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| BoringOldFan - 28-08-2007, 08:43 PM |
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The back page of this Tuesday's London Evening Standard leads with the story that Tottenham Hotspur has barred ES reporters from attending games and press conferences at the training ground. In doing so, the club has performed a huge service to any true fan of the club. The paper claims that it will continue to bring news of Spurs to the fans, but if their past efforts are anything to go by, they won't be worth reading. Top of this particular class is the piece the paper ran in January, claiming that Spurs were about to buy two Dutch players from AZ Alkmaar, Tim de Cler and Kew Valiens in an exchange deal for Edgar Davids. Authoritatively written by Mark Alford, it went into some detail of the deal. Except sadly it was all nonsense. Mr Alford had simply been surfing the Tottenham message boards and alighted upon a set-up perpetrated by a member of glory-glory.net, danners49. He was fed up with newspapers stealing their stories from message boards and claiming them as their own. So he set up a simple scam; invent a story, post a bogus link and see who bites. Mr Alford was that man. The post claimed that this deal was on the cards, and featured a hilariously bad translation from Dutch into English allegedly taken from Dutch site voetbal.nl. The link did not work because it did not exist. So what did the London Lite/Evening Standard (for they are one and the same) do? Did they follow the link? No. Did they call the Tottenham Press Office to verify the story? No. They simply reproduced the piece without quoting the source and claimed the credit. The morning edition of the London Lite carried the story, and it was reproduced later in the day in the Standard. By the time the evening paper hit the news stands, all the message boards were laughing. danners49 owned up to the scam and we all enjoyed seeing this lazy and unprofessional journo exposed. From that time on, the Standard hasn't really had much credibility with a lot of Spurs' fans. The Metro web site carries some indignant claims by David Mellor comparing Tottenham's 'censorship' to that of the Russian newspaper Pravda. The comparison is apt, but perhaps more suited to the ES, which as we see has been proven to make up stories without checking the facts. Could it be that it is for that reason and not the criticism that it has been banned? Because if Tottenham were to ban papers that criticised them, after the past 10 days the press conferences would consist of Martin Jol and a tea urn. The Observer last Sunday carried a lengthy article highly critical of the club and its officers. Such diverse sources as Henry Winter, Stan Collymore and Mark Lawrenson have echoed the same sentiments. But has the club banned The Telegraph, the Mirror and the BBC? No. Why not? Perhaps because they accept the right of free expression, but draw the line at invention and fiction? It is almost unbelievable that the Standard's has managed to get themselves banned in this way. Whatever the club has covered itself in of late, it sure don't smell like glory. But when handed a loaded shotgun and presented with a barrel of fish, the Standard took aim and promptly blew a hole in its own foot. So no longer will their reporters be able to attend press conferences at our club. But Deputy Sports Editor Steve Cording says the Standard "will continue to bring you, our readers, all the latest news from Spurs, despite the ban". And why not? They've already shown that they won't let the facts get in the way of a good story. |
| Bill_Oddie - 29-08-2007, 02:57 AM |
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Yeah, nice idea and in theory I'm right behind it. However, while my old man was at the Albion (Brighton), he banned the local rag (Evening Argus) after they printed horrible, horrible lies repeatedly about all aspects of the team and club. Unfortunately, fans might be quick enough to dismiss the papers, but they all read them and they all talk. When they're spouting off in the pub, more often than not they involve passing off this 'info' as their own. The papers hold a lot of power in the minds of fans. not leats because they read them every single day, whereas the club communicates with them rarely. The banning of the Argus at the Albion was one of the few decisions my Dad regrets. The fans instantly felt like the club was trying to hide something and readership of the paper rose significantly. Furthermore, as the Argus didn't have any interviews or genuine stories to go by, they made even more weird, wild and wickedly untrue stories up. All of which were lapped up by the confused fans, who didn't know where to turn. I applaud the board's attempt to eradicate untruths in the media, but that isn't going to happen in this manner. They would be far better giving genuine stories, interviews and scoops to the papers that don't lie, thus further engaging the fans to these media and hopefully diminishing the popularity of those that lie. |
| squeaky - 29-08-2007, 08:41 AM |
| I applaud the Board and Chairman for doing this, what have they got to lose?, These gutter press rags are going to do their best to bring the club down anyway, they will continue to make up stories, misquote and print lies whether they are allowed in to press meetings anyway. If we all had the attitude that its unwise to do this in case they tell more lies and make up more stories then perhaps you are letting the papers win, I agree with freedom of expression but there has to be a tiny element of truth in what is being written. Man U and Chelsea have had to ban certain sports writers and it has hardly hurt their following has it!!?? No, Daniel Levy has taken a stance and I sincerely hope that Spurs fans everywhere will stop buying these rags and other clubs follow suite. Great article by the way! |
| paxton_soul - 29-08-2007, 10:57 AM |
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Newspaper in made-up sports story shocker!!! Why is anyone surprised? Or indeed think this is limited to ES. Seriously poor decision to ban a major newspaper from the ground and one that will haunt the club for years to come. They just made a very powerful enemy. If the press office was proactive and got on the front foot with stories journos wouldn't have to go digging for nonsense (as the Alford story shows - most sports hacks are very lazy give them easy column inches and they'll take them every time.) This act of petulance by the board will be repented at leisure I assure you. |
| myhartlane - 29-08-2007, 11:25 AM |
| I agree that this is an act of petulance by the board, another public relations bungle in my view. Let the Standard continue to embarrass themselves and alienate their readership through their half baked and amateurish guff and let's expose them at every turn. Banning them makes our board look paranoid and weak. |
| Chimbo! - 29-08-2007, 11:39 AM |
| I dont agree with banning people for their opinions but ive read some of the articles in the evening standard and a lot of what they write boarders on the ridiculous and more importantly damaging and hurtful towards spurs. Even before the incident there have been a lot of personal attacks on Levy which have been unfair and based on lies. But then again controversy sells apers and sparks debate and thats what footballs about. I think Levy is behaving like an embaressed child, trying to deflect the attention. |
| wakefieldyid - 29-08-2007, 01:48 PM |
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The Board may be playing a pretty smart game here. Other vendettas in football, notably SAF and Sam Allardyce vs the BBC, don't really seem to have harmed the clubs involved. Many clubs have deliberately conjured the image that everybody else hated them (Leeds United in the 1960s, the Arse under GG, and Chelski, MUFC, and Bolton more recently) as a way of stiffening their resolve and bonding the team. Ironically, as far as Spurs are concerned, I suspect that one of the reasons why we got off to a sluggish start was that the whole club was basking in the warm glow of being everyone's favourites to break the Big 4 cartel. Nice guys win f**k all. If this falling out with the press (I see that the Grauniad has come out in full support for the ES) does inject some genuine fire into the club, it may well do us a lot of good. COYS - Stick it up 'em! |
| paxton_soul - 29-08-2007, 02:19 PM | |
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