988, when at the final of the hockey he said "Where were the Germans? And frankly, who cares?".

His comments about England within a British context are a symptom of the perils of one unit of the UK being so dominant in terms of population, but not having English specific media of its own. Is there a solution to this, or doesn't it matter? If this siuation is unfair at all, who is it unfair to - the English themselves, or the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish?
BR
Brekkie
GavBelfast posted:
But where has Barry's neutrality come from? Remember the Olympics in 1988, when at the final of the hockey he said "Where were the Germans? And frankly, who cares?".


That's completly different - he was commentating on a British team on a British channel across Britain.
DD
DiscoDave
Three reason why non English viewers get annoyed

- the assumption that viewers are pro-English, hence the "we", "us" references being totally unjustified.

- the arrogance of many sports commentators/presenters

- the "superior than anyone else" attitude shown by sports commentators/presenters
RR
RR
Brekkie Boy posted:
GavBelfast posted:
But where has Barry's neutrality come from? Remember the Olympics in 1988, when at the final of the hockey he said "Where were the Germans? And frankly, who cares?".


That's completly different - he was commentating on a British team on a British channel across Britain.

Not at all.

He was commentating on a Great Britain team across the UK on the UK's national broadcaster.

People in Northern Ireland pay their licence fee.

Why do you think that if the team includes your bit of the UK then bias is fine, whereas if it doesn't then bias is wrong?
BR
Brekkie
RR posted:
Brekkie Boy posted:
GavBelfast posted:
But where has Barry's neutrality come from? Remember the Olympics in 1988, when at the final of the hockey he said "Where were the Germans? And frankly, who cares?".


That's completly different - he was commentating on a British team on a British channel across Britain.

Not at all.

He was commentating on a Great Britain team across the UK on the UK's national broadcaster.

People in Northern Ireland pay their licence fee.

Why do you think that if the team includes your bit of the UK then bias is fine, whereas if it doesn't then bias is wrong?


Got me their - although I think Team GB is officially known as Great Britain and Northern Ireland (why not UK), so maybe I'm right after all!
IN
intheknow
Brekkie Boy posted:
RR posted:
Brekkie Boy posted:
GavBelfast posted:
But where has Barry's neutrality come from? Remember the Olympics in 1988, when at the final of the hockey he said "Where were the Germans? And frankly, who cares?".


That's completly different - he was commentating on a British team on a British channel across Britain.

Not at all.

He was commentating on a Great Britain team across the UK on the UK's national broadcaster.

People in Northern Ireland pay their licence fee.

Why do you think that if the team includes your bit of the UK then bias is fine, whereas if it doesn't then bias is wrong?


Got me their - although I think Team GB is officially known as Great Britain and Northern Ireland (why not UK), so maybe I'm right after all!


Correct - the team is offically Great Britain and Northern Ireland, its just that the media usually just refers to Great Britain, and because the three letter code for the team is GBR.

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