There is no doubting that Pompey are lucky to have a local paper that is willing to basically offer free publicity to the football club on a daily basis and The News is lucky that Pompey fans are hungry enough to devour pages after pages of news on a daily basis. For many years, the two work in perfect tandem but sometimes the wheels fall off the media locomotive, leaving the fans in the dark and subjected to stories bordering on propaganda through official news sources.
The News has a duty to report objectively on affairs at Fratton Park, just as this site has a duty to report stories that The News can't run as they are speculative or slanted with one's own personal opinion. On the flip side, the club's official sources is of course going to be pro the club but sometimes everything that comes out of Fratton Park isn't perfect - no one expects it to be - and if you cut off the objective reports, fans don't get the balanced news they deserve.
Pompey wouldn't probably disagree with these words but where they do differ is that The News is objective in its views. The club feel that the paper puts a negative slant on the club and it is these stories that the club objected to:
1. Harry's five games without a win
2. Steve Claridge's player of the season award at Millwall
3. Russell Hoult's and Darren Moore's awards and place in the Div 1 team of the season
4. Darren Moore could be on his way to West Brom - a story they denied despite it coming true. It was deemed to be an attempt to affect season-ticket sales
5. Letters from fans - Pompey claimed that The News actively encouraged negative correspondence.
The first four of these stories were of course completely factual - the last is farcical. Any intelligent fan will realise that The News will print a cross section of opinions depending on what letters they receive. Thriving message boards suggest that Pompey fans will always differ on opinion on certain topics as well Human Being's on a general level - opinions are part of life.
Trying to influence people's opinions of the club and what is happening is patronising and bordering on a dictatorship. Fans are fans because they want to see the club perform well, we don't want to see the club struggle but are also not blind enough to realise that everything is not always going to be hunky dory with our club. It seems that the club are extremely sensitive over the written media and take any sort of story that doesn't pep the club up as a personal attack. This site is currently also banned from reporting from Fratton Park due to a story last season that upset the chairman so much that legal action was threatened but it seems that an official apology from Fratton Faithful is not enough for the club, which seems ready to hit out at any form of media that doesn't always completely agree with it's point of view.
The News and Fratton Faithful are similar in many respects - both are willing to report what fans are really feeling and both are willing to report stories that official media partners or puppets of PFC are unwilling to touch. Fans as loyal and passionate as Pompey fans deserve balanced reports on News at Fratton Park. Fans need the daily fix of news that The News provides to a huge spectrum of fans - from casual to the hardcore. The club needs to work together with the media in the South and realise that everyone is striving for success at Portsmouth Football Club.