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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 14. 28 June 1972

Editorial:On Giving Sport The Boot

Editorial:On Giving Sport The Boot

Who would have thought that there was a silent majority at Victoria? Not us. We expected a barrage of complaints from Sports lovers when a few weeks ago (I forget exactly when), we bade goodnight to our already slumbering sports writers. But no, apart from a bellicose league lover who attempted to beleaguer us within the eggshell walls of our very office, we've had no reaction until a letter this week.

Unless some better arguments are forthcoming, we feel the point is proven — that the complement to sport is not thought. The correspondent in our columns this week makes two points, first that if Salient was to represent the 'news and views' on the campus then our policy is 'arbitrary and discriminatory', and second, that if we're trying to politically persuade people then by 'chopping' sport we're losing half our audience before we begin. But If we were to ask our correspondent what he imagined the job of editorship to be, he would be hard pressed to define it in terms which did not in some way refer to arbitration and discrimination. Perhaps he feels that we're extremists. If so he'd better stick to the compromise and comfort of the 'Evening Post.' If he wants a more representative selection of University news the 'Gazette' may be the paper for him. But this student paper intends to discuss the 'student' rather than the association or the university, and it will 'discuss' not 'reflect' or 'represent' If it did the latter it would be no more than a collation to fit an externally prescribed formula.

Regarding the second point. We are well aware that some people read Salient for a specific section and no more. Well, we are sparing them the effort of hunting through the pages in search of that small paragraph which includes their name or team. It wont be there anymore. The people who read Salient mainly for the sports page but swear to us that they 'read the rest as well even if it is a load of shit' we can't be bothered with either. At best they're trying to be broad minded liberals but more likely their glance at the pages of real ideas and issues is but an indulgence of conscience. They are giving token attention to the political pages which print perhaps the only creative thought going on in this university. After all, adherence to a university is one of the most conservative pursuits left in this society.

The point our correspondent makes is just as insidious as the creeping liberalism in this country. He admits that sports fans need to be bribed into thinking further and he wants us to bribe them, by giving them their own page where they may retreat from the 'political and cultural' pages, just as in their sport they escape from the basic issues of life.

Well we're just not going to offer bribes. We don't care if the Salients go unread or are left on the piles. We even invite sports fans to make such an inept protest. At least its a protest. What is more probable is that, being the [unclear: mutualising] masochists that sportsmen are, they will simply go on suffering in silence.