Break in transmission

Holiday starts here.

I've switched the comments off, on the grounds that I won't be around to weed out the spam. But enjoy reading the archive till I get back...

Hasta luego

Les

Just because a party issues a statement doesn't mean you have to report it

The Liberal Democrats' biggest and most controversial political donor has been arrested in Spain on 53 charges of forgery and dishonesty, it emerged today. So begins the piece in the Times, the paper that has been doing an excellent job watching and reporting on Michael Brown for months.

BBC online has a very odd take, giving significant space to the Lib Dems attempts to put distance between themselves and the donor. "But a party spokesman stressed there was "no connection" between the charges and Mr Brown's donations," says the fourth para in its story. And later "A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: "We are not aware that this has any connection whatsoever with the Liberal Democrats.

I don't get it. Of course there's a connection. A bloke who gave a very large amount of money is under arrest for forgery and dishonesty. Why is the BBC giving space to this absurd spin?

Les

Helping newbies - honourable or cruel?

A supporter of the JournoWimps forum has been over (see comments to The other side of JournoWimps) & suggested that:

... the headmistress as you call her has gone out of her way to help others find a step up to being published - sharing contacts and passing on advice based on experience. That's quite an honourable thing to do, isn't it? Instead of responding to an appeal for information with 'Pick up the phone you lazy b******', I mean. That approach may be closer to real life in some people's eyes - but it doesn't make it right, does it?

I'm not so sure that spoonfeeding beginners the JournoBiz way is honourable. It may be cruel.

Most beginners won't make it. They may sell a few stories, probably based on their own or their friends' experiences. But the gulf between that and earning even a decent part-time living as a freelance journalist is vast. The cosy mutual help that JournoWimps provides seems to be a good substitute for the personal support network traditionally provided by friends and family. But to sell it as professional assistance is to raise false hopes and ultimately to mock.

In contrast, being rude to people, pushing them to try harder, encouraging them to build up their own resources, getting them to think before they ask, rubbishing their dafter ideas, correcting their ignorant presumptions, helping them break through the self-consciousness and preciousness that afflict so many wannabe hacks...all these seem genuinely useful. It isn't nice at the time. It can be horrid. But that's because learning things, especially about yourself, your fantasies and realities, can be horrid.

We don't need to go back to the days when news editors ritually humiliated trainees by tearing up their sweated-over & proudly submitted copy in front of the whole office. That was bullying and unnecessary. But implying that you can learn the trade by having a nice cup of tea & a biscuit with your Aunty Jan is also, in the end, heartless.

Les

Undercover reporting

Police in Leicestershire are waiting anxiously for a C4 Dispatches programme to be aired Thursday of next week.

Rumour is that a police officer turned journalist (it's complicated), who had a grudge against her Leicester colleagues, secretly filmed them at work. And not at work. She shows scenes of officers on duty playing cards, watching porn and generally failing to respond to radio calls.

Two-and-a-half years ago the BBC screened secretly filmed scenes of overt racism among the police. Reporter Mark Daly who had joined Greater Manchester Police was arrested on suspicion of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception. He was also suspected of damaging police property - which he had to do to fit the camera and battery pack. In the end, the reporter was not charged. But several police officers or trainees resigned or were sacked.

It seems unlikely that next week's programme will have half the significance as the Manchester racism revelations. Yet the impact on morale and officers will be enormous. The mood in Leicester is said to be serious and some officers are already off sick.

It cannot be long before some disaffected groups start to film journalists undercover. How much overt racism and sexism is there in UK newsrooms? What lies and hypocrisies could be revealed if the public saw what reporters and their editorial bosses are really like? Are the viewing public ready for such revelations - or would they just shrug and say they expected as much?

Les

Feet up

Nearly knocking off time.

But first a word about shoes. These cool & funky Campers have seen some service. Good for fast, flexible writing, they help provide the taut prose that editors want while impressing interviewees with their casual urban sophistication.

Shoe retailers or manufacturers wishing to see their goods featured on this shameless promo spot may send non-returnable samples (euro size 44) direct to Les.

Les

Letting sources see copy

Should journalists let sources see drafts of copy? It's a warmly debated question among hacks. That's partly because there is no one-size-fits-all answer. And plenty of people who think there is.

Without rehearsing the issues (another day, perhaps), it is interesting to note from a profile of Seymour Hersh, journalistic hero to many of us, that the great man does it as a matter of course. From a piece by Julian Borger in today's Graun:

Finally, Hersh sets out on late-night drives, dropping drafts of his stories through the letterboxes of his sources to give them a chance to confirm he has interpreted their information correctly and that he is not going to publish anything that will put the US at risk.

To some editors, this would be a disciplinary offence.

Les

School scoops

What are the limits to citizen media? The Association of Teachers and Lecturers is trying to lay down some of its own devising. It unanimously agreed a resolution at its conference yesterday to protect education professionals from unauthorised recordings and photographs by pupils and their parents.

