The media hysteria surrounding Jarryd Hayne has been, let’s be real here, bordering on the overwhelming at times.
But this is historically true of Australia – this country bloody loves a captivating sports story. And few have been as mercurial as that of Hayne’s rapid transition from local NRL star, to landing a gig in the toughest sporting league in the world – the NFL.
The ABC‘s snickering media safety net Media Watch is an Australian TV institution – it’s a glorious weekly dose of schadenfreude aimed at the hyperbole and ridiculousness of commercial media writ large.
But even Media Watch isn’t immune to mistake.
On last night’s episode, the show took aim at the media circus and coverage surrounding Hayne and his NFL transition, but wound up producing something that came across as ill-informed, holier-than-thou, and a little smug.
The segment queried why the media has been paying front-page attention to Hayne, and not to other Australian athletes in the US such as Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Marcus Ambrose, Dante Exum and Grant Balfour.
The segment exclusively invoked NewsCorp‘s newspaper coverage for the segment, suggesting that the level of Hayne-hysteria is somehow due to Rupert Murdoch and his long-known preference for Rugby League.
Media Watch host Paul Barry also labelled the NFL as a sport “no one watches.”
Yeah. Not a soul. Particularly not the Super Bowl, which remains the biggest annual sporting event on the globe.
It was a nice try.
You can cop the whole transcript of the Media Watch piece, as well as the footage, over at the ABC website.
Photo: Ezra Shaw via Getty Images.
