If 1000 fans can scare Ashley, what could 50,000 do?
Posted on October 29th, 2013 | 29 Comments |
Why Newcastle United’s media ban is a bigger issue than the Sunderland defeat.
Just for the record though, the titles are not my own. I would never say that a media ban was more important than losing twice in a row to that lot! Also, I have never described the club I have supported since the 1970s as a “laughing stock” just its owners and a few other clowns who have been associated with it down the years.
Since I wrote that piece, there have been quite a few stories from a vengeful press pack over Mike Ashley’s crass attempt to muzzle the media. It takes a really nasty piece of work to actuallly make the fourth estate look like the good guys nowadays, but, alas, it’s a cakewalk for the odious Ashley with his laughable spoiled brat tantrums. Thanks to his latest blunder, he has now made a small march with only around 1000 participants at most into a major event in the national media, and even overseas. To borrow an American expression, Way to go, fatty!
However, ‘Time 4 Change’ should capitalise on this right now and keep the momentum going, and they should open a new front in the war, against Sports Direct. They have enjoyed a parasitical relationship with Newcastle United, not to mention 90% of its own workforce and starving sweatshop workers in the far East for too long now. Of course, we shouldn’t forget those other evil parasites who mercilessly exploit the desperation of the poor and vulnerable, Wonga.
Returning to the media’s reaction to Ashley banning NCJ media, aka the Chronic, the Journal and the Sunday Stun, one reaction which caught my eye was a very well written piece of anti-Ashley polemic by David Baines, the Newcastle branch representative for the NUJ (National Union of Journalists). Here’s what he wrote in a piece called “NUJ disputes red card for soccer reporters“:
“We have seen this kind of bullying by Newcastle United before. They have form; they are serial offenders. They just can’t take criticism, can they?
“The club has placed itself alongside many unsavoury organisations around the world which, instead of doing something about their own failings, inadequacies, incompetency, brutalities, try to stop people mentioning them. That way, they hope, criticism will disappear.
“But they can’t stop people talking about their inadequacies around the water cooler, in the bars, on the terraces, on Twitter and Facebook – so they try to stop journalists doing their jobs, writing about them, reporting on them.
“The leaders of Newcastle United emerge as rather pathetic figures, thin-skinned and paranoid. But what this bullying behaviour really betrays is an ingrained lack of respect for the team’s fans – whose money pays the executive wages. It is the fans who ultimately lose out when a football club bans the local papers.
“I was going to suggest that this kind of behaviour was more suited to the primary school playground than the big boys’ game, but that would be very unfair on the children who are for the most part far more mature and sporting.”
Though it is a bit rich to see a representative of the Journalistic profession carping on about others being bullies with a lack of respect in the wake of the recent Leveson inquiry and the forthcoming trials of Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, it is a very eloquent description of the behaviour of Ashley and his cohorts nonetheless.
You can also see a copy of the letter sent by the Northern and Midlands branch of the NUJ to Mike Ashley and Wendy Taylor below:
Why Newcastle United’s media ban is a bigger issue than the Sunderland defeat.
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NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1096 articles on this blog.
Good piece, will it keep the pressure on?