Journalism plumbs new depths

[spadefoot]

Standard tabloid stuff then.

[Dave_P]

If he didn't say it then it's non news

If he did, then whether he said it in the pub to his mates or in the office or up a tree, makes no difference. "

To me it makes a huge difference. Context matters.

 

Be careful what you wish for. If it turns out to be true then Mr Symmonds will be a normal guy who likes a drink with his mates. I'd take that over a corporate robot who never deviates from the script.

[patty-ann]

All the words he could have used and he may have chosen the word.. "gits"..this seems a bit crude and unrefined and putting mouth in gear before mind has processed always leads to tears..

If he did....What a idiot...so many people sunk by inappropriate use of words..he may be good at his job..I dunno but now but he'll be labelled by this one word.

When you are in a position where you can be quoted and judged by our ever waiting newshounds then you watch what you say..thoughts are private but once verbalised become public fodder.

 

edited to alter cos I didn't read before posting..sorry..

Edited May 1, 2016 by patty-ann

[Dave_P]

All the words he could have used and he choses "gits"..bit crude and unrefined and putting mouth in gear before mind has processed always leads to tears..

What a idiot...so many people sunk by inappropriate use of words..he may be good at his job..I dunno but now but he'll be labelled by this one word.

When you are in a position where you can be quoted and judged by our ever waiting newshounds then you watch what you say..thoughts are private but once verbalised become public fodder.

How do you know he's an idiot? How do you know he even said it? What evidence do you have?

 

Hands up everyone who's never said anything which they wouldn't want published online?

[patty-ann]

How do you know he's an idiot? How do you know he even said it? What evidence do you have?

 

Hands up everyone who's never said anything which they wouldn't want published online?

Yep but for most of us we are not "important" enough that it matters we say stuff we shouldn't but if it can affect your status..maybe thats the wrong word..its a bit daft to use words that can be spread like muck.

I don't know he's an idiot..don't know he's not..my perceptions on what he is would be formed if I met him..

OK to clarify .....If he said Git then its an idiotic thing to do in his position..you are 100% right I don't know if he did and I apologise for not re reading what I had written.. before I hit post....I normally check out more carefully..sorry again.

[DHutch]

So now, it's ok to eavesdrop on private conversations of CRT staff and make a sensationalist story out of it? ...

 

... we all say silly off-the-cuff comments when out with friends. Imagined if we were in constant fear of being quoted in the press?

 

I fully agree.

 

It's maybe slightly careless to get quoted as saying it, but said between friends and then likely taken out of context, it don't think we can or should read anything into that.

 

Plenty of times I've said things between friends/colleagues/formercolleagues I would not want to go beyond those present, certainly not out of context.

 

Heyho

 

Daniel

[costalot]

Assuming the comment is true then he didn't say all liveaboards were gits. What he reputedly said was "“I love it, except for all those gits on liveaboards”.

 

Which means he believes some liveaboards are gits. Statistically he is probably right!

 

Actually I know I'm right because we live aboard and my wife constantly reminds me I'm an old git. :-)

[Mac of Cygnet]

http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/crt-relationship-manager-liveaboards-are-gits/

 

So now, it's ok to eavesdrop on private conversations of CRT staff and make a sensationalist story out of it? If I were Matthew Symonds I might feel inclined to sue.

 

I'm one of those 'gits' I suppose but we all say silly off-the-cuff comments when out with friends. Imagined if we were in constant fear of being quoted in the press?

I can't access the above link because it is reported as an 'unsafe website'

 

Specifically:

 

This website has been reported to contain the following threats: •Phishing threat: This is a phishing website that impersonates a trusted website to trick you into revealing personal or financial information.

Is anyone else getting this? (It's the whole website that produces this - I also tried to get into by Google)

[alan_fincher]

I can't access the above link because it is reported as an 'unsafe website'

 

Specifically:

 

 

Is anyone else getting this? (It's the whole website that produces this - I also tried to get into by Google)

 

My firewall doesn't object.

 

(Are you using a firewall supplied by CRT? )

[Guest]

I can't access the above link because it is reported as an 'unsafe website'

 

Specifically:

 

 

Is anyone else getting this? (It's the whole website that produces this - I also tried to get into by Google)

 

Chrome and McAfee are letting me in.

