An Insight Into The Inner Sanctums (Danny Taylor - Guardian)

[LongsightM13]

What about his fabricated and vindictive story about our so-called 'Golden Jubilee' song?
The one he continued to change his story and lie about afterwards.
Taylor is a ****

and you are clearly a very nice person

Well, I've never knowingly and deliberately made up and circulated lies about thousands of people as part of a witch hunt to pre-judge and condemn their behaviour before the fact — as certain journalists, Taylor chief among them, did to City fans before the 50th anniversary of the Munich disaster.
So compared to that scumbag, I'd say yes, I'm a thoroughly decent cove.<br /><br />-- Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:04 am --<br /><br />

What about his fabricated and vindictive story about our so-called 'Golden Jubilee' song?
The one he continued to change his story and lie about afterwards.
Taylor is a ****

I remember it well and some of his reporting before that derby was bang out of order.

Buy hand on heart, I'd be hugely surprised if there wasn't a group of blues in a boozer singing that song. Not the majority of our away end of course, but a dozen or so pissed up. Which is no excuse to insinuate it's everyone granted.

Did you hear the singing in the stadium in the Dublin games?

As I remember the lengthy complaints to the Guardian's 'readers' editor', Taylor first claimed to have heard it widely sung in the ground.
This was challenged and he then back-tracked and said he heard it in a pub.
This was also challenged, and he then said it was not him but 'his mate' who heard it in a pub.
This was again challenged and he declined to identify the pub.
It was fabricated, cynical, pre-meditated and a diabolical attempt at so-called journalism. The readers' editor knew a shit storm was brewing and so shut down all further correspondence.

 

[ograset]

A couple of things in there Ive heard from elsewhere in the club as well.
The Mancini hard as phuk is a big big deffo.
He dont give in, regardless of the name on your shirt.

 

[twosips]

It's very possible that Taylor heard from a trusted mate and printed that golden jubilee stuff. He made a mistake and back-tracked. What's to say it's premeditated and not just a little bit stupid?

He seems a decent bloke to me and i'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Given his job sometimes he'll report on something he believes true that is potentially explosive. If it goes wrong though and it's badly sourced then it turns out badly. Like this did...i don't think he's anti-city though at all.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

It's very possible that Taylor heard from a trusted mate and printed that golden jubilee stuff. He made a mistake and back-tracked. What's to say it's premeditated and not just a little bit stupid?

He seems a decent bloke to me and i'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Given his job sometimes he'll report on something he believes true that is potentially explosive. If it goes wrong though and it's badly sourced then it turns out badly. Like this did...i don't think he's anti-city though at all.

If he did believe it happened it's most likely he got it off here or another City forum and it's not the first time he's been found out telling porkies and causing trouble for City fans. In that particular incident the Guardian didn't back-track, making up excuse after excuse, each more ludicrous than the last.

Sad thing is that there's a very decent writer in there and he does seem to have realised this finally.

 

[twosips]

Right. I've been speaking to Danny. He's asked me to post this regarding the Golden Jubilee thing.

He asked me to post this as i said the interview had reached bluemoon so he had a look. Read it.

Hi Steven

Glad the blog has gone down well on the forums mate

I saw the two posters talking about the 'Golden Jubilee' song. I've tried to email Prestwich Blue before but, being the pro I am, I emailed someone I thought might be him. It wasn't.

But to clarify, this is the story they are referring to:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jan/22/newsstory.manchestercity?INTCMP=SRCH" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008 ... NTCMP=SRCH</a>

The irony is that City asked me to write the story regarding the supporters' club letter (which I know split opinion) because they thought I could help the club as part of their strategy, using the media, to make sure the minute's silence went well.

They put me in touch with Kevin Parker and the info about that song came from him. I don't think I exaggerated it or sensationalised it. It's not even in the intro, for starters. As for whether it happened, I haven't got a clue. But I thought then, and do so now, that the official spokesman of the official supporters' club is a decent enough source.

For what it's worth (maybe very little) I probably believe it happened. At the following game, the FA Cup tie at Sheffield United, there were huge threads on Bluemoon about this song being widely sung. I really don't think that's because people heard about it in the Guardian, particularly the second paragraph of a downpage article.

As for 'repeatedly changing my story' and all that stuff, that's just nonsense, to be honest, and probably better for the guy in question to be sure of his fact before accusing me of, well, not being sure of my facts.

I have never been contacted by the readers' editor and I have never had a single letter about it. I was in Riyadh when that West Ham game was played and could never have claimed to have heard it!! And I don't do City/United away games in London. I was relying solely on the word of Kevin.

