A few years ago, a Christian friend of mine gave a Sunday morning teaching session at his church in which he talked about the story of the rich man and Lazarus. He entitled his piece ‘The Invisible Man’. He stated that the poor man, Lazarus the beggar, had been at the gates of the rich man’s house on many occasions, but that the rich man had
completely ignored him. He was almost literally ‘invisible’ as the rich man consciously or unconsciously chose to overlook the beggar. Of course, when the rich man died [so the story goes], he looked up from his fiery pit and exhorted the former ‘invisible man’ to go to his brothers and warn them of the awful fate that awaits them if they don’t repent. Funny how the formerly ignored man suddenly became an individual of extreme importance!
Anyhow, this isn’t intended to be a Christian sermon, but I can certainly relate wholeheartedly to the plight of the invisible man.
Time and time and time again I have tried to engage members of the media and received the cold shoulder from ‘busy’ people who just don’t have the time nor the basic courtesy to reply to my emails. If I am extremely lucky I am treated to the occasional terse response. Even allowing for the fact that members of the media are snowed under with emails, it is an act of bad manners to ignore this poor man, just as Lazarus the beggar was overlooked.
I am moreover slightly amused about the print media’s refusal to accept regulation, declaring that they can manage themselves and that they have learnt their lessons from the self-inflicted wounds of the ‘phone hacking scandal. I don’t see many lessons having been learnt. I find editors and their assistants to be unresponsive to the likes of me, but they would drop their newborn baby if an important personage sent an email or if there was a scandal or breaking story that they could get their teeth into. Perhaps liaising with the media is akin to swimming with sharks. I have had to reach the view that journalists are just not very nice people, a consequence of the culture of their profession.
Fool that I am, I have tried to engage the media in an effort to being appointed with one or two assignments that would make use of my expertise, an expertise that in many instances far exceeds that of their own staff. I incidentally receive £71 state pittance per week while lesser talents earn that amount or double that each day. How fair does that sound? It’s hard not to feel bitter when confronted with such injustice.
Last summer, the Independent’s Neil Robinson strung me along on the possibility that I could/might contribute to the Independent’s coverage of the Ashes series. Mr Robinson had even suggested the amount that I would receive, which I had agreed to. Well, no such undertaking came to pass. That was the latest in a litany of shabby treatment from the British and Irish media.
Again, this year, as a psephologist and elections numbers cruncher, I have attempted to engage various media outlets in the hope that they would recruit me to assist them with their election coverage, whether that merely be the election results and analysis of the forthcoming European poll. Well, again, Lazarus here is confronted with a wall of
silence. I am offering to help and add value and I am not even treated to an answer. I feel genuinely like the youngster in the school playground watching the other children play and not being permitted to join in the game. It’s bloody cruel.
I have much to offer as a knowledgeable and engaging writer, whose expertise can be filed under ‘sports statistician’ or ‘psephologist’. I have a nerdish attention to details and am extremely literate and numerate. Yet for all my apparent abilities, I am constantly snubbed while lesser talents prevail at various media organisations. A relative suggested the other week that I was “depressed”. It would be nearer the truth to declare that I am demoralised, as opposed to
depressed.
It’s a real tragedy, not just for me, but for others in the print media that my talents are not being utilised. Maybe I should finish with a famous bit of biblical scripture again: “The stone that the builders refuse turned out to be the cornerstone.”
My abilities can be scrutinised at the following sites:
http://whocomments.org/wiki/Gary_Watton
http://gw930.blog.com
http://psephologist.blog.com
http://sporthistorian.blog.com
http://ireland.rugbynetwork.net
http://yorkshire.cricketnetwork.co.uk
http://chelsea.thefootballnetwork.net
from: Gary Watton; invisible man
completely ignored him. He was almost literally ‘invisible’ as the rich man consciously or unconsciously chose to overlook the beggar. Of course, when the rich man died [so the story goes], he looked up from his fiery pit and exhorted the former ‘invisible man’ to go to his brothers and warn them of the awful fate that awaits them if they don’t repent. Funny how the formerly ignored man suddenly became an individual of extreme importance!
Anyhow, this isn’t intended to be a Christian sermon, but I can certainly relate wholeheartedly to the plight of the invisible man.
Time and time and time again I have tried to engage members of the media and received the cold shoulder from ‘busy’ people who just don’t have the time nor the basic courtesy to reply to my emails. If I am extremely lucky I am treated to the occasional terse response. Even allowing for the fact that members of the media are snowed under with emails, it is an act of bad manners to ignore this poor man, just as Lazarus the beggar was overlooked.
I am moreover slightly amused about the print media’s refusal to accept regulation, declaring that they can manage themselves and that they have learnt their lessons from the self-inflicted wounds of the ‘phone hacking scandal. I don’t see many lessons having been learnt. I find editors and their assistants to be unresponsive to the likes of me, but they would drop their newborn baby if an important personage sent an email or if there was a scandal or breaking story that they could get their teeth into. Perhaps liaising with the media is akin to swimming with sharks. I have had to reach the view that journalists are just not very nice people, a consequence of the culture of their profession.
Fool that I am, I have tried to engage the media in an effort to being appointed with one or two assignments that would make use of my expertise, an expertise that in many instances far exceeds that of their own staff. I incidentally receive £71 state pittance per week while lesser talents earn that amount or double that each day. How fair does that sound? It’s hard not to feel bitter when confronted with such injustice.
Last summer, the Independent’s Neil Robinson strung me along on the possibility that I could/might contribute to the Independent’s coverage of the Ashes series. Mr Robinson had even suggested the amount that I would receive, which I had agreed to. Well, no such undertaking came to pass. That was the latest in a litany of shabby treatment from the British and Irish media.
Again, this year, as a psephologist and elections numbers cruncher, I have attempted to engage various media outlets in the hope that they would recruit me to assist them with their election coverage, whether that merely be the election results and analysis of the forthcoming European poll. Well, again, Lazarus here is confronted with a wall of
silence. I am offering to help and add value and I am not even treated to an answer. I feel genuinely like the youngster in the school playground watching the other children play and not being permitted to join in the game. It’s bloody cruel.
I have much to offer as a knowledgeable and engaging writer, whose expertise can be filed under ‘sports statistician’ or ‘psephologist’. I have a nerdish attention to details and am extremely literate and numerate. Yet for all my apparent abilities, I am constantly snubbed while lesser talents prevail at various media organisations. A relative suggested the other week that I was “depressed”. It would be nearer the truth to declare that I am demoralised, as opposed to
depressed.
It’s a real tragedy, not just for me, but for others in the print media that my talents are not being utilised. Maybe I should finish with a famous bit of biblical scripture again: “The stone that the builders refuse turned out to be the cornerstone.”
My abilities can be scrutinised at the following sites:
http://whocomments.org/wiki/Gary_Watton
http://gw930.blog.com
http://psephologist.blog.com
http://sporthistorian.blog.com
http://ireland.rugbynetwork.net
http://yorkshire.cricketnetwork.co.uk
http://chelsea.thefootballnetwork.net
from: Gary Watton; invisible man
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