LETTER: Broadsheet litism adds up to an own-goal

Nick Hornby
Saturday 22 April 1995 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

MAREK Kohn is right to complain that football is no longer confined to the sports pages of papers ("The men who hate football", 16 April). In the last two years I have read at least two dozen articles on features pages complaining that football is no longer confined to the sports pages, that the New Lad is back, the chattering classes have come out, blah blah blah. Perhaps if people like Mr Kohn stopped moaning, it would free up papers for something more interesting.

In fact, his central point, that football is enjoyed by only half the male population (Kohn fails to mention the millions of women who watch, play, and read about football - a disappointing omission, given his anti- Lad tone), makes a case for more football coverage, not less - that is the danger of bandying figures about in what is essentially an anti- populist argument. I doubt that a quarter of the country reads hardback books, but the books pages occupy a substantial part of any broadsheet; much less than a quarter buys art, or eats in expensive restaurants, or does any of the things that newspapers lavish millions of words on each week. If 11 million men and 2 million women enjoy football, then at least the broadsheets are covering something that interests more than a tiny middle-class constituency.

Nick Hornby

London N5

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in