Squad for next Season

[Greacen2000]

More clickbait nonsense from the tele.  Like it or not, this has potential to influence peoples perceptions of the club (who might not keep an eye on our social media content etc) and certainly won't attract any extra fair weather punters along.  It also has potential to be picked up by other news outlets and impact the wider perceptions of our club (although I am less concerned about this part).

I know that we can’t reasonably expect the club to be able to have any sort of editorial oversight on what the tele prints, but I do wonder if this sort of garbage could be easily avoided if there was closer collaboration between the clubs press office & the sports desk at the tele.  I’m not criticising Gareth or anyone else at the club here - I do not know enough to be able to say exactly where the disconnect lies, but the way this SHOULD work is that the tele contacts the club to advise of the story they will be running, and ask the club for comment.  Either this hasn’t happened, or the club haven’t been responsive.

Twice this week the tele has run with misleading headlines to sensationalist nonsense articles that have been 100% based on lifting quotes - first from a post match interview and then from the press release - and publishing them out of context.  Total gutter journalism.  If proper journalism had taken place (including engagement with the club beyond simply lifting a few quotes), these same stories could easily have been more along the lines of -

”Imrie plays waiting game as no deadline day signings expected”

and

“Club prioritising long term improvements over panic signings”

or something like that.

 

At this point I really hope that the club contacts the tele and does the following - 

1. Offer something like a weekly meeting/presser where Gareth gives Chris(or whoever) the relevant updates for the week, positioning them within the proper context as well as fielding any questions 

2. Politely suggest that before publishing sensationalist clickbait nonsense stories, the tele contacts the club for comment & input.  

This would be win/win as the club would hopefully have less damaging & misleading content published about them, while the tele could claim “exclusive” and actually write properly researched articles as opposed to the hatchet jobs we have seen in the past week.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Greacen2000

[The Bewilderedbeast]

To me, its the old adage of Bad News sells papers.

Edited September 7, 2023 by The Bewilderedbeast

[vikingTON]

The Tele should be shown the door for its fake news agenda and its reporters forced to try and fill their rag with news of 'thu joonyurs' massive clashes with 'Ardeer' and 'Finnart'. Enough is enough. 

[irnbru]

18 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

The Tele should be shown the door for its fake news agenda and its reporters forced to try and fill their rag with news of 'thu joonyurs' massive clashes with 'Ardeer' and 'Finnart'. Enough is enough. 

Agreed. 

The club statement in comparison to what Patrick, Falkirk, Hamilton, etc have put out this season is actually really positive and refreshing. The way the tele and their reporter has framed this is pretty ridiculous. 

They shouldn't be giving that reporter time of day now or access to player interviews, etc if that's how he's wanting to spin things. Can only assume he's looking for a job with the Sun or something. 

[Greacen2000]

30 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

The Tele should be shown the door for its fake news agenda and its reporters forced to try and fill their rag with news of 'thu joonyurs' massive clashes with 'Ardeer' and 'Finnart'. Enough is enough. 

While I agree with your sentiments, I’m not convinced this would make any difference(and could possibly make matters worse).  For example, if the club had already taken this step it wouldn’t have stopped the tele from printing the articles this week (since they were both put together by selectively lifting a few snippets from content the club had released anyway).

Much as the tele is definitely veering into fake news territory and probably deserves to be cut off by the club, I don’t think this would be in the clubs best interest and could be a case of cutting of the nose to spite the face.

I would much rather that the club reach out to the tele, make these concerns known & try to build a working relationship that will hopefully avoid this sort of crap finding it’s way onto the back page.

Fans making their feelings known to the tele might also help - either through the comments section on the articles online, or via letter/email if they don’t want to have to sign up.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Greacen2000

[Cet Homme Charmant]

They were still sticking with this narrative as recently as 12 hours ago, even after the club statement was issued.

[vikingTON]

37 minutes ago, Greacen2000 said:

While I agree with your sentiments, I’m not convinced this would make any difference(and could possibly make matters worse).  For example, if the club had already taken this step it wouldn’t have stopped the tele from printing the articles this week (since they were both put together by selectively lifting a few snippets from content the club had released anyway).

