Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I have read Rugby journalism on various sites, primarily G&GR, The Roar and Rugby Heaven, with the fervour of a religious fanatic for pretty much the past 6 years.

Spiro Zavos, an inspiration for me in Rugby journalism.

I have commented in other places on this site about where I think Rugby journalism is lacking, but today I want to focus on something a little bit more murky.  Something a bit more intangible, a little bit dark and conspiratorial.

I want to talk about agenda and bias in Rugby journalism. 

Logically, articles from guys like Paul Cully, Smith, Zavos and Growden were bound to be opinionated and subjective (being grounded more often than not in a lack of any objective statistics) so we can forgive them this.

What I find harder to fathom or forgive, is when statistics (if you can call them that) are parroted as a means of objectively justifying an agenda, without any acknowledgement of the potential failings of the said statistics.  Over the years, this has not been a dominant form of journalism, people like Spiro for example would use statistics sparingly (perhaps in knowledge of their potential fallacy, and also in the absence of any really good statistics).

But when Scott Allen appeared on G&GR I think it is fair to say that most of us fans and critics felt like it was a breath of fresh air.  Here was a fresh product, someone attempting to objectively analyse the play of various players using video analysis, statistical metrics and the like.  It felt dispassionate and rational, and it felt right.

Then it all went to shit.

After article and article full of questionable statistics, rubbishing the same players while praising others, the veneer of objectivity over the articles began to wear thin.

And the worst bit?  Readers of this journalism where eating it up like Oliver Twist.  It almost appeared to me that people where quite happy to let someone else do the thinking for them and then to stand behind it as gospel supporting their own agendas. 

This drove me from commenting on sites like The Roar.

All of this was a lengthy introduction to this new series of articles which I have called the Who watches the watchers series.  In this series all I want to do is tear any Rugby journalism to objective shreds.  I want to stress test and tease out inconsistencies and I want to hold their statements on certain players, coaches on the record.  

I hope you guys enjoy it.

JP