Bookies and their influence on Radio Sports Desks?

I heard the 6.45 sports news on Radio 1 this morning - they were going on about Terry Venables being the "favourite" for the Irish managers position, something which i commented on a while back.

I must be totally naive or missing something elemental here. Is this the most explicit example to date of bookies having the direct phone number to the sports department of a national broadcaster? Essentially, they are becoming a news source for something which is not really news worthy. According to a later statement from Venables mentioned on the RTE Sport website,

"I have not been approached for the Republic of Ireland job and I have not applied for it."

Now if you remember back, I think this is pretty much what Alex Ferguson said as well; And Martin O'Neill...and George Burley....hmmmm, I think I see a pattern here.

So sports departments, where's the juice coming from on this? Is simply mentioning in the story "according to the bookies" good enough for creating a story which is pure speculation?

Tags: irish ireland bookies venables football rte irish manager