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Post by bigbro on Mar 24, 2013 14:47:34 GMT 1
I seen the Tele has a new editor, a former reporter I believe, his face looked familiar to me?
Claims to want to put the paper back at the 'heart of the community' by the piece he wrote in the paper in January, and my old mammy tells me there's been a few new features and old news archive stuff that she's enjoyed since.
The Tele used to be, and still can be, a decent source of news, national and local, and my family and I were all regular readers, up to around six years ago when it went 'tabloid' and even wee Jeanie's blocked sink was 'hell'.
I'm down south most of the week and can only read some snippets online because of the padlocks on stories. Has the paper improved any under this new guy? Is he from Greenock? Im guessing I am in the minority by the name of this site, but I'd like to see Inverclydes' local paper get back on track.
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Post by samfregreenock on Mar 24, 2013 17:30:11 GMT 1
I seen the Tele has a new editor, a former reporter I believe, his face looked familiar to me? Claims to want to put the paper back at the 'heart of the community' by the piece he wrote in the paper in January, and my old mammy tells me there's been a few new features and old news archive stuff that she's enjoyed since. The Tele used to be, and still can be, a decent source of news, national and local, and my family and I were all regular readers, up to around six years ago when it went 'tabloid' and even wee Jeanie's blocked sink was 'hell'. I'm down south most of the week and can only read some snippets online because of the padlocks on stories. Has the paper improved any under this new guy? Is he from Greenock? Im guessing I am in the minority by the name of this site, but I'd like to see Inverclydes' local paper get back on track. It hasn't been on track for years It doesn't do investigative journalism, in case it upsets anyone The Herald et al do big local stories before the Tele They get their news from reading other papers then days later try and do a similar story Their "journalists" showed up in our street two weeks after a story broke ( was in all nationals for the whole time) - when their "journalists" arrived they told folk they only read about it in the Daily Rectum the day before and new nothing of it DOH! But alas that was probably not as big as wee kylie-jordan-tarina getting her bike knicked and her fat-arsed maw looking for some mug to buy her a new wan |
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Post by jimwatson on Mar 24, 2013 17:36:20 GMT 1
I seen the Tele has a new editor, a former reporter I believe, If I was being cruel I would suggest that all inmates at Crawford Street Towers were former reporters...but I won't! I too would like to see a thriving investigative local paper that kept people informed and addressed the issues in an even handed manner - nut that unfortunately has never been the Greenock Telegraph! The new editor is Brian Hossack who has spent the last number of years covering stories from Greenock Sheriff court on behalf of the tele... Journalistic integrity - two words they would need to look up in a dictionary... |
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Post by tiddles on Mar 24, 2013 18:02:01 GMT 1
Yes, it is rather a pity that the Tele went off the boil so much. It has never been a great local newspaper, in fact it has never even been a good local newspaper but at least they tried. Their finest hour was their reporting of the Blitz.
The last of the real editors was Ken Thomson. When he retired, it went all Daily Star on us with lurid headlines and mindless tales of wee Keysia-Bolivia and her lost bike.
I realised that the point of no-return had been reached when a friend and colleague had marital problems that were entirely private, spattered all over the front page. It was of no interest to the public or even his patients yet some twisted scumbag decided it was headline news. Of course the fact that the Labour council had yet again failed to get their annual accounts signed off by the auditors didn't even feature either on the front page or anywhere else.
The Tele has always been biased politically. In the old days when the Erskine Orr family owned the paper, Liberals got some good press but NEVER did they stoop as low as the Tele does now in making up anti-SNP stories and also failing to report when Labour politicians misbehave. It took them days to report on BIGOT'S housing scandal and even then it was watered down. I think the only formal news outlet had a duty to provide the constituency with ALL the facts and not just the foolishly trite mitigation handed out by McKenzie, "I have no idea who my landlord is" and "I don't even know where the flat is", "I don't know where babies come from".
We all used to comment on the Tele's comment section but they simply couldn't cope with the criticism of the Labour Party. We also would not swallow the daft propaganda about the Tall Shits thing. In the end, they created a paywall which none of us (did anyone?) saw fit to participate in.
Inverclyde Now which is run from Jeremy Burrows' back bedroom more often than not scoops them and in my view, most articles are accurate and thoughtful. Where Brother Burrows does fall down in my estimation is when his evangelical Christian views overwhelm his judgement and he writes features about organisations that have VERY questionable aims. Still, there's NO political bias and I'm sure he is always happy to offer a right of reply. At least you know where you are with Jeremy. I notice that he has started a comment section which is attracting some of the old Tele gang and one or two of us but I think I'll pass. I mean to say, why borrow a bike when you have one of your own!
