Caithness Courier - Embarassing Journalism.

**Droopy** · 29-Jul-15, 21:21

Hot on the heels of the 'Man Deleted' coloum where the anonymous troll absolutely shafted a council stalwart and used his/her print space as an avenue to implement despicable victimisation upon, after the same "paper" gleaned an interview the week before about the new council offices, now we have the local rag reporter reaching new gutter press levels by taking the news to the nation that 3 kids went out on the Wick gala dressed a Golliwogs!!

Will, get a grip, and a life and a wife, and rather than follow Thurso High School pupils Twitter feeds, do some real reporting. It's absouluty appalling that all the work the Wick gala committee do, all that you can report on is this. The Wick gala is part of the Caithness fabric, and is becoming increasingly difficult to run due to social media keyboard critics and people reluctant to volunteer and what does our local paper do to help......run a nothing story on the front page so that the rest of the UK can pick up on the negative view that some school kid in her bedroom in Thurso started on Twitter.

Well done Will and the editor, well done.

So there we have it folks, our local paper does everything it can to encourage the Wick gala to become a thing of the past due to an already decreasing volunteer committee becoming even more scarce due to the national media attention the Courier has promoted.

Shame on the reporter and editor.

**sids** · 29-Jul-15, 21:57

Whatever company owns the Courier will see the story as a big success.

They're not in business to help the Wick Gala, or anyone else.

**Neil Howie** · 29-Jul-15, 22:07

Like you, I was shocked by the article in the Courier today.

Not because of the girls' naivety in dressing as golliwogs, but because the Courier chose to use it as their front page article.

I thought it was exploiting the situation to sell papers rather than dealing with it in a considered way.

**Pepsix** · 29-Jul-15, 22:35

Our local paper hasn't published many 'good news' stories in recent year. Absolute drivel and biased stories is their trademarks these days. What a fantastic job the gala have done and they are local heroes. What other community has such a diverse programme of events as our community has. Well done to Donna and her team, not that the local rag will say so, preferring to run our community down. The only way the papers bosses is Inverness are going to listen is when we stop buying such rubbish!

**davth** · 30-Jul-15, 08:40

Personally I think it's embarrassing that folk find it acceptable to think dressing up as a black person is a suitable "fancy dress" for the gala.It really highlights the mentality up here.
I should add that it is not the gala committee that is at fault here, but perhaps walkers need to be vetted in future to prevent a reoccurrence of the racism.

**BetterTogether** · 30-Jul-15, 08:52

For those in doubt to don't blame the local media try looking at your own attitudes. Here's an article from 2012

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...wback-tory-mps.

**cptdodger** · 30-Jul-15, 09:18

Originally Posted by BetterTogether

For those in doubt to don't blame the local media try looking at your own attitudes. Here's an article from 2012

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...wback-tory-mps.

One paragraph from the article -

"In 2009, Hamleys declared that it was joining the Queen's estate in banning the items from its shops. Police action has been taken against those displaying such items, on the grounds of incitement to racial hatred.

For those parents who thought it was acceptable here to let their children dress up like that, do not ever move and let them do that there, you are putting your children at risk. Remember, a lot of tourists are in the area at the moment, and somebody took the time to make a complaint to the Police.

**Droopy** · 30-Jul-15, 11:42

Originally Posted by sids

Whatever company owns the Courier will see the story as a big success.They're not in business to help the Wick Gala, or anyone else.

Unfortunately that is so true Sid, we have a community spirit that can't be explained to other parts of the country, and people from the metropolises won't understand the unique event that is the Wick gala, so that's the reason the Couriers sensational front page article has been grabbed by the nationals and been used as a quarter page filler to tick the 'here's something to be offended by' category.

No ones suggesting it was the best idea in the world to go out dressed as Golliwogs but The Courier didn't need to make it front page news and create the drama it has. I hope our 'local' paper hasn't created the downfall of our local gala and that the volunteers don't let people who contribute absolutely nothing to the Wick gala get them down.

Be nice perhaps if the Courier made a donation to the gala committee from all of the advertising space they sold in the gala feature the other week? I bet the complainer wasn't even at the gala, she'd be sitting in her bedroom scouring the internet looking for something to be offended by so that she could rage online how upset she is......get out your house lass and support the local gala love!

The paper will no doubt have some smart ass editorial in next week explaining that racism doesn't belong in the 21st century blah blah.....the point is we all know that but a little savvy from a marginal local paper could have so easily prevented this whole drama which will compromise every gala to come.

**starfish** · 30-Jul-15, 14:01

i think its all madness front paper news rather than put about a young lad missing and what about the ones that dress as jajapense girls where they being racist . when will it stop do you stop a football team appearing in the gala as they might offend someone else team.

**BetterTogether** · 30-Jul-15, 20:30

Sometimes journalisms job is to shine a light into those dark recesses of society where unacceptable practise exist and expose them to the full glare of the rest of society. This is one such instance inappropriate,offensive culturally insensitive, racially motivated no excuses about they where kids they are well beyond kids teenagers/ young adults. The media have done a fine job exposing this maybe society can learn a lesson and next years carnival won't be blighted by sloppy racial stereotypes posing as just harmless fun.

**cptdodger** · 30-Jul-15, 20:47

Originally Posted by starfish

i think its all madness front paper news rather than put about a young lad missing and what about the ones that dress as jajapense girls where they being racist . when will it stop do you stop a football team appearing in the gala as they might offend someone else team.

Not a fair comparison, we did'nt enslave and then persecute millions of Japanese people. And yes (maybe not here) in some pubs in city centre's football tops are not allowed, but that is usually due to violence.

**sintra307** · 30-Jul-15, 21:03

Support the Gala or lose it the organisers of all the highland towns do a great job and should be encouraged and highly praised . Now what is it they call people that keep gossip going?...oh and stop quoting wiki. If one cannot string a sentence together one should not copy others. This forum too is a wonderful source of the people of Caithness and worldwide is it there to make three youngster fearful of course it is not.

**davth** · 31-Jul-15, 09:40

How dare the courier pick up on racism in the towns gala parade

**crashbandicoot1979** · 31-Jul-15, 11:42

There was no racism, just three kids in an unwise choice of outfits. No one was mocking people of another race, no one was excluding people of another race, no one was picking on people of another race, no one was shouting abuse of people of another race - THAT'S racism. According to the paper there was a girl from Nigeria present who was made perfectly welcome and wasn't offended by the outfits.

**rob murray** · 31-Jul-15, 13:00