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Journalists/writers - who's good and who's bad

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sid waddell View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sid waddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Journalists/writers - who's good and who's bad
    Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 11:26am
Good:
Naomi O'Leary - Irish Times Europe correspondent - different class
Fintan O'Toole
Like Declan Lynch's columns
Gene Kerrigan too
Internationally: Gary Younge
Peter Beinart
Mark Steel and Marina Hyde are very funny
Yer wan Ellen Coyne formerly of the Murdoch Times, now of the Indo is good
Justine McCarthy is generally very good but threw in a stinker of a column last Sunday week

Bad:
Glenn Greenwald - the worst type of contrarian
Most of the Sindo especiaally Niamh Horan
Pat Leahy in the Times is meh
The IONA column in Saturday's Times should be done away with, not cool to have a dedicated disinformation section in Ireland's paper of record
There's a guy called Mark Paul in the Times who is awful


Edited by sid waddell - 30 Jan 2021 at 11:34am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BigStrongMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 12:02pm
https://twitter.com/f365/status/1354022747035340800?s=12
Thought this was a very good piece. Against the grain of a Lampard love-in. 
PM me for all forum moderation queries.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Baldrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 12:10pm
do you mean you think they are bad journalists or that you disagree with their opinions.  

There are some excellent journalists who I would fundamentally disagree with on most things they say. 

Then there are journalists who I agree with that I don’t rate. 
AKA pedantic kunt
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sid waddell View Drop Down
Roy Keane
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sid waddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 12:44pm
Originally posted by Baldrick Baldrick wrote:

do you mean you think they are bad journalists or that you disagree with their opinions.  

There are some excellent journalists who I would fundamentally disagree with on most things they say. 

Then there are journalists who I agree with that I don’t rate. 
I tend to disagree a lot with people who have awful opinions

Like, if anybody can come up with a writer or journalist who can make a good case for Trump or Brexit or Putin or the current Tory government, I'm all ears

I've yet to find one

Who are these excellent journalists that you would fundamentally disagree with
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sid waddell View Drop Down
Roy Keane
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sid waddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 12:54pm
Originally posted by BigStrongMan BigStrongMan wrote:

https://twitter.com/f365/status/1354022747035340800?s=12
Thought this was a very good piece. Against the grain of a Lampard love-in. 
The whole Lampard thing was an exercise in preening Brexit-style nostalgia

The "people like us" thing was rampant throughout it, be it in Lampard's own management decisions or favouritism towards certain players and dislike for others, Lampard's me me me victimhood and thin skinnedness, the Chelsea supporters' favourable attitude towards him, or the consistently favourable coverage he received in the UK sports press

Nostalgic nepotism in other words
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Roberto Baggio Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 12:55pm
Did anyone happen to notice a certain Irish sports journo on Twitter have a bit of a breakdown a few weekends ago, some very personal tweets at about 12.30/1 am that were deleted the next morning?


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sid waddell View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sid waddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:11pm
Originally posted by Roberto Baggio Roberto Baggio wrote:

Did anyone happen to notice a certain Irish sports journo on Twitter have a bit of a breakdown a few weekends ago, some very personal tweets at about 12.30/1 am that were deleted the next morning?


Himself and his mate Parkinson have gone stone raving mental

They take professional contrarian positions on a load of things to try and make themselves relevant and then make fools of themselves trying to defend these ludicrous professional contrarian positions

The Toby Young and Richard Littlejohn of Irish sports media

It's probably working for them in terms of profile - but at the same time they're pigeon holing themselves into a position where it's hard to see any how reputable organisation will touch them - but they clearly think they can make a living from alternative media purely by generating clicks
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Roberto Baggio Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:12pm
Not sure you're on about the same person here Sid
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sid waddell View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sid waddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:14pm
Originally posted by Roberto Baggio Roberto Baggio wrote:

Not sure you're on about the same person here Sid
I presumed you were talking about Qewan

If not, who are you talking about?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Baldrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:24pm
Originally posted by sid waddell sid waddell wrote:

Originally posted by Baldrick Baldrick wrote:

do you mean you think they are bad journalists or that you disagree with their opinions.  

There are some excellent journalists who I would fundamentally disagree with on most things they say. 

Then there are journalists who I agree with that I don’t rate. 
I tend to disagree a lot with people who have awful opinions

Like, if anybody can come up with a writer or journalist who can make a good case for Trump or Brexit or Putin or the current Tory government, I'm all ears

I've yet to find one

Who are these excellent journalists that you would fundamentally disagree with

Ken Earley I think Is an excellent writer but I would disagree with a lot of what he says 

Martin Samuel would be another one.  