The Association says it:

* deplores the continued incidence of pupils using camera phones in schools and within class;

* deplores the increasing incidence of tape recording of parent interviews by parents - a practice to which it states its outright opposition;

In public, the objection has been to kids sharing pictures between phones and uploading them - humorously doctored - onto websites.

But there may be further worries at the back of teachers' minds. The mainstream press is not averse to running stories about teachers. An enterprising school student with revealing and extreme pictures of a teacher's behaviour may well be welcomed by a tabloid paper.

You can see why educational professionals would want this stopped. But what is the principle here? Is it an age thing - kids are not mature enough to snap pics and sell them? Is there something about the job of teaching that means it should be uniquely protected from wider public exposure? If documentary-makers can use concealed cameras in schools to show kids' behaviour - why shouldn't the kids do likewise?

No answers. Just interesting questions.

Les

The other side of JournoWimps

One of the JournoWimps has moved to the other side. The other side is PR. The JournoWimps are an odd breed of journalists who meet in an online forum "to be nice to each other".

I'm not joking. It is that nauseating.

Except there are weird contradictions. This morning a regular poster said she was stopping writing life stories for women's mags. And has taken a job doing PR with a mental health charity.

I know that lots of people on this site do real life stories, and I'm not knocking it, that's what I did for several years, but I began to feel uncomfortable with making entertainment out of serious issues in people's lives for very little benefit to the them or the reader and I couldn't carry on doing it.

What's wonderful about this is that:

a) It is a savage and entirely damning indictment of what JournoWimps seem to spend their time doing. But expressed with a wide-eyed & tolerant friendliness

b) The writer invites other JournoWimps who might be looking for case studies or information on mental health issues that they "know who to come to". In other words, having felt uncomfortable making entertainment out of serious issues in people's lives for very little benefit to them, she's happy to supply her chums with the material to carry on doing it.

That's the strange world you get, when journalists go someplace to be nice to each other.

At the risk of labouring the point that the niceness extends to each other, not particularly to their interviewees, here's a request from another contributor a couple of weeks back:

I've been chasing a woman for an interview after her partner accidentally killed her 12-year-old son in a freak accident. (The court case has been and gone by the way). I've already had the nod from the Mail on Sunday and the cash on offer could pay for our holiday this year!!

Charming people.

Les

Times Higher Education Silence

This nib* is all I can see in the latest issue of the Times Higher Education Supplement that mentions Boris Johnson. It is sandwiched between a par on an art school's change of name and one on a funding council's performance targets:

Boris Johnson will not be sacked as Higher Education Spokesperson for the Conservatives, the party's leader, David Cameron, said this week. Mr Cameron said that allegations that the Henley MP had an affair were a private issue. Mr Johnson has been in China on a fact-finding mission.

The Sunday newspaper that broke the story named Johnson's lover as a THES journalist. Anna Fazackerley has bylined several stories about Johnson in recent weeks. The paper's silence about her speaks volumes about its relationship with its readers.

Is the paper bothered that it has been feeding words to its readers written by someone with an intimate and secret relationship with the Tory's higher education spokesperson? Does it wish to maintain any pretence at objectivity?

Does it realise how contemptible it will be if it ever reports undeclared conflicts of interest in other organisations, while censoring itself about its own?

Apparently not.

Attempts to get a statement from the THES editor, John O'Leary, or his deputy, Gerard Kelly, have so far failed. They have ignored three emails this week.

Hackles has terrier-like persistence. This is a serious matter. There will be no giving up. The pressure will increase.

Les

* A bit of trade jargon. Nib stands for news in brief. They are single paragraph (or par, as we call them) news stories, generally printed together in a column. News editors have judged that readers want to know about them, but figured they don't merit full news story coverage.

Chucking eggs at tabloid hypocrites

A refreshing piece on tabloid depths by Rod Liddle in the current Speccy. He does some reporting - actually visiting - and some fine opinionating about Nora Black, the mother of Leighanne. The daughter, and the whole family, were ridiculed and abused in the tabloids last month after an outburst in the youth court.

Leighanne's parents had the foresight to bring some eggs to chuck at the press photographers. Liddle hopes that he would have the courage do the same in similar circs. He writes:

Shortly before I left their house, Nora showed me a note which sort of confirmed all you might have thought about our tabloid press and its quite breathtaking, staggering hypocrisy. It had been shoved under the door by a bloke from the local news agency and detailed a number of offers from Fleet Street publications for Nora - offers to someone whom they had, previously, gleefully vilified.

Helen Weathers at 'Femail' (the Daily Mail) was prepared to pay £500 for an exclusive interview giving her side of the story. Emma Doman at the Daily Express was offering a similar amount. Sharon Hendy from the Sun was prepared to give Nora a 'free makeover' following her hideous mooning picture. Nick Appleyard at the Daily Sport was prepared to pay £700 for Nora to, oh God help us, 'get her tits out' for the paper.

