Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
When I started out in journalism, 30-odd years ago, PR copy was a real rarity. If you were writing about crime, you’d call the police station and speak to an officer. If you were writing about healthcare you’d probably speak to a doctor. What’s really alarming is that often a good press officer can pick and choose what is printed about their organisation. They send out press releases, hold a press conference, and what gets said there is what gets printed.
One of the issues you touch upon in the book is the prevalence of PR copy which worms its way into the newspapers. Stauber and Rampton discuss this in their book Toxic Sludge is Good For You, another of your recommendations.
When I started out in journalism, 30-odd years ago, PR copy was a real rarity. If you were writing about crime, you’d call the police station and speak to an officer. If you were writing about healthcare you’d probably speak to a doctor. But these days it’s all fenced off, with press officers and press offices, and all your potential sources have been warned not to speak to the filthy hacks.
This must be difficult from an investigative point of view – having to speak with press officers who don’t necessarily know the specifics of a particular issue, or are unwilling to answer detailed questions.
Yes. But what’s really alarming is that often a good press officer can pick and choose what is printed about their organisation. They send out press releases, hold a press conference and what gets said there is what gets printed. The point is that it should be journalists and editors who make the decisions about what gets published, not the people paid to promote companies or government departments.
I’ve got statistics in my book Flat Earth News of the number of press releases that make their way almost unedited into newspaper pages. And journalists don’t have the time to dig into these stories in the way that they used to.
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Investigative journalist Nick Davies says when he started out reporting PR copy was a real rarity. If you were writing about crime, you’d call the police station and speak to an officer. If you were writing about healthcare you’d probably speak to a doctor. ‘But these days it’s all fenced off, with press officers and press offices, and all your potential sources have been warned not to speak to the filthy hacks.’ He chooses five books on investigative journalism including, of course, All The President’s Men.
