Prestwich_Blue
Well-Known Member
Interesting debate this one and there's a number of sides to it.
The first thing I'd say is don't underestimate the PR team at City. For those who don't know, Vicki Kloss is a very astute operator. She went to Cambridge, was a detective in the Met and then was their PR person. She has a strategy for dealing with the press and that basically recognises that you can't force people to write nice things about you or stop them voicing opinions you don't like.
You can try to explain to the more intelligent journalists what you are trying to do and how you are trying to do it and, by and large, that has had some success. Martin Samuel, Ollie Holt, David Conn and one or two others are taking a much more measured line. The idiots you can do nothing with.
Her approach is to have a quiet word with the journalist, then his editor and then, if the story is regarded as legally actionable, get lawyers involved. Her former boss, Paul Tyrrell tried threatening people at the start (I've seen the email he sent to one well known local journalist before they'd even met and it's laughable) and frequently got lawyers involved to crush stories but it wasn't particularly productive and that's one reason we're possible suffering now. There are a few old scores to settle.
Tyrrell had no hesitation about planting stories in the media and even using our own players to slag us off if it suited his agenda. Remember the "Everyone has to bow to Thaksin" story and the infamous Joey Barton (I wouldn't buy a season ticket to watch us) interview? I don't want to go back to those days.
You also have ot appreciate that journalists don't exist to be fair and reasonable, they exist to sell papers and at the moment "Manchester City heading for a fall" is the story that does that. So they write it but one day they are going to be crawling to us on their hands and knees. Revenge, as Don Corleone said, is a dish best tasted cold.
The first thing I'd say is don't underestimate the PR team at City. For those who don't know, Vicki Kloss is a very astute operator. She went to Cambridge, was a detective in the Met and then was their PR person. She has a strategy for dealing with the press and that basically recognises that you can't force people to write nice things about you or stop them voicing opinions you don't like.
You can try to explain to the more intelligent journalists what you are trying to do and how you are trying to do it and, by and large, that has had some success. Martin Samuel, Ollie Holt, David Conn and one or two others are taking a much more measured line. The idiots you can do nothing with.
Her approach is to have a quiet word with the journalist, then his editor and then, if the story is regarded as legally actionable, get lawyers involved. Her former boss, Paul Tyrrell tried threatening people at the start (I've seen the email he sent to one well known local journalist before they'd even met and it's laughable) and frequently got lawyers involved to crush stories but it wasn't particularly productive and that's one reason we're possible suffering now. There are a few old scores to settle.
Tyrrell had no hesitation about planting stories in the media and even using our own players to slag us off if it suited his agenda. Remember the "Everyone has to bow to Thaksin" story and the infamous Joey Barton (I wouldn't buy a season ticket to watch us) interview? I don't want to go back to those days.
You also have ot appreciate that journalists don't exist to be fair and reasonable, they exist to sell papers and at the moment "Manchester City heading for a fall" is the story that does that. So they write it but one day they are going to be crawling to us on their hands and knees. Revenge, as Don Corleone said, is a dish best tasted cold.