The theory is sound but your asking the impossible. We are by our very nature responsive to what we perceive as a poke in the chest; we have been poked in the chest a fair bit tbh.
The dynamic goes deep and i said as much the other week. The fact is a sharp faced bloke as opposed to an attractive girl instantly changes a bit of the dynamic. As
@The Pink Panther say's, they know we are via Vicky a soft touch. Replace that with said bloke who is not small and won't back down, who looks at press as incompetent junior staff more than honored guests. That sounds a bit strong i admit but the gist is there. If i need to elaborate then i mean a bloke who you really don't feel comfortable around being grilled about why you randomly attacked xyz in a piece.
If you think a group of men children who get paid to write almost 100% opinion pieces are above looking on the situation in such terms i reckon your dead wrong. It is not Vicky's fault personality wise maybe but either way she heads the department and it does feel like we take it way to easy. I said give it time 3 years ago so yeah it is still the same and i feel we should be more stern on certain aspects of media relations.
I hate to use the chap as an example but bacon face had the right idea but went to far. Reporters would have a dig at utd but you better believe they did more than test the water before going in. For example if they were going for the cl the pissy stories would die right off. With us it feels like constant open season. If they did that to utd they were fucked.
With us it feels as if we are the default punchbag when nothing else is around, slow news day? show a frowny face city player and how they have lots of money in a negative tone...guaranteed clicks. Fuck that, sorry but i see no greater good now for being so placid and inert. Not just that when we are the last team in the cl and such, the tone never changes really; it really doesn't. Just equal consideration is all i ask, is it really so much to ask?.
What could we do? get a bloke in like Cook and arrange a meeting with all press and have him put across how they feel the current media room is to large. The sensible option is to move it to a smaller room with less chairs but ofc 'keep those of the highest reputation and hopefully be soon able to manage such a large room again' The money and food saved will go to a local homeless shelter coinciding with new efforts to help the local community (we do a lot and think of new stuff regularly). Surely no reporters would be so sly and cynical as to claim we were being devious and underhand?