When I lived in Vietnam it was always a source of severe irritation that I never read one international news report about the country that didn’t mention the war.
Even the ones that tried to highlight the new ‘nam would ultimately have to compare it with its war torn past.
Now back in Newcastle the same can be said. In today’s Guardian Stuart Jeffries pens a piece that is obviously supposed to reflect the new Tyneside. In his standfirst he talks of the area as a a “heartland of culture and science”. So far so good.
Scan through the article and we get to culture in the 15th paragraph and science in the 21st. In the meantime we get:
Shearer’s sports bar, Kevin Keegan, collapse of Northern Rock, ham and pease pudding stotties and the over consumption of alcohol.
In addition he’s done that awful thing of writing Geordie quote in, well, Geordie. No one ever quoted the Queen as saying “mey hesband and ey. You’re only ever written up in your own accent if you’re from North of London.
Funny, as I write this, a colleague has come in with a written version of the piece. It’s a nice spread - slightly ruined by the fact that, although the article references the wider Tyneside, it is about Newcastle - but the cover shot is…Gateshead.
Maybe the designers didn’t know the difference, but I guess we should be pleased that it’s not Newcastle Under Lyme. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Another point to dwell on:
In the above piece it states:
Not many Toon faithful are prepared to bare their wounds or rehearse their fears before a journalist from London. The representatives of the Toon Army have not responded to my emailed overtures, while Biffa (aka Mike Bolam), who runs the nufc.com fan site and is the author of an excellent book, The Newcastle United Miscellany, declines to be interviewed. He writes: “I’m afraid that I’m still quietly fuming about the recent written antics of the enemy within the Grauniad.”
It’s fair to say that the Guardian is not Newcastle’s favourite paper. On Tuesday their Fiver mailout started with an (honestly) 70 line pointedly nasty pisstake. The scornful abuse is daily - and the suggestion is that with at least two of its staffers, Louise Taylor and Barry Glendenning, being committed Sunderland fans there is a genuine bias.
I also receive their Northerner mailer. It always feels a little sneery and aloof - like way too much of the Guardian’s content when it deals with the North East. You get the impression it’s written by Londoners who think that the best way to please is to write as many patronising “northern” stories as possible. You find yourself looking for the whippet breeding pieces and the fashion spot on flat caps.
As a blogger I can only applaud their website and commitment to all things web 2.0. But the attitude of their writers to the North East stinks. If the heartland of the Daily Mail is the Home Counties, the Guardian’s, whatever they might claim about Northern public servants, is London media land luvviedom and they don’t seem to like us much.
11 comments
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February 14, 2008 at 10:53 am
Bob Piper
I hear what you say, comrade, but who gives a f*ck? You’re getting as bad as the Scots… but at least they mostly have a ‘everybody hates us, and we don’t care attitude’. It’s the Guardian. Who really cares?
Also… I don’t like to be critical, but you do often make a rod for your own backs with all this ‘geordie nation’ crap. When your lot were down last week, the ‘barcode army’ you only had to watch the telly coverage to see the strutting around as if they owned the place and were the cock-of-the-north, toon army, bollocks, and at half-time you’d have thought they had sewed the league up and were strolling it by 10 points at easter, rather than clinging on to an own-goal lead by their fingertips.
You can hardly be surprised when the rest of us have a titter behind our hands long after the final whistle has blown. Don’t you do the same when Manchester United’s smug southern bastards take a fall?
Anyway, don’t get me wrong. I really like the North-East, and after the Black Country and Yorkshire, Newcastle is a place I could really feel at home… if only they would get on with it and throw those chips off their shoulders!
February 14, 2008 at 11:19 am
ourmanwhere
Geordie nation was a quote by Sir John Hall - I can honestly never remember a single local using it.
As regards the rest of the football stuff you write - I’m quite bemused. I would imagine, like football fans everywhere we were happy and cocky when winning and somewhat dejected when we weren’t.
Toon Army bollocks? Again, confused. Our fans chant “Toon Army” - some clubs chant red army, blue army etc. What is the issue. Strutting around as if they owned the place? You’re complaining about the way they walk? Were you angry about the level of their support? Maybe you’d prefer it if there were less of us? If we were less loyal or made less noise.
Maybe you’d prefer we were less ambitious but surely having the third largest match support in England would means that, as fans we are likely to, at least, demand to be somewhere around the 3rd most succesful. Today we’re named in the top 20 richest clubs in Europe. Are we wrong to demand that this wealth is reflected on the pitch?
