Couple of points, I mean I’m a paying subscriber so I get to gob off from time to time.
Tony McDonough comes across as Peel Ports PR Department. He’s thin skinned and thinks because he was around in the 80s his opinion is somehow more valid than everyone else’s. It’s Twitter, not some middle class dinner party. The dockers won as well! Get in!
Liverpolitan follow Sophie Corcoran, someone who has grown her platform on divisive dog whistle politics and seems to describe herself as a journalist. She uses the same terms as the Daily Mail to attack people pointing out serious injustices. The lad McDonough from Liverpolitan came across during the Battle of Bixteth Street Gardens as a troll who wound people up, and frankly it’s easy to snipe about the city from Soho while dreaming up building projects for the property developer class. Facebook aren’t going to move into Liverpool Waters. Deal with it.
He’s had run ins with The Anfield Wrap and retweeted far right polemicist Andy N’Go seemingly without context.
I’ve pointed out to Liverpolitan that Manchester’s rebirth has in part been funded by selling out to Abu Dhabi and by an aspect of social cleansing, with the council selling off public land on the cheap, and I may as well have been talking to a chat bot.
The only thing Wilk needed to say to the Echo hierarchy was “have you seen the state of the comments section on some of your articles?” She was spot on about the Roma/Smithdown article, and Liverpool’s local press have form for this. Look up about their attitude to the Liverpool
Irish when the IRA was running a low level campaign in the 1930s
The only elected Tories on Merseyside are up in Southport and over on the Wirral yet Dr Jeffrey is the go to quote. Why? They have to meet in secret such is the disdain people have for them.
65 billion quid their latest policy cost taxpayers to bail out the pension funds. He’s gone strangely quiet since baking Trussonomics over the summer. Yet it’ll be people in the city getting hammered again when Hunt does his budget. Get a job!
The Wilk is an activist and it’s clear the Echo believe in “diversity” just not diversity of opinion.
On that note, I’m off to apply to Liverpool Community College’s journalism course, and expect a “pitch” for a role at The Post. I’ve got a monthly bus pass and a library card so expect fuegos artificiales!
There is much to mull over and chew on in this piece. Firstly - a two day placement? My, my, The Echo, your generosity it overfloweth. Mind you, I guess that's all you'd need to understand how that place operates these days. Secondly, in line with what many others are saying, the Echo can chose who it wants to have in its newsroom. that's up to them. And The Wilk's outbursts, while I happen to agree with most of the opinion behind them, do prove everything that's wrong with debating on Twitter. It's just poetry of the nasty. But things turn sinister when, if true, the editor of a local paper tries to stop a dissenting voice from actually being a journalist at all. Because that's what this looks like. And we know where manoeuvres like this can lead. It's very, very alarming. It's also fascinating that the Echo were faster, and more determined, to oust a social media commentator with a few thousand followers than they were to shed light, and call to account, the alleged corruption going on under their watch at the Council. They had to leave that to the proper newspapers. The fact that Maria Breslin could be that arsed about what happens to a would-be writer on her course shows how timid and fretful this once mighty title has become. And how it is led by cowards. And who wants journalists like that?
If true, what is this if not an act of political repression?
Getting people canned from courses, jobs, setting an example for other people if they consider stepping out of line, is part and parcel of living in states like Russia. At the very least they could remove the Ukraine flag off their masthead.
Anyone remember the time a local politician managed to silence Seven Streets?
As time has passed since then, I'm sure we all recognise there was absolutely no need for any questioning or third party scrutiny of what was going on at the council at all...
If the Echo want to question their (questionable value, IMO) "partnership" with a journalism course, perhaps the Post might want to turn its attention to another of their tie-ups. In this case, a very profitable one for the Echo in the form of the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Why should any part of our BBC license fee find its way into their coffers, when we now have an alternative that can make good use of the funds?
On that front, perhaps the college would be better off partnering their trainees with yourselves too.