Much as the tele is definitely veering into fake news territory and probably deserves to be cut off by the club, I don’t think this would be in the clubs best interest and could be a case of cutting of the nose to spite the face.

I would much rather that the club reach out to the tele, make these concerns known & try to build a working relationship that will hopefully avoid this sort of crap finding it’s way onto the back page.

Fans making their feelings known to the tele might also help - either through the comments section on the articles online, or via letter/email if they don’t want to have to sign up.

The Tele have had more than enough chances to act like an honest broker - this is only the most recent of several such fake news stories this year alone. Until the club responds with punitive action then it'll only continue to get taken for mugs. 

[Greacen2000]

18 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

The Tele have had more than enough chances to act like an honest broker - this is only the most recent of several such fake news stories this year alone. Until the club responds with punitive action then it'll only continue to get taken for mugs. 

Maybe you’re right, but to me it would just feel a bit like the way rangers banned the BBC from ibrox and stopped doing any press with them for a few years - they did not come out of that looking good at all.   Much as the tele are guilty of shoddy clickbait journalism, it still might be better for the club to try and be in a position to influence the coverage as opposed to cutting them loose.

At best, it could lead to the tele seeing the error of their ways and trying to make amends (which I find unlikely).  At worst, it might increase the teles propensity to publish negative articles about the club, no doubt including more shite along the lines of “TELE REPORTERS BANNED FROM CAPPIELOW” (a far more likely outcome IMO). 
 

So yeah, the tele is a dirty rag and deserves to get emptied, but if we are taking an outcome based approach, I don’t think that would be the smartest move for the club to make.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Greacen2000

[champagnebrianmac]

Get that Chris hounded. Can’t write for toffee and a total imposter of a journalist.

Edited September 7, 2023 by champagnebrianmac

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Never really understood the point of clickbait headlines, as surely any short term gain will be more than cancelled out by long term loss of credibility. How many fans will ever take the Tele seriously again? 

[champagnebrianmac]

21 minutes ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Never really understood the point of clickbait headlines, as surely any short term gain will be more than cancelled out by long term loss of credibility. How many fans will ever take the Tele seriously again? 

How dare they bring they bring the honourable name of GMFC into disrepute like that, not once but twice in a couple of days on the basis of what, Guess work?

Seems easy enough to be a hack these days if you make it up.

I for one shall be taking my custom elsewhere.

Edited September 7, 2023 by champagnebrianmac

[irnbru]

33 minutes ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

Never really understood the point of clickbait headlines, as surely any short term gain will be more than cancelled out by long term loss of credibility. How many fans will ever take the Tele seriously again? 

It's not even the headline. There's an article about the statement and it's just wrong. It's either on purpose to sensationalise things or the journalist can't read. 

[vikingTON]

56 minutes ago, Greacen2000 said:

Maybe you’re right, but to me it would just feel a bit like the way rangers banned the BBC from ibrox and stopped doing any press with them for a few years - they did not come out of that looking good at all.   Much as the tele are guilty of shoddy clickbait journalism, it still might be better for the club to try and be in a position to influence the coverage as opposed to cutting them loose.

At best, it could lead to the tele seeing the error of their ways and trying to make amends (which I find unlikely).  At worst, it might increase the teles propensity to publish negative articles about the club, no doubt including more shite along the lines of “TELE REPORTERS BANNED FROM CAPPIELOW” (a far more likely outcome IMO). 
 

So yeah, the tele is a dirty rag and deserves to get emptied, but if we are taking an outcome based approach, I don’t think that would be the smartest move for the club to make.

The BBC is a public funded broadcaster with a global following; the Tele is merely one irrelevant unit of a crap media conglomerate across the UK, that publishes court cases and funeral announcements. The power balance is different.

The Tele's editorial line (not necessarily the writers themselves - but they ultimately carry the can too) has been consistent in exchanging facts for sensationalism, including the misuse of the manager's interviews and club statements. So what is the point in the club investing its limited time and energy on a patronising 'reaching out' exercise?

