What's worse: a lack of perspective or no perspective at all?

Frankly, I'm bored with the hype surrounding Eduardo's dive last week, and his subsequent and inevitable - some might say pre-determined - two-match suspension. From the vast swathes of column inches and vitriol this has generated, you would think the Arsenal striker was in violation of the nuclear test ban treaty or something. Eduardo has been vilified as a cheat: the poster boy for all that is bad in football. He has been retrospectively given a two-match ban (for what is normally only a yellow card offence), but as far as I'm concerned it's water under the bridge. I only hope the authorities will now consistently punish other divers with the same vigour. (Somehow I doubt it, though.)

Anyhow, fans all across the internet have been climbing on their high horses ever since. Eduardo deserves to have his leg broken again, some said. (Seriously, I kid you not.) He should be banned for six matches or more, said others. Let's douse a Croatian flag in petrol, wrap him in it, and burn him at the stake. (Okay, okay, I may have made up that last one.)

Er, sense of perspective, people?

When Birmingham's Martin Taylor broke Eduardo's leg in 2008, we also saw some extreme reactions. Taylor's former manager, Steve Bruce, claimed the tackle (for which he was rightly sent off) wasn't even worthy of a booking; Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said in his post-match interview Taylor should be banned for life (a statement he quickly retracted). The views of football supporters on various phone-in shows and online were equally polarised. A small handful claimed Taylor had done nothing wrong, that some allowance should be made for the fact the incident occurred in only the third minute, or because other equally bad tackles had escaped punishment in other games. Others called for perpetrators to be banned for as long as the injured player is absent from the game (completely ignoring the issue of how you punish a malicious tackle which causes no harm, or one which results in a career-ending injury).

Again, a sense of perspective was sorely lacking here. Taylor served a mandatory three-match ban (personally, I had no problem with it being 'only' three games) and anyone who thinks they can prove malicious intent as a justification for a longer ban might want to consider that just because you perceive malice aforethought does not mean you have actually seen it. Unless you are genuinely psychic, that is.

So, a lack of perspective is bad enough. But what about when there is no perspective at all?

If you were watching the live coverage of Saturday's game between Manchester United and Arsenal, you will surely have heard a particularly unsavoury chant, directed at Wenger, being sung with gusto by a proportion of the United fans. (I will stress that it was not being sung by a majority, but neither was it only a handful of voices - it was clear enough for anyone to hear.)

It is a chant which has been sung ever since Wenger first arrived in England, 13 years ago.

It is a chant so utterly repugnant and slanderous - it goes far beyond the line which separates 'banter' from the truly offensive - that I will not repeat it here, but it directly accuses this most cultured and urbane of football managers of being the kind of person murderers and rapists look down on in prison.

It is the kind of chant which, to his credit, Sir Alex Ferguson has previously tried to discourage in his programme notes, calling for the police to do more about it.

But, most distressingly, it is a chant which has never been widely reported in the popular media. There has been no media perspective on it which, given the tabloids' penchant for whipping up a storm over anything football-related, is surprising. It has been ignored, as if its non-coverage somehow denies its existence.

Until now.

The Mirror's John Cross has picked up on the outrage which has spread via blogs (such as the vocal but always well-balanced Arseblog), Twitter and other online sources at the availability of a CD of Man U chants which includes the offending item. (Amazon are still selling it at the time of writing, although Play.com have removed it, even though they are under no legal obligation to do so.)

Similarly, Marina Hyde has written an excellent piece about the 'chanting cretins' in the Guardian today. In particular, she notes that the aforementioned CD contains "a downloadable version of the chant, presumably for people who don't have enough scumbag friends to sing along with them." Harsh, but fair.

I'm not going to get all holier than thou about it, because we Arsenal fans also have a history of directing unsavoury chants at opposing players and managers, although nothing quite on this scale. However, in theory at least, you can be ejected from a stadium and banned for life for singing racist chants. But this specific chant has been sung for over a decade - particularly vociferously at Old Trafford and White Hart Lane - and the police, the clubs and the media have done next to nothing about it. Surely that's wrong?

For far too long, there has been no media perspective on the subject of the many chants in football which are racist, homophobic or just plain slanderous. At least there is one now, albeit a small one. Call me a cynic, but I doubt it will ever receive the same level of media coverage and condemnation as, say, Eduardo's dive. Surely that's wrong too?

So, really, who is worse?

Is it the fans who, sometimes blindly, get caught up in the emotion of a controversial incident, leading to over-the-top reactions which lack proper pespective? Certainly that's what certain sections of the media would like you to believe.

Or is it the more measured and supposedly more objective response of the media in consistently refusing to give oxygen to a burning issue which has been hopelessly under-focused for years?

You tell me. Help me put things into perspective: I'm just a biased Arsenal fan, after all.