The Costa Concordia disaster has shown once again that the only possible way to handle bad news is be completely honest …because the truth will get out there faster than your version of what happened. Even before captain Francesco Schettino had formulated his statement that they’d hit a rock not marked on the chart, pictures of the stricken vessel on its side just metres from the shoreline were available around the world. Even before the cruise company had issued their statement saying that the evacuation procedure had been carried out with professionalism and efficiency, phone footage of panic and hysteria (which proved to be completely justified) showed the reality – it might be 2012 but the Titanic experience is still very real. Costa Cruises who own the ship got it right – Acknowledge Concern, Control Information, Take Action. They immediately acknowledged the scale of the disaster, expressed their shock at events and sympathy for the victims and their families, made it clear that most of the information was rumour and hearsay, and said they were concentrating on the rescue operation. By doing that they positioned themselves as the organisation responsible for dealing with the situation. But the hapless Captain Schettino found himself in the position he should have done everything to avoid – being the first, the most prominent, and easiest person to blame.
So – what’s The Iron Lady biopic all about? For that we have to look at the soundbites. Never think a soundbite is dumbing down. The papers have been full of wrong answers in the last few days. Feminism? Nope. Class war between a lower middle class woman with ambition and upper class Tory toffs with a false sense of entitlement? Wrong again. A woman with the backbone and balls to pursue her convictions brought down by a Cabinet ignored? Er… no. The reason The Iron Lady is getting such attention is nothing to do with the incendiary story of one of the most admired and hated political figures in recent decades. It is about today’s story….dementia. Director Phyllida Lloyd has cleverly steered every interview away from the politics (of which there is very little in the movie) on to the universal issue that places it firmly on today’s news agenda. The end we all face – the loss of faculties, the temporary nature of everyone’s life. That’s been picked up by the movie’s star Meryl Streep; “It’s Lear for girls!” A great soundbite that says in four words exactly what this movie is – Shakespearean in scope, feminist in intent, current in its relevance. And nothing to do with wearing a hat in the Commons – though that apparently is something the movie got right, too.
Down at New Start Scotland this weekend and we’ve been videoing the exhibition. Have a look at some of our videos highlighting Scotland’s largest business support event, New Start Scotland.
I read in the latest edition of the NHS staff paper Pulse that the Daily Mail has been door-stepping GPs in their hunt for the so-called ‘Super-GP’, said to be earning around £770,000 a year. The Mail found themselves with a scoop on their hands through the simplest means – they merely put in a Freedom on Information request about GP pay. On the list was one GP in Kent with an annual salary of £770,444 and another in Birmingham paid £665,000 a year. The next, and entirely legitimate step, is to track them down. Which is why Daily Mail journalists have been turning up on the doorsteps of the most obviously affluent GPs to see if they’ll admit to being one of the new breed of Super GPs. Read the rest of this entry »
Pontin’s took a pasting on last week’s Watchdog programme on BBC 1. Reporter Chris Hollins took his five dwarfish friends Filthy Grimy Dusty Shabby and Stinky to several Pontin’s resorts, and they found and filmed, disgusting conditions, outraged parents, and distressed children. His conclusion? Not the Magic Kingdom…more the House Of Horrors. At first, Pontin’s declined to comment. But just hours before transmission Britannia Hotels who own Pontin’s put up their spokesperson Eileen Downey. Ms Downey took an unusual approach – fight fire with fire. Looking thunderous she attacked Anne Robinson. Her face set in anger, she pointed out that they’d only owned Pontin’s for 26 weeks, and they needed customer’s money because the alternative would be to lay off staff. Rome wasn’t built in a day (no Mrs Downey but as my first editor told me it was sacked in a day and so could you be). Her fury was so unrestrained that La Robinson was struck dumb. So, she won the battle. But – and here’s the point – she lost the war. Anne Robinson wasn’t her audience. She wasn’t talking to Robinson, but to millions of families watching. Millions who won’t go near Pontin’s, for fear that someone as terrifying as Mrs Downey might be at the entrance ready to welcome them.
CNN’s world exclusive pictures of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only man convicted over the Lockerbie bombing, in what is obviously a near-death state, have done more than anything to cease the political wrangling over whether or not he should be extradited back to prison in the UK. Governments on all sides have not been able to back up their arguments with hard evidence of his condition. The man’s family forcibly ejected journalists who’d tried to track him down to his luxury villa in the suburbs of Tripoli. Yet when persistent journalists refused to give up, and finally got the picture they wanted of the convict on his death bed, we could all see that here was a man in no fit state to move, or be moved, anywhere. Will Governments and minders learn the lesson, that an open and free media is essential to stability and democracy? Probably not. But CNN have done everyone involved – the US Government, the Foreign Office, the Libyan NTC and the dying man himself – a big favour. One they could easily have done for themselves.
Journalists tend to become journalists because they have a natural ability to express complex ideas in the sort of language that everyone can understand. It is a constant source of bewilderment to journalists when highly intelligent and successful people find it impossible to do the same. It’s literally a non-meeting of minds, and can usually lead to conflict – neither side can understand the other’s point of view and both assume, usually wrongly, that they are being deliberately awkward.
This morning’s Today programme on Radio 4 was a perfect example. Read the rest of this entry »
Norwegian judge Kim Heger’s courtroom media ban was the right call – Anders Behring Breivik must never earn a platform for his insane views through his murderous actions. Sometimes the oxygen of publicity must be denied. That is why in our view it is right for Norwegian citizens to boycott media who have reported Breivik’s views. Read the rest of this entry »
Has the tide turned? Has Hackgate begun to lose its heat? I detect that it may have. The sight of an eighty year old man being very, very ‘umble did Mogul Murdoch no harm at all. The reason? He was being grilled by MPs. And MPs hold no moral high ground at all in the eyes of the public, and more importantly the media. So yesterday’s Commons Committee grilling failed to ride the public wave of disgust, because in the back of everybody’s mind, seeing MPs holding a powerful man to task, was a sense of hypocrisy that proved impossible to shake off.
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith yesterday attacked Ofcom’s decision to clear Channel 4 of misleading viewers during both a report on his election campaign expenditure in July last year and his appearance on Channel 4 News with Jon Snow the following day.
Channel 4 had focused on discrepancies between Goldsmith’s actual expenditure and the declarations of expenditure on campaign materials such as signs and branded jackets. During the subsequent interview Goldsmith and Snow maintained a heated debate of which Goldsmith spent the first 10 minutes disputing Snow’s statement on Twitter that Goldsmith had originally refused to appear on Channel 4, despite interviewing with Sky.
