News media
The good news
A freelance journalist working mainly for one particular British newspaper interviewed me with a view to publishing an article about my Amazon reviews, but that newspaper decided not to use the story. The article later appeared in various guises in four other newspapers, but I wasn't impressed by the results in most cases. Some people think they're OK but they can't convince me. Much better was my interview on BBC Radio Leicester, which I did live in the studio and which you can listen to, if your computer is set up correctly. Even if you can't, most of what I said has been repeated on the web page itself. The only good newspaper article appeared in The Times, although it's not specifically about me.
In December 2008, my local newspaper contacted me again to ask what Christmas gift I would recommend. I replied and they included me in their article, which isn't on the internet.
The lies and half-truths
I've long suspected that newspapers only tell the truth when it suits them, but it was still a revelation to me to see just how much they twist things to suit their own agenda. Still, it may have helped me that I made the national news media (albeit in a small way) via my Amazon reviews first. It helps to prepare me for whatever I get as a result of my political campaign on issues relating to unemployment, if I amanage to interest the media in such stuff. Although I'm apprehensive, the issues are too important to prevent my campaign going ahead. Here are some of the lies and half-truths written about me.
Recluse
I'll admit to being an introvert and to spending a lot of my time on my own, but I'm definitely not a recluse. If I were, I wouldn't have agreed to be interviewed about my Amazon reviews. I also doubt that a recluse would use his or her real name on the internet, or post so much personal stuff for all the world to see. Unemployed people have to choose between many desirable options in life. I'll socialise more when I have money to pay for such activities.
The original journalist, who is definitely not to blame for the use of this word (he wanted to present me in a positive light to help me in my job quest), suggested that one of the other journalists jumped to the wrong conclusion because I hadn't wanted to conduct the interview at home (we did it in the city centre). In fact, I'd chosen not to do the interview at home because I was only given a couple of days notice and I didn't feel that I could make an unexpected visitor welcome at such short notice. Having seen the way I've been reported, I can't imagine ever inviting a journalist into my home, even if I am given plenty of notice.
Has written more than 5,000 reviews for Amazon
A figure obtained by adding my Amazon UK reviews to my Amazon USA reviews. At the time I had about 2,500 on each site, but since my policy is to post my reviews on both sites where possible, the true figure was probably around 2,600 different reviews at the time. That figure might confuse people, so it's best to stick to the total for one site. Of course, when it comes to votes, it is perfectly valid to add the votes together, but then if you want to be accurate, you have to add in France, Germany and Canada although I haven't put anything like the same effort into these sites as Britain and America.
One of Britain's most influential reviewers of books, films and music
Flattering but I mostly review music. My book reviews are limited and at the time of the interview were confined to non-fiction material. I've since reviewed one novel and will review more eventually. I've never reviewed any films, nor will I because they don't interest me sufficiently. I'm a firm believer that people should stick to reviewing what they know about. You probably know more about films than I do. The nearest I get is books or music related to films, which means I know a bit about actors and actresses who have also recorded some music.
A former IT executive
More flattery. In reality, a former computer programmer.
He became a full-time reviewer when he was made redundant
No I didn't. Actually, I started reviewing seriously about six months before that. Even after my redundancy, I never worked full time on my reviews. I have bursts of activity when I am very productive but I have plenty of times when I don't write much.
As he is on benefits he prefers to buy older recordings "as it tends to be cheaper"
What I actually said was that I generally prefer older recordings anyway. I don't know much about contemporary music but since that music tends to be more expensive, I don't see any need to find out about it. I therefore stick to the older music. Yes, I may have used the quoted phrase, but let's get the context right. I never buy music purely on price alone.
Hobbies include train spotting
No they don't. I did some of that for a while in the sixties as I explained in my blog about Trains, but those days are long gone.
Writes his reviews at home, saves them on to a disc and sends them to Amazon using the internet connection at his local library
I did for a while but my floppy drive broke down. Later, Leicester public library upgraded its computers and no longer has any facilities for them. Note In March 2008, four months after the media fuss, I bought a new computer (which I'd been saving up money to buy for a couple of years) and went online from home again. I still have my old computer but haven't connected it to the internet.
Reviewing replaced his former passions, stamp collecting and train spotting
I'd given up both these hobbies long before Amazon existed although the stamp collecting lasted well into the eighties.
Average contribution running to 400 words
I think my average review length would be somewhat less than that although I've written reviews exceeding 1,200 words. 200 to 300 would be more typical at the time of the interview. As I tend to write longer reviews now, my average may one day be around 400, but I haven't done any detailed analysis.
Writes up to 20 reviews a day
When asked what was the highest number of reviews I'd written in one day, I said 20 but that would be for CD's that I was already very familiar with. So I once wrote 20 in a day and I may have come close a few times, but it's unlikely ever to happen again. Posting reviews is a different matter, because while I didn't have an internet connection at home, I wrote about 300 reviews on my old computer with no way to transmit them except by re-typing them all, which I did eventually. I posted them at the rate of ten per day.
