On a number of threads throughout this forum some of us have lamented the sometimes shoddy state of local journalism.

Sadly local journalistic sloppiness is rearing its inane head too frequently to be ignored. This thread is dedicated to examples of inept local journalism.

This one caught my eye:


Culture film short scoops top award

Dec 14 2007 by Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Echo

A FILM designed to persuade people to visit Liverpool for its 2008 year as Capital of Culture has won a major industry award.

The 2½ minute film by the North West Development Agency entitled The Beautiful North, highlights the cultural richness of the region

Featuring local talent against the backdrop of the region’s world-famous architecture, it won the travel and leisure category of Campaign Magazine’s annual media awards.

The film features actress Sue Johnston, comedian Johnny Vegas and a whole host of cameos including Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie and Dave McCabe from hit band the Zutons.

It is being shown in art-house cinemas across London and the south east, reasserting the region’s position as a hotbed of cultural talent.

NWDA executive director of marketing, Peter Mearns, said: “. To win in such a highly contested category is fantastic and demonstrates the agency’s commitment to improving the region’s image.”



Sounds interesting doesn't it? So I went to youtube and this is what I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSsxjtJuv8o

Essentially is a promo piece for the Manchester International Festival by the NWDA in which Manchester and 'The North' are conflated. Liverpool is mentioned once and the best architecture shown is Liverpool's (it's not referenced, of course). Unless I missed something this was as Liverpool Lite as it's possible to be without the city being invisible.

Not one Liverpool voice. So how was this film DESIGNED to persuade visitors to visit Liverpool in 2008?

From today's DP, a story about the rise in tunnel tolls:

Taking their toll: Fury as just six men vote through Mersey Tunnel toll rise

Feb 5 2008 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEY Tunnel tolls will rise to £1.40 from April, despite just six of the region’s transport authority board of 18 agreeing to the rise yesterday

In an emotionally charged meeting at Merseytravel’s head-quarters in Hatton Garden, six councillors voted for the 10p rise, four against, with eight abstaining. It is the first rise in tolls since April, 2005, and will bring in an additional £3.6m for the authority, set to be used to help fund new offices for tunnels staff and harmonising pay.

All those who voted against were Wirral representatives, those who voted in favour were predominantly Labour councillors from Liverpool, Knowsley, and Sefton, while those abstaining were Liberal Democrats.

Wirral Conservative councillor Chris Blakeley said: “If this rise is supported, regular car users will be paying an extra £50-a-year.” He reignited the debate over whether the tunnels should be part of the national road network and the tolls abolished. The total debt owed on the tunnels is still £78.4m.

But Neil Scales, chief executive of Merseytravel, said there was little prospect of this happening. “I can’t envisage a situation where that could take place and even if the debt had been paid off there are maintenance costs and police costs. I can’t see UK plc writing that debt off.”

Last night, business and trades union leaders joined in the condemnation of the decision. Phil Fleming, a Wirral businessman who is actually a member of Merseytravel’s advisory tunnels board, said: “The last thing that I would have expected was them to try to put the toll up without any consultation. I would have thought this was the worst year to have done this (Capital of Culture). From a PR point of view, they seem to shoot themselves in the foot.”

John McGoldrick, secretary of the Mersey Tunnel Users Association, said: “We were surprised and disappointed at the same time. On previous votes, only one member of Merseytravel has voted against toll increases. If you read the report, there is no indication that the money is going to be used for the tunnels. The toll increase is just increasing the profit for Merseytravel.”

Charges for cars and motorbikes with sidecar will now rise by 7.7% from £1.30 to £1.40 from April, while small goods vehicles and small coaches (Class 2) will pay £2.80, up from £1.30.

Charges for goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and passenger vehicles (Class 3) will increase from £3.90 to £4.20, and heavy good vehicles (Class 4) will pay £5.60 – a 40p rise.

Cllr Ron Abbey, Labour representative for Wirral, said: “I am not happy with this increase, it’s another tax on the commuters of the Wirral.”

The total debt owed on the tunnels is still £78.4m, down from £95m in 2005, but previous attempts to try to have it written off have been unsuccessful. Last year, £11m was paid off on the debt and interest, and next year £10.7m will be paid to service that debt.

Cllr Dowd said it will take until 2048 to pay the debt. Denis Knowles, a Lib-Dem councillor from Wirral, said it was clear the toll issue should have been scrutinised by the tunnels board of Merseytravel. “Individual members could have put forward alternative ways of raising the money.”

He said the way the issue had been dealt with left question marks over the transparency of a contentious issue: “I wish we could step back from it and re-look at it with fresh eyes.”

Chairman of the authority Cllr Mark Dowd said that in 1992 the tunnels toll stood at £1 and that prices for other things had increased by a far greater percentage than 40p in 16 years. “Bus charges go up by 30p, 40p a year. We are talking about paying people who work in the tunnels, paying the debt (accrued when the tunnels were built), and maintaining the infrastructure.

“I don’t think that 3p a year is exorbitant. It costs in the region of £35m to keep the tunnels open; if people believe the Government is going to come in and say ‘here’s £35m and let people go through the tunnels for free’, that would mean total and utter gridlock.”

