Roker Report



I say this often but will say it again for the benefit of this thread...

RR is a group of 20 or so people. We all have our own opinions so please don’t think of it as an entity that has one uniformed opinion. We just don’t. I’ve never once asked anyone to push an agenda or to write/say things that give an impression that we all hold one viewpoint - the lads and lasses who contribute to our website and Podcast can attest to that.

If you’re noticing a change in attitude it’s probably because people are fed up with what is going on.

There was no ‘agreement’ with the owners. It’s no secret that Charlie Methven wanted to have an open relationship with fan groups, but that doesn’t mean we were ever censored due to the fact we were only a phone call away.

Please just respect that we are just fans with views who choose to express them from a platform that happens to have a pretty big following - we’re no different to anyone on here!
 
Upthere said:
They’d never have done that a few months ago. If people are accusing Methven of leading us up the garden path, questions must be asked of RR.


I agree but Methven then done a piece with the Echo.
Click to expand...

What exactly were you expecting them to do?
 
Upthere said:
They can’t all of a sudden change their agenda because they’re not getting the content they want
Click to expand...

Agenda is a little strong.

Human nature to be kinder to folk you know in real life.

The way I see it is they loved SD when a great deals of fans did also. After all, they are fans. Now there has been a tipping point, they are of the same opinion as the majority.

Might be interesting to see if some of them are a little more open to the early naysayers than they were however.
 
Upthere said:
Or whatever they’re called.

Anyone sense a change in attitude recent since they stopped getting Donald and Methven etc on the podcasts?

Beforehand they’d always skirt around the issues and now they’re getting a bit more opinionated.
Click to expand...
That's how it should be to be honest. I was never comfortable with how cosy they were with SD & CM. Didn't they even announce a signing before the club did last summer?
Independent Fanzines/Podcasts should be exactly that and they should represent the fans' opinions about the club. It's absolutely right that they are prepared to be critical of the running of the club at this time.
 
Cack Stottie said:
I say this often but will say it again for the benefit of this thread...

RR is a group of 20 or so people. We all have our own opinions so please don’t think of it as an entity that has one uniformed opinion. We just don’t. I’ve never once asked anyone to push an agenda or to write/say things that give an impression that we all hold one viewpoint - the lads and lasses who contribute to our website and Podcast can attest to that.

If you’re noticing a change in attitude it’s probably because people are fed up with what is going on.

There was no ‘agreement’ with the owners. It’s no secret that Charlie Methven wanted to have an open relationship with fan groups, but that doesn’t mean we were ever censored due to the fact we were only a phone call away.

Please just respect that we are just fans with views who choose to express them from a platform that happens to have a pretty big following - we’re no different to anyone on here!
Click to expand...
I've always said the criticism you get is really harsh, you're a group of volunteers who've built a platform to air your views and you saw an opportunity to build a relationship with the club and took it, fair play.

It did feel a bit like North Korea at times though and the fact it's a common criticism probably tells you the balance wasn't right. I don't think for one minute you were told what to write but its human nature to be less critical when you have a relationship and access to the owners. The tone felt a little bit condescending towards anyone who criticised them.

Would love to know what really happened with the Dell tip off by the way ;)
 
As You Were said:
i must admit I always enjoyed listening to Donald’s podcasts . The problem is you can only dress things up so much. Some people would argue him and methven have been leading the fans on and talking bullshit since day one
Click to expand...

I would say most would say that, even the lads at RR.
He used them and his mate fed them a story which made them look daft then they both fucked off as soon as the going got tough.
 
Definitely Maybe said:
I've always said the criticism you get is really harsh, you're a group of volunteers who've built a platform to air your views and you saw an opportunity to build a relationship with the club and took it, fair play.

It did feel a bit like North Korea at times though and the fact it's a common criticism probably tells you the balance wasn't right. I don't think for one minute you were told what to write but its human nature to be less critical when you have a relationship and access to the owners. The tone felt a little bit condescending towards anyone who criticised them.

Would love to know what really happened with the Dell tip off by the way ;)
Click to expand...

We were given the heads up about the fact they were announcing the potential takeover in the Times that night. That's pretty much it!
 
It was fairly obvious they were being used by the Methven PR machine from Day 1, they couldn't or chose not to see it. To be fair though, a relatively high majority of supporters were of the same stance and were happy to listen to the podcasts and agree with more or less everything that was said by the owners.

