Anglo Celt Sports Editor has Meltdown

[cadence]

oh the irony... that journalism always get it right ethically and that internet forums in the main are full of trolls! now a well researched piece on the culture, scope and depth of communication about gaelic games on internet forums would be very welcomed. but to dismiss it as something so narrow and thin as he has depicted lacks an understanding of what actually is going on. i love getting on here and chatting about stuff. it's a great way for the aul' diaspora to connect with your own and your culture and get your fiil of a sense of belonging. nothing better than watching the same games, living the same experiences as those at home and discussing it, high or low brow, silly or serious, as it's living the same thing in real time and not discussing different experiences. brings us closer to home. + some people on forums have an axe to grind because they want things to be a certain way. but so what? opinions are there to be discussed. which is very different to journalism, which presents an expert view with little, and mainly no, recourse to debate about the opinion of an article. at least on internet forums, you have an opinion, you have to explain the position and enter into a debate about the pros and cons and the ambiguities of it all. far more democratic than the we the experts, you in need of education argument of egotistical journalists against us poor illiterates, the great unwashed.

[Syferus]

I just wish Connacht journos were half as exciting as their Ulster cousins.

[Dinny Breen]

Paul Fitzpatrick spent last summer stirring up the Seanie Johnson affair and made quite a name for himself, he even made it onto national radio. But then it wasn't Paul who felt the brunt of this ,no it was it was one these amateur footballers that he's now trying to protect expect he was wearing a different county jersey. He is just a another provincial journalist that never made it to the big leagues whose opinion is no more or less valid than any of ours.

But if Seanie Johnson had a problem with what Paul Fitzpatrick had to say then he knew exactly where to go for some redress. It's getting a bit repetitive watching hacks lash out at the internet for being a repository of ill-informed trolldom, and I'm certain it reflects angst at their livelihood being threatened. Doesn't mean they're wrong about the trolls though.

I don't know if Seanie had a problem with it, do you? I do know however that Seanie Johnson was abused via social media and on the terraces of Breffni Park and other grounds and Paul Fitzpatrick with his articles and his twitter exploits helped play a part in this. I have no doubt he helped inflame on already sensitive issue. Journalistic standards don't apply to this forum or any other forum but I felt his articles on Seanie Johnson last year were subjective and unbalanced and seemed on a personal crusade at times to belittle Kildare and Kildare football whenever the opportunity arose. I don't know the man personally and I'm sure he's probably a nice person and all that but his sports reporting belongs in the gutter as far as I am concerned.

[muppet]

I wonder has he had many conversations with real Gaa supporters?

He is making two mistakes in my opinion:

1)

There are always those that over-react to results. A loss is the absolute end of the world, while a win means time to check to see which weekend in September Tony Fearon has booked his hotel and then book the one after. Kerry have lost 2 matches and the yerra lads I work with are talking Cuban Missile Crisis. Read a Roscommon thread or better still go to a match with them. Watch Effin Eddie!

This behaviour is observable by the odd punter at every club in the country on most weekends of the year. The internet forums provide a window to see it, but the internet hasn't somehow created this phenomenon.

2)

He thinks we are somehow competing with journalism. Very few of us would see a forum such as this in that light. This is an extension of conversations we would have at work, at matches etc. It is a 'Discussion' forum not an Editorial forum. This may be slightly naive on our parts as we are technically publishing our opinions but are we better saying nothing?

[cadence]

I wonder has he had many conversations with real Gaa supporters?

He is making two mistakes in my opinion:

1)

There are always those that over-react to results. A loss is the absolute end of the world, while a win means time to check to see which weekend in September Tony Fearon has booked his hotel and then book the one after. Kerry have lost 2 matches and the yerra lads I work with are talking Cuban Missile Crisis. Read a Roscommon thread or better still go to a match with them. Watch Effin Eddie!

This behaviour is observable by the odd punter at every club in the country on most weekends of the year. The internet forums provide a window to see it, but the internet hasn't somehow created this phenomenon.

2)

He thinks we are somehow competing with journalism. Very few of us would see a forum such as this in that light. This is an extension of conversations we would have at work, at matches etc. It is a 'Discussion' forum not an Editorial forum. This may be slightly naive on our parts as we are technically publishing our opinions but are we better saying nothing?

i'd put money on him having the odd rant, the odd uncontrollable catastrophising swearing session himself. nothing like the doldrums to bring the best out in us all.

