On Triple M Footy on Saturday night (May 26) Eddie McGuire disrespected newsagents when talking about an industry event saying:
it used to be good until they let Newsagents and other clowns attend
Newsagents are clowns Eddie? Nice.
Contact with Triple M Footy and Triple M Breakfast via Twitter achieved nothing. It seems Eddie McGuire is happy to lob grenades but not be accountable for their impact.
It was Eddie McGuire’s personal pitch in mid 2011 which resulted in newsagency marketing group newsXpress committing to a national TV campaign with the Nine Network for more than 4,000 TV ads. I am a Director of newsXpress. ACP Magazine is owned by Nine Entertainment. Newsagents are important to ACP. Maguire is a major star in the Nine stable. That he has ignorantly disrespected newsagents, even if it was meant as a joke as I expect the excuse will be, ought to interest the folks at Nine.
Eddie Maguire joins Bill Shorten, Jeff Kennett and Wendy Harmer in making ignorant and offensive comments against newsagents. While these people are entitled to their view, they ought to be prepared to debate them. As it stands today, they prefer to pontificate and run.
I accept that people will make jokes about newsagents and other retail channels and professions. What I will not accept is ignorant jokes and commentary and the refusal to engage in debate about what has been said.
Newsagents deserve better.
We are good people. We are faithful servants of our suppliers. We serve our community with pleasure.
UPDATE: (Jun. 1) I have changed the spelling of Eddie’s surname to the right spelling. I appreciate the confidential correspondent who let me know of the mistake.
Hi mark,
I didn’t hear the comments. Was it said in commentry? I like eddie alot but this comment is very dissapointing!
The enormity of the egos of these three Australians is only exceeded by their arrogance. It seems to be an epidemic to put down small business.
Eddie is a nobody outside of VIC and caught up in his own self inportance. Nine network rely on advertise revenue to pay their staff including Eddie if I was a director of newsXpress I would be talking to Nine asking why continue supporting their revenue stream with CLOWNS like Eddie making such stupid comments.
Baz & Gregg Agree with your comments even before he made them.
Still have not received a reply from Bill Shorten: Note: must get a response no matter what, as part of the civilities of politics, and it normally has to come from the Minister.
We all have the right to an opinion, however when an opinion or statement comes from people with influence whether we like them or not, they also influence people views, in this instance our customers. Blind freddy can see it is not a coincidence that these people are having a shot at Newsagents, the key & only question is why?
Eddie is a big mouth
Eddie (in my opinion) is nothing short of a self over indulgent a.seh.le. He has tended towards this for years. I wonder if he considers the home delivery agent in his residential area ‘a clown’. I think he has forgotten from where he came
CLOWN
A comic performer, as in a circus, theatrical production, or the like, who wears an outlandish costume and makeup and entertains by pantomiming common situations or actions in exaggerated or ridiculous fashion, by juggling or tumbling, etc.
2.
a person who acts like a clown; comedian; joker; buffoon; jester.
3.
a prankster; a practical joker.
Sorry,
I just realised Eddie is not a clown as above definition means you must have talent. He is a CELEBRITY (person of no real talent or worth)
Noted that reported in yesterdays news that Mr Kennett was linked to a Packer Casino interest in Sydney.
Maybe these four could be the new faces (mouths) for Luna Park
Eddie is an ignoramus…..but lets face facts, some so called newsagents have bought into the business for the wrong reasons and really havent respected what a newsagency is to a local community. They sell only papers & lotto and offer nothing else. This is why groups like NewsXpress especially, have reacted over the years positively to new ideas, concepts and strategies….. Sorry to say, we probably have 1000 newsagents out there that belong with Eddie 🙂
Paul, a percentage of AFL footballers would not be the brightest on earth but Eddie would not hear a word said against them. He was out of line and is ultra sensitive when his own interests are criticised but blasé about criticising us? He can keep his foolish opinions to himself thank you. Even if said in jest it was poor taste towards an industry closely aligned to his own background as a “reporter” of sorts.
Paul, do you mean if you are not in a marketing group , you are a clown??
i think some clowns should be in marketing group to be guided
Some context around his comments would be nice – it’s all well and good to have a go at him, but the small snippet of the quote does nothing to actually explain what happened
eddie is the collingwood president, that in itself shows what sort of idiot he is.
Bill Shorten never replied to me either but he is ex union, so only in it for what he can get out of it, never good enough to get a proper job and only has about a year left in this one before we can throw them all out
I am a Passionate Collingwood Fan and heard Edddie`s comments last week and was bitterly disappointed. For the last few weeks i have been thinking of joining myself and two sons up as Pies members……what say Mr Maguire you apologise here on the “Newsagents” blog and i will sign up for 3 memberships?
I sent Ed a message via his mmm facebook page but have not had a reply to date. What makes Ed`s comments so hard to take is that without Newsagents selling the paper that he wrote articles for he may not have been as successful as he is today…….
Kerry, Ed was talking about how good an industry event used to be until the let Newsagents and “other” Clowns in to it………….not out of context at all i think.
…….and one more thing should be noted…..Lachie Keefe who plays for Collingwood…..well guess what….his Dad is a Newsagent from Gympie……
Well said Allan. I’d note to others here that it was Allan who let me know about this. So enough of the Collingwood bashing and focus on the issue.
My original point was that there are many newsagents who couldnt run a chook raffle. It doesnt matter if you are in a newsagency group or not….if you ‘manage’ your store with purpose & discipline, you have a much better chance of success than the agent that just focuses on papers & lotto. We have all been into a newsagent (group member or not), where you see plenty of unbranded goods, half empty shelves and the little man or women sat behind the counter with there hand out for the $1.10….
People judge us by our friends so I’m grateful to Eddie for what he said.
I think Paul is trying to tell us he is good at running chook raffles.