[Archived] What's Occurring At The Telegraph?

[Neil Weaver]

btw hot on the heels of the Shepherds Rest becoming the (very good) Spice Lounge and the Spring Mill becoming the Sylett we now in the space of a few months have the Brown Cow on Haslingden Old Road, the Audi garage on Blackburns inner ring road, Goodfello's and even the Hordens turning into 'Indians'. I know market forces rule in the end but what an insight into the way the current buzz word 'integration' is being played out in our town.

Gord, put a bit more petrol in the car and venture a bit further into the multicultural Rible Valley - what used to be the Tanners at Dinckley is an Italian now I think (and was a Chinese restaurant for a while wasn't it) and the Judge Walmsley at Billington has been a Thai place for years.

[Wiggy]

Gord, put a bit more petrol in the car and venture a bit further into the multicultural Rible Valley - what used to be the Tanners at Dinckley

I'm always knocking about in the Ribble Valley Neil and I can tell you that the Tanners Arms was demolished a couple of years ago and has now been re-built as a private residence.

[Neil Weaver]

Furry nuff Wiggy, maybe it's a more private Cosa Nostra HQ now . Suppose there's always the old Social Club that's now an Italian restaurant on Whalley Rd in Clitheroe. Anyway, back at the Telegraph.............

[Gav]

If he and the Telegraph wont fight our corner nobody will. If that is the case we will be the only club that has been deserted by it's local media. I dont believe the club has done anything to deserve that.

Maybe the booze and drugs are finally taking its toll........

I had a conversation with the chap in Germany when he'd just started in his new role and I asked him outright if he was a Rovers fan and he said no, well yes, I am now........

Make of that what you will.

[bluebruce]

You are so right philip, usually an interesting read the guest reporters are. Oh for the days of true blue Alf, with his "slightly" biased match reports.

That said, Glen Keeley (Not sure he writes anymore though, I don't get it these days) clearly doesn't know his ass from his elbow.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

However going back to my time writing a column at the LT I have to agree that within the sports desk as a whole there there seemed to be far more of a leaning towards Burnley than Rovers.

Again, I can only reiterate my opinion that over the last few months I have become convinced that the folk of Blackburn are actually receiving the Burnley edition.....page after inside page of pro-Burnley shyte with Rovers reduced to a small paragraph on the back page at times.

NOT RUDDY GOOD ENOUGH!

Peter White is sadly missed.

[Derby Blue]

You should try living in Mansfield. The local paper 'The Mansfield Chad' is only published once a week and has just one page of football reporting on the back page, plus 2-3 pages of the local leagues. Any story is almost redundant by the time I come to read it.

I still read the LET on line every now and again to get a feel of whats going on back home and read the paper copy whenever I visit the parents. It has gone downhill over time but then again I'm comaring it to when I used to read Peter White's journalism which was second to none. As I don't read it every day it does the job for me.

[BlueMonday]

Boycott the rag.

Blackburn has a bigger population than Bumley and I dare say

has a bigger readership.

Stop buying it. They'll loose money. They will adjust their coverage to appeal to the B'Burn area and order will be restored.

However, non of that will bring back Peter (Blue &) White.

[JAL]

Boycott the rag.

Blackburn has a bigger population than Bumley and I dare say

has a bigger readership.

Stop buying it. They'll loose money. They will adjust their coverage to appeal to the B'Burn area and order will be restored.

However, non of that will bring back Peter (Blue &) White.

HERE!!!!!, HERE!!!

Get the campaign rolling Azuri enough is enough, tell all... spread the word........... boycott the Lancashire Telegraph!

Second rate coverage of first class football, but first rate coverage for second rate football your present day Lancashire Telegraph .....NO MORE!!!! .

Lancashire Telegraph taking Rovers money then taking the ###### out of them....ENOUGH!

[tonygreenbank]

NOT RUDDY GOOD ENOUGH!

Peter White is sadly missed.

I remember back in 1961 at St Marys College Peter and I sat together in class and his careers choice was always to report on the Rovers. He got his wish first with the Blakburn Times and then with the Telegraph. He was Rovers Blue and White. He would outraged by Neild`s reporting and there is a definite shift away from Rovers at the LET.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

If members feel this strongly how about an e-petition with a covering letter, im sure their would be plenty of interest & it may just make those at let Hq think twice about what there printing.

just a suggestion

[Blueboy Downunder]

bazz, i would agree with that mate. although people buy the telegraph to read about rovers, they don't really need to because we can get all our info from other sources etc etc. the re-hashing of old stories, the very rarely positive reporting of rovers and as always seems the case, the apparent unsettling of our players in our very own local rag.

needs to stop, so if somebody got the e-petition going i would sign it no probs.

[jim mk2]

You are so right philip, usually an interesting read the guest reporters are. Oh for the days of true blue Alf, with his "slightly" biased match reports.

