Aaron Stollar · @aaronstol
17th Jul 2015 from TwitLonger
Here's why soccer journalists aren't making a big deal over the Senate hearings
I am going to put my j-school graduate hat on and try to explain why, despite some of the online passion over the issue, American soccer journalists haven't covered the Senate FIFA hearing as much as some think it deserved. This may come as a disappointment to some of you who arrived at this week believing that US Soccer is already guilty of a wide variety of sins and crimes, but the reasons the hearing hasn't gotten enormous coverage are journalistic, not due to conspiracies or laziness.
Reason #1. From a journalism perspective, nothing really <<happened>> at that hearing. It was good entertainment watching Sen. Blumenthal and Andrew Jennings savage Dan Flynn and the USSF, but none of the "fireworks" really moved the story of FIFA corruption and/or USSF knowledge/complicity of it very far along. We didn't learn anything new, really. Did the USSF look bad? Yes, it did. Did Flynn's performance make him look guilty? Perhaps, it certainly didn't make him look innocent. But again, this is all optics.
It's worth explaining something else here. Some of the most rabid believers in the USSF's guilt come a background of political campaigns and issue advocacy. That's fine, but you have to remember that sports governance is NOT like politics. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you or I think Flynn looked shifty or guilty. We're not ultimately his constituency. This is why Roger Goodell is still commissioner of the NFL. It doesn't matter that the public and media believe that he's a moron, they are not his constituency. This fact makes it very different than politics and advocacy, where the appearance of a public official in front of a hearing makes it far more difficult for that official to get elected--and thus--important in a way that this hearing was not. In the world of sports governance though, appearances don't matter nearly as much.
Reason #2. The lack of the hearings being under oath. That, in and of itself, is a signal of intent from the Senate committee that this may be more about allowing everyone to get their grievances off their chest and on the Congressional record than it is about conducting an actual investigation of wrongdoing. Trust me, as soon as any officials with US Soccer are subpoenaed, the coverage will increase considerably. At that point, you can officially say that the Senate is <<investigating>>, not just talking, and that is major difference.
Reason #3. With the whole FIFA corruption situation tied up with DoJ investigations and the court system, no one is talking or leaking anything that could move the story along. Professional reporters can't just idly speculate of grand conspiracies the way the Ted Westervelts of the world can. If a reporter wants this story to move in some way, he or she are probably going to rely on a leak to do so. Well, it's completely not in the interests of a corruption defendant to start leaking before a plea deal is signed and, to its credit, the government hasn't been leaking too much either. Leaks do not tend to aide in fair trials for the accused. So if the leaks aren't coming, there isn't much you, as a reporter, can write about beyond just repeating the bits of the hearing that everyone has already read or viewed.
Reason #4. There has been, and continues to be, lots of compelling actual soccer happening with significantly greater news value and audience levels than the Senate FIFA hearing. Between the US WWC run and Gold Cup, there has been almost non-stop soccer involving the US senior womens and mens team to report on since the beginning of the summer. Now, if Gulati and other USSF officials start getting subpoenaed, the news value of that particular story increases dramatically. For now, the actual soccer outweighs the discussion of soccer governance.
Anyway, I just wanted to explain, in my opinion, why the American soccer media has not gone to "DEFCON 3" over this Senate hearing. You can feel free to disagree. Conspiracy theories are a warm blanket of false security in a cold, dark world of unknowns. But, before accusing everyone in the American soccer media of conspiracy, complicity, or idiocy, try to think just a little bit first. That's all I ask.