Eamon dunphy is a brilliant writer but a spoofer in many ways but a very good interviewer too. 

I like Chris John's in the Irish Times but I wouldnt be as market driven as he is.  

Des Cahill is a terrible journalist but he seems like a decent guy and I would privacy agree with him on most things gs but he doesn't have one curious bone in his body.  

Jennifer o connell is someone worth reading but I disagree with a lot of what she says.  
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sid waddell View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sid waddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:43pm
Originally posted by Baldrick Baldrick wrote:

Originally posted by sid waddell sid waddell wrote:

Originally posted by Baldrick Baldrick wrote:

do you mean you think they are bad journalists or that you disagree with their opinions.  

There are some excellent journalists who I would fundamentally disagree with on most things they say. 

Then there are journalists who I agree with that I don’t rate. 
I tend to disagree a lot with people who have awful opinions

Like, if anybody can come up with a writer or journalist who can make a good case for Trump or Brexit or Putin or the current Tory government, I'm all ears

I've yet to find one

Who are these excellent journalists that you would fundamentally disagree with

Ken Earley I think Is an excellent writer but I would disagree with a lot of what he says 

Martin Samuel would be another one.  

Eamon dunphy is a brilliant writer but a spoofer in many ways but a very good interviewer too. 

I like Chris John's in the Irish Times but I wouldnt be as market driven as he is.  

Des Cahill is a terrible journalist but he seems like a decent guy and I would privacy agree with him on most things gs but he doesn't have one curious bone in his body.  

Jennifer o connell is someone worth reading but I disagree with a lot of what she says.  
But any disagreements you'd have with those would be very much within normal parameters, or on fairly trivial matters like football

I like most of Una Mullally's opinions but as a writer and as a journalist I don't think she's very good

Jennifer O'Connell is decent

I think the main fault line in journalism today is good faith/bad faith

What I do think there is a lot of is journalists who are largely good faith bending over backwards to class those who are not good faith as legitimate good faith operators rather than the charlatans they are - and they feed into the notion that people who can actually see the true charlatan nature of bad faith right wing operators are "hysterical" rather than the reality of them being spot on

I've seen some of this lately from Michael Clifford, Michael O'Regan and Conor Gallagher, particularly around the far right anti-mask demonstrations

The Irish media's house US politics "expert" Larry Donnelly (he's an expert in the same way Eamon Dunphy is an expert on Spanish football) is a huge offender in this regard

Dunphy and Joe Brolly are very similar, capable of very good stuff but often come out with pure barstool nonsense 

Stephen Collins of the Times is generally sh*te but capable of the odd decent column

Wouldn't be a fan of Colm McCarthy's ideology but he is a capable writer

Michael Walker I find to be a terrific writer on football, brings social context into his writing a lot, Early too is a brilliant writer, he's the most entertaining commentator on football by a mile

I wouldn't be a big fan of a lot of broadsheet UK sportswriters, the Henry Winter/Patrick Barclay/Paul Hayward types, there's a lot of pompousness there, they're no Hugh McIlvanneys anyway




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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Claret Murph Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:47pm
Originally posted by Baldrick Baldrick wrote:

do you mean you think they are bad journalists or that you disagree with their opinions.  

There are some excellent journalists who I would fundamentally disagree with on most things they say. 

Then there are journalists who I agree with that I don’t rate. 

I will be shocked if you don't disagree with everybody one way or the other Baldie .
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sid waddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:52pm
Originally posted by sid waddell sid waddell wrote:


I wouldn't be a big fan of a lot of broadsheet UK sportswriters, the Henry Winter/Patrick Barclay/Paul Hayward types, there's a lot of pompousness there, they're no Hugh McIlvanneys anyway


Reading back over this line reminded me of this

Must find out who wrote it
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sid waddell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 1:59pm
f**king hell

The seeds of Brexit were certainly deep rooted

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/3625581/On-balance-God-probably-is-English.html

On balance, God probably is English

Truly there are days when, as the poet Browning says, God is in His Heaven and all is right with the world. Today is such a day: a cloudless June sky, the oxen reposed in the shade of the mighty British oak, the reek rising from a million barbecues, and England beginning its World Cup endeavour.

In our hearts, we know that Sven-Goran Eriksson's team may not be the favourites; but we also know that this is as decent a crack at the trophy as England has had since 1970.

