James Loving - National Radio Text Service

 

Football and the World Cup were the driving force in sports taking four of the top 10 spots while TV reviews and our Phnom Penh column each took three positions.

 

Wednesday July 21, 2010

A MIXED BAG - SPORTS, TV REVIEWS AND PHNOM PENH SPLIT THE SPOTLIGHT

It's a no brainer that the NR Top 10 charts repeatedly qualify for the NR Top 10 listings. Given its about stories on the charts we don't list it being it would be superfluous.

American Idol is the star of the month as the June Video Beat Part 2 topped he list followed by Video beat June Part 1. The TOP 10 most read columns of American Idol's recently completed Season 9 in Part 2 was apparently the drive in the interest.

Football was the subject in deciding the third and fourth spots. Our February Sports Notes column IS JOHN TERRY THE NEXT TIGER WOODS notched the third spot. It was driven by our question regarding the disparity of a married Terry cheating on his wife and having a sexual affair with former teammate Wayne Bridge's girlfriend. Bridge is the father of his girlfriend's child.

Tiger Woods was ostracized by fans and in the press for cheating on his wife having sex with prostitutes not his friends or business associates girlfriends or wife. That major dissimilarity was largely ignored and Terry appeared to be given the green light by fans and media that what he did was OK while Woods was virtually interpreted as if he was staring the third World War.

CNN and other supposedly news outlets went wild rebuking Woods while largely ignoring the indignities of Terry. That indicates a double standard and reflects that racism has a lot to do with it.

Our June Sports Notes column IT'S ON!!! FIFA World Cup Begins notched the fourth position.

ELIZABETH BECKER LAUNCHES NEW BOOK BOPHANA from our Phnom Penh column remains on the charts at number five. That was closely followed by RUGBY TOURNAMENT TO ROCK PHNOM PENH that took the sixth position.

Football also took center stage in the number seven spot as 4 IRELAND 4 YEARS 4 NOTHING ranks seventh. With France disgracing themselves with their internal problems at the World Cup disgrace in quitting on their coach in South Africa. After Thierry Henry's handball this story most certainly exposes the need for the application of technology and how unfair it was for France to qualify while a more deserving Ireland squad was eliminated.

The Henry touch will go down in history along with Maradona's hand of God. The difference being that was then and this is now the emergence of technology that could eliminate such injustices as France advancing to the World Cup while the hard fighting Irish go home with only their blood, sweat and tears. Instant replay technology would have resolved the problem and there would be no controversy. The bottom line is FIFA needs to get on its game and get up to date with technology and rules that will take the so called beautiful game forward and not keeping it stagnant and hitting every bump in the road.

An American idol related story AMERICAN IDOL RESEMBLES CAMBODIA took the eighth spot. The ninth position was notched by another Phnom Penh column CAMBODIA'S YOUNG TELECOM WORLD which gives an insight to the new Khmer generation that is absorbed in Internet technology, games and telecom communications contrasting the older generations obsession with AK 47's and violence.

Our fastest mover was our Sports Notes column from July 2nd THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN Netherlands oust Brazil 2-1. Our sample was taken on July 15th The column notes Wesley Schneijder shines heading in two goals in a thrilling win for the Dutch - Spikes and elbows were flying as Uruguay outlast Ghana in an extra time thriller.

SECTIONS MOST VISITED

SECTIONS MOST VISITED Our Phnom Penh section tops the most visited list advancing one notch. In the mover department American Idol moved up three places from fifth to second, soccer from sixth to third Cambodia from eighth to fourth, Sports Notes from seventh to fifth, Thailand from ninth to sixth and the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers from 10th to seventh.

In the them changes department BIZ WHO IS dropped from third to eighth while BIT (Business Internet Technology) made its entry to the charts notching the ninth spot. The Entertainment section returned to the list after some time off. That section is largely driven by our reports on the Beatles Ringo Starr who is on tour and celebrated his 70th birthday July 7th.

Cambodia Sports, Boxing and Entertainment 2007 have dropped off our quarterly list.

ARCHIVES

In our Archives due to the World cup and the USA's improvement in the game we feature a story from 1999 ALAN ROTHENBERG "America's GODFATHER of Soccer" about the man who was largely the motivating force for the development of the game in the USA.

Another sports related story also from 1997 is a television review of the HBO films story Only in American about boxing promoter Don King and his rise to power from being convicted of murder to be the sports most powerful promoter. Fights to his credit include the Rumble in the Jungle with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman and the Thrilla in Manila featuring Ali and Joe Frazier. The films points out how King took advantage and cheated many on his rise to the top.

The Top 10 most visited sections are:

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