Media Is it time to ban the Oxford Mail access to the Kassam and all staff?

[Mojofilter]

Would you be ok if the stand had a Swindon badge on it?
This is a paper who have printed many many stories (and a lot of them miss-informed) over the last few years, giving air time to a group of NIMBY's who are trying to kill our club. It's one thing letting their staff into the ground but lets certainly not advertise their s**t rag for them, especially free of charge!

If the circumstances were completely different, I do suppose I might feel different.

I don't think your gripes are particularly reasonable anyway, but to suggest a ban that should extend to "we need to get rid of a piece of kit because it says the name of a local paper on it" because it upsets people seems silly. I'd recommend putting on your big boy pants and moving on.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

If the circumstances were completely different, I do suppose I might feel different.

I don't think your gripes are particularly reasonable anyway, but to suggest a ban that should extend to "we need to get rid of a piece of kit because it says the name of a local paper on it" because it upsets people seems silly. I'd recommend putting on your big boy pants and moving on.

I wasn't the one that said to bin the stand but I do think the club could easily cover it with our own badge.

As for 'moving on', I'll move on once they start reporting the good stuff about the new stadium and what benefits it will bring and they stick it on the front page, or failing that, when the paper finally slips away and dies a death which will hopefully be sooner than later.

 

[Swinny]

I'd say they have effectively already been "banned" in that they get no more direct access or preferential treatment than anyone else does these days - so they are left scrabbling around reacting to social media posts and related press releases etc.

They are an irrelevance to most supporters these days, but it is frustrating to see them seemingly chasing the rage-bait money by aligning with the antis and fuelling their scare-mongering.

 

[Slade Yellow]

It doesn't strike you as petty to care what the programme seller puts things on?

Either remove it or at least cover the logo over, at present it just shows the club is actually supportive of the lying paper.
Nothings petty about that, do you still buy it?

 

[Boris]

Either remove it or at least cover the logo over, at present it just shows the club is actually supportive of the lying paper.
Nothings petty about that, do you still buy it?

If it bothers you that much, write to ACA - https://www.aca-creative.co.uk/contact-us/ - and ask them

 

[Mojofilter]

Either remove it or at least cover the logo over, at present it just shows the club is actually supportive of the lying paper.
Nothings petty about that, do you still buy it?

it doesn't show that at all, it shows they've not thrown out a table.

"petty" is subjective, but to me this is laughably petty

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

I'd recommend putting on your big boy pants and moving on.

So mature.

If you had an irritating rash, something you could do without, would you put some cream on it and shift it or 'put on your big boy pants' and leave it because it makes you tough?

Of course there are more important issues than the Oxford Mail. But they are not our friend and we should recognise that and do all we reasonably can to limit their negative influence.

That's not petty. That's looking after the best interests of Oxford United. And if you can't appreciate that then I'm not really sure what you're doing here.

 

[Mojofilter]

So mature.

If you had an irritating rash, something you could do without, would you put some cream on it and shift it or 'put on your big boy pants' and leave it because it makes you tough?

Of course there are more important issues than the Oxford Mail. But they are not our friend and we should recognise that and do all we reasonably can to limit their negative influence.

That's not petty. That's looking after the best interests of Oxford United. And if you can't appreciate that then I'm not really sure what you're doing here.

I think referring to local journalists as a rash is equally childish. The question is about whether we should ban the paper from press conferences etc. My sense is that this would achieve nothing (it wouldnt shift the rash) and would actually be more likely to exacerbate it (if they aren't talking to us they are surely even more likely to go to outside the club to get their stories.)

"I'm not really sure what you're doing here"

We disagree on what is in the best interests of the club. I think banning the paper would be worse on us in the long run and, once again, makes us look like truculent toddlers rather than grown ups.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

I think referring to local journalists as a rash is equally childish. The question is about whether we should ban the paper from press conferences etc. My sense is that this would achieve nothing (it wouldnt shift the rash) and would actually be more likely to exacerbate it (if they aren't talking to us they are surely even more likely to go to outside the club to get their stories.)

"I'm not really sure what you're doing here"

We disagree on what is in the best interests of the club. I think banning the paper would be worse on us in the long run and, once again, makes us look like truculent toddlers rather than grown ups.

