FL2: Torquay Utd v Lincoln 2 April 2011

It is not always easy to guage whether the rest of the country are actually outraged or (a) Don't care what an insignificant little jerk says when having a tantrum or (b) Haven't actually heard of Wayne Rooney (millions in this country I would bet).

It is the media who tell us that the whole of the country is outraged and many a time I have wondered when reading or listening to the media whether I am the only one out of step with the rest of the country.

How many times have we read in the paper a phrase such as, "A shocked bystander said ...."? No he didn't! There was no shocked bystander, and the phrase has been inserted either by the reporter to show the editor he is doing his job or by the editor who knows that he isn't!

The media control and manipulate without any real accountability and it is the media that hyped up the incident which really should have been played down and ignored by the media but not by the FA.

Yes Rooney is an oaf and yes he should receive a punishment. Unfortunately a punishment for one of these multi-millionaires is not actually a punishment and with Rooney and many like him it is many years too late.

He is one of a generation who received no discipline at school, never heard the word no from their parents, had no ambition to work for a living but thought it their right to be a celebrity, and on achieving that so-called status then resent everything and everybody else.

What thread is this?

Oh yes Lincoln matchday thread. Great save by Bevan!

My fault... I hijacked it somewhat.

Normally I say very little on the forum but when I do I seem to get stuck in the wrong room. I have the same problem at parties, and it's got me into all sorts of trouble over the years!

And I agree Steve, the media hype-up too much purely for their own benefit.
But what got to me over this incident, and caused me to put 'pen to paper', was not only the inability of someone very much in the public eye to understand the meaning of decent behaviour toward others; but for commentators, for whom it suits to take a biased view, to be so dismissive of this behaviour without apparent thought, the main culprit in my eyes being Shearer. It came across has if his view was gospel as he is a well-known footballer on the television.

It is rather like this ridiculous, contemptous bullying thing that politicians now do when they don't like a method of questioning that takes them off their designated path; the word 'look' said in an exasperated way whilst they stare dismissively at the commentator as if the person asking the question hasn't the mental capacity to grasp what the politician is saying, where in truth the commentator isn't going along with the spin being produced by the politician, who, realising this, gently degrades the questioner with this most withering of put-downs.

And on the subject of so-called 'spin doctors'... well, I'll hold that one back for another time!