It is good to see that they are now feel they are in such a space they can objectively call out what is happening to the football club. While the cynic in me see these acts in part the reaction of a scorned child, however you get there, you get there and whilst is has taken some time, they appear to be on the same page as the majority of supporters (the majority of which agreed with RR in the first place).

I would take issue with one thing @Cack Stottie said regarding them being a group of 20 or so people with differing views. When you post tweets out under the banner of Roker Report, then that is the opinion that is considered as the view of RR. Not he said she said.
 
Pepe said:
It was fairly obvious they were being used by the Methven PR machine from Day 1, they couldn't or chose not to see it. To be fair though, a relatively high majority of supporters were of the same stance and were happy to listen to the podcasts and agree with more or less everything that was said by the owners.
Click to expand...

You say that so matter off fact but it wasn't the case. I don't think I actually had a conversation with Charlie until the early part of this year/end of the season. To allege he was using us as a PR machine simply wouldn't be true as there was no contact between him our me, and I run the show. Can't speak for other fan groups but that definitely wasn't the case with us.

Pepe said:
It is good to see that they are now feel they are in such a space they can objectively call out what is happening to the football club. While the cynic in me see these acts in part the reaction of a scorned child, however you get there, you get there and whilst is has taken some time, they appear to be on the same page as the majority of supporters (the majority of which agreed with RR in the first place).

I would take issue with one thing @Cack Stottie said regarding them being a group of 20 or so people with differing views. When you post tweets out under the banner of Roker Report, then that is the opinion that is considered as the view of RR. Not he said she said.
Click to expand...

I take that point. There are only three of us who use the twitter account and whenever something opinionated is used, we tend to add our name at the end or initials so people know who is speaking. Something we maybe need to brush up on, but it then makes the page look very formal and it's not really the tone I enjoy when interacting with people.
 
Cack Stottie said:
You say that so matter off fact but it wasn't the case. I don't think I actually had a conversation with Charlie until the early part of this year/end of the season. To allege he was using us as a PR machine simply wouldn't be true as there was no contact between him our me, and I run the show. Can't speak for other fan groups but that definitely wasn't the case with us.



I take that point. There are only three of us who use the twitter account and whenever something opinionated is used, we tend to add our name at the end or initials so people know who is speaking. Something we maybe need to brush up on, but it then makes the page look very formal and it's not really the tone I enjoy when interacting with people.
Click to expand...
When he or others were on the show, it was a PR exercise. The fact you did not speak with him beforehand or afterwards is moot, RR's and other supporters goodwill was roundly abused. It isn't a criticism.
 
Pepe said:
When he or others were on the show, it was a PR exercise. The fact you did not speak with him beforehand or afterwards is moot, RR's and other supporters goodwill was roundly abused. It isn't a criticism.
Click to expand...

I think we set ourselves up for criticism by taking a neutral stance when it came to having them on the podcasts. If you listen back the format of all of them is very much the same - we treated it as a question and answer exercise. Before every single one of them I posted a thread on here and urged people to send us their questions on social media. We felt that by doing so we'd cover off the majority of the things that people wanted to hear them answer in the time that we had.

Ultimately the last two or three have been pointless for us - people didn't like the way we handled them, and the lads hosting the shows just thought "what's the point in us even doing this?" which is why we took the stance that we wouldn't be seeking out anyone from the club for podcast interviews in the near future. Some of the criticism of our approach was fair, some of it wasn't. Ultimately, we no longer care - it's now up to the press, other podcasts and other fan groups to seek answers from the owners through their own channels should they wish to do so. We'll carry on as we did before these owners arrived - we'll offer our own opinions on whatever via the pod and the website.
 
Pepe said:
When he or others were on the show, it was a PR exercise. The fact you did not speak with him beforehand or afterwards is moot, RR's and other supporters goodwill was roundly abused. It isn't a criticism.
Click to expand...
In their defence they probably didn't understand the extent of it.

Stew bought them a Macdonald's, he can't be a bad bloke.
 
Having spoken with Charlie a few times over his time at the club, and I mean a literal few, he absolutely saw fan media outlets as an opportunity to spread messages due to the huge reach and potential even greater reach, and they were probably hitting the demographic they wanted to target the most.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean fan media outlets were knowledgeabley complicit in every case and I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that.

We were more than happy to help with campaigns to drive people to games which in our view was a really good thing.

Charlie was constantly trying to manipulate and control the message, in my opinion. Stewart went on the radio post sacking Ross after being nowhere for months. In my opinion that was to control the message again.
 

Back
Top