Hope that clears it up mate. Appreciate it will probably mean more of the same but feel free to post it. They can always get me on Twitter too and these things can be cleared up in two minutes rather than three and a half years etc etc . . cheers!

You really can't say fairer than that imo - why would it still bother him so much if he didn't feel aggrieved?

 

[Sigh]

Oh yes...Kevin Parker...I remember now...that letter...those interviews he gave beforehand.

 

[LongsightM13]

Right. I've been speaking to Danny. He's asked me to post this regarding the Golden Jubilee thing.

He asked me to post this as i said the interview had reached bluemoon so he had a look. Read it.

Hi Steven

Glad the blog has gone down well on the forums mate

I saw the two posters talking about the 'Golden Jubilee' song. I've tried to email Prestwich Blue before but, being the pro I am, I emailed someone I thought might be him. It wasn't.

But to clarify, this is the story they are referring to:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jan/22/newsstory.manchestercity?INTCMP=SRCH" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008 ... NTCMP=SRCH</a>

The irony is that City asked me to write the story regarding the supporters' club letter (which I know split opinion) because they thought I could help the club as part of their strategy, using the media, to make sure the minute's silence went well.

They put me in touch with Kevin Parker and the info about that song came from him. I don't think I exaggerated it or sensationalised it. It's not even in the intro, for starters. As for whether it happened, I haven't got a clue. But I thought then, and do so now, that the official spokesman of the official supporters' club is a decent enough source.

For what it's worth (maybe very little) I probably believe it happened. At the following game, the FA Cup tie at Sheffield United, there were huge threads on Bluemoon about this song being widely sung. I really don't think that's because people heard about it in the Guardian, particularly the second paragraph of a downpage article.

As for 'repeatedly changing my story' and all that stuff, that's just nonsense, to be honest, and probably better for the guy in question to be sure of his fact before accusing me of, well, not being sure of my facts.

I have never been contacted by the readers' editor and I have never had a single letter about it. I was in Riyadh when that West Ham game was played and could never have claimed to have heard it!! And I don't do City/United away games in London. I was relying solely on the word of Kevin.

Hope that clears it up mate. Appreciate it will probably mean more of the same but feel free to post it. They can always get me on Twitter too and these things can be cleared up in two minutes rather than three and a half years etc etc . . cheers!

You really can't say fairer than that imo - why would it still bother him so much if he didn't feel aggrieved?

Simply not true. The correspondence with the readers' editor was covered extensively, I believe on here or another forum (I wasn't a member here at the time) and, I believe, in King of the Kippax? PB may well remember the detail.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Well as I was named in that story it's only fair to answer. I'd like to hear Kevin's version of events but I know he was concerned about the situation prior to the game and, in my opinion, made himself look a bit silly over it. Kevin is usually very reliable in his media appearances but he got that one wrong imho and the whole event passed off impeccably, as we know and as most of us believed it would..

However I've had first hand experience of Taylor misquoting fans and causing trouble so won't judge until I've heard KP's side of it.

The way it played out was that the report was printed just after the FA Cup game at West Ham (5/1/08) and a few people protested to the Guardian via Barry Glendenning, deputy sports editor. I'm a bit dubious that this is the story that originally set off the furore as it's a couple of weeks after that game and the report I read seemed to make it clear that it was the West Ham game he was referring to. But it could be that Glendenning said that after people got in touch over it.

He claimed that DT had heard the chant at West Ham and some of us who were at the game challenged that. Glendenning then back-tracked a couple of times when he was asked for specific details first saying Taylor had heard it in a pub. When it was pointed out that Taylor was in the Middle East at the time he then said a friend had told him it was being sung in the pub. That certainly didn't help the situation as it made Taylor appear to be a blatant liar so you can understand our anger.

But even if that story is 100% kosher (and I have my doubts) then I'd still question his judgement and motives in printing something so inflammatory. And it doesn't answer questions over a number of other dubious stories of his, including one where he plagiarised a passage in a book written by Eamon Dunphy, almost word for word, without crediting him. Johann Hari got suspended from The Independent for that. I expect better from serious journalists.

If he wants to get in touch with me so badly, my email address is plastered all over the internet. My real name is well known and I Googled it along with the words Manchester City; my email address was in the first hit. I've got a significant number of journo's contact details in my address book and they have mine. His Guardian colleague David Conn has it and my phone number, plus he could simply pm me. I know Ric would promise to protect his identity if he signed up, as I believe he does for at least two other well-known posters on here.