Out of interest, what have the paper done in recent years which has benefited the club? What front page stories have they done which puts the club in a positive light to the residents of Oxfordshire?
On the flip side, how many miss leading headlines have they put on their front page which has a negative impact on the club?

 

[OUFCGav]

So mature.

If you had an irritating rash, something you could do without, would you put some cream on it and shift it or 'put on your big boy pants' and leave it because it makes you tough?

Of course there are more important issues than the Oxford Mail. But they are not our friend and we should recognise that and do all we reasonably can to limit their negative influence.

That's not petty. That's looking after the best interests of Oxford United. And if you can't appreciate that then I'm not really sure what you're doing here.

"do all we reasonably can to limit their negative influence." - do you really think they would stop posting articles based on FoSB no matter what we do? Do you think it might even make them more likely to?
"they are not our friend" - they are a news organisation and their only job is to sell papers/get clicks, if that meant selling their granny they would do it. Friendship doesn't come into it.
To use your cream/rash analogy - the cream isn't going to cure the rash, just make it different

 

[Mojofilter]

Out of interest, what have the paper done in recent years which has benefited the club? What front page stories have they done which puts the club in a positive light to the residents of Oxfordshire?
On the flip side, how many miss leading headlines have they put on their front page which has a negative impact on the club?

Why are you asking me? Did I at some point say "They're a great paper" or similar?

that's not the point I'm making.

Although I'd imagine there's some positive guff about the will vaulks suicide prevention stuff, for instance.

 

[OUFCGav]

Out of interest, what have the paper done in recent years which has benefited the club? What front page stories have they done which puts the club in a positive light to the residents of Oxfordshire?
On the flip side, how many miss leading headlines have they put on their front page which has a negative impact on the club?

There is regular coverage of all sorts. Little/nothing that isn't available elsewhere, but still a way of some getting news on the club.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

Would you tell your child, if they were getting bullied at school (repeated name calling to the wider friendship group, regularly undermining your child), to continue to be 'friends' with the bully?

"It'll be worse if you stay away from them".

Grim.

 

[unification]

Whilst I voted 'yes', it is a passive, don't-really-care kind of yes.

If you'd banned the Oxford Mail as it was 20 years ago, you would have a talking point since you'd be stopping an actual human, writing actual words to be printed in a physical paper (in fact, didn't FK ban Jon Murray for a time from the stadium?). As it is now, what exactly are you banning? A part-time user of AI who lives on Twitter, here and on the official website and knocks up material from other sources into AI-generated articles for a website that is akin to Buzzfeed. Aside from the occasional story about police goings on, a huge amount of stuff on the OM site simply isn't news.

Banning them is rather like banning a blogger. It would cause a ripple for a very small number of the fanbase. Even the days of James Roberts and Liam Rice writing proper stuff for the OM seem long gone now. Will this Malachi chap even be attending matches?

I despise them for their misleading headlines and gifting the anti-stadium types so much ammunition. I maintain that article from January 2023 stating that FK said we could stay was damaging to our cause. I've hardly been on their site since.

I don't think the OM has ever been on its last legs more than it is now. It'll cease as a physical paper in the next 10 years (I could be being generous with that) and could limp on as an ad-riddled, AI-slop fest of a website for as long as commercial money keeps coming in and fool's subscribe to it.

 

[Mojofilter]

Would you tell your child, if they were getting bullied at school (repeated name calling to the wider friendship group, regularly undermining your child), to continue to be 'friends' with the bully?

"It'll be worse if you stay away from them".

Grim.

No, but I might tell grown adults to act like it rather than "banish" the paper because we don't like their reports. What I would advise an adult son to do in this circumstance is to talk to the other party about it and then to have a professional relationship with them afterwards.

This is not some fragile child, it is a grown up football club. I get that you seem to feel bullied and upset, but those are just your own feelings. hurt feelings are often not the most mature things

 

[Boris]

Not sure where people are getting the idea that Malachi doesn't have access to the pre and post-match pressers - he attends them all as well as home games (not sure about aways), where he has the same access to post-match interviews with the manager and a player as Radio Oxford.