This sums the Echo up and the power it has in this city. On the other side of the coin, her tweets are often personal attacks on the person she’s disagreeing with. Free-speech is one thing, but bullying on social media is another and a modern day problem, it can cause the individual concerned much distress, which she doesn’t seem too concerned about. The fact she has previously called the writer of this piece a ‘dipshit’, just shows, she needs to grow up.
What really comes over from this article is how fragile the Echo appears to be. A confident management might still have had the conversation with Ms Wilkie, but along the lines of “We’re aware you’ve been critical of us in the past, but we want to show you how things work here - you might still disagree with how and why we make decisions but you will have an understanding of how a modern newsroom works”. And threatening the college afterward is Gavin Williamson type behaviour
Firstly her placement, she knew she was on thin ice going there and was quickly outed. She then resorted to childish retaliation, posting a video, smirking away to camera and throwing in a possibly libellous, certainly evidence free accusation of racism toward the Echo (racism maybe one of her themes). Not the behaviour of someone who wants to be taken seriously as a truth-telling journalist. As much as I hate the Echo they were right to get rid asap.
Part two is the alleged attempt by the Echo to use it's power and influence to get her kicked off the course. If this is indeed true, then it's disgraceful and should be shouted out loud everywhere. If the college bows to such pressure it too should be held to account.
In 1971 there was a wonderful production at the Everyman, 'Soft Or A Girl' by John McGrath. One of the characters was called the Liverpool Echo, played I think by Roger Sloman. His personality represented what most of us felt at the time about that organ. God knows how to characterise it now. Mind you, in those heady days we had the Liverpool Free Press (the street-fighting grandad of The Post). https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/blog/2021/birth-liverpool-free-press/
Interesting piece Jack. I’m on Twitter but don’t follow The Wilk have to admit I’ve not heard of her. However, if what happened is true, it shows how scared the Echo is of criticism. Have they not heard of free speech. Is it an admission of guilt by not replying or a decision to not give you any more ammunition. I have to say though the anger, nastiness and aggression shown through verbal abuse on Twitter is getting worse. It’s a sad state of affairs when you post something and anonymous people who don’t agree jump on you. I tend to read and re tweet if I think it’s a relevant item. I just don’t like these haters.
A really interesting read, as an occasional viewer of the Echo website, I can well understand how & Why people are so annoyed by it, it's little more than "eye candy", easy, frothy non controversial puff pieces posing as articles, (people "Floored by this product from B&M which costs a fraction of its expensive designer item", or countless articles on The Chase, Coronatiion Street, Emmerdale and whatever "HollynPhil" are up to this week, Holly's latest dress, or who said what to who on loose women, or any one of a dozen other topics taken from various websites.
Even the local football coverage is poor, at one time, the reporters covering each team would almost be an unofficial member of the club, they probably spent as much time there as they did with their own families. now, the same as above, they just seem to trawl the net, cut & paste the story on there and maybe alter the wording slightly, and add one or two phrases of their own, and add a coupe of lines here & there, then post it as their own reports. As regards Tw*tter, I'm not on it so can't really comment, though I have heard many people who are, say that it's nothing more than a vehicle for the deranged to air thier warped views, and is usually occupied by the kind of people you'd move away from if they were stood near you at the bar in the alehouse
It's just the boring old Echo mentality - we know best, and we're ace.
Except they don't, and they're not.
Thorp, for instance, is not by any means a political editor. He is however a political activist with immediate access to the left and as much space as he wants to print whatever they say.
No one else gets a look in with the Echo. It's as simple as that, and Maria, unfortunately, has merely slipped on Ali Mc's slippers.
But on the other side, The Wilk isn't a "trainee journalist" either. She's also an activist. Quite clearly. Which means any notion of impartiality is gone (see also: Thorp, Breslin).
All of them most likely looking for the expected sinecure at the BBC (Thorp - almost there) and, inevitably, the Guardian, so they can write about how to make toast in the most progressive way.
Keep up the good work. Only signed up last week and I'm really enjoying it.
