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I had a chat to Andrew in a restaurant in Suk Soi 23 one .... morning (I think it was about 4am) ... a couple of months ago.

It could have been an interesting chat ... except I was too pissed to ask any sensible questions, and I think he was too pissed to give any sensible answers.

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<None of your business, Lao Po. Not claiming ethical superiority, just pointing out the obvious. So you don't find Drummond's writing style sensationalistic? Fine. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and everyone's entitled to make a living.<BR>

Spoila Optima I think a few comments here may have gone over your head.

Your statement 'Your style of writing proves what a journalist you are' certainly could not have come from a British news journalist or American for that matter.<BR>Here's how it works. We went school. We went to college/Uni we all studied journalism and then we all fought to get jobs. In my day the route was local papers, radio, news agencies, Fleet St, or regional television channels, or if we were lucky straight onto the big ones.

In college we learned how to write across the board for heavy papers and popular papers and to broadcast. Some of us ended up at the Guardian, some at the Sun, some on TV, and throughout our careers our paths were always crossing as we went from tabloid to heavy and vice versa (It was the only way to get a pay rise) and drinking in each others pubs.

It's not the reporter who is sensasionalist or stylistically loud it is the newspaper or television programme to which he is performing. My particular route was local paper, local BBC station, News Agency, Evening News then Standard, Daily Mail, News of the World to Observer and Times.

Now people might think moving from the News of the World a brash right wing tabloid to the Observer, a heavy liberal, was odd. It was not. I was known at the News of the World (and it was broadsheet most of the time) for some valid investigations including become a Nazi for eighteen months. In the meantime, in my time off, I had also worked on and brought documentary programmes to BBC Panorama and Granada 'World in Action' and Channel 4..

Ex-tabloid men are all over the Times, Guardian and Telegraph because working for a tabloid involves much greater pressure and disciplines. If you fail too many times you are out. If a story broke here and Fleet Street arrived, the reporters would be very cautious of me and I would be very cautious about the guys from the Daily Mail and Sun because they are excellent operators.

At the Observer I provided the launch film for its film arm (with Ray Fitzwalter of WiA as Exec Prod) after the Observer I went to Fox TV, a tremendous experience in learning tabloid TV techniques, but not a place for a grown man.

Then I came here because I had been sent here previously by both the NoW and the Observer and liked it. For the last 20 years here I have been with the Observer, Times and Standard. I have never said I am a tabloid journalist because actually that would be incorrect. But I'm not too fussed if I am called one. The fact is the stories people notice most are the ones I write for the tabloids. You can google my name with any British newspaper. Maybe the stuff have done for the Times, Telegraph, Observer, St etc is in your view sensationalist.

And what do you think the staff of sensasionalist newspapers are like - all cockney oiks? At the News of the World when I was there the News Editor was an ex-Naval Officer, the Deputy was ex-Charterhouse, and of the girls one went to Roedean and another Benenden. The only oik was our Crime reporter who was ex-Sweeney (Flying Squad)

I am just a journalist and I write to the market. On my blog I write to the market here, but some people understand the tongue in cheek stuff. Obviously the'ice smoking' story is one for the tabloids. That does not mean it should not be done. So Optima Spolia never judge an issue before you know the facts. Check all my writing styles.<BR>As for the tabloids why do British Prime Ministers always pick tabloid editors as their press secretaries. No don't answer that. They are all sh*t aren't they?

With apologies to Buchhholz and people from East London

Edited by andrewdrummond
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I had a chat to Andrew in a restaurant in Suk Soi 23 one .... morning (I think it was about 4am) ... a couple of months ago.

It could have been an interesting chat ... except I was too pissed to ask any sensible questions, and I think he was too pissed to give any sensible answers.

He actually sounds like someone that would be worth having some conversations with :) To be honest there are few enough around that I could be bothered to go lift a pint with, and I think he'd be one.

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I had a chat to Andrew in a restaurant in Suk Soi 23 one .... morning (I think it was about 4am) ... a couple of months ago.

It could have been an interesting chat ... except I was too pissed to ask any sensible questions, and I think he was too pissed to give any sensible answers.

I can and you owe me 1,000 baht. I thought you were discreet btw

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I had a chat to Andrew in a restaurant in Suk Soi 23 one .... morning (I think it was about 4am) ... a couple of months ago.

It could have been an interesting chat ... except I was too pissed to ask any sensible questions, and I think he was too pissed to give any sensible answers.

He actually sounds like someone that would be worth having some conversations with :) To be honest there are few enough around that I could be bothered to go lift a pint with, and I think he'd be one.

That's exactly what I thought at the time. I only really knew of him from comments on TVF (which I did comment to him at the time). Unfortunately neither of us were in a good state to have anything close to a meaningful conversation.

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<None of your business, Lao Po. Not claiming ethical superiority, just pointing out the obvious. So you don't find Drummond's writing style sensationalistic? Fine. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and everyone's entitled to make a living.<BR>

Spoila Optima I think a few comments here may have gone over your head.

Your statement 'Your style of writing proves what a journalist you are' certainly could not have come from a British news journalist or American for that matter.<BR>Here's how it works. We went school. We went to college/Uni we all studied journalism and then we all fought to get jobs. In my day the route was local papers, radio, news agencies, Fleet St, or regional television channels, or if we were lucky straight onto the big ones.

