The Scotsman: the first of many?

[Bill 13,717]

2 hours ago, Gaffer said:

If journos were offering investigative services, quality of writing, or some other value add, I might be inclined to appreciate them, but they don't so I don't.  

Some of them do. The Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph are excellent. The Telegraph in general offers some quality insight into current affairs. By quality, I mean writing that often leaves you with an altered opinion or a much clearer understanding and better informed.

 

Most of the rest - I'd agree with you.

[26th of foot 6,119]

Oh, Aidan Smith, he's another I hope drowns in penurious circumstance.

 

Of course, little hope. The Fettes College educated Journo reinvented himself. You know that thing about the deceased Chair of Dundee United, Stephen Thompson; you can change your house, wife, ..... etc but you cannot change your football team? Well, Aidan had a Diary decades past, where he informed us that his old man would pick up him and another Boarder from Fettes in the chauffeur driven car, and travel through to Glasgow to watch ra Sellik in big Euro games. However, Aidan desired more street cred' among his Uni' mates in Edinburgh and changed his football team to Hibs. The one thing that remained constant was/is his hatred of all things Rangers.

 

Thirty years of spitting venom from Lord Snooty, I am sure he'll find comfort at his beloved Bunkerton Castle. 

[Scott7 6,173]

Wrong comic. Desperate Dan the better comparison.

[ranger_syntax 4,424]

10 hours ago, JohnMc said:

Someone needs to pay journalists to carry out the interviews, to follow the leads and to be able to compose prose that enlightens, or moves or angers us. If we lose that the only way is downwards in my opinion. 

Some might say that supply creates demand ...

[JohnMc 2,802]

See if you don't buy or read a newspaper, how do you know what the quality of writing is like? The 'big' papers, the London based broadsheets, a number of the international publications, still contain superb writers and a breadth of topics that can't be matched. The hyper local 'papers' contain news that simply can't be found anywhere else. 

 

The quality of writing around Scottish football is generally low and if that's all that interests someone then whether in print, or online, 'newspapers' will generally disappoint. But if you want to know about subjects beyond that then 'newspapers' are still the best source of information, opinion and depth of coverage, I my opinion of course. 

[Gaffer 1,665]

57 minutes ago, JohnMc said:

See if you don't buy or read a newspaper, how do you know what the quality of writing is like? The 'big' papers, the London based broadsheets, a number of the international publications, still contain superb writers and a breadth of topics that can't be matched. The hyper local 'papers' contain news that simply can't be found anywhere else. 

 

The quality of writing around Scottish football is generally low and if that's all that interests someone then whether in print, or online, 'newspapers' will generally disappoint. But if you want to know about subjects beyond that then 'newspapers' are still the best source of information, opinion and depth of coverage, I my opinion of course. 

Fair enough.  If I'm bored I pick up the FT or telegraph in the airport lounge.  I'm generally looking for commentary on finance, economics, impacts of political changes, etc, but in my opinion it's a skin deep assessment.  Maybe I'm expecting too much, but there are some great commentators online and I wish they were employed by some of the broadsheets, or at least did some freelance writing for them.

 

Not everything online can be relied upon though.  My guilty pleasure is reading the Kerrydale Meltdown (@Kerryfail) and today it's showing their fans going apoplectic because a Scottish referee (Andrew Dallas) is playing number 12 for Rangers in Kris Boyd's testimonial.  It's hilarious seeing the venomous tweets.  Maybe someone will point out that Dallas is actually one of our own young players.

[ranger_syntax 4,424]

9 hours ago, JohnMc said:

See if you don't buy or read a newspaper, how do you know what the quality of writing is like? The 'big' papers, the London based broadsheets, a number of the international publications, still contain superb writers and a breadth of topics that can't be matched. The hyper local 'papers' contain news that simply can't be found anywhere else. 

 

The quality of writing around Scottish football is generally low and if that's all that interests someone then whether in print, or online, 'newspapers' will generally disappoint. But if you want to know about subjects beyond that then 'newspapers' are still the best source of information, opinion and depth of coverage, I my opinion of course. 

Newspapers are not the best source for depth of coverage.

 

That's not an opinion.

 

That is a fact.

 

I think it is also easy to argue that newspapers are not the best source of information.  Think about how often corrections are published.

[Gonzo79 15,299]

Journalism is going the same way as the music industry.

 

At the end of the day, future generations won't read newspapers.  

They'll get all their information online and that information will be fragmented and/or polarised.  Not really a good thing but that's undoubtedly the way things are going.

 

 

[compo 7,231]

I think the standard of journalism these days is dire or maybe we have all become dumbed  down with the internet were we can Google news and all the other shit you get online. 

[pete 2,499]

I think with a newspaper you read things you wouldn't have normally read but for news and football coverage, the internet is far better.