This BBC business is petty beyond belief

The BBC got a story wrong, so what. And this 'revealing the source' guff is a red herring. The club don't need it and they know the BBC would never reveal it anyway. It's clear to me that the club want an apology (not even necessarily a public one) and the BBC have no intention of apologising, hence the stand off.

Many things strike me about the NCFC statement. First it it is long, waffly, meandering and completely lacking professional discipline. "They know exactly what they need to do to regain that access. One simple phonecall is all that it would take". Good grief! How very statesmanlike!

But mainly and most obviously, what a stunning overreaction to an issue that organisations and press offices would ordinarily resolve in a moment. This paragraph nails it for me:

"Not only was the story unhelpful to Norwich City and inaccurate, but at no stage were the Club contacted to seek either verification of the story or to be given the basic courtesy of an opportunity to comment."

"Unhelpful"? vague and pretty weak. "...the basic courtesy of an opportunity to comment"? There is nothing discourteous about reporting something without verification if those reporting believe it to be the case. They just end up looking a bit silly when it turns out to be bollocks. But "basic courtesy"? Oh get over yourselves.

It's the club who now look twitchy and defensive; Late Kick Off/BBC East will just shrug their shoulders and get on with reporting on games without giving a hoot about interviews anyway. Who cares about the prepped soundbites anyway?

Poor stuff NCFC. Really, really poor.

Posted By: norway, Aug 24, 19:26:43