I’m no great fan of the tabloid media. Last weeks blog where I voiced dismay over the way Joe Public lapped up the woefully inaccurate judgment of players ability depending on what club they played for (perfectly illustrated by the responses we got) and that followed me emailing the Sun Chief Sports Idiot Steven Howard (to no response, must get a lot of those emails!) but step forward Derek McGovern of the Mirror, who in two fell swoops has made the once respected profession of journalism look like the career of choice for those who couldn’t even arrange the letters “GCSE” in the right order let alone sit the exams, his latest excuse for an article details how he’s been frothing at the mouth over the Ryan Giggs BBC award after he believes the United legend has done “nothing” this year.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Mirror website ever since the first week in November when McGovern used his fantastic insight to imply Valencia among others is a flop (that’s unfolded rather well hasn’t it Delboy?) and Scholes is past it in an article that included references to Jordan, a milkman and Brigette Bardot. Um, yeah.

McGovern is a Liverpool fan who apparently also moonlights as a betting “expert” (though with suggesting Sir Alex would be sacked this season and that his beloved Dippers would win the Champions League I think we can safely say he’s as good in this field as he is as a scribe) and has described Giggs’ Sunday night award of BBC Sports Personality for 2009 as a “travesty” and his achievements in this calender year as “nothing”.

Nothing compared to.. what, exactly? He won a record 11th league title. A League Cup. Helped his team get to the Champions League Final. Has broken the 800 appearance barrier, all at one club, to cement his position as the clubs’ record appearance holder. Dominated many big games, scored brilliant and priceless goals, set up countless others. In this calender year alone he has achieved more than 99% of players will in their entire careers.

I suppose he hasn’t miraculously perverted the course of justice by clearly assaulting someone yet escaping a sentence – that was an achievement – and it goes without saying that in Jessica Ennis, Jenson Button and David Haye there were three very worthy winners there too. Perhaps Giggs won because hordes of United fans voted for him or because people were torn over the other three but at the end of the day it’s a public vote and I’m sure there were plenty of non-United supporters voting for anyone rather than Giggs to add their own gentle manipulation. It works both ways, yet the award and voting system only gets criticised when a United player wins, just as it did with the PFA award earlier this season.

Both awards have been running for many years and the system has never been challenged, yet strangely it does when a true legend of the game does. Do you think it might possibly have anything to do with the club he plays for? Of course it does.

None of this nonsense in 2003 when Thierry Henry won PFA Player of the Year despite van Nistelrooy scoring about 46 goals and winning the title. Or in 2006 when Gerrard won it for scoring an equaliser in an FA Cup Final. No uproar when Michael Owen won BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1998 for scoring a goal, a single goal, brilliant as it was, in the World Cup. No fuss when Gerrard somehow got third place in the BBC award of 2005 despite having all the personality attributes and morals of a sewer rat.

The BBC Sports Personality is apparently awarded to the sportsperson who “most captured the public’s imagination”. Well, cementing his position as his sports most successful ever player in this country, writing new records every time he steps onto the pitch as the player to play the most times ever for the club he supported as a boy – the only club he has ever played for – and still being arguably the best player in that team?

I’m no representative of Joe Public but I’m pretty sure if you handed them a list of definitions they would choose all of the above and there is no question that Ryan Giggs ticks all of those boxes.

McGovern is so blind with ABU rage he missed the glaring contradiction in his little article, firstly suggesting that a tide of United fans swayed the vote and then saying that he won with a small amount of votes. Make up your mind, moron.

It’s fair to say you disagree with the award. Of course it is. But to actually get paid for writing things like players in the PFA can only “vote for Manchester United players” is staggering.

Again, as I said in my last blog about the media, it’s not breaking new ground to suggest the tabloid media is populated by a bunch of idiots but it is depressing to see how we as a nation have declined so notably where people such as McGovern who are so overcome by bias that they cannot even write a comprehensible, objective article but yet get paid seemingly on the basis that they can (barely) structure a basic sentence.

Now, I’m no groundbreaker in the field but I’m confident that I am far more capable than our Delboy in either of the professions he seems to be paid for. I’ve read Liverpool fan blogs and debated with their writers over our difference of opinion and of course there is bias on both sides – but at least they try and construct a reasonable opinion using facts (even though they usually miss vital elements out).

Steven Howard has held the crown for a while but I appoint you, Derek McGovern, as the worlds most idiotic Journalist.

And that’s an award that is justified.

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