Like the old trouper he is, Riley admitted he had fallen asleep and suggested that fellow Echo scribe Katherine Jones, who was also at the premiere, should do the review instead.
Fair enough, you might think.
But oh no…
McGovern appeared on the Roger Phillips programme later that morning and was allowed to whitter on about Riley like a true luvvie for the best part of 20 minutes.
(Gosh, this is better than Corrie, isn’t it? eds)
Riley’s only offence, of course, had been to find McGovern’s play so interminably dull that he had dropped off. (A view which we also share, eds)
Meanwhile the snitch Newman, self-appointed guardian of journalistic ethics and moral arbiter for Liverpool, had fired off his ‘Riley’s a disgrace’ missive to McRae in a clear effort to get him sacked after 38 years unblemished service to the Echo (surely cause for a proper disciplinary investigation? eds)
Riley was duly suspended and appeared last week at a disciplinary hearing, the outcome of which we await with bated breath.
However…
(This is the good bit now, eds) We have some things to say about Mr Newman, (right) whose career in Liverpool has been distinguished by consistent incompetence, failure and invisibility.
(Oh goodie, eds)
The first is this: be very careful about making complaints about the personal behaviour of other people in a work-related situation. People in glass houses...
We are reasonably sure that your wife and family would not be at all happy if a complaint was made about your own personal behaviour in a work-related situation. Know what we mean?
(ermmm, we think so, eds)
Secondly, if you paid more attention to doing your job which the people of Liverpool are paying for through the nose, then you wouldn’t have time to fire off self-righteous, poisonous little missives to editors.
Thirdly, we are sure it has not been lost on our readers, that Mr Riley, for all his faults, has been one of the few local journalists to give your bosses at the £114million Culture Company and the city council, a difficult time.
You saw your chance to try and do Riley in and thus remove a thorn in your side, didn’t you rat-face? Well, we hope you are thwarted and that Mr Riley returns from a hopefully relaxing suspension to his desk, unbowed and undeterred.
And we hope Newman’s disgraceful role in this nasty little episode is not quickly forgotten by journalists on Merseyside and elsewhere.
(another cracker, we love it when he gets all angry, eds)
Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
There are
07.10.2007 10:54
Bod
There are also
07.10.2007 11:59
Scotty Road Writers
If Joe Had Snorted
07.10.2007 21:13
Ming
Who are all these people?
08.10.2007 12:18
It may be "better than Corrie" but ordinary punters might appreciate an IMC newswire post including enough context to give them a way in...
confused non-scouser
You're not the only one confused
08.10.2007 15:47
If this article had been written on the (correct) assumption that nobody outside of Liverpool had heard of these people, then we'd know why it was relevant to Indymedia. I gather Jimmy McGovern, local writer, tried to get Joe Riley, local journalist, sacked for not appreciating his play and not writing a good review about it. Very petty. But what this has to do with the Culture Company and why the rest of the world should be interested, this article unfortunately doesn't make clear.
Spartaca
The Tonys
08.10.2007 22:07
The Tonys
e-mail: tonysparrishioners@hotymail.co.uk
Revelation!
11.07.2008 07:01
ged finnegan
e-mail: gedfinnegan@yahoo.com