To be fair to the Editor of the Echo, she is just continuing a long tradition of just being a bit shit. And on the other hand I cant see anything wrong with being a bit robust with comments. Nothing wrong with calling someone a dipshit. Haha. A good read. I reckon more to come on this one…
Nov 15, 2022·edited Nov 15, 2022Liked by Jack Walton
Find the comments on the Echo interesting. I have not taken it as a regular paper for manty, many years but you are correct i read it every now and then just to laugh at the stuff in the letters pages.
The thing about the echo , for me at least, is it stopped being a newspaper and started being a mouthpiece for the Labour administration. Everything labour did is good and everything anyone else did is bad. Even when the labour administration has screwed the city so much that central government had to send in the heavy mob to investigate and take over. The echo, instead of investigation what went on in the council have constantly attacked the folks from Whitehall who are trying to dig the city of a mess that, I believe, can trace its roots back to when the city was under militant control.
The strongest evidence was when good old Jeremy Corbyn came to the city. If you followed the echo then you would have associated it with the second coming , luckily the country did not follow the echo's lead...
I am not surprised that the echo would want to shut anyone down who disagrees with them, but their circulation is shrinking and in my view once it has gone the better off we will all be.
NB if you want to get a letter in the Echo try the following guide lines. It works I have spoofed a number of times.
1 Labour good...anyone else especially the Conservative party bad.
2: All Brexit supporters are racist
3: All issue are to be put at the feet of Brexit the EU is good and never does anything wrong
Poor show when the media becomes the news. A long time ago I was interviewed for a journalist position on a local North West paper. I was interviewed by the Editor in Chief a time served Fleet Street practitioner of news reporting. He finished the interview with 'I get letters all the time from people who want this job, full of they've studied this, got that qualification, recomendations and references I'm not interested. What I want to know is (he was looking me straight in the eye) are you willing to stand there and say "that's all very well Me Harris but are you poking his wife."' I can't remember what I said but he gave me the job. Passing decades he may not have used that example of asking the tough question. This is a personal story with little news interest.
Morning Jack. Incoming!
Well written as usual.
Couple of points, I mean I’m a paying subscriber so I get to gob off from time to time.
Tony McDonough comes across as Peel Ports PR Department. He’s thin skinned and thinks because he was around in the 80s his opinion is somehow more valid than everyone else’s. It’s Twitter, not some middle class dinner party. The dockers won as well! Get in!
Liverpolitan follow Sophie Corcoran, someone who has grown her platform on divisive dog whistle politics and seems to describe herself as a journalist. She uses the same terms as the Daily Mail to attack people pointing out serious injustices. The lad McDonough from Liverpolitan came across during the Battle of Bixteth Street Gardens as a troll who wound people up, and frankly it’s easy to snipe about the city from Soho while dreaming up building projects for the property developer class. Facebook aren’t going to move into Liverpool Waters. Deal with it.
He’s had run ins with The Anfield Wrap and retweeted far right polemicist Andy N’Go seemingly without context.
I’ve pointed out to Liverpolitan that Manchester’s rebirth has in part been funded by selling out to Abu Dhabi and by an aspect of social cleansing, with the council selling off public land on the cheap, and I may as well have been talking to a chat bot.
The only thing Wilk needed to say to the Echo hierarchy was “have you seen the state of the comments section on some of your articles?” She was spot on about the Roma/Smithdown article, and Liverpool’s local press have form for this. Look up about their attitude to the Liverpool
Irish when the IRA was running a low level campaign in the 1930s
The only elected Tories on Merseyside are up in Southport and over on the Wirral yet Dr Jeffrey is the go to quote. Why? They have to meet in secret such is the disdain people have for them.
65 billion quid their latest policy cost taxpayers to bail out the pension funds. He’s gone strangely quiet since baking Trussonomics over the summer. Yet it’ll be people in the city getting hammered again when Hunt does his budget. Get a job!
The Wilk is an activist and it’s clear the Echo believe in “diversity” just not diversity of opinion.
On that note, I’m off to apply to Liverpool Community College’s journalism course, and expect a “pitch” for a role at The Post. I’ve got a monthly bus pass and a library card so expect fuegos artificiales!
Saludos, mate.
*song for the weekend
Hancock by Superstore.
