The Case Against Cricinfo
by Devanshu Mehta
Bottom line, up front: I love Cricinfo. I have for 13 years. But they have incredible power and are increasingly wielding it in a worrying fashion. Here is a call for better, clearer editorial standards.
Editorial Clarity
One of my fundamental issues with Cricinfo deals with editorial clarity. Most respected news outlets have a clear separation between News and Opinion. Cricinfo blurs the lines in multiple ways.
Part of the problem is one of design and signals. The way content is presented on Cricinfo, you are never certain if the article you are reading is News or Opinion.
News or Opinion?
This is a subtle example. There are links to three stories interspersed here. One is Opinion, two are News. Maybe it will be clear if we click through to read the stories.
Opinion. Perhaps...
Aha, this is Opinion. Perhaps. It says “Features” on top, which probably means it’s not news, and surely Daniel Brettig wouldn’t take such a strident tone against Hilditch in a news article? Who knows for sure.
Which brings me to my next issue– Associate Editor for Cricinfo, Daniel Brettig just called Hilditch a disaster. The same Daniel Brettig also pens multiple News articles on Australian cricket. News articles that are supposed to be objective, free from biases. This may be acceptable (but contentious) if we could tell News and Opinion apart.
Take a look at this article, also written by Brettig. It’s basically the same format of article as the Hilditch story. A lot of quotes from Sutherland, interspersed with Brettig’s commentary on the coach selection process. But this one is categorized as News. Who made the call? Based on what?
It’s a subtle example, but that is why it’s important. It is the subtle cases that matter. If we can’t trust Cricinfo to separate News from Opinion, over time those lines get blurred and it’s all just Daniel Brettig. Sometimes he lets his opinions show, sometimes he doesn’t.
The blurry line shows up too often on Cricinfo. News articles that slip in an opinion about a player, administrator or institution.
Why This Matters
The reason traditional news organizations provide a clear separation between News and Opinion is that different journalistic standards apply to each.
News must be accurate, must attribute reliable sources, and multiple sources must agree for anything to be reported as fact. When reporting controversial opinions, news stories attribute this to a third-party.
These standards do not apply to Opinion pieces. Daniel Brettig can write his own opinion.
If we, as readers, don’t know which one we are reading, how do we know which standards apply? Over time, if the lines remain blurry, we expect (and receive) lower standards from Cricinfo.
In short, if we’re never sure that it’s News, it is never News. It is always Opinion.
Written by Somebody
All of this is made further problematic by the rash of articles without bylines. Let me provide a little bit of background:
Many news organizations make a choice– either they byline everything or byline nothing.
For example, the New York Times bylines everything they write. You will see the name of the journalist who wrote the article at the top and sometimes additional contributors will be listed at the end.
The Economist, however, bylines nothing. Every article is by the Economist. The effect is that the entire magazine stands behind every word. There is no journalist to throw under the bus if something goes wrong– the masthead is accountable.
Cricinfo swings both ways. Usually, as with the Daniel Brettig articles above, they byline their articles. Occasionally, but not infrequently, they put out articles written by “ESPNCricinfo Staff”. Written by everybody and nobody.
Which is fine. Except that once in a while, a little opinion sneaks in to these “ESPNCricinfo Staff” News pieces. Which makes it all the more egregious– not only is this opinion disguising as fact, but the entire ESPNCricinfo organization is backing it up. It is, effectively, the masthead’s opinion.
Want an egregious example? Here you go.
The last four paragraphs are opinion. Lines like “You can feel the gravitas”, and “He flows like a becalmed river,” and “Perhaps in his mind there was no choice at that moment. He simply had to play it.”
Yet, there is no indication at all on this page whether this is a News article or Opinion. Worst of all, it’s attributed to “ESPNCricinfo Staff”. So all of Cricinfo can “feel” Laxman’s “gravitas”.
Independence
Most respectable news organizations structurally separate the News part of the company from the Editorial part of the company. The purpose is to reduce the influence of the editorial side of the house– the Opinions– on what is reported as news. The New York Times editorial board may prefer Barack Obama, and write Op-ed pieces in his support, but they have no influence over what news stories get reported. At Cricinfo, the same writers wear both hats, thereby reducing the trustworthiness of their own reporting.
