Friday 8 October 2010

Anon and proud of it: The Townsville Bulletin celebrates our first birthday

Well, well, well! Haven’t we bloggers really got up the nose of The Bully? :-)
As a rule, I don’t read editorials – mainly because I know that the only people who do are journos and politicians (editorial cartoons however are a very different matter).

So when reader M pointed me to today's Bulletin editorial, I just had to go out and pay good money for a hard copy !! And what a doozey it is – it’s not available online, but click on the graphic to read it full-size!

The story about the outing of Grog’s Gamut is now getting pretty old given that it happened over 10 days ago (I posted here on 28 Sept.)

For a fantastic summary of the action and reaction got to Craig Thomler's eGov AU blog here

Now I might be getting up myself a bit here, but I can’t help but think that rather than finding a bit of passion in a 10-day old story, the Bully are lashing out at this post from yesterday morning where I pointed out data from the Australian Newspaper History Group showing that the Bulletin’s average daily readership (or sales - it is unclear) is just 26,395 and had declined by almost 10% over the first half of the year!!!

Touchy aren’t they?   Not information they would be keen to have out there perhaps? 

Touchy as the the Oz was at the critiques of their work by Grog's Gamut?  I've asked the question before here, but, given that I seem to have drawn their fire publicly, I wonder if they are so touchy they will out me next? - after all, I know they've worked out who I am! 

Of course I could use their own language back at them and say they are the cowards if they don't - knowing the increased readership I'd get and backlash they'd get!!  But I won't.

For the record, my reasons for Island View’s anonymity are simple – I’m a small businessman trying to make a living and pay the rent in a small regional city and, believe me, publically calling the most powerful and most connected media outlet in the town to account wouldn’t be real good for business!

I may well be a coward but I’m certainly not stupid!

PS: today is more-or-less the first anniversary of Blogging Townsville and The Bully's Editorial has been the absolutely best anniversary gift!!  It's given me food for another post which will now float in the blogosphere forever with a Townsville Bulletin tag and showing them for what they really are.

UPDATE:  In the comments below, both Bill and Craig Thomler @ eGov AU point out that Townsville Bulletin Editor, Peter Gleeson, chooses for his Editorials to be published anonymously - just like this blog and yes, just like Grog's Gamut.  See more in Craig's post here on the propensity for the mainstream media to publish material by the widely read (and often either very wise or very funny), Anon.

Craig also managed to find the Bully's editorial online here

Finally, I note that in the hardcopy Saturday Bully this morning, there were no letters and no published txt messages about yesterday's Editorial.  As of this morning, there are no comments on their on-line opinion page.  Doesn't sound much to me like their editorial was representing the "voice of the people" - more like the voice of someone in power who's not used to being challenged, let alone questioned or held to account.

11 comments:

Bill said...

That's funny, I didn't know that the Macquarie dictionary contained definitions or judgments for entire phrases.

It's also interesting that the editorial does not carry a by-line.
Who are "we" Townsville Bulletin?

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Its great to see someone keeping the Bully honest.

Craig Thomler said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Craig Thomler said...

Sorry - posted wrong link in last comment!

My figures suggest there's little difference between the number of anonymous mainstream media articles and anonymous blog posts.

http://egovau.blogspot.com/2010/10/stats-on-articles-and-posts-for.html

Ironic that The Townsville Bulletin posted their opinion piece anonymously (aka - has no name attached to it, not even a pseudonym).

Cheers,

Craig

NormanK said...

Bore it up 'em, Island View. Just be careful that you don't get too many daily hits or you will be in for the Big Hit. Grog set the benchmark at around a thousand per day - scary stuff.
How gutless is it to hide behind a Masthead crying - "Come out from behind that musket, you coward!"

lyn said...

Hi Island View
Thankyou so much for bringing this awful piece of slandering the bloggers,( "We refer to them as cowards"),by the Townsville Bulletin to our attention.

What hypocrites, no name to their slanderous piece is there eh!

Your blog link has been posted over at "The Political Sword"

Grog is a brilliant writer and his blog brought enjoyment to a lot people. Grog's write up each day on Parliament Question Time was second to none. Grog was apart from being a brilliant writer a very nice person, this was evident, and easy to see by the style of his writing

http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/post/2010/10/07/The-NBN-debate-e28093-a-clutter-of-misinformation.aspx

Cheers lyn

NormanK said...

Slightly recycled.
Apologies to John Farnham and the original lyricists.

We're the Voice

We have
The chance to turn the bloggers over
We can hate what they want to write
We gotta make ends meet, grab the corporate dollar

They're all gutless bloggers
They're all gutless scum
How long can we look at each other
And just let the future come

We're the Voice, you better understand it
Making noise for Rupert's mates
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!
We're not gonna sit in silence
We're not gonna allow debates
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!

It's time
To show on-line mangy dogs
We don't at all feel threatened
By the power of the cowardly blogs

They're all gutless bloggers
They're all gutless scum
How long can we look at each other
And just let the future come

We're the Voice, you better understand it
Nothing they say makes any sense
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!
We're not gonna sit in silence
We're gonna put up a strong defence
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!

They're all hopeless bludgers
They're all steeped in shite
We're gonna pull them down you'll see
Murdoch says we've got the right

We're the Voice, you better understand it
See our words they're filled with hate
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!
We're not gonna sit in silence
You'd better pull your head in mate
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!

2353 said...

I lived in Townsville during the mid to late 1980's and thought the Townsville Bulletin was rubbish then. I see it hasn't improved (unlike Townsville itself) since then. Maybe the Apex Club's Townsville Bullsheet was more than just a play on words.

I wonder if the anonymous editorial writer of this article sees the irony of criticising anonymous blog writers?

Joady said...

Here's a link to the editorial on the TB website - you have to really dig to find it.
http://bit.ly/ceSbp

@2353 The "Editor" of the Townsville Bulletin is Peter Gleeson.

clarencegirl said...

Anonymous Bully journo bagging anonymous bloggers - priceless!

Stop Murdoch said...

NormanK,

"We're the voice" - hilarious!

We've stolen it and posted it on www.springhillvoice.com

Murdoch shills, what can you say? Assholes.