[BMC problems]

I fully agree.

 

It's maybe slightly careless to get quoted as saying it, but said between friends and then likely taken out of context, it don't think we can or should read anything into that.

 

Plenty of times I've said things between friends/colleagues/formercolleagues I would not want to go beyond those present, certainly not out of context.

 

Heyho

 

Daniel

Funny friends he must have if they report something that is said "between friends" and retail it.

[MtB]

I can't access the above link because it is reported as an 'unsafe website'

 

Specifically:

 

 

Is anyone else getting this? (It's the whole website that produces this - I also tried to get into by Google)

 

 

Reported by WHAT?

 

This is a old standard technique of virus that goes on to try to flog you some hooky 'security software'.

(Although I have to agree, the KANDA site is pretty unsafe in the rubbish it spouts!)

[Mac of Cygnet]

 

My firewall doesn't object.

 

(Are you using a firewall supplied by CRT? )

 

It's the Smartscreen filter which comes with IE 11. It hasn't blocked any other websites for at least a couple of years.

[jonno22]

Gutter journalism at it's worst. Hardly. Almost nothing will beat what the Sun did 27yrs ago.

Greenie.

[magnetman]

The Mail is pretty good at scum journalism as well

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3567537/On-Thursday-really-going-hand-world-s-greatest-city-Labour-party-thinks-terrorists-friends-passionate-plea-ZAC-GOLDSMITH-four-days-Mayoral-election.html

(From yesterdays mail on Sunday referring to the imminent London mayoral election)

[Wanderer Vagabond]

The Mail is pretty good at scum journalism as well

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3567537/On-Thursday-really-going-hand-world-s-greatest-city-Labour-party-thinks-terrorists-friends-passionate-plea-ZAC-GOLDSMITH-four-days-Mayoral-election.html

(From yesterdays mail on Sunday referring to the imminent London mayoral election)

To be honest I never really took much interest in the London Mayoral election as it has no effect on me at all, but seeing the way it is panning out I rather hope that Goldsmith isn't just beaten, but humiliated

Edited May 2, 2016 by Wanderer Vagabond

[magnetman]

I am a London resident but not a voter but I do agree! Can't help thinking he might win it though...

Sorry this is way off the original topic

[BMC problems]

I look forward to the deafening silence of the apologies;

 

http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/an-open-letter-to-matthew-symonds-and-crt/

 

E-mailed to Matthew Symonds and CRT Customer Feedback.

 

An Open Letter Re: Article: 'CRT Relationship Manager: Liveaboards are 'gits'. K&A Boating Community website, 30th April 2016.

 

Dear Matthew,

 

I'm not sure that you'd remember me, although we've crossed paths a few times over the years.

 

The first was at an event back in 2007. I was working as Bristol's Race Forum Development Worker, and you were giving an update to the voluntary sector about the latest local authority strategies.

 

The second time was in 2011 when I toured you around Bristol Wood Recycling Project during their birthday celebration. I was recently in post as an Employee Director, and you'd accepted our invitation on behalf of the organisation you were working for. I enjoyed our chats as I showed you around, and we talked at length about the work that we were both doing.

 

The third time was earlier this year, as I was leaving a training session with former colleagues of yours. It was the 4th February to be exact, and we were hovering on the pavement outside the Southville Centre as you passed by and stopped for a quick hello with those that you knew. It was this conversation that forms the source of the comments that you state. via Twitter, are certainly not something I've ever said. But you did say them Matthew, and you said them twice.

 

As the group of us swelled with people leaving the training session, twice you were directly asked about your new job as Strategy and Engagement Manager at CRT, as your former colleagues were genuinely interested as to how it was going. Twice you commented that you loved your job, 'aside from the gits on the liveaboards'. In fact, I recollect they were the only two comments that you made specifically about your job, suggesting to me that they may have been the two most pressing things on your mind when you thought about your work.