Finally, there is the issue of conflict of interest. Kartikeya Date has done a tremendous job on this recently, so I won’t reiterate his points here. But the crux of my argument is that when you have opinion writers, you must detail their financial interests in the game.
Monopoly Opinion-maker Status
The reason all of this matters is that ESPN Cricinfo is slowly ascending in to monopoly opinion-maker status. What gets reported there, how it is reported, and how it is presented has the power to change perceptions. To change opinions. And thus change reality.
This is a great power. And as Spiderman said, when you run a monopoly news organization, you should pay strict attention to journalistic standards*.
* Peter Parker worked for Daily Bugle. Editor J. Jonah Jameson’s journalistic standards at Daily Bugle were appalling. What Spiderman really said was with great power comes great responsibility. Actually, his uncle said that. So scratch that last paragraph and replace with: “This is a great power. As Uncle Ben said, with great power yada yada yada.”
Deep Backward Point 
I found this a very interesting post, and have been thinking about it for the last few hours.
I think actually, a fundamental problem Cricinfo does have is with its layout. A number of very strong articles go ignored because of poor placement on the website. It can be very hard to find interesting and original pieces for this reason.
I would agree that Cricinfo has a monopoly. Certainly, if you like cricket, you tend to visit it.
I think I need to think about the situation some more before I can actually make an opinion either way. I dislike the website’s layout, but not sure that there is a particularly bad distinction between news and opinion.
Very well put… Instead of many people hinting at vague references, i liked the concrete manner in which you have raised the points od news & opinion.
Financial interests in the game is a very nebulous term. Every writer has it. For unless the game flourishes, the writer is out of business. The question rather is financial interests in a particular organisation and i prefer it is better if publishers ensure that their writers declare all their potential financial interests. But again,in the cases of freelancers this is an endless list. I don’t have concrete views on it and have many doubts over the issues Kartikeya has raised. But wonder if there is a way, one can decide what is the minimum information a writer should provide about himself ?
Agreed. The financial interest is difficult to pin down, but news organizations do it all the time. In my opinion, if there is an on-going financial relationship (salary, weekly/monthly column, retainer) or had been one in the past, with an organization named in a story, it should be disclosed. But the Conflict of Interest angle is one of my minor issues.
Yes, COI issue is a minor one to your article but as regards CI & COI, Kartikeya’s post only cited Harsha but then i wonder under what criteria can it be held as COI.
I agree on your opinion of financial relationship. But this wouldn’t apply to commentators who have a financial relationship with a TV Channel and their duties include commenting on IPL or CLT20, right ? For example, will Harsha writing on IPL fall under this category ? He does not have a financial relationship with IPL but with SET-MAX and his duties / work include commenting on the IPL. I have put similar points on a long winded debate with Kartikeya on his follow-up blog over the COI issue and i am not sure how this can be demanded of a writer i.e, to disclose the nature of his work too. I don’t understand well what COI means for writers but hope some of you can throw better light on it.
For Ravi Shastri or Sunny writing on BCCI, it is clear what they have to disclose but with many other writers, the line is very blurred.
I remember there was a time when the link for the article used to be accompanied by an orange symbol indicating its a feature/opinion. I have seen that vanish off late
[…] won’t take credit that it happened after my  Cricinfo article, but it did happen two days after Jarrod Kimber’s article on conflict of interest on […]
I agree entirely – I think my least favourite cricinfo pieces are the “best team ever?” articles. They are always, naturally, biased to the writers personal viewpoint. Even though I am english – it is pretty obvious to me that the great West Indies side of the 70’s and 80’s (to a certain extent early 90’s) was the greatest team to have ever played the game but nearly always pieces are compiled with a pro Indian view or a pro Australian view without taking into account facts like a-Bradman didnt play bodyline well so would have suffered against the windies and b- there is no batsman alive today thats playing that could have coped with that sort of pace barrage…