As for smug, I don’t recall anyone at Newcastle being smug in quite sometime. A little embarrased and quite often angry. For the most part the people, I believe, you are referring to are the the morons that hang around during the day outside SJP (ie the unemployable) who Sky like to stick microphones in front of to make them look like dickheads.
Sorry, Bob, footballs one thing but I don’t see why the North East should be patronised and abused so frequently by the southern media. When was the last time anyone did a travel piece on London and referred to pearly kings and queens and a sing song round the old Joanna. It doesn’t happen - and yet Southern scribes haven’t progressed their North East prejudices in 30 years.
I don’t want articles that say Newcastle has moved on - I want articles that say were there without having to reference all that stotty cake crap.
In the end, we’re the furthest away city from the London media hub. These people who write what they do about our community don’t live in our community. They don’t get that feedback they aren’t called a wanker down the pub.
The level of abuse that Newcastle (and its football club) gets would never be aimed at North London, for example.
February 14, 2008 at 11:36 am
Mosh
I was working for a company in Leeds some years ago, doing server installs. The aim was to do two in a day and one of my bosses was doing the scheduling.
“You’ll like this one,” he said. “I’ve given you Newcastle and Whitley Bay on Tuesday.”
Superb. A chance to pop home and see the family. Good job I checked the postcode of the Newcastle one. ST6…
February 14, 2008 at 12:30 pm
ourmanwhere
Bob, something else strimes me - and is maybe the root of much of the anger towards Newcastle United.
If you are complaining of over exposure of the football team then I’d gladly agree. As most of the football websites around have commented - we’d gladly go back to just talking football and forget all the bollocks.
Our club may appear something of a soap but that is only exacerbated by the media. We’d rather they all just buggered off to be honest.
Mosh - you just stayed in Whitley Bay, right?
February 14, 2008 at 12:51 pm
ZinZin
“The level of abuse that Newcastle (and its football club) gets would never be aimed at North London, for example.”
Take it on the chin and don’t complain, you will only encourage them.
My own view on Newcastle United is that they are shown up by the keeganites. As far as I’ concerned if your under 30 (a newcastle fan) and don’t know who Mirandinha is, then you are a keeganite. Anyone under 25, I will make allowances.
Bob, we all have a titter at Newcastle but we are having a titter at the expense of the hype (and squandered potential) that has surrounded them since 1992.
February 14, 2008 at 1:05 pm
ourmanwhere
Zinzin - you may have something there and I do know who Mirandinha is (..he’s not from Argentine, he’s from Brazil, he’s f**king brill”
Then again if you look around the stadium it’s full of old blokes - most of us have had our season tickets for a such a spell that there isn’t much room for young uns. We don’t deserve this crap.
Like I said, the kind of people Sky sports includes in its vox pops - and the dickheads who text into the likes of 606 - they only embarass us all. Then again, some of the bigger idiots quite often prove to be opposition fans on wind ups.
As regards the hype - the only hype was really around the initial Keegan/Hall days and worked very well in turning us into a two four side.
Since then they hype hasn’t been coming from us. Shepherd was an idiot - fair enough but I don’t recall much from anyone else but that prat. Our current chairman doesn’t do press interviews - but if anything we have more press now.
I keep reading that we have dellusions of grandeur - fine so stop writing about us. We’d be happy with that.
February 14, 2008 at 1:21 pm
ZinZin
That should be over 30.
“We don’t deserve this crap.”
Your going to get more of it, who on earth is going to take all those over-paid, under performing crocks off your hands?
Great stadium, SHAME ABOUT THE TEAM.
February 14, 2008 at 1:40 pm
ourmanwhere
Well seeing as by far the worst of them is Alan Smith, and he used to play for Manchester United - I’m expecting a summertime bid from Roy Keane.
February 14, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Mosh
I ended up scheduling my own site visits… Worked my way up to Newcastle, stayed with an old schoolmate and did Whitley Bay the next morning. Hungover, of course :)
As for the Newcastle stuff now, I’m only hoping we stay up. Not 100% expecting it, but I don’t *believe* we’ll drop. Then we only have to hope we can offload all the garbage we have in the dressing room and replace it with decent talent.
We only need about 8 players to have a decent starting 11.
*sob*
February 14, 2008 at 5:16 pm
ourmanwhere
Mosh - you might be right. But let’s face it - replace Smith with anyone at all and things improve (neither one goal nor one assist so far and nine yellow cards and one red.
February 16, 2008 at 10:00 am
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