Commonwealth Games Chief Decries Media Worries
(ATR) Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell tells Around the Rings that media reports are misinforming the public and misplacing blame about the beleaguered Games set for Delhi in October.
Fennell wrapped up a two-day inspection of the Indian capital’s 17 venues Thursday and told reporters at a press briefing he was satisfied with the host city’s preparations.
He told assembled media that the finishing touches – landscaping, cleaning and facilities testing – will have to be done in a hurry.
He also urged Indian authorities to swiftly and properly investigate any and all corruption charges surrounding the CWG.
Fennell, also president of the Jamaica Olympic Association, spoke with ATR in Singapore earlier this week at the Youth Olympic Games.
"You’ll see a headline that is alarmist, and what’s written in the body of the copy does not support that headline," he said.
"The public is not being served properly by the media, the written press in particular."
Fennell is concerned that news consumers will be unable to look past widespread reports of corruption, security risks and shoddy construction work.
"They must have an impact," he said. "They have distracted everybody’s attention."
Those same reports, Fennell told ATR, are misplacing the blame for any controversy surrounding the venues.
"[They’re] forgetting that all the work on the venues is not the responsibility of the organizing committee but of the various government agencies and departments," he said.
"That’s not a problem of the organizing committee. That’s the other departments."
Fennell stressed to ATR that organizers must ignore any distractions in the 45 days leading up to the Oct. 3-14 mega-event.
"We need to ensure that we keep our eyes on the ball and get the finishing touches for the organization of theGames done in good order," he said.
Such a distraction made headlines Thursday when Olympic champion swimmer Dawn Fraser, 72, told her native Brisbane Herald Sun that Australian athletes should boycott for security reasons.
"I would hate to see another Munich but, with things getting worse, I have grave concerns," she mused to the Melbourne tabloid. "Can they prevent it?"
Australia's CWG chief Perry Crosswhite, who was in Munich in 1972 as a member of Australia's basketball team, has since rejected the boycott.
Fennell expressed to ATR his frustration with the media’s coverage of the CWG, coverage he feels is one-sided.
"Good things don’t make news," he joked.
"I think it will be a spectacular Games."
Written by Matthew Grayson.
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