There is much to mull over and chew on in this piece. Firstly - a two day placement? My, my, The Echo, your generosity it overfloweth. Mind you, I guess that's all you'd need to understand how that place operates these days. Secondly, in line with what many others are saying, the Echo can chose who it wants to have in its newsroom. that's up to them. And The Wilk's outbursts, while I happen to agree with most of the opinion behind them, do prove everything that's wrong with debating on Twitter. It's just poetry of the nasty. But things turn sinister when, if true, the editor of a local paper tries to stop a dissenting voice from actually being a journalist at all. Because that's what this looks like. And we know where manoeuvres like this can lead. It's very, very alarming. It's also fascinating that the Echo were faster, and more determined, to oust a social media commentator with a few thousand followers than they were to shed light, and call to account, the alleged corruption going on under their watch at the Council. They had to leave that to the proper newspapers. The fact that Maria Breslin could be that arsed about what happens to a would-be writer on her course shows how timid and fretful this once mighty title has become. And how it is led by cowards. And who wants journalists like that?
If true, what is this if not an act of political repression?
Getting people canned from courses, jobs, setting an example for other people if they consider stepping out of line, is part and parcel of living in states like Russia. At the very least they could remove the Ukraine flag off their masthead.
Anyone remember the time a local politician managed to silence Seven Streets?
As time has passed since then, I'm sure we all recognise there was absolutely no need for any questioning or third party scrutiny of what was going on at the council at all...
If the Echo want to question their (questionable value, IMO) "partnership" with a journalism course, perhaps the Post might want to turn its attention to another of their tie-ups. In this case, a very profitable one for the Echo in the form of the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Why should any part of our BBC license fee find its way into their coffers, when we now have an alternative that can make good use of the funds?
On that front, perhaps the college would be better off partnering their trainees with yourselves too.
This sums the Echo up and the power it has in this city. On the other side of the coin, her tweets are often personal attacks on the person she’s disagreeing with. Free-speech is one thing, but bullying on social media is another and a modern day problem, it can cause the individual concerned much distress, which she doesn’t seem too concerned about. The fact she has previously called the writer of this piece a ‘dipshit’, just shows, she needs to grow up.
What really comes over from this article is how fragile the Echo appears to be. A confident management might still have had the conversation with Ms Wilkie, but along the lines of “We’re aware you’ve been critical of us in the past, but we want to show you how things work here - you might still disagree with how and why we make decisions but you will have an understanding of how a modern newsroom works”. And threatening the college afterward is Gavin Williamson type behaviour
There's two parts to this.
Firstly her placement, she knew she was on thin ice going there and was quickly outed. She then resorted to childish retaliation, posting a video, smirking away to camera and throwing in a possibly libellous, certainly evidence free accusation of racism toward the Echo (racism maybe one of her themes). Not the behaviour of someone who wants to be taken seriously as a truth-telling journalist. As much as I hate the Echo they were right to get rid asap.
Part two is the alleged attempt by the Echo to use it's power and influence to get her kicked off the course. If this is indeed true, then it's disgraceful and should be shouted out loud everywhere. If the college bows to such pressure it too should be held to account.
In 1971 there was a wonderful production at the Everyman, 'Soft Or A Girl' by John McGrath. One of the characters was called the Liverpool Echo, played I think by Roger Sloman. His personality represented what most of us felt at the time about that organ. God knows how to characterise it now. Mind you, in those heady days we had the Liverpool Free Press (the street-fighting grandad of The Post). https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/blog/2021/birth-liverpool-free-press/
Interesting piece Jack. I’m on Twitter but don’t follow The Wilk have to admit I’ve not heard of her. However, if what happened is true, it shows how scared the Echo is of criticism. Have they not heard of free speech. Is it an admission of guilt by not replying or a decision to not give you any more ammunition. I have to say though the anger, nastiness and aggression shown through verbal abuse on Twitter is getting worse. It’s a sad state of affairs when you post something and anonymous people who don’t agree jump on you. I tend to read and re tweet if I think it’s a relevant item. I just don’t like these haters.
