WILL THE REAL DAVE THOMAS PLEASE STAND UP

uffculmegull · Post by **uffculmegull** » 20 Oct 2016, 14:27

For thirty years our local reporter has been the first point of contact for all things United, before social media, and for those amongst us who spent the majority of our working life many miles from our home club the highlight of the week was receiving the back pages of the herald from dear old mum, and woe betide her if she used the pages for the weekend peelings.
In those days match day reports was never afraid to call out a player for having a nightmare of a game or give criticism to the manager who had misread the game and chosen the wrong formation, his reports were truthful,accurate and impartial.
Many a home game I would see him in the club bar with at least one director in earnest conversation,he undoubtedly, more than anyone else knows where the numerous skeletons are buried.
The last few seasons his reporting has changed and not in a good way, If its a home match his reports are superficial and seem to bear little resemblance to the match I and many others have watched, if he is the match analyser on away matches he seems more intent on preparing his match reports for other outlets than making incisive comments, either way I prefer the commentary on the local radio station, at least they do not have a reluctance to tell the unvarnished truth about our performance.
Perhaps he is keeping his powder dry and is busily writing a block buster modern history of United for which he has unparalleled knowledge or perhaps over time he has become to close to those that wield the power at United.
Dave, by your use of the journalistic pen you can influence more people in one concise , honestly written article than any social media comment, you have more power than you can imagine in influencing the direction our club takes, perhaps it is time to see the journalist of old, please.

hector · Post by **hector** » 20 Oct 2016, 17:52

The only time I ever remember David Thomas being vaguely controversial was a back page spread relating to Stuart Morgan with a headline along the lines of 'Sack Him or Back Him!'. That would have been around 30 seasons ago. Otherwise it is superficial, 'let's-not-rock-the-boat' style, cosy reporting.

There is so much wrong with our football club, not least the fact it cannot compete with park teams when it gets gates of 2000, the unheard of 3 year contract for a novice manager, the spectre of Peter Masters/GI and yet barely a whisper of concern or interest is uttered. Investigational journalism is obviously not a consideration at the Herald, unless Jim Parker has it in for any non-Tory politician.

The way TUFC is reported on, is akin to Conrad Sutcliffe reporting on local rugby or cricket stories. Basically just reporting the score and passages of play. The Herald obviously does not consider the potential demise of TUFC as worth asking the question of 'How has this happened?' It has been up to supporters on forums to do this and do the job of the journalists. Even when supporters do manage to release the rattling skeletons from the cupboard, the Herald shows no interest in the stories. Strange really.

Dutchgull · Post by **Dutchgull** » 20 Oct 2016, 19:00

hector wrote:The only time I ever remember David Thomas being vaguely controversial was a back page spread relating to Stuart Morgan with a headline along the lines of 'Sack Him or Back Him!'. That would have been around 30 seasons ago. Otherwise it is superficial, 'let's-not-rock-the-boat' style, cosy reporting.

There is so much wrong with our football club, not least the fact it cannot compete with park teams when it gets gates of 2000, the unheard of 3 year contract for a novice manager, the spectre of Peter Masters/GI and yet barely a whisper of concern or interest is uttered. Investigational journalism is obviously not a consideration at the Herald, unless Jim Parker has it in for any non-Tory politician.

The way TUFC is reported on, is akin to Conrad Sutcliffe reporting on local rugby or cricket stories. Basically just reporting the score and passages of play. The Herald obviously does not consider the potential demise of TUFC as worth asking the question of 'How has this happened?' It has been up to supporters on forums to do this and do the job of the journalists. Even when supporters do manage to release the rattling skeletons from the cupboard, the Herald shows no interest in the stories. Strange really.

Cracking post Hector

westyorkshiregull · Post by **westyorkshiregull** » 20 Oct 2016, 19:11

Stuart Morgan was good manager...nowt to do with thread or convo but just thought id say it....credited with Lee sharpe signing

gullpower · Post by **gullpower** » 20 Oct 2016, 22:36

On the other hand, would Dave Thomas be "Access all Areas" if he was spilling the beans and scattering those skeleton's bones all over the back page?

Sometimes it's up to us to read between the lines. Wasn't it Dave Thomas that alluded to the fact that the club had 2 outstanding debts that would have to be paid in the near future? And wasn't it contributors to this site that first suggested that they were the loan made by GI and losses attributed to Yellow Fest 2?

hector · Post by **hector** » 21 Oct 2016, 06:51

gullpower wrote:On the other hand, would Dave Thomas be "Access all Areas" if he was spilling the beans and scattering those skeleton's bones all over the back page?

Sometimes it's up to us to read between the lines. Wasn't it Dave Thomas that alluded to the fact that the club had 2 outstanding debts that would have to be paid in the near future? And wasn't it contributors to this site that first suggested that they were the loan made by GI and losses attributed to Yellow Fest 2?

Exactly - it was contributors who first suggested about the debts. It wasn't DT who first alluded to debts anyway - that information was in Forum Land, long before it was ever mentioned in the Herald.

What use is DT being 'Access all Areas' anyway, if it just results in him colluding with the silence? This football club is possibly weeks away from closure but you wouldn't know it if you listen to the podcast or read anything he writes.

The fact that the Fans Forum has had its date changed to November 2nd. Is this anything to do with the meeting between club and TUST on 31st October where a decision is set to be made? You'd think DT would be onto it but no.

