Opinions Are Like Backsides.....

Anyone who knows me or who has ever spent any time in my company knows I'm opinionated. There are often other words used with less syllables but as I'm the one writing this I'll choose the adjectives, thank you very much. I'm opinionated, often aggressively. My opinions are usually - but not always - educated and they are usually - but not always - open to alteration given conflicting facts or insights.

 

The one thing you could never say is that I keep my opinions to myself but I don't consider this my biggest failing. My biggest failing - in my not so humble opinion - is my inability to find anybody outside of my long-suffering wife whose opinion I respect enough to share my opinions with and actually value their input.

 

So I have reached my nadir. I always considered blogging the final recourse of the failed journalist or basement-bound trolls with nothing to do all day but complain about things they know nothing about or to try and create an argument just to see what happens.

 

I have tried commenting on sporting sites, writing to newspapers, ringing in to radios. My efforts have even landed me on TV and referenced in print on occasion but even these all-too-infrequent interludes left me with no more than a fleeting sense of achievement, all too easily squashed under the avalanche of ineptitude and ignorance that flows forth from the paid media on a daily basis. Perhaps I have a super-hero complex. I dream of the day when editors will rise up and take back control of the media from the accountants - a day when the phrase 'journalistic integrity' is no longer an oxymoron. I dream of a day when a story appears in the media because it is either newsworthy or insightful and not just to generate newsprint, ad space or 'clicks'. Am I delusional? You're the one reading a blog written by a nobody expecting - what? - and you ask if I'm delusional? Buy a mirror.

 

But right there is the problem. We live in a world that is buried under newspapers, news sites, news apps, news channels and news radio. We live in a world where the number of sources dedicated to the dissemination of the news outweighs the amount of news stories actually being generated on a day to day basis. We now have journalists - and I use the term very loosely - creating the news in an effort to make themselves relevant. Muck-racking, phone tapping and outright invention of stories is now so commonplace that the more sensible among us (not me) simply avoid the news altogether and have regressed into the realm of cartoons and the antique roadshow in an effort to maintain their sanity.

 

So, here I am. The saviour of truth and justice. From this moment on I will be blogging. I will be giving my not-so-valued opinion on a range of subjects from fat mayors to fat referees, from corrupt politicians to corrupt organisations and from real beer to real food. I don't care if nobody reads it. I don't care if nobody cares. I simply want to write at least one story a day (a week? Let's see!) that is the truth. A single story that I would actually read, that might stimulate intelligent debate or - God forbid - actually bring about some sort of change for the good.

 

I admit I am opinionated. I admit I will often be wrong. I admit that I may regularly not be entirely sober writing my diatribes. The one thing I can promise though is that I will always be honest.

 

Am I delusional? You're just going to have to come back to find out.