ToffeeWeb - Season 2009-10

The Mail Bag

Local press = Chocolate tea cups

We all have our own feelings about the Lescott situation/no signings etc but one thing that has annoyed and mystified me in equal measure this summer is the absolute refusal of the local media, both radio and especially newspapers, to ask questions of the Everton hierarchy.

Cast your minds back 10 years or so to the dying embers of the Peter Johnson regime at Goodison Park. The two local papers, spearheaded by Phil McNulty (now an LFC brown nose at BBC Sport) and Len Capeling (whatever happened to him?) carried out a prolonged, even venomous campaign to remove Johnson whilst extolling the virtues of the little chirpy underdog Bill Kenwright.

Back then, it seemed that the local press were far less fearful of upsetting the applecart at Everton and felt far more obliged to represent the fears of the rank and file fans. Those sort of fears and downright anger is very much to the fore right now after another summer of transfer inactivity and questions as to just where all the revenue streams at the club disappear to.

But have you ever read ANY articles this summer from Dave Prentice, Dominic King, Ian Doyle etc asking questions about the lack of signings or drawing a link between no money being spent and the need to hold money back for the Kirkby project?

The reality is that on websites like this we are merely screaming in the dark where no-one of any consequence can hear us, let alone take any notice. Do you think that Kenwright ever sits there in his office reading our posts and shaking like a leaf? Nah, me neither!

It is only when the press turn their spotlight on a football club and start articulating the anger and frustration of fans, as well as maybe doing a little digging to find out where all the money really does go, that club Chairmen and directors start looking for the exit door. And even then it needs fans orchestrating a campaign of protests to shove them through the door. (Are we as fans too apathetic for that?)

So why don't the local press show any interest in asking the questions that we ask on here day-in, day-out? Well, if anyone has the e.mail work address of David Prentice/John Thompson etc, I'll ask them and let everybody know. What I can say is that if we want to see the back of Kenwright, and get proper answers for all our concerns, we need the press on our side.
Gareth Hughes, Liverpool Posted 20/08/2009 at 09:03:45

back Return to the Mail Bag

Comments

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

Robert Daniels
1 Posted 20/08/2009 at 14:11:28

Bang on, Gareth, Kenwright manipulates the media for his own devices, why aren't the Echo helping the fans by at least asking the questions we can't? Perhaps he's won them over too with his Blue Bill routine.

Stephen Sullivan
2 Posted 20/08/2009 at 14:35:28

I stopped reading the Echo months ago and turn off Radio Merseyside when the sports bulletin comes on. You would expect Radio Merseyside to have more info than the dozens of sites streamed to NewsNow Everton, wouldn’t you?

Ciarán McGlone
3 Posted 20/08/2009 at 15:03:51

I guess they’re not willing to bit the hand that metaphorically feeds them. I would guess there’s some trade-off between what’s published and access to the club.

It’s the way the world works, unfortunately.

Rupert Sullivan
4 Posted 20/08/2009 at 15:28:11

Gareth, I don’t know why you would expect anything more to be honest. I don’t really believe that the first purpose of a newspaper is to inform anymore — they are now more geared up to selling copies, securing visitors to their websites and therefore selling advertising.

Just look at the amount of crap that is written about Liverpool, reams and reams of utter garbage to the point that even LFC fans on the Guardian website scream stop. The coverage of football ’news’ is invariably re-hashed rubbish from all over the net — unsubstantiated rumour and comment founded on further unsubstantiated rumour and comment.

Why would any news outlet risk the chance of interviews, exclusives and snippets from their local club by challenging the status quo?

Roy Rennison
5 Posted 20/08/2009 at 15:33:43

I’ll tell you why I’m not protesting for the board to be replaced.... and it's not apathy!!! I would much rather Kenwright, who despite some ill-founded baseless rumours suggesting otherwise, is a blue. He is trying (and to a degree succeeding) to get Everton back where we were when we were a respected and feared club.

I would rather this slow painstaking (and it is painstaking watching players go elsewhere and hearing nothing until Sky money etc I agree) process of, in my eyes, doing it right by not paying stupid wages and spending money we haven’t got, rather than have a sheik throwing silly money around and buying the title with arrogance.

Tom Mallows
6 Posted 20/08/2009 at 15:36:42

You’re spot on, Ciarán, while the local press is there to challenge and question when necessary it can’t keep launching campagin after campaign against the club otherwise they will be banned from Finch Farm. The days of reporters hanging around the training field chatting to players are long gone, the club control and santise all media access now. And can stop it at the drop of a hat.

It also begs the question do the journos at the Echo know something about the future of the club but just aren’t allowed to say... yet??

Ok perhaps not.

Lyndon Lloyd
Editorial Team
7 Posted 20/08/2009 at 15:54:22

This article, which I’m pretty sure was penned by David Prentice but there’s now no byline on the piece, sums it up for me. Now, I wasn’t privy to what Mr Whippy actually said but based on the quotes provided in that article, it looks very much like a blatant twist of his words.

Being excited about the transfer window as a concept is very different to being excited about — and having personal insight into — Everton’s summer transfer plans.

It just reads like a PR piece that would go on a club's website and coming from a local newspaper that is *supposed* to be independent (hah!), it's very disappointing.

Ciarán McGlone
8 Posted 20/08/2009 at 17:02:11

Indeed Tom,

The way things are done in standard media circles now - simply mirror the way business has always been done between the press and the parilamentary/judicial system...That was always based on a cosy symbiosis - primarily based on trade-offs.

Prince Harry in Afghanistan was the most recent one to break - but it happens all the time on all sorts of scales.....Luckily enough it doesn’t take much to recognise the party line and discount it as partisan bollocks.

Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment to the MailBag, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and MailBag submissions across the site.