Saturday 11 August 2012

No News Is...

Good news? Not any more, it would seem that there is no such thing as 'No News' as anything that now happens anywhere in the world can become news in a matter of moments.

Mrs B and I have taken great pleasure in watching The Newsroom on tv, written by Aaron Sorkin it shows the workings of a US cable newsroom and the drive to simply find the facts and inform the public. Telling the truth about the things that the electorate need to know. How refreshing a thought, that the news would only ever be about the things we need to know, that serve the public interest rather than just offering hours of supposition, titillation and gossip.

This week I got a quick look at the newsroom of our local paper, and as you know I often get invited to the local BBC radio station to spread my pearls of wisdom. I have respect for the men and women who work very hard to provide a good quality of local news coverage but even they sometimes find themselves under added pressure when a local story becomes a national story.

I suppose the recent events in New Addington and the death of Tia Sharp are a good example. As I followed the breaking story a friend on Twitter reported that 'the street is full of press and news teams'.

Reporting on the discovery of a body after such a public search for this poor young girl seems valid, reporting on the disappearance and subsequent arrest of Stuart Hazell is totally newsworthy but then the door knocking starts and we get 'neighbours report' type stories.

In the search for some juicy tidbit they will take anyone who wants to speak at face value and offer their opinions as news. How can they be sure that there is no personal bias? We have seen in the past how a local rumour monger has fuelled the flames after a tragic event and it lead to a innocent man being accused of a crime he did not commit, take for example Christopher Jefferies.

This is one of the areas that The Leveson Inquiry is examining and rightly so.

I have no problem with journalists digging into the private lives of anyone who needs to be exposed as criminal, as they did with the MP's and their expenses, but my own recent experiences show that sometimes they don't know where to draw the line.

I was asked to conduct the funeral of Charlotte Blackman, the young lady tragically killed on holiday with her family. I met with the family and we put together a funeral that reflected the great joy of Charlotte's life. Of course the circumstances of her death made national headlines and I accept that seeing the story on the news seemed appropriate but I learned from the family that many of the stories in the newspapers about the events of the day contained great inaccuracies. The press has literally hounded the family for stories and have spoken to family members, ex work colleagues, trying to get some angle on the story. How is that news? How can that possibly serve the public interest?

As was expected the press and the news were present at the funeral to film the arrival of the hearse, but can you believe that they had the nerve to ask if they could film the whole funeral or if they might have an interview with the parents after the funeral!

Unbelievable - not a modicum of common decency or respect for a grieving family.

Later, I read some of the reports and once again there were obvious factual inaccuracies about what had happened at the funeral and who was attending and I thought, well that proves the old adage...never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.


Of course it is really too easy to just get angry at the reporters or the people who send them to chase these stories, how much of the blame should we take?  The consumers - we who read or watch these non-news, news stories.

Do we get the news we deserve?

I am convinced that this part of journalism is a minor part of news gathering and dissemination, but when you get close to it, it really stinks.