My pet hate....

Sloppy journalism......

This quote from the BBC website had me puzzled for a while.....Gary Johnson, Yeovil's manger


"So we thought we'd have a bit of a position with strength and then try to keep the ball and break on them. Again we had the first couple of chances - Keith Lamar's header and a shot or two......."


I scoured the teamsheet, but couldn't find a Keith Lamar playing, but then, re-reading the beginning of the article.......


"Chesterfield ended a three-match losing run with a hard-fought goalless draw at home to League One strugglers Yeovil.

Kieffer Moore wasted two chances for the visitors, without a win in seven league games, including a header that hit the legs of home keeper Tommy Lee.........."

Bloody hell, what's Tommy Lee doing playing in goal for Yeovil Town?

Red614 wrote:Bloody hell, what's Tommy Lee doing playing in goal for Yeovil Town?

Ah.........I've cut the quote off........it should actually read Tommy Lee Jones....................

I'm always surprised by some of the shoddy mainstream sport journalism. Of all the people in the world who SHOULD get line ups, names, dates, stadia etc right it should be those guys/gals.

With that in mind, here's a letter Motty wrote to an aspiring journalist some 25 years ago or so...

A friend of mine worked until recently as chief cricket writer on a national daily and covered Premiership soccer in the winter. He had to take a similar route to Motty and started off as a tea boy on a local rag before working his way up the greasy pole. I had a similar start in my career (tip - always make sure the pole is greasy, it's much less painful).
I may be wrong (although it's never happened before) but these sort of lowly jobs which provide opportunities for progression don't seem to exist any more

Cyncoedslumdog wrote:A friend of mine worked until recently as chief cricket writer on a national daily and covered Premiership soccer in the winter.  He had to take a similar route to Motty and started off as a tea boy on a local rag before working his way up the greasy pole. I had a similar start in my career (tip - always make sure the pole is greasy, it's much less painful).
I may be wrong (although it's never happened before) but these sort of lowly jobs which provide opportunities for progression don't seem to exist any more

If only there was some kind of hand related insulating garment who could illuminate us on sports journalist career progressions...

Arkay Dubya wrote:

Cyncoedslumdog wrote:A friend of mine worked until recently as chief cricket writer on a national daily and covered Premiership soccer in the winter.  He had to take a similar route to Motty and started off as a tea boy on a local rag before working his way up the greasy pole. I had a similar start in my career (tip - always make sure the pole is greasy, it's much less painful).
I may be wrong (although it's never happened before) but these sort of lowly jobs which provide opportunities for progression don't seem to exist any more

If only there was some kind of hand related insulating garment who could illuminate us on sports journalist career progressions...

........keeping his young head well below the parapet, I fancy.......

I've been working as a sports journalist for 12 months now and nothing frustrates me more than reading articles with errors. The Echo are hands down the worst publication around for this. One reporter is particular, who I won't name, takes it to a whole new level.

*** G L O V E S *** wrote:I've been working as a sports journalist for 12 months now and nothing frustrates me more than reading articles with errors. The Echo are hands down the worst publication around for this. One reporter is particular, who I won't name, takes it to a whole new level.

Oh go on, NAME AND SHAME!



It's not like he/she is reading this forum or anything...

Arkay Dubya wrote:

*** G L O V E S *** wrote:I've been working as a sports journalist for 12 months now and nothing frustrates me more than reading articles with errors. The Echo are hands down the worst publication around for this. One reporter is particular, who I won't name, takes it to a whole new level.

Oh go on, NAME AND SHAME!



It's not like he/she is reading this forum or anything...

Exactly right. The standard of literacy indicates long hours spent trawling (or is it trolling) through certain other boards.

There is actually nothing wrong with the following quote, but I read it early this morning and it took me ages to make any sense of it......

"James McArthur will join former Hamilton and Wigan team-mate James McCarthy in missing the Euro 2016 qualifier between Scotland and Ireland."