Well, the much anticipated arrival of Liz Hurley has opened the media flood gates once again to shine the light on our very own king of spin, Mr Shane Warne. Shane has gone to great lengths trying to protect the integrity of his overseas guest and who could blame him? There is much talk that our Shane is punching above his weight and worry that Liz should distance herself from our prince of controversy, but really is it anyone's business? When can we draw the line when it comes to the private lives of our celebrities?
I have spoken to many of our older generation over the years and the general consensus seems to be when it comes to any big name personalities, "Well they chose that lifestyle, so they should have to deal with it" or " They use the media whenever they want publicity, so they can't just switch the media off when it suits them".
So it got me thinking, do they have a point? Should we be getting maximum value out of the dollars that we spend on our sports stars? If our sportspeople can leverage the media to suit their own agendas can the media leverage our sports stars to suit theirs? Is there a line that shouldn't be crossed for the sake of getting a big story?
My personal opinion is that there needs to be some accountability on behalf of the sportsperson if they want to utilise the power of the media. There have been plenty of stars over the years that have played their respective sports and kept out of the public limelight. The problem seems to be when a sports star wants to run their own under wear line or appear as the face of a particular deodorant company that there seems to be an issue. Maybe it's because by Marketing themselves a certain way to the public they are claiming "I am this type of person".
One example of this is the recent indiscretions of Tiger Woods. Tiger was Marketed as a clean cut, nice guy who played golf and then went home to drink diet soda in his million dollar mansion. By him straying outside the borders of his projected integrity he subsequently opened the door to public scrutiny.
Of course there is always unwarranted probing on behalf of the media and the public, such as the question of Ian Thorpe's sexuality. This type of probing has implications for all sponsors involved with our beloved super fish. If it's not o.k. for an Indian cricketer to heckle someone based on their race, why is it o.k. to pressure someone on their sexuality?
The flip side to all of this is our sportspeople get jaded by the media scrutiny and simply pack their things up and move overseas. We have seen this already with some of our movie stars.
So whats the answer? Do we just leave our sporting role models alone? Or do we have a right to know the ins and outs of their private lives?
Tell us what you think. Are our sportspeople our business?
When sporstpeople are funded by our taxes via the federal government, then yes, I belive they are our business.
ReplyDeleteWhen they are funded by the gambling losses of addicted people who have no right to be spending their pensions in leagues clubs, then, yes, I think they need to be accountable for their actions.
Well said.that's the view a lot of people hold in regards to our stars. By following their stars they believe they already have an investment. Either way its a fine line
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