Squeaky Courier

[Ship called Dignity]

I never feel comfortable about these threads but have been told that is what forums are for - debate etc.

Just for information;

I have strong connections with the paper and feel that if you have a problem you should perhaps contact the editor and express your opinions instead of hiding in this forum and gossiping cowardly. I would also like to point out that, despite your efforts to 'slag' the courier off every week, I notice most of you continue to purchase a copy!

I don't think anyone is hiding Fat Bob - it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to work out who the posters are.

If it was, for example, a bakery you were slagging off because their rolls were too hard then you could get done for slander.

Unfortunately, if I buy a roll and it is too hard and comment on this it is not slander it is fact. The public are entitled to their opinions - some times not what we like to hear but they are entitled all the same. The slander part seems to crop up alot in connection with the forum but to be fair you should look at other forums and you'll have your eyes opened!!!! As I said at the start this is not defending this thread just a few pointers for discussion.

On a personal note I find the Courier an invaluable resource in terms of getting information to the public - no-one can deny that.

[Sweltered]

The website has been updated yippppeeee, now if it only contained the whole articles..........

[Malky]

Unfortunately, if I buy a roll and it is too hard and comment on this it is not slander it is fact.

Yeah, you only slander or libel someone if you tell untruths.

On a personal note I find the Courier an invaluable resource in terms of getting information to the public - no-one can deny that.

And I'll stick up for the Courier too - I think it does an admirable job for a small newspaper. I must admit though, I'm getting a bit fed up with the "debate" about wind farms

Malky

[hippychick]

Hey Fat Bob whos hiding from who?

You cant sue someone for expressing an opinion cause that isn't slander. You have to say its a fact.

[Bobbie En Tejas]

Anyway, it would be libel and not slander. I don't think the law in either American or British law is meant to protect companies, but individuals against hateful and purposeful defamation of character meant to injure a person's reputation.

Can you imagine if every editor of a newspaper was sued for stating the rolls are hard in an editorial?

[LO]

[quote="Tarbert is in the Courier's circulation area and therefore I know the reporters have to also cater for people living there.![/quote]

Fat Bob, I lived in Tarbert for ten years and was one of the few people who bought the Courier. In fact I was always getting gently slagged because they all read the Squeak as it always carried the Tarbert news! Things may have changed since I moved down here but I think that is highly unlikely. I haven't seen this week's Squeak but I doubt for example that it would carry the same report of the game between Tarbert and Campbeltown Boys which was written entirely from a Boys perspective. By the way, that is not a criticism as the Dookers have always had their own partisan reporter contributing to The Squeak!

I may be wrong, but I believe that both papers suffer from a lack of local editorial control with much of the content being controlled remotely from Oban (both papers are of course part of The Oban Times Group). Inevitably that leads to a lot of shared material in all three papers both in terms of journalism and advertising but I don't think that anyone is suggesting that this the fault of the staff on the ground in Campbeltown or Lochgilphead. I guess if there is a quiet news week in one particular paper its easy to draft in news from the others. Financially, I suppose it makes sense to share resources throughout the group although it can be frustrating on the rare occasions where the balance of local to non-local news is out of kilter. By and large though, they manage fine.....

[Iona]

It is amazing how much in your little town gets taken out of content

So what is the difference with the likes of McCaig in the Oban Times? None - and if anything more public and damaging than any of the statements on here..

[chattichatton]

on a slightly diffrent note about this, my parents bought the courier on yearly subscripton for me and i love getting it through the door on a monday morning, but this week i am still waiting and the last couple of weeks it has not turned up till wednesday or thursday. Is it just me this is happening to or are other people having same trouble. As they say old news is no news.

[Malky]

chattichatton, best to contact the subscription department of the Courier and see what they say.

Malky

[DOUBLE A]

on a slightly diffrent note about this, my parents bought the courier on yearly subscripton for me and i love getting it through the door on a monday morning, but this week i am still waiting and the last couple of weeks it has not turned up till wednesday or thursday. Is it just me this is happening to or are other people having same trouble. As they say old news is no news.

chattichatton, i get the Courier on a yearly subscription as well, when i first started getting it about 6 years ago, it nearly always arrived on a Friday or if not the following day, about 3 years ago it started arriving on the Saturday and occasionally on a Monday however in the last year it has changed to a Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday [ or not at all a couple of times ], i contacted the subscriptions at the Oban times, they told me when i first started getting the Courier it was delivered by 1st class paper post however Royal Mail have now scrapped this and it is now delivered by 2nd class paper post and that why the deliveries are now later.
Kinda miss reading the 2 minute silence on a Friday

[petewick]

even simpler, order it through your local newsagent and you will get it each friday plus no subs charges. just like that!

[chattichatton]

Thanks for the replys. Will get my mum to go in and talk to them as it has not turned up again today. My local newsagents have never heard of Campbeltown never mind being able to order the courier in. I live in a town the size of Campletown but in County Durham and our local paper is free but it takes you 20 mins to find the news amongst the adverts and shop flyers.

[petewick]

Surely they can source it through their ordering network, surely if my relatives in darkest Cumbria can get it, you surely can?

petewick

[WC1]

Is it true that the Courier refused to send a reporter/photographer to cover the Kintyre Music Festival concert on Saturday night and that the organisers had to get a member of the Art department of the Grammar School to do it instead?

[bazza]

You ought to know, Bill.