***Official*** Spot-Fixing Scandal

[Flem274*]

Well, I started the debate, so I make the terms here

The point is though, that they launched a whole deceptive sting operation to get a measly quote. At the end of the day it isn't so much about publishing the comments but about the lying and deception that they employed for the sole purposes of getting a quote. Now by all means walk around in a groucho marx moustache if you're trying to bring down corruption and the like, but there's no way you can justify this sort of unethical crap for rubbish like this.

Tbh one of the first rules is bring a recording instrument every time you meet the subject. Hell, I recorded my row with Studylink on dictaphone. Any investigative journalist meeting a Pakistani cricketer is being silly if he doesn't record the conversation.

Also, you'd be surprised how much people run off at the mouth, especially when you say little. It's something we're taught to do pretty early in second year. Many people feel the need to say something to break the silence. From what I've heard about YH, he's perfect for that tactic.

As for lying about being a journalist, investigative journalists rarely admit their profession, It's counterproductive. And no journalist would get near the Pakistan team if they admitted who they were.

Atm there are undercover journalists all around the Pakistan team, waiting for a slip up. It isn't unethical, it's good journalism. Big stories don't come in one go, they come in bits and bobs. Open up the initial cracks and get the ball rolling then hide, dig for material, and wait for people to be people and get themselves in a hole.

NOTW made an interesting call to publish this story though, because while it adds to the pile of evidence against the fixers, it may have been smarter to save this and dig a little more for more dirt. The players will be even more paranoid now, but I guess whoever is directing this story must feel confident they have the right people in the right places to squeeze more juice out of this.

 

[pasag]

Tbh one of the first rules is bring a recording instrument every time you meet the subject. Hell, I recorded my row with Studylink on dictaphone. Any investigative journalist meeting a Pakistani cricketer is being silly if he doesn't record the conversation.

Also, you'd be surprised how much people run off at the mouth, especially when you say little. It's something we're taught to do pretty early in second year. Many people feel the need to say something to break the silence. From what I've heard about YH, he's perfect for that tactic.

As for lying about being a journalist, investigative journalists rarely admit their profession, It's counterproductive. And no journalist would get near the Pakistan team if they admitted who they were.

Atm there are undercover journalists all around the Pakistan team, waiting for a slip up. It isn't unethical, it's good journalism. Big stories don't come in one go, they come in bits and bobs. Open up the initial cracks and get the ball rolling then hide, dig for material, and wait for people to be people and get themselves in a hole.

NOTW made an interesting call to publish this story though, because while it adds to the pile of evidence against the fixers, it may have been smarter to save this and dig a little more for more dirt. The players will be even more paranoid now, but I guess whoever is directing this story must feel confident they have the right people in the right places to squeeze more juice out of this.

Yeah but the point isn't about recording it, it's about the lengths he went to to lie to get the 'story'.

He didn't just not disclose his profession but he set up meetings for sponsorship, and sponsorships for other players etc. Not admitting who you are and creating an elaborate lie are two different things and I don't see how that's good journalism in the slightest.

 

[Matt79]

Got a result didn't it?

 

[Adamc]

It's not as though he went to the trouble of doing that because he wanted Hameed to say 'yeah, I read the paper too'. Obviously he thought Hameed had something more substantial to say. If Hameed did offer some significant revelation then the ruse would have been justified from the journo's perspective. As it happened they didn't get much out of him and tried to spin a non-story into a story (apparently successfully, from what I'm reading in this thread).

 

[Flem274*]

Yeah but the point isn't about recording it, it's about the lengths he went to to lie to get the 'story'.

He didn't just not disclose his profession but he set up meetings for sponsorship, and sponsorships for other players etc. Not admitting who you are and creating an elaborate lie are two different things and I don't see how that's good journalism in the slightest.

You need the elaborate lie so alarm bells don't start going off in the subjects head.

 

[GIMH]

I agree with Jono

 

[Fusion]

Got a result didn't it?

What result did it get? What new evidence came out that wasn't already exposed due to their earlier sting?

 

[Burgey]

What result did it get? What new evidence came out that wasn't already exposed due to their earlier sting?

But how could they know that before they pulled the sting?

They had access to a player and set up an elaborate ruse in the context of already having shown the players as cheats. They couldn't know he would have nothing new of substance when they set him up.

Personally it's not a great way to do business, but frankly allrheyre doing is getting down in the gutter which is where march fixers lurk anyway.

 

[Jono]

Pasag lurks there too tbf.

 

[_Ed_]

Not admitting who you are and creating an elaborate lie are two different things and I don't see how that's good journalism in the slightest.

But didn't they do the same thing to talk to Mazher Majeed?

 

[pasag]

But didn't they do the same thing to talk to Mazher Majeed?

The distinction has been made early on.

 

[pasag]

But how could they know that before they pulled the sting?

They had access to a player and set up an elaborate ruse in the context of already having shown the players as cheats. They couldn't know he would have nothing new of substance when they set him up.

Personally it's not a great way to do business, but frankly allrheyre doing is getting down in the gutter which is where march fixers lurk anyway.

What big sting? Did they offer him $$$ to fix a match?

 

[Burgey]

What big sting? Did they offer him $$$ to fix a match?

The sting being the filmed conversation... They can't know what he was going to say.

It's not particularly savpury but I really don't give a **** and would find it pretty funny if the biggest beef of one of the players at the centre of this fiasco has is that they were filmed and set up (not this bloke btw). Then we would have got it all wrong as to what the important story is here.

 

[Matt79]

They would have hoped he would name names and provide new revelations. If he'd admitted to being aware of that but had not reported it, that would have been a big story.

 

[Jono]

Indeed.

 

[pasag]

The sting being the filmed conversation... They can't know what he was going to say.

Right, and my pov is that this type of behaviour isn't justified simply because he might say something. And then he doesn't say anything and they **** him over hardcore anyways...

 

[Matt79]

Well he did say something, and it was interesting. Admittedly he didn't admit to knowing anything beyond what was in the paper, but as someone who had been around the team for years and knew the people involved quite well, he said that he believed the allegations and talked about how he felt Asif was unfeasibly rich for an honest cricketer. You obviously have to take his comments with a grain of salt because of the obvious bitterness of the guy, but speaking in an unguarded fashion, he didn't exactly say that he couldn't believe the accusations or that he felt they were bs, did he? That's interesting IMO.

 

[GIMH]

Pasag lurks there too tbf.

Nah, he's far below that level

 

[Matt79]

Spot-fixing controversy: Two Pakistan players issued notices before scandal | Cricket News | England v Pakistan 2010 | Cricinfo.com

The Daily Mail has named the players as Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt.

 

[zaremba]

Hope for Pakistan as an equally apparently-guilty victim of NOTW video sting secures an unlikely acquittal on a match-fixing charge