Red Faces At A Local Rag

[eastlondonseagull]

I'm still shocked about this story.

Does anyone remember what happened after the death of Sarah Payne? One national paper printed names and locations of Paedophiles. A lot of these people were attacked and had their property damaged and vandalised and were forced to flee the areas they lived. Problem was, that some of these people subsequently turned out not to be paedophiles.

This is why, in a nutshell, I am so appaled by this story and sloppy journalism.

Do you remember all the furore in the papers after the prostitutes were murdered in Ipswich? I seem to remember the Sun naming and identifying a suspect, together with maps and photos of his home. He, of course, was not involved. I cannot imagine how distressing that must have been for him and his family. But I've never heard whether the Sun got bollocked for it. Disgraceful.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

do you assume the Argus only employs journalists?

Certainly not.

These days the Argus prefers to get much of its material from contributors to the "comments" facility on its website and "readers pictures". Most of its journalists seem to be straight-out-of-college trainees, who, if they are any good, move on quickly to become press officers in public sector organisations.

Where are the career local reporters who got to know their local patch, thanks to YEARS of doing the job? Long since gone.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

Certainly not.

These days the Argus prefers to get much of its material from contributors to the "comments" facility on its website and "readers pictures". Most of its journalists seem to be straight-out-of-college trainees, who, if they are any good, move on quickly to become press officers in public sector organisations.

Where are the career local reporters who got to know their local patch, thanks to YEARS of doing the job? Long since gone.

Way of the current world I'm afraid. It happens in many industries, knowledgeable and experienced people moved along and replaced by 'kids' who'll do it however badly, for less than half the price.

 

[Tooting Gull]

In one sentence ... confirmation that appalling standards of journalism are, apparently, acceptable these days.

There are people that are bothered - not least those in the industry, and who are very unhappy about the terrible slide in standards which is happening for a variety of reasons.

But you could also argue that people are starting to get the news they deserve. Who on here has taken the free-sheet newspapers rather than buy a proper one? What do you think the long-term effect of that is? Do you not notice how shit the news/comment pieces are by comparison?

Ian Hislop was talking about this the other day, saying that everyone expects all their news to be free now (as opposed to the days when more people got their news from papers). As he correctly pointed out, he has a team of highly skilled journalists sitting around in his Private Eye offices, how are they supposed to earn a living if everything is free?

All newspapers employ fewer reporters/writers and production staff now. Some of those who are there do not have the proper training and qualifications. There is massive abuse of the work experience phenomenon at newspapers - great for the kids, but it is costing better journalists their jobs.

You could argue the BBC have had a role to play. People usually look to them as being the benchmark, but their standards have fallen, partly through cost-cutting, but partly through changes in editorial values, wanting to be all 'matey' and letting the audience do half the work on phone-ins, with less decent production input.

It has been stated on here before, but 'Flat Earth News' is the single best place to read about all this in detail.