A really interesting read, as an occasional viewer of the Echo website, I can well understand how & Why people are so annoyed by it, it's little more than "eye candy", easy, frothy non controversial puff pieces posing as articles, (people "Floored by this product from B&M which costs a fraction of its expensive designer item", or countless articles on The Chase, Coronatiion Street, Emmerdale and whatever "HollynPhil" are up to this week, Holly's latest dress, or who said what to who on loose women, or any one of a dozen other topics taken from various websites.
Even the local football coverage is poor, at one time, the reporters covering each team would almost be an unofficial member of the club, they probably spent as much time there as they did with their own families. now, the same as above, they just seem to trawl the net, cut & paste the story on there and maybe alter the wording slightly, and add one or two phrases of their own, and add a coupe of lines here & there, then post it as their own reports. As regards Tw*tter, I'm not on it so can't really comment, though I have heard many people who are, say that it's nothing more than a vehicle for the deranged to air thier warped views, and is usually occupied by the kind of people you'd move away from if they were stood near you at the bar in the alehouse
The Echo used to be a newspaper once. RIP
It's just the boring old Echo mentality - we know best, and we're ace.
Except they don't, and they're not.
Thorp, for instance, is not by any means a political editor. He is however a political activist with immediate access to the left and as much space as he wants to print whatever they say.
No one else gets a look in with the Echo. It's as simple as that, and Maria, unfortunately, has merely slipped on Ali Mc's slippers.
But on the other side, The Wilk isn't a "trainee journalist" either. She's also an activist. Quite clearly. Which means any notion of impartiality is gone (see also: Thorp, Breslin).
All of them most likely looking for the expected sinecure at the BBC (Thorp - almost there) and, inevitably, the Guardian, so they can write about how to make toast in the most progressive way.
Keep up the good work. Only signed up last week and I'm really enjoying it.
Ahh Twitter, the cesspool that stirs up conflict.
My criticism would be of the college for sending Wilkie on the placement in first place.
This is all v strange/odd/concerning.
To be fair to the Editor of the Echo, she is just continuing a long tradition of just being a bit shit. And on the other hand I cant see anything wrong with being a bit robust with comments. Nothing wrong with calling someone a dipshit. Haha. A good read. I reckon more to come on this one…
Thank you for a great read. This article persuaded me to get a paid subscription. I despise the echo.
Find the comments on the Echo interesting. I have not taken it as a regular paper for manty, many years but you are correct i read it every now and then just to laugh at the stuff in the letters pages.
The thing about the echo , for me at least, is it stopped being a newspaper and started being a mouthpiece for the Labour administration. Everything labour did is good and everything anyone else did is bad. Even when the labour administration has screwed the city so much that central government had to send in the heavy mob to investigate and take over. The echo, instead of investigation what went on in the council have constantly attacked the folks from Whitehall who are trying to dig the city of a mess that, I believe, can trace its roots back to when the city was under militant control.
The strongest evidence was when good old Jeremy Corbyn came to the city. If you followed the echo then you would have associated it with the second coming , luckily the country did not follow the echo's lead...
I am not surprised that the echo would want to shut anyone down who disagrees with them, but their circulation is shrinking and in my view once it has gone the better off we will all be.
NB if you want to get a letter in the Echo try the following guide lines. It works I have spoofed a number of times.
1 Labour good...anyone else especially the Conservative party bad.
2: All Brexit supporters are racist
3: All issue are to be put at the feet of Brexit the EU is good and never does anything wrong
Regards
Ian
Jan Nov 13
Poor show when the media becomes the news. A long time ago I was interviewed for a journalist position on a local North West paper. I was interviewed by the Editor in Chief a time served Fleet Street practitioner of news reporting. He finished the interview with 'I get letters all the time from people who want this job, full of they've studied this, got that qualification, recomendations and references I'm not interested. What I want to know is (he was looking me straight in the eye) are you willing to stand there and say "that's all very well Me Harris but are you poking his wife."' I can't remember what I said but he gave me the job. Passing decades he may not have used that example of asking the tough question. This is a personal story with little news interest.