Despite this blog being predominantly football-orientated, it does offers the opportunity to comment on current affairs issues so forgive me for using this entry to exercise some diversity into the column.
The Liverpool Echo has been a fixture in the city which it has used the name of so unashamedly since 1879.
Although it has been part of Liverpool for nearly 130 years, it only gained widespread prominence amongst the city's residents in the mid 1980s after it was converted into a tabloid format to reflect the social unrest the city was experiencing under the iron fist of Thatcherism.
However since the paper was taken over by the Trinity Mirror group in 1999 it has declined significantly and if yesterday's front page was anything to go by it will spiral down further.
An article titled 'Ho! Ho! Woe: Santa Claus gets the sack' was published about a Father Christmas at the Liverpool One shopping development who was dismissed from his job following the discovery of a criminal record gained during his teenage years.
Despite declaring the conviction prior to obtaining the job, father of one Christopher Power was dismissed after the Echo contacted his employers about the now spent conviction.
According to the article the Echo said: "After speaking to a Liverpool One representative we were satisfied the criminal record dated back to Mr Power’s teenage years and the convictions were 'spent'."
Whilst they claim not to be pursuing the story, the meddling undertaken by Michelle Fiddler in informing both Liverpool One and Great Grottos, the company which employed Mr Power, of his spent conviction combined with her audacity and barefaced cheek to interview him about the incident is akin to the tactics used by the likes of The Sun newspaper - still reviled on Merseyside following their false reporting of the Hillsborough disaster.
Ms Fiddler would argue that the issue was a matter of public interest, as she stated in the article. However, as a journalism student who regularly reads the Press Complaints Commission's Code of Practice - the basic commandments all journalists should adhere to - and the factors behind Mr Power's dismissal, orchestrated by the Liverpool Echo, do not fall into a matter of public interest.
Fiddler did not just tattle on Mr Power, she meddled all for the sake of a 'scoop'. Her actions have seen a husband and a father stripped of his job despite having done no wrong.
Indeed Mr Power admitted in the interview with Fiddler that he had turned his life around despite being a troublesome teenager.
“| got into trouble as a teenager and I made silly choices," he said.
“But I can categorically say that by the time I was 18 I had turned my life around.
“I did youth work at youth clubs and the Princes Trust gave me money to go to drama school.”
Power went on to become a qualified actor is registered with the Equity union and took the job at the shopping centre to tide him over during a quiet period work wise.
He continued: “I spotted an advert looking for actors. I had my interview in Liverpool when I told them details about my history.
“Two days later I got a telephone call to say they thought I would be brilliant for the job.
“I was contracted to work four days a week until December 24.
"During the two weeks I was there I got 85% excellence rating from shoppers.
“Then I got a telephone call to say someone from the Liverpool Echo was asking about my criminal record. Then on the Friday I got a telephone call to say I was being dismissed.
“I am not a criminal.. I have done nothing wrong. I am worried what people will think and how this will affect me in my job.”
As Mr Power said, he is not a criminal but Michelle Fiddler and the Liverpool Echo have portrayed him to be one and to add insult to injury they made his plight front page news - effectively ensuring that he will not gain future employment as a result.
This is not the first time the Liverpool Echo have dumped on their own doorstep in recent times after parent company Trinity Mirror embarked on a series of cutbacks.
By November 2009 some 140 local jobs will be lost as the Echo moves printing production from Liverpool city centre to Oldham, Greater Manchester. Furthermore, an additional 78 journalist and editorial positions will be axed.
It appears, now more than ever, that the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo no longer serves the people who made it the local institution it has become as it evolves into a sensationalist tabloid.