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Post by samfregreenock on Mar 24, 2013 18:04:11 GMT 1
I seen the Tele has a new editor, a former reporter I believe, If I was being cruel I would suggest that all inmates at Crawford Street Towers were former reporters...but I won't! I too would like to see a thriving investigative local paper that kept people informed and addressed the issues in an even handed manner - nut that unfortunately has never been the Greenock Telegraph! T he new editor is Brian Hossack who has spent the last number of years covering stories from Greenock Sheriff court on behalf of the tele...Journalistic integrity - two words they would need to look up in a dictionary... That must have been exciting stuff................I take it there are multiple Pulitzer Prizes lost in the post then? |
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Post by bigbro on Mar 24, 2013 19:09:59 GMT 1
Not an expert, but Inverclyde Now looks like a collection of church and youth notes along with a pile of pasted press releases? Obviously difficult if you are a one man band, but it's more a notice board than a news site. Seems strange if this fellow is a court reporter that he would be looking to push community news? The Tele has been full of court reports since I was a kid, nothing new there, but it did seem to lose touch with its readers. My mammy would buy it if the front and back page were blank to be fair, swears by it, but I'd just like to see the area served by a thriving local press, be it online or in print. Plenty going on to support a local paper. Maybe some more free stuff online would help, well would help me when I'm away working anyway!!
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Post by samfregreenock on Mar 24, 2013 20:07:07 GMT 1
Not an expert, but Inverclyde Now looks like a collection of church and youth notes along with a pile of pasted press releases? Obviously difficult if you are a one man band, but it's more a notice board than a news site. Seems strange if this fellow is a court reporter that he would be looking to push community news? The Tele has been full of court reports since I was a kid, nothing new there, but it did seem to lose touch with its readers. My mammy would buy it if the front and back page were blank to be fair, swears by it, but I'd just like to see the area served by a thriving local press, be it online or in print. Plenty going on to support a local paper. Maybe some more free stuff online would help, well would help me when I'm away working anyway!! People inn yer mams age group and older, swear by it, just for the deaths, memorial notices etc, but alas even that is being priced out of reach of yer average punter. Inverclyde Now is indeed as you describe, but I suppose to remain free it has to do whatever it takes. In saying that it did make the Tele up its game, on the on-line arena though. If inverclyde Now can do what t does, then the Tele should be out of this world with its staff of "professionals" |
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Post by bigbro on Mar 24, 2013 22:08:32 GMT 1
Well time will tell for this chap I suppose. I certainly wouldn't hold the herald up as a beacon of journalism to follow though. Bought by an American multinational news organisation and run into the ground. Pc dibble does more investigations that that title. As I said, I'm a proud greenockian but down south a lot, so I don't see much of the Tele, bar what's free on the website. I can only go by what I'm told from family, and they say the papers changed a bit for the better. Journalism is a dying trade with the constant stream of Internet news, so they must have a hard time filling it every day, no ever story can be front page news in such a wee place. Plenty of places doon here would be happy to have a daily paper, we shouldn't knock it. Personal opinion, and all about opinions n healthy debate. Now whose going to vote for independence?!
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Post by samfregreenock on Mar 25, 2013 18:29:41 GMT 1
Well time will tell for this chap I suppose. I certainly wouldn't hold the herald up as a beacon of journalism to follow though. Bought by an American multinational news organisation and run into the ground. Pc dibble does more investigations that that title. As I said, I'm a proud greenockian but down south a lot, so I don't see much of the Tele, bar what's free on the website. I can only go by what I'm told from family, and they say the papers changed a bit for the better. Journalism is a dying trade with the constant stream of Internet news, so they must have a hard time filling it every day, no ever story can be front page news in such a wee place. Plenty of places doon here would be happy to have a daily paper, we shouldn't knock it. Personal opinion, and all about opinions n healthy debate. Now whose going to vote for independence?! There's a wealth of local stories the Tele should ave been investigating but don't seem to want to, or even holding local politicians to account. Mckenzies dubious flat renting practice. Never mind his hilarious I'll bring 100 jobs to inverclyde in 100 days pish. 100 weeks later (almost) he's brought fuck all St Davy Cairns support for Atos, to name but one thing Clydelink, airman and the dodgy kill reggae ferry. Council's future operating model fiasco, they eventually got round to running a small article 3 days after the Herald broke the story. Local gangsters and drug barons. |
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Post by tiddles on Mar 25, 2013 19:12:49 GMT 1
There is of course something the Tele could do that would improve people's opinion of them and that is to print real stories and not just copy and paste shit from the Council's PR department. They could drop the slavish adherence to the Liebore Party and its apologists and quit all the SNP bashing. You know a paper is biased when they support the Liebore Party and stick up for that awful Thatcherite, Fatty Wilson. And....if they REALLY wanted to demonstate being, 'heart of the community', drop the paywall and the politically motivated censorship on the comments section.