Last night, Cllr Peter Millea, who leads the Liberal Democrat group on Merseytravel, explained why all his members apart from Cllr Dave Mitchell (who voted against) had abstained. “We had a debate in our group, some of us wanted to support the recommendation, but one of our councillors in the Wirral had to vote against, so we were not going to leave him exposed either.”

The group did not want a three way split, so it decided to abstain, said Cllr Millea. To do otherwise would have left a £3.6m hole in the authority’s finances, and “we were not prepared to do that”, he added.

Alec McFadden, president of Merseyside TUC, said: “The TUC’s position is that the tunnel tolls create an economic barrier. I travel from Wirral to Manchester every day. It costs me £1.20 (using the tag discount) to travel one-and-a-half miles, and then nothing to go 40 miles down the M62.
It’s absolute madness, both of them are maintained by the tax payer.”

About 28 million journeys are taken through the tunnels each year, slightly more than 24 million are class one vehicles that will pay £1.40 per trip from April.

Class Two vehicles had had a 50% discount for the past three years, but will now pay the going rate plus an increase to £2.80.



I chose this because it seems to me that there are certain topics (this is one of them) that the DP&E like to whip up into an emotional froth.

Again it's the byline setting the tone. Abstaining is still a political act, especially in this context. Interesting explanation of the reasons for this action.

On a number of threads throughout this forum

Sounds interesting doesn't it? So I went to youtube and this is what I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSsxjtJuv8o

Essentially is a promo piece for the Manchester International Festival by the NWDA in which Manchester and 'The North' are conflated. Liverpool is mentioned once and the best architecture shown is Liverpool's (it's not referenced, of course). Unless I missed something this was as Liverpool Lite as it's possible to be without the city being invisible.

Not one Liverpool voice. So how was this film DESIGNED to persuade visitors to visit Liverpool in 2008?

Liverpool very much dominates the piece to be honest, but I do take your point. The name 'Manchester' appears at the start and the end. 'Liverpool' is not visible once.

We know Liverpool dominates the piece. Somebody not familar with Liverpool or Manchester may well assume it is a promotional piece for Manchester, perhaps only recognising the Pier Head shot near the beginning as representing the 'other place'.

That's the problem with Liverpool not having its own voice and being subsumed into a Manchester led voice. Even when their intentions are to be balanced and fair (as may have been the case here given how much Liverpool is featured) a Manchester-centric viewpoint by the production team will effect the results. And of course, quite often, their intentions are open to question.

To be fair, if Liverpool was in their position as self appointed, now annointed 'NW' capital, I would still expect the same to be true, albeit reversed. Putting two high profile, competing, provincial cities into the same structure is a recipe for manipulation, resentment and so forth.

On a number of threads throughout this forum some of us have lamented the sometimes shoddy state of local journalism.

Sadly local journalistic sloppiness is rearing its inane head too frequently to be ignored. This thread is dedicated to examples of inept local journalism.

This one caught my eye:



Sounds interesting doesn't it? So I went to youtube and this is what I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSsxjtJuv8o

Essentially is a promo piece for the Manchester International Festival by the NWDA in which Manchester and 'The North' are conflated. Liverpool is mentioned once and the best architecture shown is Liverpool's (it's not referenced, of course). Unless I missed something this was as Liverpool Lite as it's possible to be without the city being invisible.

Not one Liverpool voice. So how was this film DESIGNED to persuade visitors to visit Liverpool in 2008?
Babs, sorry mate, but this is the first time I've seen your thread.
I've just checked out the Youtube vid. I agree. Well spotted.

The Liverpool piece was just an afterthought. The opening lines say it all [Manc Backdrop]
"Call me biased, but a lot of great TV comes out of here, because Manchester, in fact the whole of the North West is a loving home of creativity. There's even an International Festival dedicated to original artistic works..........And over in Liverpool they're getting ready to be next year's Capital of Culture":ohno:

To be fair, if Liverpool was in their position as self appointed, now annointed 'NW' capital, I would still expect the same to be true, albeit reversed. Putting two high profile, competing, provincial cities into the same structure is a recipe for manipulation, resentment and so forth.

If that where the case then I would like to think that most of us here would see the unfairness of this and not take a partizan stance when proper complaint came from down the road that something should be done to remedy it.. in fact, I think that most would offer their support?

Over the past six months or so as our arena became a glaring reality and a main player in attracting huge events (MTV Awards), I have never witnessed so much coverage given over to the MEN on Granada Reports and NW Tonight. We have had live coverage of fans queuing for tickets for the Spice Girls and Take That, followed by further coverage of how the gigs went off and on and on it goes. Last night NWT made a big thing about Strictly Come Dancing at the MEN and tagged onto the end of the programme was just a small snippet about the queues around the Philharmonic Hall for the Viennese Ball tickets - no footage of course.

IMO, these two supposed 'regional news' outlets are deliberately raining on our parade and seek every opportunity to somehow 'balance' their reporting of Liverpool by showing something exciting happening in Manchester too.

BTW, Strictly Come Dancing are taking bookings for next year's tour and again the Echo Arena doesn't feature on the itinerary. :mad2:

yet another one who has finally clicked that it is all much more than a coincidence!!!!