Polo in the News

Just read an article on bike polo in the Hackney Citizen.

Just awful.

Full of assumptions and conjecture. They paint a picture of the sport as something in between donkey derby and a street fight. It's awful.

As usual, they state as a fact that we all ride fixed gears 'to rock back and forth on the spot'. And we all 'live in Hackney, have beards and punk band t-shirts on'. Funnily enough the picture they used shows no fixed gears, no beards, no tattoos and no punk band t shirts.

No mentions of the newbie nights available, the riding in circles training sessions, the burgeoning women's polo scene and upcoming Helles Belles tourney.

When are they ever going to do this right? With the right press this sport could grow massively, and then we could get that court we've always dreamed of.

They were meant to send me a copy of that article but it never arrived.

It's been written/organised by Keith and Alex at the Citizen. Alex was asked to come down to polo one weekend to have a go on the loaner, but bailed last minute.

Sounds like they pulled together an article from what they could find online maybe? Shame.

Did it mention the Open? I originally got in touch with them about it which got the ball rolling I guess...

The photo was one of Robb's from last year (which they asked permission to use), odd that they went down a fixed/punk route, I wonder where they find this content... other bad articles?

Got a scanner spoons? Can't find anything on the citizen website

Might be able to scan tomorrow. It's on the back page of the July Hackney Citizen, should be able to pick one up easily.

It does promote the London Open at the end, location and dates etc.

Here you go, I actually think it's not bad, a little inaccurate yep, but nice sentiment.

They're coming to the Open too and are interested in doing a piece about highlighting the need for new bike polo courts in Hackney/London.

http://www.lhbpa.org/resources/Hackney_Citizen_Article.jpg

the guy in the picture with the long stem lost to the guy with the short stem. Coincidence? I dont think so.

look again, the guy with the short stem just fumbled the ball to the guy with the long stem.

I hate this thread, it depresses me. Journalists are lazy, distracted fuckers.

Honestly, for a local news item, this is ok. It's not particularly inspired, but it's got all the most important things right, especially when & where the event is, and what it is.

Hm, that article does seem to perpetuate a few clichés. However, knowing Keith, I'm sure he'd be happy to hold his hands up to it and correct the misleading impressions in a follow-up, perhaps on the London Open. They do have good standards at the Hackney Citizen.

I wasn't targeting them specifically, mainly the general level of stuff that's posted in here though, is pants.

Do we have a press pack?
Journo's will always be lazy. Perhaps we could help them.

Press pack/Media area on the LHBPA site might be a very good idea

Yeah, I have loads of info that could just be collate/published? Post-LO though.

Press packs are commonly accepted and this way we can control (to a degree) what gets published. Use some of Robbs sweet (lo res) images so he gets paid, and update it accordingly with relevant tourneys.
Journo's suck.

Journo's suck.

Hmmm, a lot of my mates are journos, very good ones too... I really don't understand how editors can let their reporters/writers/sub-editors print such poorly researched stories... People get fired for that kind of thing at the places I work at, it just isn't done...

Hmmm, a lot of my mates are journos, very good ones too... I really don't understand how editors can let their reporters/writers/sub-editors print such poorly researched stories... People get fired for that kind of thing at the places I work at, it just isn't done...

This is the Hackney Citizen we're talking about. It's a free-sheet, ie specialises in churnalism. It's a less well-resourced version of the Metro, & I suspect that they don't employ subs, & are probably paying their writers very poorly.

#neverbeentohackney

#neverbeentohackney

#notallowedintohackney

http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/about/

"Written and run by residents of the borough, it seeks to champion investigative and citizen journalism. It also features contributions from local freelance journalists."

I dislike the phrase 'citizen journalism'.

Also, proper investigative journalism, (eg Nick Davies, who broke the whole NOTW phone hacking & bribery thing), costs a lot of money. Virtually impossible to do on a small to non-existent budget.

They've apologised and printed an amended article online and will look into where the iffy research for the story came from: http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2011/07/13/bike-polo-london-open-2011/

It's nice to be heard and I personally look forward to working with the Citizen again in the future, they were disappointed to hear the story didn't go down well, etc.

Actually just read Flat Earth News.

They've apologised and printed an amended article online and will look into where the iffy research for the story came from: http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2011/07/13/bike-polo-london-open-2011/

It's nice to be heard and I personally look forward to working with the Citizen again in the future, they were disappointed to hear the story didn't go down well, etc.

Good for them, nice work, Jono.

#donotimpeachjono

This is the Hackney Citizen we're talking about. It's a free-sheet, ie specialises in churnalism. It's a less well-resourced version of the Metro, & I suspect that they don't employ subs, & are probably paying their writers very poorly.

I thought their writers were all volunteers? I may be wrong.