Readers with no interest in football must surely have been caught up, however slightly, in the national mood. The flag of St George flies everywhere - except over certain misguided council buildings. Even readers in Scotland, Wales and Ireland cannot be wholly indifferent. For the profusion of English flags shows that the English have at last understood the nature of our national settlement.

Only rarely these days do we hear the solecism that used to cause so much annoyance in the other component parts of the kingdom, namely the use of "England" to mean "Britain". In 1966, England fans flew the Union flag almost to a man; today, they have finally grasped the difference.

It is true, of course, that many of our Scottish readers will be cheering heartily for Paraguay this afternoon. But it would be wrong to infer too much from what is, after all, a game. Had Tottenham Hotspur played CA River Plate at the height of the Falklands, we suspect that a fair number of Arsenal fans would have been cheering the Porteños; but that wouldn't have meant that they wanted to lose the war.

We can all feel a sense of benign patriotism about one of our most popular inventions. Never mind all that nonsense about the Chinese having started the game. It was the British who codified and exported it, which is why so many foreign clubs have English names: Athletic Club Bilbao, AC Milan (not Milano), Corinthians in São Paolo. We can, in short, give ourselves a hearty pat on the back; but not just for this.

Football is only one of the many innovations we have given the world: rubber bands, spinning jennies, steam engines, penicillin, cat's eyes, the internet. We are a bold, spirited, adventurous people. Let's not confine our patriotism to the sports field, as po-faced Eurocrats urge. Let's treat the outpouring of self-celebration as the beginning of something that will last, regardless of what happens on the pitch.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Baldrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 2:03pm
Originally posted by Claret Murph Claret Murph wrote:

Originally posted by Baldrick Baldrick wrote:

do you mean you think they are bad journalists or that you disagree with their opinions.  

There are some excellent journalists who I would fundamentally disagree with on most things they say. 

Then there are journalists who I agree with that I don’t rate. 

I will be shocked if you don't disagree with everybody one way or the other Baldie .

Ironic you saying that as you are disagreeing with nearly everybody on the Stephen Kenny thread. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Claret Murph Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 2:19pm
Originally posted by Baldrick Baldrick wrote:

Originally posted by Claret Murph Claret Murph wrote:

Originally posted by Baldrick Baldrick wrote:

do you mean you think they are bad journalists or that you disagree with their opinions.  

There are some excellent journalists who I would fundamentally disagree with on most things they say. 

Then there are journalists who I agree with that I don’t rate. 

I will be shocked if you don't disagree with everybody one way or the other Baldie .

Ironic you saying that as you are disagreeing with nearly everybody on the Stephen Kenny thread. 

Baldie , i have stayed off that thread and will try my best to do so everyday until after the Serbia game .
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote irelandfan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 2:21pm
Good 
Ewan McKenna 

Bad
Neil Francis
Gerry Thornley 


Edited by irelandfan - 30 Jan 2021 at 2:22pm
I'm the gaffer whatever I say goes.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pre Madonna Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Jan 2021 at 2:30pm
Martin Samuel is one of those sportswriters who is revered in England and I can't for the life of me think why! Henry Winter is another one. Ken Early would be similar at home.

I enjoy Marina Hyde, even though I think she is very much a part of the problem, but she is funny.  Polly Toynbee is a decent writer, I have to admit, but I can't read her without getting annoyed. I believe Phil Ochs summed her up in a song once!LOL I only agree with Owen Jones about 90% of the time, but I do enjoy his writing aside of that.  I only agree with O'Toole about half the time, but he is a national treasure. I don't think I have ever disagreed with Monbiot, but he is unquestionably an excellent writer. Gary Younge, John Harris, Naomi O'Leary and Arwa Mahdawi are all writers I would read based on name rather than headlines. Scally, the Irish Times man in Berlin, is excellent too. 
Someone mentioned Chris Johns and he is very enjoyable, for a posh capitalist!
On the other side, the likes of Nick Cohen, Andrew Rawnsley and Jonathan Freedland are barely literate.

I love Eamonn Sweeney and rarely agree with him, or even have much of an interest in the subject. I haven't read much of him in a while though. His book on following Sligo Rovers is a masterpiece. Donald McRae is similar.  

Football wise, Michael Walker's recent eulogy to Colin Bell might change my opinion of him! It was an incredible piece. Harry Pearson is absolutely brilliant, as is David Conn. There are still others out there who are great, but my lack of interest in the game at franchise level means I don't bother any more.



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