Good for him. It’s not good enough that some journalists shit stir and manufacture myth and dangerous stereotypes and then pretend they are simply reflecting public opinion. I know a number of good people who work for noxious tabloid and middle market papers (I know broadsheets can be just as odious of course) and who think it’s ok to pen this shit, or at least not speak against it, because they don’t want to rock the boat. For me it isn’t, I’d rather be skint and keep my scruples than take the Rothermere/Murdoch dollar.
Related to some of the other stuff he mentions in his letter, about the celeb stories, the idea that this wasn’t sanctioned (as per the Daily Star’s response) is laughable. I did 7 shifts at the Daily Sport after redundancy in 2006 (not something I’d advertise on my CV, mind, if I had one) and was expected to invent ‘source quotes’ for all celeb stories…When I asked what a source quote was, the news editor said ‘you know, “a source close to X said”‘. We basically made them up, often about very badly photoshopped photos. In 7 shifts I never once picked up the phone to speak to a human being, or left the building on a job. It really shocked me as I came from local newspapers, where every word has to tally with your shorthand or people quibble.
Absolute scum, the lot of them. They do us decent journalists a huge amount of damage.
Discussion (1 Comment)
Good for him. It’s not good enough that some journalists shit stir and manufacture myth and dangerous stereotypes and then pretend they are simply reflecting public opinion. I know a number of good people who work for noxious tabloid and middle market papers (I know broadsheets can be just as odious of course) and who think it’s ok to pen this shit, or at least not speak against it, because they don’t want to rock the boat. For me it isn’t, I’d rather be skint and keep my scruples than take the Rothermere/Murdoch dollar.
Related to some of the other stuff he mentions in his letter, about the celeb stories, the idea that this wasn’t sanctioned (as per the Daily Star’s response) is laughable. I did 7 shifts at the Daily Sport after redundancy in 2006 (not something I’d advertise on my CV, mind, if I had one) and was expected to invent ‘source quotes’ for all celeb stories…When I asked what a source quote was, the news editor said ‘you know, “a source close to X said”‘. We basically made them up, often about very badly photoshopped photos. In 7 shifts I never once picked up the phone to speak to a human being, or left the building on a job. It really shocked me as I came from local newspapers, where every word has to tally with your shorthand or people quibble.
Absolute scum, the lot of them. They do us decent journalists a huge amount of damage.