Good old Alf Thornton, the Alf Tupper of the typewriter. Them were't days when you waited for the Telegraph to come through the letter box for the latest Rovers news. No t'internet or local radio then : still remember choking on me bread dripping at the front pages news announcing Fred Pickering's £100,000 transfer to Everton.

Who remembers William Westall of the Blackburn Times ?

[CAPT KAYOS]

Boycott the rag.

Blackburn has a bigger population than Bumley and I dare say

has a bigger readership.

Stop buying it. They'll loose money. They will adjust their coverage to appeal to the B'Burn area and order will be restored.

However, non of that will bring back Peter (Blue &) White.

Indeed

In addition, doesn't Bumleh have its own rag anyway - BurnleyTimes/ Observer or summat along those lines?

[Gav]

Indeed

In addition, doesn't Bumleh have its own rag anyway - BurnleyTimes/ Observer or summat along those lines?

Burnley Express and we actually featured front page when relegated a few years back, talk about a balanced view

[Ste B]

Andy Neild has just sent the following into the site as a response..

Having read some of your posts on the Telegraph and our Rovers coverage, I think it's important to tell you a bit about myself so you have a better understanding of who I am and where I am coming from.

I am a Blackburner, born and bred, and have lived in the town my whole life, apart from the four years I spent away at University in Sheffield.

Like Peter White, it was also a dream of mine to report on Rovers for my home-town newspaper and I feel privileged to say I've been able to fulfil that.

Rest assured, as long as I'm doing this job I will always do my best to fight the club's corner at every possible opportunity because, like you, of course I want to see Rovers flourish.

However, what you also have to understand is the paper doesn't employ me as a fan, it employs me as a journalist, and that means reporting on all aspects of the club, good and bad.

That said, I always try to give stories a positive slant and, generally speaking, I think I achieve that, although there will also be instances where that isn't always possible. If Benni McCarthy makes it clear he fancies a move to Chelsea, for instance, then we have a duty to report that.

At the end of the day, it's a difficult balancing act and if I've learnt anything over the last seven years it's you can't please everyone all of the time. There will be some people who like what I write, and others who hate it.

I get some people telling me I'm not tough enough on the club, and others who say I'm not supportive enough, but that goes with the job I do and I have no issue with that. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I respect that.

All I will say is I try to do the job honestly and to the best of my ability at all times.

I can assure you there is no Burnley-bias on the sports desk at the Lancashire Telegraph. In fact, Burnley fans accuse us of being biased towards Blackburn, and I've no doubt there's probably an identical thread to this taking place on their fans site somewhere!!

As for the comments about Pete White, no-one misses his writing, or has a greater respect for him, than me.

For the best part of two years, I was privileged to be a colleague of Peter's on this newspaper and I spent many happy hours in his company. He took me under his wing when I first joined the Telegraph and taught me a great deal about journalism. But, sadly, Peter died suddenly at the age of 51 in 2000 and I was given the daunting task of trying to follow in his footsteps, which, looking back now, was an impossible job in many ways.

How do you try and replace a guy who had 20 years experience of covering the Rovers behind him and knew everything that was going on at the football club? The answer is you can't.

In my defence, I don't think Pete would mind me saying the world of journalism has also changed beyond all recognition in the last seven years.

There was a time when the local paper was the first and only point of contact for Rovers, and the Telegraph basically broke all the stories. That is now a lot more difficult to achieve because of the rise of the internet, Sky's 24 hour sports news channel, news texted direct to mobile phones, etc, etc, etc. On top of that, we now work to completely different deadlines, too.

My aim, however, is to ensure that the Telegraph is still the most reliable source for your Rovers news out there.

The club are co-operative with us and in John Williams we probably have the most helpful chairman in the league.

Sometimes we may get to know things that we can't always print as it could jeopardise the club's chances of signing a particular player, for example, so we have to have a working relationship.

But, generally speaking, we always strive to keep you as bang up-to-date as possible with everything that is happening at Ewood - both good and bad.

Andy Neild

[Hasta]

Sort of off topic for Rovers but i remember the LET claiming that they, and other papers like them, had won a victory over the British Horseracing Board by forcing them to have final declarations for races 48 hours before the off rather than the standard 24. The LET claimed to have backed and fought this along with other national media despite the fact it greatly increases the number of non-runners on the day. This, they said, would enable them (the LET) to give a more detailed full card for the following days racing and a better service.

Sadly, their racing service is that bad they might well have not bothered. Last week, the day before the Oaks (the second biggest classic of the racing season worth about £450,000 to the winner), they had none of the Epsom card in there but all of the racing from Wolverhampton (worth about £3,000 per race). If I was pro-active enough I'd love to ask the sports editor why? They can no longer blame deadlines. Poor sports journalism, lack of understanding and lazyness I imagine.

[Hasta]

Just to add that as I posted the previous post I'd not seen SteB's response from Andy Neild (who without butt-licking too much I feel does a good job anyway). Fair play to him for responding and putting his side across and no-one can now doubt whether he does actually have the club at heart. Just hope he doesnt do the racing.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Fair Play to Ste B for putting the difficult question to Mr Nield & especially fair play to Andy for having both the time ad guts to reply. It was both surprising & refreshing for a Journo to come out and reply to accusations levelled against them.

