diff --git a/cisticola/scraper/base.py b/cisticola/scraper/base.py
index 43e7352..47a6635 100644
--- a/cisticola/scraper/base.py
+++ b/cisticola/scraper/base.py
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ class Scraper:
 
     __version__ = "Scraper 0.0.0"
 
+    cookiestring = os.environ["YOUTUBE_COOKIESTRING"].replace(r'\n', '\n').replace(r'\t', '\t')
+    cookiefilename = 'cookiefile.txt'
+
     def __init__(self):
 
         # Initialize client to transfer files to the storage archive
diff --git a/cisticola/scraper/telegram_telethon.py b/cisticola/scraper/telegram_telethon.py
index 7235011..d82c1ab 100644
--- a/cisticola/scraper/telegram_telethon.py
+++ b/cisticola/scraper/telegram_telethon.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class TelegramTelethonScraper(Scraper):
                 message = self.client.get_messages(raw['peer_id']['channel_id'], ids=[raw['id']])
 
                 blob = None
-                if len(message) > 0:
+                if len(message) > 0 and message[0] is not None:
                     blob, output_file_with_ext = self.archive_post_media(message[0])
                 else:
                     logger.warning("No message retrieved")