Delight in trivial controversy? Questions for sports journalism

![CDATA[Over a quarter of a century later, it is useful to reconsider this condemnation of the role and standing of sports journalism, and not only in England. This is a familiar critique that can be applied across the globe. A recent international survey of the sports press, analysing over 10,000 sports articles in 37 newspapers in Australia Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Norway, Romania, Scotland, Switzerland and the USA, was no more complimentary about what it dismissed as the 'world's best advertising agency'. While only ten countries out of the over 200 that play sport were covered by the survey, the 'formula' that it describes as shaping the economy of sport -close cooperation between sports business and media -has undoubted global significance.]]