In college we learned how to write across the board for heavy papers and popular papers and to broadcast. Some of us ended up at the Guardian, some at the Sun, some on TV, and throughout our careers our paths were always crossing as we went from tabloid to heavy and vice versa (It was the only way to get a pay rise) and drinking in each others pubs.

It's not the reporter who is sensasionalist or stylistically loud – it is the newspaper or television programme to which he is performing. My particular route was local paper, local BBC station, News Agency, Evening News – then Standard, Daily Mail, News of the World to Observer and Times.

Now people might think moving from the News of the World a brash right wing tabloid to the Observer, a heavy liberal, was odd. It was not. I was known at the News of the World (and it was broadsheet most of the time) for some valid investigations – including become a Nazi for eighteen months. In the meantime, in my time off, I had also worked on and brought documentary programmes to BBC Panorama and Granada 'World in Action' and Channel 4..

Ex-tabloid men are all over the Times, Guardian and Telegraph because working for a tabloid involves much greater pressure and disciplines. If you fail too many times you are out. If a story broke here and Fleet Street arrived, the reporters would be very cautious of me and I would be very cautious about the guys from the Daily Mail and Sun because they are excellent operators.

At the Observer I provided the launch film for its film arm (with Ray Fitzwalter of WiA as Exec Prod) after the Observer I went to Fox TV, a tremendous experience in learning tabloid TV techniques, but not a place for a grown man.

Then I came here because I had been sent here previously by both the NoW and the Observer and liked it. For the last 20 years here I have been with the Observer, Times and Standard. I have never said I am a tabloid journalist because actually that would be incorrect. But I'm not too fussed if I am called one. The fact is the stories people notice most are the ones I write for the tabloids. You can google my name with any British newspaper. Maybe the stuff have done for the Times, Telegraph, Observer, St etc is in your view sensationalist.

And what do you think the staff of sensasionalist newspapers are like - all cockney oiks? At the News of the World when I was there the News Editor was an ex-Naval Officer, the Deputy was ex-Charterhouse, and of the girls one went to Roedean and another Benenden. The only oik was our Crime reporter who was ex-Sweeney (Flying Squad)

I am just a journalist and I write to the market. On my blog I write to the market here, but some people understand the tongue in cheek stuff. Obviously the'ice smoking' story is one for the tabloids. That does not mean it should not be done. So Optima Spolia never judge an issue before you know the facts. Check all my writing styles.<BR>As for the tabloids why do British Prime Ministers always pick tabloid editors as their press secretaries. No don't answer that. They are all sh*t aren't they?

With apologies to Buchhholz and people from East London

Slight mistake in editing here. This reply was meant to be in answer to assumptions made by the Spolia person compleetly categorising me as sensationalist. Not Laopo of course who is of course an 'eminence grise' here :rolleyes:

With apologies to Buchholz.

Edited by andrewdrummond
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Not Laopo of course who is of course an 'eminence grise' here :rolleyes:

:w00t: Stop - stop stop....I'm hardly an éminence grise since I have no powers whatsoever here on TV and apart from that not grey/gray (yet) as well, although many suspect(ed) me of hair coloring.

But, I'm probably blessed with a lot of melanin, preventing me of graying, combined with a lot of hair.

Both are not accomplishments but blessings and have also nothing to do with being an éminence grise or not.

But, thank you for the compliment B)

LaoPo

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* written by SpoliaOpima:

"By the way, I suspect this thread may have been a publicity stunt on his part"

but later he wrote:

"I wasn't suggesting that letting your website go down was a stunt.."

So much for the credibility of non-sensational journalist SpoliaOpima ;)

LaoPo

You can't distinguish between the two statements? I never said I thought the site going down might have been a stunt. Never. Only that the starting of this *thread* might have been.

So much for your credibility as a person who can comprehend written English. Seriously, all I did was express suspicion that the newbie who started the thread might haven been drumming for Drummond. Doesn't look that way, so perhaps my suspicion was misplaced.

Geriatric kid: I have no idea whether the content Drummond has reported is true or false. Reporting involves both style and content, as difficult as it might be for you to grasp the idea.

Andrew: "It's not the reporter who is sensasionalist or stylistically loud – it is the newspaper or television programme to which he is performing."

How about 'I don't write blank verse. My words don't rhyme and the phrases don't have meter, but that's only because of the publisher who prints it.' And it's not the shirt that's loud, it's the people you're wearing it for.

You adjust your style for the publication, it goes without saying. I didn't say *you* were senstationalist as a personality trait (although perhaps you are, I wouldn't know). Only that the style was. I have no doubt you are capable of many styles. If you are happy 'performing' for 'sensasionalist or stylistically loud' media, I see no reason for you to take offense at the style description. Why not just admit that the writing style on that page is sensationalist in that case? It's not you who is sensationalist, after all.

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* written by SpoliaOpima:

"By the way, I suspect this thread may have been a publicity stunt on his part"

but later he wrote:

"I wasn't suggesting that letting your website go down was a stunt.."

So much for the credibility of non-sensational journalist SpoliaOpima ;)

LaoPo

You can't distinguish between the two statements? I never said I thought the site going down might have been a stunt. Never. Only that the starting of this *thread* might have been.

So much for your credibility as a person who can comprehend written English. Seriously, all I did was express suspicion that the newbie who started the thread might haven been drumming for Drummond. Doesn't look that way, so perhaps my suspicion was misplaced.

.

Indeed, but I applaud your honesty.

Well done.

LaoPo

Edited by LaoPo
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