"In the Public Interest"?

I almost wish I could feel sorry for the News of the World staff.


Being made redundant is not a pleasant experience as I well know. Being made redundant through the fault of others must be doubly unpleasant and being made redundant apparently (and allegedly) to secure the position of one over-paid and somewhat shady executive cannot be anything other than absolutely galling.

But, while I don’t exactly have a sense of come-uppance for the more junior staff, I’m not exactly shedding tears either.

I once courted the idea of dabbling in journalism. Did a course and everything. Even wrote articles and submitted them to editors. Fancied myself as an “Honest John,” an independent island of integrity and authenticity in an ocean of misquotes, embellishments, spin and downright lies. In following this fantasy, I started to look at the way reports are presented, both in print and on the audio-visual media. It wasn’t long before the nasty wiggly worms of doubt started crawling around in my belly. Although I had already begun developing a healthy level of scepticism about most things, up until that point I had had no idea just how deep the misquotes, embellishments, spin and lies went.

I studied in particular one major news event. I can’t remember what it was now, it was so long ago. Anyway, I bought a copy of every newspaper that was running the story and before I got as far as watching the TV news (which happened at six and ten in those days – none of the so-called “rolling” bullshit we get saturated with now) I realised that actually news is not news at all, but an interpretation of current events, wrapped up and presented in a manner aimed at massaging the ego of whatever politically-motivated knob-jockey is tugging the purse-strings.

Before then I had actually believed that everyone ran the stories in pretty much the same way and any political angles were relegated to the editorials. How naïve can a young former sailor be? Well, I never was a newspaper reader. That’s my excuse, anyway.

I started to become convinced that, to be a journalist – or at least a successful one – a person must be prepared to bury all that they stand for and aim for the most sensational and preferably the most salacious version of events that they can. Not to sell news, but to sell newspapers or, in the case of TV and Radio, news programmes.

I have come to hate the term, “In the Public Interest,” with a passion. It is, in my opinion, nothing more than a smoke-screen behind which vicious individuals pass, pouring out an unending fire of vitriol, unseeing and uncaring of the broken and destroyed lives left in their wake.

Even at the level of local newspapers, the seeds are being sewn. A lack of interest in getting facts right or in correcting them when the errors are unearthed pervades even at that modest level. No matter that one person is given credit for the efforts of another, or worse, blamed for the delinquencies of someone else. As long as the column inches are filled, it matters not a jot.

No. I’m glad that my venture into the land of the correspondent went nowhere. The idea of being associated with a group for whom accusations of dishonesty are almost seen accolades makes my skin crawl.

I was going to bang on about the decline of spelling and grammar – the incessant and insistent destruction of our language, but maybe I’ll leave that for another time.

And it’s true to say that, without the greed of the reading public (those who still can read after eleven years in our education system) these misanthropes would not have a market upon which to unleash their bile. Which is why I never read newspapers and rarely if ever get to the end of a news bulletin.

As for the News of the World staff, well, maybe they’ll be able to find jobs elsewhere. Or maybe, as has been suggested by another smug band of journalists feeding off the passion of genuine individuals, the “cynical re-branding exercise” will keep them at their keyboards, ready to poke their noses into somebody else’s Business As Usual.