Covering the news is an important job … it’s not an ego trip for wannabes who work down the chip shop
BBC political editor Andrew Marr said recently: ‘Terrible things are said online because they are anonymous. People say things online that they wouldn’t dream of saying in person.”
I agree with him, blogging is generally the rantings of people angry at everything from the corner shop to the giant commercial conglomerate they believe has slighted them in some way. And they believe they’ve found a way of fighting back. But they haven’t.
A reader wrote to me asking why I describe myself as a journalist while condemning the great pretenders who, on the one hand, haughtily despise people like me, yet claim to be journalists themselves…
The reader’s name is Chuck.
Well, Chuck, the closest most pretend journalists have got to the Fourth Estate is memories of eating fish and chips out of newspapers on a rainy street corner!
Seriously though, there is mainstream journalism and peripheral journalism, specialist stuff.
I’m proud to say I have been a mainstream journalist working for UK national newspapers, international magazines and major broadcasters for decades …
I cover news and I’m trained to do so.
I understand the law generally and particularly in the way it impinges on what I can and cannot say or do, I understand my responsibilities to my audience, my publisher and my profession … I am read and listened to every week and I try to tell the truth about what’s going on and I know what to watch out for, the red-herrings, the manipulation of those with an axe to grind and how easy it is to get things wrong.
I am an investigative – and sometimes undercover – reporter and understand exactly what I can do and what I can’t. I know the laws regarding door-stepping and stake-outs. I know exactly when investigative journalism oversteps the mark and becomes harassment. I am an award-winning headline writer, award-winning newspaper designer, daily newspaper night editor, group editor, sub-editor, copy-taster, news editor.
I’ve been a war correspondent, a travel writer, a food critic and a music critic and I’ve covered some of the biggest stories in the world.
I could go on Chuck, but the above should tell you why I’m a real McCoy journalist and why I get angry at people who think they can do what I do … those who flounce around wine bars and drop-in centres calling themselves journalists and spreading maliciousness and poor judgement.
The press gets enough bad press as it is and is the whipping boy for everybody from the chattering classes to the great pretenders …
Basically, my argument is ‘don’t call yourself a journalist if you’re not one’ – call yourself a writer or a blogger or a scribe – or perhaps a specialist.
Journalism isn’t about anonymous inarticulate, vindictive attacks on people and companies, it isn’t about venomous smears and trying to do as much damage as possible by libelling and defaming somebody who’s hurt you. Journalism isn’t about getting even, it’s about trying to tell the truth, it’s about exposing wrongs, putting things right. Journalism is the historic fountain of truth.
Of course, I’m not stupid enough to thing that all us professional hacks are knights in shining armour, but we are trained crusaders and let me say again, most citizen journalism has nothing to do with journalism at all.
#journalism #journalists #bloggers #citizenjournalism