Know whose up for that E-petition agrainst the Let

[Fife Rover]

Can I also add my support for what Andy Neild said. Well done that man! And also well done to Steb for tackling a sticky task.

I would also like to say (maybe should have said it much sooner) that I personally have never understood where the people who criticise the LT (and in particular Andy Neild) are coming from. I put it down to my living so far away and having no access to the LT other than the on-line version; which I know is completely different to the paper editions as sold on the streets of Blackburn. But there again I do buy the LT when I am on my visits to Blackburn and also ask visitors to my home in Fife to bring any recent editions that they have finished with. From which I can say with hand on heart that I have never noticed anything in either version of the LT that I would construe as "anti-Rovers bias". Speak as you find, is an old Lancashire saying and that is just what I am doing now.

[JAL]

The problem with the Lancashire Telegraph is the huge amount of Burnley stuff printed in the paper not Mr.Nield's worthy efforts.

[Ste B]

Can I also add my support for what Andy Neild said. Well done that man! And also well done to Steb for tackling a sticky task.

Didnt have much to do tbqh, he mailed asking if i'd post his point of view.

[OhmiBRFC]

The problem with the Lancashire Telegraph is the huge amount of Burnley stuff printed in the paper not Mr.Nield's worthy efforts.

Theres far too much Dingle stuff in there these days

[thenodrog]

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QUOTE(Ste B @ Jun 6 2007, 12:12 ) 517287[/snapback]

Andy Neild has just sent the following into the site as a response..

Having read some of your posts on the Telegraph and our Rovers coverage, I think it's important to tell you a bit about myself so you have a better understanding of who I am and where I am coming from.

I am a Blackburner, born and bred, and have lived in the town my whole life, apart from the four years I spent away at University in Sheffield.

Like Peter White, it was also a dream of mine to report on Rovers for my home-town newspaper and I feel privileged to say I've been able to fulfil that.

Rest assured, as long as I'm doing this job I will always do my best to fight the club's corner at every possible opportunity because, like you, of course I want to see Rovers flourish.

However, what you also have to understand is the paper doesn't employ me as a fan, it employs me as a journalist, and that means reporting on all aspects of the club, good and bad.

That said, I always try to give stories a positive slant and, generally speaking, I think I achieve that, although there will also be instances where that isn't always possible. If Benni McCarthy makes it clear he fancies a move to Chelsea, for instance, then we have a duty to report that.

At the end of the day, it's a difficult balancing act and if I've learnt anything over the last seven years it's you can't please everyone all of the time. There will be some people who like what I write, and others who hate it.

I get some people telling me I'm not tough enough on the club, and others who say I'm not supportive enough, but that goes with the job I do and I have no issue with that. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I respect that.

All I will say is I try to do the job honestly and to the best of my ability at all times.

I can assure you there is no Burnley-bias on the sports desk at the Lancashire Telegraph. In fact, Burnley fans accuse us of being biased towards Blackburn, and I've no doubt there's probably an identical thread to this taking place on their fans site somewhere!!

As for the comments about Pete White, no-one misses his writing, or has a greater respect for him, than me.

For the best part of two years, I was privileged to be a colleague of Peter's on this newspaper and I spent many happy hours in his company. He took me under his wing when I first joined the Telegraph and taught me a great deal about journalism. But, sadly, Peter died suddenly at the age of 51 in 2000 and I was given the daunting task of trying to follow in his footsteps, which, looking back now, was an impossible job in many ways.

How do you try and replace a guy who had 20 years experience of covering the Rovers behind him and knew everything that was going on at the football club? The answer is you can't.

In my defence, I don't think Pete would mind me saying the world of journalism has also changed beyond all recognition in the last seven years.

There was a time when the local paper was the first and only point of contact for Rovers, and the Telegraph basically broke all the stories. That is now a lot more difficult to achieve because of the rise of the internet, Sky's 24 hour sports news channel, news texted direct to mobile phones, etc, etc, etc. On top of that, we now work to completely different deadlines, too.

My aim, however, is to ensure that the Telegraph is still the most reliable source for your Rovers news out there.

The club are co-operative with us and in John Williams we probably have the most helpful chairman in the league.

Sometimes we may get to know things that we can't always print as it could jeopardise the club's chances of signing a particular player, for example, so we have to have a working relationship.

But, generally speaking, we always strive to keep you as bang up-to-date as possible with everything that is happening at Ewood - both good and bad.

Andy Neild

Thank you Andy. Now could you tell us your board name as LDRover and Rev Blue did?

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Fair play Andy but please be pro-active with the criticism that is levelled at both you and the LET too.As others have mentioned there is far too much Burnley related material for a paper circulated in Blackburn,your average Rovers fan has no interest whatsover in 'them'.

How about more interviews with Rovers players of the past,a Rovers 'this day in history' section etc.