Journalists and sportspeople: sleeping with the enemy

King Kong and Lord of the Rings fans at Cardiff Journalism School might have been disappointed to be greeted by the doyen of rugby journalism Peter Jackson this week. But my fellow trainee journalists and I were treated to 80 minutes of anecdotes and advice from a career spanning both rugby and football English World Cup victories, and Cardiff City’s heady days in Europe.

Among Jackson’s arsenal were stories of losing relationships with longstanding friends over articles he had published and questions he had asked them. Many of whom were prominent sports figures. Jackson said: “Probably when you are offending all the people all the time, that is when you are doing a good job.” For a man who has stayed at the top of British sports journalism for so many years and still has one of the biggest contact books in the business, this is very good advice.

This sentiment was echoed in Peter Preston’s article in yesterday’s Observer on the problems which arise when journalists are too cosy with sportspeople. There are probably about three or four journalists who have Alex Ferguson’s home phone number – but they will only occasionally get a story worth printing. Whereas Steve Tucker, the Western Mail’s Cardiff City correspondent, is regularly ostracised from the Ninian Park press conference room for asking the wrong questions – or more precisely, the questions City fans want answering.