[mylestheslasher]

Paul Fitzpatrick spent last summer stirring up the Seanie Johnson affair and made quite a name for himself, he even made it onto national radio. But then it wasn't Paul who felt the brunt of this ,no it was it was one these amateur footballers that he's now trying to protect expect he was wearing a different county jersey. He is just a another provincial journalist that never made it to the big leagues whose opinion is no more or less valid than any of ours.

But if Seanie Johnson had a problem with what Paul Fitzpatrick had to say then he knew exactly where to go for some redress. It's getting a bit repetitive watching hacks lash out at the internet for being a repository of ill-informed trolldom, and I'm certain it reflects angst at their livelihood being threatened. Doesn't mean they're wrong about the trolls though.

I don't know if Seanie had a problem with it, do you? I do know however that Seanie Johnson was abused via social media and on the terraces of Breffni Park and other grounds and Paul Fitzpatrick with his articles and his twitter exploits helped play a part in this. I have no doubt he helped inflame on already sensitive issue. Journalistic standards don't apply to this forum or any other forum but I felt his articles on Seanie Johnson last year were subjective and unbalanced and seemed on a personal crusade at times to belittle Kildare and Kildare football whenever the opportunity arose. I don't know the man personally and I'm sure he's probably a nice person and all that but his sports reporting belongs in the gutter as far as I am concerned.

His report on SJ was 100% accurate though (imo) and don't forget Seanie was well able to use the papers to put his spin on things too. Check out any of the 100 articles he has writen on him in the irish indo. Do you think the abuse from the terraces was brought on by an article in the Celt? Is it not more likely the togging out for another county and stepping into Breffni to play his old county was the reason for the abuse?

[anglocelt39]

awful lot of truth in what he writes

[Donnellys Hollow]

Paul Fitzpatrick spent last summer stirring up the Seanie Johnson affair and made quite a name for himself, he even made it onto national radio. But then it wasn't Paul who felt the brunt of this ,no it was it was one these amateur footballers that he's now trying to protect expect he was wearing a different county jersey. He is just a another provincial journalist that never made it to the big leagues whose opinion is no more or less valid than any of ours.

But if Seanie Johnson had a problem with what Paul Fitzpatrick had to say then he knew exactly where to go for some redress. It's getting a bit repetitive watching hacks lash out at the internet for being a repository of ill-informed trolldom, and I'm certain it reflects angst at their livelihood being threatened. Doesn't mean they're wrong about the trolls though.

I don't know if Seanie had a problem with it, do you? I do know however that Seanie Johnson was abused via social media and on the terraces of Breffni Park and other grounds and Paul Fitzpatrick with his articles and his twitter exploits helped play a part in this. I have no doubt he helped inflame on already sensitive issue. Journalistic standards don't apply to this forum or any other forum but I felt his articles on Seanie Johnson last year were subjective and unbalanced and seemed on a personal crusade at times to belittle Kildare and Kildare football whenever the opportunity arose. I don't know the man personally and I'm sure he's probably a nice person and all that but his sports reporting belongs in the gutter as far as I am concerned.

His report on SJ was 100% accurate though (imo) and don't forget Seanie was well able to use the papers to put his spin on things too. Check out any of the 100 articles he has writen on him in the irish indo. Do you think the abuse from the terraces was brought on by an article in the Celt? Is it not more likely the togging out for another county and stepping into Breffni to play his old county was the reason for the abuse?

Not quite 100% accurate. He claimed Kildare had failed to beat Meath under McGeeney which was incorrect!

http://www.anglocelt.ie/sport/gaelicfootball/articles/2012/02/15/4009016-seanie-we-hardly-knew-ye--and-now-youre-gone/

[Westside]

Paul must have selective vision when reading these forums. The reaction to the Antrim defeat on here by Cavan posters was as good a reaction as you're likely to get. Nobody targeted players for abuse, nobody called for Hyland's head. BHM did say something about forgetting the team building excuses and just winning the next game, Rodney was slightly miffed at being quoted in The Celt and I posted this

My problem with it is the poor effort at journalism that it represents and the fact that it gives the impression (as Val did last year giving out about forums) that what we say on here matters at all. I enjoy coming on here and writing and reading opinions and small bits of information that I might not hear otherwise but I'm also very aware that it's easy to log on here on a Sunday evening and give an "opinion" on a game that I might not even have bothered to attend. This is a faceless community with no accountability for what we say and we should be treated as such. There are a panel of lads and management putting in huge amounts of effort and the very least The Celt should be doing is talking to people that actually attended the game and not those who followed the game on twitter (as I did) and logged on here to comment.