 

From my previous encounters with you, I was surprised and disappointed to hear those words coming from you, however much you may have meant them in jest or good humour. Whilst I appreciate that CRT endeavours to balance a number of needs in relation to the canal network, and understand that those needs may at times be in conflict, making even offhand comments about a section of the beneficiaries of CRT is indeed a serious cause for concern. Furthermore, while you have publically made pains to reinforce the fact that CRT is not a public body, and therefore you are not a public officer, your specific role does include managing and developing relationships across the canal network. My confidence in your ability to do that fairly, and with the needs of all beneficiaries equally in your mind waned on that day, and this is why I have spoken with boat dwelling friends about our encounter and the broader issues with CRT.

 

To hear now that you have publically stated, via Twitter, It is not something I would ever say and Certainly not something I've ever said is even more disappointing. While I appreciate that you may regret that these words have now entered a public sphere, I'm displeased to think that you would deny they were ever spoken.

 

And don't get me wrong, I was as surprised as you to hear that conversations I have had about our encounter are now in written form swirling around the internet. From my part, I did not write nor publish the article written about you, and nor do I know the writer. But I do know that former colleagues of yours looked uncomfortably over at me when you made the git comment as they know I have long been planning to move onto the canal, and also know that I have close ties with members of the boating community around the Kennet and Avon and beyond.

 

Prior to this role at CRT you had a strong track record in neighbourhoods and communities work, but something is clearly going wrong. And while I don't want my sharing of your words to become a witch-hunt against you, as you are merely a functionary within a bigger organisation with a strategy in place for management of the waterways, they do lead me to question the current culture, structure and decision-making body at CRT as a whole.

 

While, as Wikipedia points out, git is usually an insult, more severe than twit or idiot but less severe than wanker, arsehole or twat, it is not the strength of the insult that is the issue. It is a derogatory comment about a section of the canal community just at the time that the Canal and River Trust is being publically challenged to be accountable, consistant and transparent as to the rules and stipulations that those license holders who are continuously cruising are expected to adhere to.

 

It is time for CRT to enter into a transparent and constructive dialogue with the continuous cruising users of the waterways, and to cease prohibitive, unclear and constantly changing measures for how continuous cruisers can maintain their licenses and their homes. These positions have been much more eloquently presented to you by boat dwellers themselves, and they must be addressed by CRT.

 

Yours sincerely,

Edited May 2, 2016 by BMC problems

[Graham Davis]

Still proves it was a crap piece of reporting, and no better than I would expect from this anti-CaRT group.

[Dave_P]

So this is someone who darent challenge the comments at the time but prefers to leak smear stories to the press?

[Guest]

Well if he did say it he would be better just fessing up, after all some of them are 'gits' and he would just be telling the truth.

 

Different if he had said they all were.

[Allan(nb Albert)]

Well if he did say it he would be better just fessing up, after all some of them are 'gits' and he would just be telling the truth.

 

Different if he had said they all were.

I would suggest that the worst thing he could do is to admit he lied but then attempt to justify what he said by suggesting that only some boaters are gits.

[Guest]

I would suggest that the worst thing he could do is to admit he lied but then attempt to justify what he said by suggesting that only some boaters are gits.

 

It was a bit tongue in cheek TBH. (my comment I mean).

 

It probably would indeed be professional suicide to admit it now and justify it that way.

 

Sometimes speaking the truth though can be quite cathartic when you are in a public facing role. It works for most health professionals anyway.

[magnetman]

I would suggest that the worst thing he could do is to admit he lied but then attempt to justify what he said by suggesting that only some boaters are gits.

Is he judging people by their behaviour patterns or their actual personality.

 

Some boaters will be gits. Fact. Some of these gits will have exemplary behaviour in the eyes of CRT staff. Some won't. Some will live on boats some won't. Some will polish their brass some won't. Some will have too much gear on the roof. Some won't.

 

Whether they live aboard or not has not bearing on whether someone is a git.

 

For an example of git behaviour see below.

 

Old gits are the worst

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pedAc8rQimw

[PaulG]

"It is time for CRT to enter into a transparent and constructive dialogue with the continuous cruising users of the waterways, and to cease prohibitive, unclear and constantly changing measures for how continuous cruisers can maintain their licenses and their homes. These positions have been much more eloquently presented to you by boat dwellers themselves, and they must be addressed by CRT."

 

S'funny - thought he was writing to complain about the language someone used in conversation.

 

Anyone would think that the writer had another agenda altogether...

Edited May 3, 2016 by PaulG