Friday, September 07, 2007

Blame it on the timing?

Christine Brennan's column in USA Today charges FIFA with doing a disservice to women's soccer by scheduling it at a very busy time on the sports calendar -- with the start of men's pro and college football in the U.S. and pro soccer around the globe. Brennan writes passionately about what she sees as FIFA's lack of respect for women's sports, and she blames the timing for the fact that US media are all but ignoring the women's world cup. She writes, "Competing for space in the newspaper and airtime on TV this month is just not an issue."
In the U.S., coverage of men's football is at saturation levels. (USA Today, for instance, ran football in two sections yesterday), Is it fair to blame the timing when journalists make their priorities for coverage and decide to run multiple stories on men's football and none on soccer or WNBA basketball? (One wonders if that isn't like blaming the victim of a robbery because he or she left a door unlocked.)

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