The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1893-05-20 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

SPORT & ANECDOTE.  BY AN OLD FOORY.  THE SPORTING JOURNALIST. There mold be no greater tribute to the popularity of sports and pastimes in England than the rapid development of journalism as applied to our recreations and amusements, both out of doors and ii dcors. The number of I:iewspapers which are wholly and solely sporting organs is simply legion. Lovers of the turf have some stores of periodicals to read, mark, and inwardly digest if they are to be perfectly an courant with all that concerns the ',reeding and 'horde.; c.f thoroughbred racehorses. Cricket, football, cycling, golf, lawn tennis, aquatics, chess, whist, and other games have all smart publications to which derotees and enthusiasts naturally tr.ro. Indeed it is hard—very hard—to name a legitimate sport which has no paper of its own. More than that nearly all our daily and weekly newspaper' reserve very considerable space for reporting and commenting upon events in the world of sport. The monthly magazines, and even the quarterlies, frequently contain articles upon sports of venous kinds. Indeed, it is difficult to know what England would do without the sporting reporter and oritac. And yet it always seems to me that the aforesaid reporter or critic is not generally regarded with the same respect—not to say veneration—which sa generally accorded to the con:mon or garden vcriety of pressmen. I hays no cause of quarrel with the pressman who is a politician, or who writes learnedly on espitary schemes for the edification of the average ratepayer. I have no complaints to make against reporters from those in the House of Commons down to those who attend the meetings of the Little Peddlington Local Board. All—all are honourable MeD, and, generally speaking. do their work both well and conscientiously. But, after all, it requires no very special knowledge to report a speech in the House. or to serve up a tasty tic fection of the remarks of old Bombastes. In these days it is not overwhelmingly difficult to pen a political screed which parses muster with the general herd. Vituperation s artful aid is largely the stook-in-trade of those whom Mr. Ciminglisme Grahaan once described as "those magnolia-scented, gilt-edged liars—the lender writers of the daily papers." My point is this—that the competent sporting reporter, critic, and commentator is really a specialist. And as such, in my opinion, deserves as much respect from the general reading public as the journalist who stains paper about pohtxae n_rnicipal goverament, and murders. Mr. Henry Laboricre once remarkel that journalism is the art of concealing ignorance, and he is the best journalist who can the most artistically conceal his lack of lmcwledge. This comae is open to the common or garden ink-slinger. A sporting journalist cannot conceal his ignorance from his readers because they generally know too much about the subject. He earnot shelter himself behind vague generalities, for if he does he is soon assessed at his proper worth. Let the sporting journalist make the smallest mistake, the least slip in the world, and it is very short odds that he will immediately find himself not merely ecrrected but aheolutely slaughtered by feTflO statedLeal 'porting fiend who his studied his subject very okerely.