October
AprilAncient history
"The ABC has become a complete and absolute disgrace to sport". So asserts Ronnie O’Raighin of Euroa (21/4) because the national broadcaster failed to include a racing segment in the evening news service following a major Randwick meeting.
Ronnie, who apparently monitors all new services, notes that even Channel Seven’s Tim Watson,"who wouldn’t know a horse from a bandicoot" featured items from Randwick on the news.
Not content with bucketing the ABC and damning Watson with faint praise, Ronnie then attacks the television stations for presenting surfing segments. According to Ronnie, "television stations seem to think we need to see these drug-crazed dropouts on our news service every night."
Drug-crazed dropouts! The sort of people who use this sort of emotive language are usually the sort of people who declare horse racing as being a corrupt activity ("a lot of races are fixed — everyone knows that").
Those of us who have been involved in racing as an owner or punter over many years know that whilst industry individuals infringe in various ways from time to time there are rules and procedures in place to ensure that there will be consequences for non-compliance.
As you will note from my address I reside in the heart of a surfing community and can assure you drug taking is something the community itself will not tolerate. As in racing there are checks and balances in place to ensure that competitors are "clean".
I’m sorry that the content of the ABC news service wasn’t exactly to Ronnie’s liking but I think it’s a bit rough to denigrate a decent group of people with an outdated criticism in the course of expressing dissatisfaction.
Sure, some time ago surfers were noted for drug use — but that was in the last century, as was the "Fine Cotton" affair.
The names of three former ABC general managers were mentioned in the letter, which suggests to me that the writer’s age is in the vicinity of "three score plus ten", as is mine. I would recommend to Ronnie that those of our vintage, prior to expressing opinions, should try to remember that we are living in the 21st century.
Cape Woolamai (Vic)