Daily Telegraph rubbish

No. Would you care to enlighten us?

Starts:

"If you think Campaign for Real Ale festivals are populated by characters from Middle Earth, you are right.

"Beards, long ones, were in abundance at the Olympia exhibition centre in London yesterday, adorning men with pigtails, homely pot bellies, hearty laughs and foam around their mouths. The only thing missing was an orc."

Hmm, I've met some distinctly orc-like CAMRA members ;-)

Roy Bailey wrote in news:Q33qsNDmeO8CFwy$@freeuk.com:

If this isn't a piss take, what did you write? Did you sign it Humour Less Pratt?

M.

Don't get too worked up about this, it's just the usual lazy journalism you get with this sort of story. There *are* plenty of middle aged beer gutted bearded men around at GBBF if that's all people want to see. Mainstream journalists writing beer stories generally rely on either brewery press handouts or easy stereotypes. This is why CAMRA lays on media stunts to coincide with GBBF - to give lazy journos something to write about.

Tweedie will probably be writing about iPods or dirty vicars or split capital investment trusts tomorrow.

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

horses & courses, I actually thought it was mildly witty, yes, ill-informed ("Lager is an accepted part of the real ale industry with

A couple of other things - would an asst bar mgr at the cider bar really have called one of the products "ghastly"? & I wonder why the writer found Cain's Lager "so-so-ish", it's been very good when I've had it from cask. The only 2 drinks he seemed to like were Crouch Vale Brewers Gold & Hobgoblin. Cheers, MikeMcG

Probably because it doesn't taste like the Stella or Bud I imagine he normally drinks.

Best regards, Paul

-- Paul Sherwin Consulting

On Wed, 3 Aug 2005 16:49:58 +0100, Roy Bailey wrote (in message ):

Instead of complaining about GBBF related articles in the papers maybe you should moan about CAMRA failing yet again to stage manage it's interaction with the press, surely it's one of the main things 'campaign' groups are supposed to do.

If the fat, bearded, sandal wearers are such a minority as CAMRA defenders claim then how hard would it be to make sure the press don't come across them at press day?

And why does the event always seem to be covered by young, trendy, cornish-pasty haircut, rookie reporters rather than the food and drink correspondent? Is it because CAMRA haven't got a clue how to get their press release to the right person?

It happens every year and every year someone moans about it.

Just out of interest what would your complaint to the PCC be?

When I had a sample at the GBBF on Wed, it was sour. Unfortunately, the friend who gave it to me couldn't be bothered walking all the way back to the Cain's stand to return it!

How do I get rid of that awful "house" which sits over the web page advertising some Barclays mortgage? OTOH it does obscure the trash written underneath :-)

"Some 45000 CAMRA beardies" would be a good place to stop I think.

Brian

In article , Steve Pickthall writes

Presumably the press release goes out to *all* the media, and I am confident that HQ staff know how to target such releases, but CAMRA cannot stipulate the particular journalist sent to cover the event, nor the attitude of the newspaper, radio station or TV channel concerned. This was the first time I can remember the Daily Telegraph taking any interest in GBBF.

You never miss a chance to have a pop at CAMRA, do you? What's up - was your mother frightened by a brewer?

In message , Roy Bailey wrote

You have obviously not read too many of the CAMRA press releases. Just enough information missing or so badly written that a lazy journalist has to make up some of the information.

Often CAMRA, collectively, seems to assume that EVERYBODY knows their aims and that the 'internal shorthand' is understood. I have read press articles liberally sprinkled with the word poty, rather than being about a Pub Of The Year. Give the press meaningless TLAs (or in this case FLAs) and you don't have to wonder why a distorted message is presented.

On Fri, 5 Aug 2005 7:42:29 +0100, Roy Bailey wrote (in message ):

I never miss a chance to have a pop at CAMRA because CAMRA never miss a chance to bollocks things like this up, in the process making the life of everyone else who's involved in the quality end of beer industry a little more difficult.

I know CAMRA can't stipulate who covers it, but what's it doing to minimise the chances of it being covered by a lazy moron?

IMO the press release shouldn't go out to all and any parts of the media, it should be targeted at food and drink journalists and preferably sympathetic ones. The event never seems to get anything more than 500 words in the news section by a journalist intent on relaying the attire of the 'I'm mad I am' section of the real ale community. Why isn't it in the colour supplement covering a few pages near the food and drink section?

It happens every year, why does it never improve?

Speaking as a journalist, I think you’re being rather negative about Camra and media coverage. A few points:

- The Daily Telegraph article managed to combine both positive reporting with the stereotypical stuff in a pretty witty package ? and so was probably widely read. Some publicity is better than none.

- Do a search for Camra on Google news ? you’ll be surprised how many reports turn up. The pub closure theme has been widely reported.

- Beer does get quite a good airing in the papers, although I agree it’s rather on and off ? it’s a shame the Guardian doesn’t carry Roger Protz’s beer column at present.

- Most importantly, in my view, over the years Camra has been one of the outstanding consumer movements, helping to reverse the virtual extinction of the industry. What other movement comes close to its achievements?

Marc

I can't see it, so I presume it's a pop-up advert. If so, just use a browser that blocks them. I can recommend Firefox: .

CAMRA has certainly greatly increased the appreciation and understanding of beer, but it must be said that less real ale is being drunk now than at any time in the movement's history. That can't be be regarded as an unqualified success story.

In message , MikeMcG writes

You'd normally say you *thought* it was ghastly, since you know someone will love it.

BTW that's where the orc is.

As a small organisation with mostly volunteer activists the achievements are way beyond what you could expect.

M.

What has it achieved, then, beyond "greatly increasing the appreciation and understanding of beer"?

(I am one of those volunteer activists, but I feel that much of CAMRA's activity has been in putting up token resistance to the inevitable)