CGM blog: Don’t shoot the messenger

04 Jun CGM blog: Don’t shoot the messenger

By Chris Green and Chris Lepkowski

Since the Dominic Cummings story broke it has become open season on so-called ‘media scum’.

Everyone is seemingly a media expert these days and part of some people’s ‘new norm’ is to use the hashtag #mediascum, retweet/share posts declaring the world’s problems to be over if we ban the media and support the desire to ‘out’ grasses and snitches who speak to journalists.

Without a hint of irony, many of the same people – often professionals using company accounts – share ‘be kind’ Covid-19 messages and pledge support for mental health. Yet they readily denounce the free press and dismiss anything they don’t like as ‘fake news’.

Swap the word ‘media’ for your own profession and how does it feel?

We’re both passionate about our profession – an industry we’ve served for more than 25 years – and in this blog we’re asking you to think before you type.

Here are six myths we believe need to be dispelled:

1. The media should always support the government

It’s not the role of the media to cheerlead for those who govern. If they did, they’d lose all semblance of credibility and public scrutiny would also vanish. Balance is necessary to every good story, but the best journalism should seek to question and challenge those in power.

2. It is all bad news

The human consumption of news is often geared towards negativity. That’s why in the week Princess Diana died, everyone blamed the media but every newspaper sold out by 10am. Blame the consumer, not those who provide the message.

Most Covid-19 media coverage has been incredibly uplifting: 100-year-old Captain Tom Moore’s amazing fundraising efforts, community activity and support for the NHS to name a few. But we cannot ignore the role politics governments play in managing this pandemic.

3. Why do they have to criticise?

Media relationships have a complex, nuanced dynamic which are a two-way street.

Take the daily UK government press conferences which are broadcast live on air and online each day. The format is agreed by negotiation. Two-thirds is given to a government minister with advisers providing additional detail. One-third is allocated to questions from the public and media, usually to seek clarity, sometimes to challenge spokespeople on contrary facts and opinion gleaned from other sources.

Remove the questions and you’re left with the sort of pronouncements dictatorial regimes inflict on their citizens. Accountability and scrutiny are essential to our democracy. Remove them and what do you have?

4. It’s never in the public interest

We heard this a lot with Dominic Cummings-Durham story.

When the government’s most senior aide ignored rules the rest of us have been told to observe it IS a matter of public interest. You don’t  have to watch, listen or read if you choose not to – and you only know Cummings’ version of events because the ‘media scum’ made a conscious decision to allow the airtime for you to see and hear it. Funny that.

Don’t shoot the messenger – the reason photographers clustered outside Cummings’ house was public outrage towards a person who drove 250 miles with his kid strapped in the back seat then made another trip to supposedly test his eyesight.

They camped there because he created the story which a small section of the press exposed.

5. It’s all ‘fake news’

This simplistic get out clause is now routinely used by people to ignore news they don’t like.

Imagine if a football team lost 2-0, but the manager insisted they’d won? Does that make a reporter covering the match wrong? Is that being ‘negative’? Sounds ridiculous, right? Some things have to be based on fact.

Fine if you don’t like the cut of a journalist’s jib. Buy a different newspaper, tune into a different channel. But don’t dismiss it all as fake as a first option.

6. They always get it wrong

Some sections of the media make mistakes. But you don’t close a hospital down because of one errant doctor.

Sports fans: Do your favourite players never have poor games? Musicians DO sometimes struggle with that second album. Just don’t view the whole industry as rent-a-gob shysters who hack people’s phones.

Most journalists are highly trained, skilled wordsmiths and broadcasters who have spent many years crafting their art, understand ethics and media law, can type and write as fast as you can speak and know how to examine information and conduct  interviews with skill and expertise.

Some are truly great – fearless journalists who dig deep to expose all kinds of ills from paedophilia in entertainment and sport to corruption among despotic regimes, reports from war zones, riots and other darkened places most us wouldn’t care to be. Why would you label such people as ‘scum’?

One final thought. Have a go at seasoned journos if you must. They can take it. But don’t forget that most of your local news is brought to you by young people working for local newspapers, which are suffering financially as advertising revenues dwindle during the lockdown, or local radio stations squeezing the most out of small budgets.

Flicking the V’s at them as they face an uncertain future isn’t big or clever – it’s nasty and vindictive. They deserve better than being dismissed as ‘scum’.

Chris Green is an author, broadcaster and media consultant. Chris Lepkowski is a freelance journalist and sports journalism lecturer at Birmingham City University.