About Journalism

About Journalism ©

By Michael Casey

I wrote something called Food for Thought a long time ago, so can I direct you to that first of all. Now what is Journalism in the first place, is it the honest unbiased recording of events big  and small or is it politically charged “advertising”. We have some elections coming up here in England, and a journalist or two have been looking at my profile.

So it’ got me thinking, I should also add that I grew up listening to Robin Day on the tv, Sir Robin Day was a trained Barrister first of all, so he was a master of words. A kind of jolly version of Jeremy Paxman. For those of you in the US you’ll have to google these folks, let’s just say they were the bees’ knees. I also have had a life-long interest in News, the wife’s uncle is in fact a senior political journalist, but that’s another story.

Now there is good and bad journalism, and the bad should be tied to a stake and burnt, just like the KKK  used to do. You have to remember that journalism does affect people’s lives, so if you are lazy a real person suffers.

You don’t just go to the pub and order a round of drinks for the crew and then when you‘ve drunk too much and you are in the men’s room while emptying  your bladder you say “terrible business this X Y Z” and the guy next to you says “hang the bastards” and this is what you use as a basis for your report.

So facing to camera you the lazy journalist says “Quoting sources close to the crime I can say there is much anger towards these criminals, feeling is high, and the police will have a job keeping a lid on the neighbourhood. Tension is high, now back to the studio.”

Then the crew goes and tries the new pizza place that  the barman recommended. There over great pizza, and it is great pizza, you congratulate yourself on a job well done, as you burp and belch, too  much pepperoni to blame.

I will listen to Radio 4 news, then BBC, then Sky and even Fox and CNN. So I can see things in the round. So it really is disgusting, and disgusting is the word when one news report does not have clarity, because they are just replaying the loop and the news and the angle has moved on. Radio news is better in my opinion, as sometimes the pictures just gets in the way.

When I get around to finishing Tears for a Butcher the finale will have a news angle, this will be an opportunity for me to have a bit of fun at the expense of journalists. Thinking back though I’ve already had a bit of fun with Radio in The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker.

What’s the first thing a journalist does at a major news event, he secures the bar. The real first thing a journalist should do, is raise the bar, his reporting should be as high as the bar at the high jump, and if he gets it wrong his editor will say “you’re for the high jump.”

Here in England Sky is better at the human interest stories, but otherwise generally the BBC is best. When I watch Fox I think Shep Smith is the guy I want to listen to, even if he has too much studio make up on. We can have a favourite journalist because of the way they look and talk, or because he treats Politicians with the contempt they deserve. I have a favourite here on the BBC, but I’ll keep his name a secret, if ever I meet him I’ll tell him over a beer in a secured bar.

Journalism matters, and the way the story is told does matter, and finding things out when bad people want to hide things is important. Good journalism is a searchlight, a spotlight, a microscope. And finally a pair of handcuffs.