Rags Writing City Reports For MEN

[Petetheblu]

Thanks for your good wishes, and for the interesting points - I will definitely come back on here and keep an eye on what the fans are saying.
The poster who mentioned reporting on Tevez and Eto'o rather than Crouch, can I just say that the reason that happened was that there simply was nothing new to report on Tevez and Eto'o as far as I could establish either from City or from foreign sources.
Crouch was a new story - if I'd just repeated the Eto'o and Tevez stuff, I would have been criticised for repetition!
I'm fully prepared for the flak - let fly, it's all part of the game, and I've been copping it from both City and United mates for the past fortnight, in any case.

Well if your going to be coming on here and your a newbie, let me welcome you bluemoon traditional style and say RAG :)



Hehehehehe the irony!!!! :)

 

[Didsbury Dave]

At the bottom of the Tevez article it refers to 'moneybags City'. That's a cheap shot.

A cheap shot?!?!?!?!?!?

Jesus wept, I told you you were on a loser here, Stuart

 

[Balti]

At the bottom of the Tevez article it refers to 'moneybags City'. That's a cheap shot.

A cheap shot?!?!?!?!?!?

Jesus wept, I told you you were on a loser here, Stuart

OK lets put it another way. Quality pieces of journalism won't automatically include such phrases. The Sun and the Mirror probably will. The MEN is supposed to be supporting their local club....not helping to denigrate us. We've enough enemies looking to cheapen the name of Manchester City FC as it is.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I'm not a fan of the 'PR release' feel of some of the articles. I don't know a whole lot about the world of journalism and the pressures put on the writers, so I do not know if you have the ability to change this.

As someone alluded to before, City fans (since the takeover) are sick of the constant spin coming out of the club. With the sometime exception of Hughes, everything seems to be a well rehearsed speech that conveys no actual information. Alas, it seems that the powermen in football such as Chairmen, have turned in to politicians.

On the other hand, you can continue the old way of doing things, reword PR statements and never visit here again, which is probably what will happen. The club is changing, and City fans are adapting to this slowly. I wonder how the MEN will adapt to this?

Thanks,
Damocles

I do know some of the pressures put on journalists, particularly where City are concerned. I'm not a journo but I know quite a few and have had this conversation with them a few times.

As someone said, the club holds the whip hand with the local media and how the relationship works depends on how they wield that power. Paul Tyrrell e-mailed one when he took on the job at City and said something like "If you ever print something I don't like then you will not get access to me or the players."

Another said "If the club withdraw my access then, as a local reporter, I may as well type out my own P45". This is the threat that local reporters live under. So they either take the club line or look for another job. The nationals can afford to ignore this sort of thing; it doesn't really hurt the BBC that they don't have access to baconface but it would hurt the MEN badly.

Because of that sort of attitude, Paul Tyrrell was actively disliked my most journalists. There was a time a few years ago when he was threatening one of the fanzines over an article he didn't like. The nationals got a sniff of it and he suddenly backed down.

All clubs produce spin. They sre big businesses and protect their image carefully but I think that City have been more open than most recently. We've had the fans forums and Cook visiting Reddish branch; not many other clubs would do that for their fans. They have also publicly signalled their media strategy is to rely more on co-operation than confrontation as they recognise the damage this has done over the last few years. It will be interesting to see, as I said, whether Chris Bailey handles things differently or becomes a poacher turned gamekeeper.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

At the bottom of the Tevez article it refers to 'moneybags City'. That's a cheap shot.

A cheap shot?!?!?!?!?!?

Jesus wept, I told you you were on a loser here, Stuart

OK lets put it another way. Quality pieces of journalism won't automatically include such phrases. The Sun and the Mirror probably will. The MEN is supposed to be supporting their local club....not helping to denigrate us. We've enough enemies looking to cheapen the name of Manchester City FC as it is.

There is nothing denigrating about the phrase "moneybags".

It is used to mean someone has loads of money.

And we have.

It's a bit tabloidesque, but it's not a "cheap shot" or an attempt to belittle City.

 

[Neville Kneville]

The poster who says that the MEN tries to belittle City, I'm just interested to know which stories do that?
Chris Bailey is a lifelong Blue, and proud of it, and the sports editor used to be a Maine Road regular I believe - though he keeps his allegiances close to his chest.
I certainly won't be belittling City, and have no reason to in the first place.
It would be stupid for us to belittle one of our two main selling points.
I can't spend all day on here, much as I would like to, but I am interested in your views.
Plenty of United fans think we are pro-City. In fact, the first time I spoke to fergie, in 2001, he blew his top at me and told me "Youse are all Blues at the Evening News!"
The truth is that we try to tread a fine line between the two clubs, but a lot of people only see what they want to see.

Amusing how none of our "Reds Under The Beds" posters have an answer to this, isn't it?

Don't know about belittling City but I'm still waiting for Anelka to sign for the rags, as Peter Spencer (unusually enough doing the main report himself) twice said he was about to, both times coincedentally, just before we were due to play them. Not that such reports were designed to unsettle City's best player of course.

 

[leewill31]

ive enjoyed this thread,its been a bit of fresh air to the forum,there's not been much bickering but mostly good post reactions to stuart brennan and well done that man for comeing on here and putting your voice across to us all.

 

[Nixon_The_Bike_Thief]

At the bottom of the Tevez article it refers to 'moneybags City'. That's a cheap shot.

A cheap shot?!?!?!?!?!?

Jesus wept, I told you you were on a loser here, Stuart

OK lets put it another way. Quality pieces of journalism won't automatically include such phrases. The Sun and the Mirror probably will. The MEN is supposed to be supporting their local club....not helping to denigrate us. We've enough enemies looking to cheapen the name of Manchester City FC as it is.

We cannot be over critical while we regularly have fans singing "we'll buy your club and burn it down", waving wads at chelsea fans, printing £50 notes with Suliman Al Fahim's head on them. How is it supposed to work ? we are allowed to use our money to take the piss but its not allowed to be used against us ? now that is a Rag mentality. However as DD pointed out "Moneybags" is hardly offensive, maybe I can see where your coming from if I try to be more disengaged from the subject and possibly replacing Manchester with Moneybags is at worse playground childish but honestly, I just dont think that one was in there for a snipe when you read the full article in context.

 

[keemcfc]

Dunno if you noticed that Stuart Brennan at MEN has been writing City articles recently. He wrote today's Santa Cruz story, yesterday's Crouch story, Benitez be afraid story and other stories. Whilst they seem alright, as stories, I just don't enjoy reading them knowing he is a rag.

I guess is will be professional when doing them but how would you feel if someone asked you to write a positive story about the rags? I don't think I could.

I'm gonna watch out for Brennan's stories to see how pro-City they are in the future.

Understand what you're saying, but I have had to do the opposite and whilst it doesn't sit very easily for me, you have to be professional. Well, as professional as possible!!

you just want to get to 50 posts dont you

Erm, no mate. If that was the case, I would've done so in the TEN MONTHS I've been registered, no? As a matter of fact, I was replying to a thread that is pretty familiar for me - I'm a sports journalist and have to regularly write pieces about clubs/people I personally can't stand.

Maybe when you leave school and get a job you'll understand?

not another shitty argument, please?

 

[neil jung]

the sports editor used to be a Maine Road regular I believe - though he keeps his allegiances close to his chest.

Peter Spencer was a Maine Road regular?

You're right, he does keep that well hidden.