Will this happen? I'll not be holding my breath...
'Brian Hossack'? Never heard of him, is he related to the late, great John Hossack, former political editor for STV? Na, probably not, John was a journalist with a sack-load of integrity and that was a sack-load that wouldn't fit the doors of Baxter Towers on Crawfurd Street!
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Post by samfregreenock on Mar 25, 2013 20:00:53 GMT 1
There is of course something the Tele could do that would improve people's opinion of them and that is to print real stories and not just copy and paste shit from the Council's PR department. They could drop the slavish adherence to the Liebore Party and its apologists and quit all the SNP bashing. You know a paper is biased when they support the Liebore Party and stick up for that awful Thatcherite, Fatty Wilson. And....if they REALLY wanted to demonstate being, 'heart of the community', drop the paywall and the politically motivated censorship on the comments section. Will this happen? I'll not be holding my breath... 'Brian Hossack'? Never heard of him, is he related to the late, great John Hossack, former political editor for STV? Na, probably not, John was a journalist with a sack-load of integrity and that was a sack-load that wouldn't fit the doors of Baxter Towers on Crawfurd Street! Yer right of course Wee donkeys column on holyrood or mckenzies column on Westminster are complete and utter pish, who writes thin bilge, as its to far advanced literacy wise for thin two hauf-wits. They must get some primary school wean to take dictation from haudiit and daudit. They should be informing us of how holyrood works etc, not using it as a party political broadcast on behalf of the fukwit party. There's so much they could be saying, other than being allowed by the Tele to spout complete and utter inane pish. The Tele has an opperchancity to be all things to all men locally -but alas it fails miserably on virtually every front I remember the days when variorum was a complete hoot, wae mad snippets about mental things, all in one short paragraph or sentence each Just below the tides and lighting up times were wee belters of snippets Stuff like a bus conductress was miffed when handed a five pound note today for a 50p fair Or a man was seen walking his dog in coronation park early this morning Hilarious stuff Now all we get to laugh at is stuff about mass wanting their sick weans to go and swim wae dolphins in Florida whilst everyone else says for it and builds them a new extension whilst they are away Umpteen knocked bikes and maws looking for gullible mugs to furnish wee Jezebel-Kylie wae a new wan free gratis. The ugly maws and hideous weans competitions Local celebs devoid of talent or charisma, including Waterloo rd, how much stuff can you write aboot weather girl wannabees and piss poor tv shows |
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Post by tiddles on Mar 25, 2013 20:29:22 GMT 1
I haven't bought it for years but my wee mother has one of her wee churchie pals save them for her and she and the present Mrs Tiddles pour through them. I don't look at them because I fear I would not be able to stifle screams and obscenities. She who must be obeyed does not like bad words.
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Post by tiddles on Mar 25, 2013 21:46:40 GMT 1
I was curious about this new Lord Beaverbrook at the Tele, Brian Hossack so I searched and found this: www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/greenock/articles/2013/01/30/445132-teletot-contest-winners-revealed/#Bigbro said: Well sorry Mr Hossack, if you think that running this piece of tripe every year brings the Tele back to the community, you must chomping at the funny mushrooms! These oddities don't buy the Tele in fact many of them can't read. What happens is, their little darlings appear in the Tele and the mummies and grannies and aunties and their Social Worker all buy copies and send in votes. Thus, for a brief, a VERY brief time, circulation goes up whilst the vast majority of sensible people throw up at the sight of rows of peculiar children with equally peculiar names. Journalism? I think f*****g NOT! Shite? Yep, I think so! I was surprised to see what Hossack looked like, I imagined him to be a skinny youth with a pallor gained by sitting at the back of the court. Instead we see a wee chubby fellow with what looks like a fondness for pies. Of course the Tele photographer is so naff at his job, Hossack might well be six foot tall and svelte. He and his fellow photograph-ees are very crimson and the background is almost at an angle of 45 degrees. Photoshop anyone? Oh and..."Mercedes McQuillan Singh"  ?? Well it could have been worse, they might have owned a Jowett!!!!!! |
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Post by samfregreenock on Mar 25, 2013 22:05:41 GMT 1
Robert Paton is showing his age..........  |
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Post by tiddles on Mar 25, 2013 22:23:34 GMT 1
LOL
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?? Well it could have been worse, they might have owned a Jowett!!!!!!