The pattern of behaviour has already been set - the only response that the Tele can listen to is to have their access to the club curtailed. Tit for tat is exactly how you should respond to any repeated abuse of trust. 

[Greacen2000]

17 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

The BBC is a public funded broadcaster with a global following; the Tele is merely one irrelevant unit of a crap media conglomerate across the UK, that publishes court cases and funeral announcements. The power balance is different.

The Tele's editorial line (not necessarily the writers themselves - but they ultimately carry the can too) has been consistent in exchanging facts for sensationalism, including the misuse of the manager's interviews and club statements. So what is the point in the club investing its limited time and energy on a patronising 'reaching out' exercise?

The pattern of behaviour has already been set - the only response that the Tele can listen to is to have their access to the club curtailed. Tit for tat is exactly how you should respond to any repeated abuse of trust. 

Of course I understand the distinction you quite rightly make between the BBC & the Greenock telegraph, but a similar comparison could be made about the relative size & supporter base of the 2 clubs.  As such, I still think its a point worth making.

In other words, if we banned the BBC, it wouldn't make much difference (since we already get little to no coverage from them).  Likewise if Rangers banned the tele, it would be utterly pointless since it is not at all dependent on such a small town rag for coverage & publicity.

Morton, on the other hand are a small local club and are somewhat reliant on the small local rag to provide coverage to people in the local area (who might not be active on social media/online etc).  A match preview or a feature in the telegraph during the week could potentially attract a few more punters through the doors, and keep us in the hearts & minds of the people who we want to be attracting to the games.  For that reason, it is definitely in the clubs best interests not to burn any bridges

[DreamOakTree]

So the consensus is the club have our blessing to continue the season without a right back?

[Greacen2000]

8 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

So the consensus is the club have our blessing to continue the season without a right back?

What gives you that idea?

[SpoonTon]

28 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

So the consensus is the club have our blessing to continue the season without a right back?

The consensus is probably that the club has our blessing to take the approach of waiting for a September, Liam Grimshaw type signing rather than into rushing into a signing which the management don't believe will really benefit us in the long long. But the consensus will undoubtedly also be that any approach, this one included, is a risk which will be judged as the season progresses. 

Signing a right back of the equivalent quality of a Ben Sampayo, Jamie McCormack, Kevin McCann, or Grant Evans is probably going to be of little use right now. As would continuing to fail to find any right back, or signing a mediocre one in a few weeks time. The bottom line is that the approach itself is not the thing that will be judged - the outcome will be judged. 

[TONofmemories]

The guy writing these articles has been on this forums very own podcast a few times, so I'd expect that he'd know the score in trying to avoid sensationalising things for a few clicks.

[GiGi]

The journalist doesn't write the headlines btw. That's the Tele editor(s) coming up with that shite.

[Greacen2000]

46 minutes ago, GiGi said:

The journalist doesn't write the headlines btw. That's the Tele editor(s) coming up with that shite.

This being the case, you could probably give him a pass for the one about us having no money to strengthen the squad (since the article itself was literally just a series of quotes with nothing else added). 

Not so much with the more recent one he posted after the club statement.  That article contained some hum dingers such as " in urgent need of significant investment to strengthen off-field operations and not the team after running up consecutive six-figure annual losses" and "in the wake of financial losses in the region of £200,000 to £300,000" - both of which would suggest to the casual/uneducated reader that the club is currently(or has recently been) running at that sort of a loss and in financial dire straits, when in fact this is something that was the norm under the previous regime,  and something which (so far at least) we have been able to avoid under community ownership. 

The unaccredited quote about "a source" saying we had farmed Garrity out to raise some extra funds sounds a bit fishy too - clearly he is not a high earner, and the gaffer has already stated that he has been sent out to get game time under his belt because we are well covered in his area.

Having said that, I don't think that this should just be about the journalist who wrote the copy and certainly wouldn't want any sort of witch hunt against him - the responsibility for everything printed lies with the editorial team.  This is a Morton & Greenock Telegraph issue and shouldn't be about individuals

Edited September 7, 2023 by Greacen2000