If they really wanted public opinion then go on Twitter where whatever is said is fair game and in the public domain with a name behind whatever is said.

to which a few posters agreed yet Paul chose to completely ignore.

As for the whole issue of anonymity, that's why these forums work. Paul, you get paid to be sports editor, paid to attend games and write openly on games and take any heat that comes your way. We are mostly passionate fans who like to have somewhere to discuss Cavan football. Also, I can't see how you can go on such a rant against us on here and then feel it appropriate to quote us in The Celt? Slightly hypocritical no?

He is a good journalist and I'm glad we have him in our local paper but this attack on internet posters is a foolish endeavor. There are a certain element of complete gobshites (RichieJ, Sheva7, gaelstud) but that should not tar the whole concept of forum discussion. 

[rodney trotter]

Paul must have selective vision when reading these forums. The reaction to the Antrim defeat on here by Cavan posters was as good a reaction as you're likely to get. Nobody targeted players for abuse, nobody called for Hyland's head. BHM did say something about forgetting the team building excuses and just winning the next game, Rodney was slightly miffed at being quoted in The Celt and I posted this

My problem with it is the poor effort at journalism that it represents and the fact that it gives the impression (as Val did last year giving out about forums) that what we say on here matters at all. I enjoy coming on here and writing and reading opinions and small bits of information that I might not hear otherwise but I'm also very aware that it's easy to log on here on a Sunday evening and give an "opinion" on a game that I might not even have bothered to attend. This is a faceless community with no accountability for what we say and we should be treated as such. There are a panel of lads and management putting in huge amounts of effort and the very least The Celt should be doing is talking to people that actually attended the game and not those who followed the game on twitter (as I did) and logged on here to comment.

If they really wanted public opinion then go on Twitter where whatever is said is fair game and in the public domain with a name behind whatever is said.

to which a few posters agreed yet Paul chose to completely ignore.

As for the whole issue of anonymity, that's why these forums work. Paul, you get paid to be sports editor, paid to attend games and write openly on games and take any heat that comes your way. We are mostly passionate fans who like to have somewhere to discuss Cavan football. Also, I can't see how you can go on such a rant against us on here and then feel it appropriate to quote us in The Celt? Slightly hypocritical no?

He is a good journalist and I'm glad we have him in our local paper but this attack on internet posters is a foolish endeavor. There are a certain element of complete gobshites (RichieJ, Sheva7, gaelstud) but that should not tar the whole concept of forum discussion.

To be honest I was more miffed, because I thought I was the only person who had a quote in the Celt, when Tommy first mentioned it on here, he mentioned my name and I thought I was being singled out or something to the effect. He then explained BH and a few from Hoganstand were mentioned.

[tommysmith]

I know exactly what happened.

He did his little copy and paste into his article and we didn't think it was fair and was lazy journalism and posted a few comments on that nothing bad though. 

He didn't like what we said and did the article in the "match preview" slagging us off.
I was the only poster here that seen it and that wasn't good enough for him.  He wanted more to see, so he posted the exact same article in the Celt this week.

In Summary

Week 1 Celt - good enough to publish what posters have to say in Celt.
Weekend of monaghan game - We are lunatics and semi literate .
Week 2 Celt - We are lunatics and semi literate

[tommysmith]

The only logical reason i can see he did it  is because he was upset that we kinda slagged him and the Celt off.

He is angry and not fit to take it.

[rodney trotter]

He probaly was upset yeah, but was it suppose to be a positive thing posting things in the Celt, maybe i read it wrong and and the others here, becuase we all thought it was negative.

[ck]

This is an interesting debate. The regular attack on faceless internet comments by those with a profile is easy prey. If the comments meant so little then why are hacks on these pages? I know a national journo who regularly reads through these forums to "test the water" and "take a temp gauge" as he puts it. Opinion on here may be strong but they usually are backed with genuine sentiment.

[Syferus]

This is an interesting debate. The regular attack on faceless internet comments by those with a profile is easy prey. If the comments meant so little then why are hacks on these pages? I know a national journo who regularly reads through these forums to "test the water" and "take a temp gauge" as he puts it. Opinion on here may be strong but they usually are backed with genuine sentiment.

Well, unless you're Mikey Sheehy, or Rossfan after a Friday night on the tiles.