Liddle admires the contempt that Mr and Mrs Black, "perpetually on their uppers, jobless and disabled", shows these offers. And wonders, "frankly, if you had some eggs to hand, wouldn't you throw them at Sharon and Nick and Emma and Helen?"

You don't even need to ask.

Les

Telegraph plagiarism - another update

No answer yet from the Daily Telegraph after repeated enquiries about plagiarism and Sarah Womack.

But at least we're getting the topic aired on the paper's blog pages. Richard Burton, editor of telegraph.co.uk, wrote scathingly about the 1970s, freesheets and "one-man band editors" who "suddenly appeared to produce 'editorial' between the ads, usually revamped press releases".

This seemed an ideal time to mention his own paper's use of revamped press releases. I posted a comment and question a week or more ago. And forgot about it, to be honest. But now I see it did appear.

Might this be the catalyst for a full and frank disclosure of the paper's attitude to "editorial"? We can only hope.

Les

Tables turned - interviewing journos

What are journalists like to interview? I've just finished a feature for which I needed the views of some local newspapers. So I did what you do, and rang a few up. And emailed them. And rang them back. And generally persisted until someone agreed to speak to me.

Here's a rough version of the merry phone chase:

Editor of an evening paper in the north of England. Apologetic. Very busy. Out of the office next day. Try again the day after, around ten. Called him several times morning and afternoon. His phone rang no one answered, no voice mail. Must have been a works outing.

The following week I got his secretary, more apologies that he was busy. Finally, the day before he went on holiday, I was passed a message it might be best if I spoke to the news editor.

Daily paper in the south of England. Two or three calls to news desk. Passed around various reporters. Pleasant but unproductive chats. One reporter agreed to send an email round editorial with my phone number & someone would get back to me - that's the way they do things, apparently. No one did. Few days later I was told I must speak to the news editor. She's far too busy, going on holiday next day. (Why do people have holidays in March?) Back to a reporter who couldn't possibly talk to me now, the next day, or the one after that, due to meetings, being on news desk and a day off. That bust my deadline.

London local paper. Emailed a named reporter who I'd been told was active and interested. No response.

In the end, I got the quotes I wanted from the news editor on the first paper. Took him by surprise and told him his editor had directed me to him. Which he had. A reporter on the second paper sent an email response to some questions I'd stuck in an email. They sounded as if they had been written by a sanctimonious PR person and approved by a committee. They arrived the day after I filed the piece.

To sum up. What are journalists like to interview? Exactly like everyone else.

Les

A journalist compromised?

Boris Johnson MP and Anna Fazackerley have, according to the News of the World, been having an affair.

He is the Tory's spokesman for higher education. She is a journalist for the Times Higher Education Supplement.

His boss, Tory leader David Cameron, today told a radio programme that the affair is a private issue. Politicians are human, he said. "We all are flesh and blood and make mistakes". Politicians should be judged on "whether they are honest and straightforward in their dealings with colleagues and whether they are straightforward with the public".

Agreed.

But what about Anna Fazackerley? A quick scan of the Times Higher Education Supplement shows that in March she bylined four articles that mentioned Boris. Some quoted him extensively. The diary in the Sunday tabloid's story suggests that their liaison was active at that time.

In what sense can it be said that Fazackerley was "honest and straightforward" in her dealings with colleagues and the public? This is not nudge-nudge innuendo or prurience. Adults can do what they like. But it is hard to see how readers can be honestly served when a journalist has an intimate and undeclared relationship with a senior figure who she writes about frequently.

I have asked the editor of the THES for his view. Will keep you posted.

Les

If Tory leaders are hucksters, what are the press?

Hucksters is Observer columnist Nick Cohen's name for senior Tories and their families who use journalistic coverage to promote their careers and businesses.

George Osborne slipped a plug for his wife's book-signing into his Observer diary. A few weeks earlier she puffed his mother's chocolate shop in her diary for the London Evening Standard. Samantha Cameron, wife to Dave, used press interest to promote a distinctive range of handbags. Her mother has been capitalising on her son-in-law's celebrity by plugging her furniture in the lifestyle sections, with, for example, a piece in the Mail on Sunday advertising the chairs and curtains she sells.

In his column yesterday Cohen implies that this lot don't know how to behave.

Perhaps he has the wrong target. It's hard to blame the tacky tradespeople of the new Tories when the papers are conniving in such blatant product placement. Why don't subs strike out the gratuitous plugs that sound so hollow? Crop the pictures to leave out the products? It's not difficult.

Les

PS - Having no shame and not being bothered about being called a huckster, I'm thinking of instituting product placement here at hackles.co.uk.

As soon as I can work out how to upload an image, I'll be putting up pictures of my writing shoes in action. Footwear retailers will be welcome to show their appreciation.