It's almost as if, if indeed he does know anything, he prefers to keep that knowledge to himself. I wonder if the Plymouth Herald would have given the club such an easy ride over the last 4 years?

wivelgull · Post by **wivelgull** » 21 Oct 2016, 10:50

This MAY have something to do with the change in format of the Herald. Here in Whitby the excellent 'Whitby Gazette' (of thirty years ago) has degenerated into an advertising organ. There was a take over by the Johnson Press (who took over many local rags) and from then on things got worse and worse. There was less space available (in became of tabloid shape) and so lengthy reports, comments and snippets of news on Whitby Town became fewer and fewer. The same thing happened for court reports, and no doubt other area. Now all we have is adverts, bloody adverts.

gullpower · Post by **gullpower** » 21 Oct 2016, 12:52

hector wrote: Exactly - it was contributors who first suggested about the debts. It wasn't DT who first alluded to debts anyway - that information was in Forum Land, long before it was ever mentioned in the Herald.

What use is DT being 'Access all Areas' anyway, if it just results in him colluding with the silence? This football club is possibly weeks away from closure but you wouldn't know it if you listen to the podcast or read anything he writes.

The fact that the Fans Forum has had its date changed to November 2nd. Is this anything to do with the meeting between club and TUST on 31st October where a decision is set to be made? You'd think DT would be onto it but no.

It's almost as if, if indeed he does know anything, he prefers to keep that knowledge to himself. I wonder if the Plymouth Herald would have given the club such an easy ride over the last 4 years?

I agree with much of what you say.

However I would argue that it is not DT's job at the HE these days to be an investigative journalist, so it's not surprising that all you get is scores, commentary on passages of play and who he has bumped into at the training ground. Much more worthwhile investigation has been written on the forums and these days that's where I would expect to find it.

SenorDingDong · Post by **SenorDingDong** » 21 Oct 2016, 18:22

gullpower wrote:On the other hand, would Dave Thomas be "Access all Areas" if he was spilling the beans and scattering those skeleton's bones all over the back page?

Sometimes it's up to us to read between the lines. Wasn't it Dave Thomas that alluded to the fact that the club had 2 outstanding debts that would have to be paid in the near future? And wasn't it contributors to this site that first suggested that they were the loan made by GI and losses attributed to Yellow Fest 2?

What are the club going to do? Go all Newcastle United and ban the Herald from reporting on the club? I highly doubt it given that other than the club's website the Herald Express is the only outlet for publicising the club and the only media organisation that plays any attention to the club these days, other than the BBC providing results.

As for the change in the Herald's format and the declining quality of the Herald, I fail to see how this is an issue. Dave still gets his 3/4 pages a week, if he wanted to report something controversial or criticise the ownership then he could do that in those pages, that's plenty of room to do match reports and also make critical commentary. However he seems much happier to continue bumbling along delusionally ignoring all that is happening and letting the fan base down in not using his privleged position to hold the ownership to account.

hector · Post by **hector** » 22 Oct 2016, 09:24

gullpower wrote: I agree with much of what you say.

However I would argue that it is not DT's job at the HE these days to be an investigative journalist, so it's not surprising that all you get is scores, commentary on passages of play and who he has bumped into at the training ground. Much more worthwhile investigation has been written on the forums and these days that's where I would expect to find it.

I don't think DT was ever an investigative journalist. Too happy maintaining a cosy relationship with the club and avoiding any controversy. Think back to Paul Cox's appointment and it is DT asking questions about a role for KN. At that point the club were saying he wasn't ready for a player-assistant manager role. A month later? He's the manager.

DT didn't question that, of course.

midtable · Post by **midtable** » 23 Oct 2016, 00:40

An excellent journalist who is still doing as good job. At Torquay's level there is little point in shredding players for lack of skill because we are non-league so what do you expect? If you want to hear a more detailed analysis listen to the Herald Express podcast where the crew have stronger opinions about the players and tactics.

Absolutelythirdrate · Post by **Absolutelythirdrate** » 23 Oct 2016, 08:06

I agree with those who believe DT is just coasting along, happy for an easy ride. A proper journalist would have made a much stronger effort to find out exactly what's going on behind the scenes at our club. In other words, carry out some investigative journalism. It's a pity that he hasn't done this.

Post by **happytorq** » 24 Oct 2016, 17:13

it's part of a problem with a club that such a small level of support. Few people interested means fewer people willing to cover the team. It's basically just Dave Thomas at this stage. If he was to go all gung-ho about the shenanigans at the club, they could easily pull something and tell him he's no longer welcome. There aren't thousands of journalists waiting to take his place, so little would be done about it.

SenorDingDong · Post by **SenorDingDong** » 27 Oct 2016, 21:20

If you think there are no young aspiring sports journalists out there that wouldn't bite off their own arm to be given the chance to be the main football writer for a professional football team then you're solely mistaken. Those kind of opportunities are very hard to come by, especially in this era of declining print newspapers and are an excellent way of working towards national sports publications. The HE does not employ people based upon whether they support the club and are 'willing' to cover the team, they employ the most qualified person, of which there would be a good deal of people interested, a large majority probably not Torquay fans and a large majority that might actually make more of an effort to be a real journalist and not just a match reporter.

Ausgull · Post by **Ausgull** » 20 Dec 2016, 08:27

Well I don't know about you guys but what ever happened to the investigative Journalism that Dave Thomas and the Herald Express should report on about our club , I can only see what is printed as what is given by the club when they ( Herald Express and Dave Thomas in particular ) should be asking the hard question like why did the club borrow $120k from GI and what were the conditions of the loan?
Their are so many unanswered questions that if I was a journalist Id be knocking on the clubs door trying to get to the truth,the fans(us) are so much in the dark here and the way we have been treated to any information of the going on's at the club has been disgraceful all season.
It is our club and the Herald Express which represents Torquay United on behalf of the fans should be doing their utmost to get to the bottom of any story and try and obtain the truth and not rely on hearsay as I cant imagine not having my club (Torquay United ) to support if the actions of GI and Masters are only for the benefit of themselves .

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