It's not the same, his role as commentator is not the same as the role of a journalist and he is not trained as a journalist, he is a hired mouth. He obviously isn't seen the same as a journalist by players otherwise Farah wouldn't have said it to him without asking for assurances that it was off the record. It was expected to not be repeated publicly because it was a private conversation but Tallis is not obliged not to repeat it publicly by a professional code of ethics, only a personal code of ethics, which varies between individuals.
His code of ethics is exactly the same. Former players might not think they're in the media, and some of them like to disassociate with being so, but they are.
It doesn't matter one iota what he's trained as, nor do the majority of journalists have proper 'training' as such anyway.
He knows (or he should know) if anyone says something to him in a private conversion, that is clearly marked as a non-professional one (even if not stated this is off the record) then it doesn't get reported - no matter who's arse he's trying to cover, save or whatever.
Farah is a cat, I'm not defending him. But how was Gorden's integrity being questioned? He just shot out with it on the subject without any need to defend himself did he not? From what I gathered, he did it to defend Mick Potter.
