John Meakin was a reporter employed by the Weatherfield Gazette who covered three stories involving the residents of Coronation Street. In November 1966, Elsie Tanner's grandson Paul Cheveski went missing and was found after an intensive search on the bank of the Weatherfield Canal, having been pulled by someone out of the dank water. Suffering from pneumonia, Paul was hospitalised and Meakin went round the residents trying to get his story, but to no avail. One exception was the boy's mother Linda, who spoke to him in the hope that it would publicise the fact that the Gas Street side of the canal wasn't properly fenced off. It later transpired that none other than Councillor Len Fairclough had blocked the tender for the new fence and when Meakin published the story it led to a fight betwe