Don’t be fooled – you meet all kinds of people in the media world – just as you do, of course, in all walks of life. So we should not be shocked or surprised as we listen to the facts now emerging from the current high profile trial being played out at the Old Bailey. The trial is of course centred on the alleged phone-hacking crimes committed by press journalists at the now defunct News of the World.
On trial, together with six others, is Rebekah Brookes, former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s UK print division, News International and Andy Coulson former editor of the News of the World. Latterly, Coulson, until he resigned, was the Conservative Party’s director of communications. A man appointed to this highly paid job by David Cameron himself.
Journalists, especially of the print media, then, are a very mixed bunch. They come in varying guises and with massively varying degrees of professionalism and skill. But, for me personally, I have found that there are essentially two types of newspaper (print) journalist.
First, every one will accept that there are many excellent journalists in Britain – that is an obvious fact. Far too many names, which I would personally classify as brilliant, spring to mind to be singled out as individuals here. We’ll all have our favourites. And, we should all applaud the highly skilled wordsmith and those that can keep us fully informed and entertained as they write their brilliantly researched and crisply written stories. Of course, too, there are some real heroes in the media world. People who can, and often do, literally put their life on the line to report newsworthy information in war zones and other highly dangerous locations. I respect all these truly professional and talented people. They are outstanding journalists and we should be grateful that such clever and dedicated people have opted for a career in the print or broadcast media – they are often very special people indeed.
But then there are the rest. The rats, the stupid, the vicious, the morally corrupt , the utterly spiteful, the completely unprofessional. These would-be journos are often an embarrassment to their colleagues. They do not really belong in a role that permits them to promote their tripe and badly researched efforts to the wider public at large. God only knows how some of these characters get jobs in the media industry in the first place – let alone keep them for any length of time. But they do. These characters are the dogs. They live and roam around in a dog-eat-dog world whereby they think that they can soon make their mark if they specialise in trading in either puerile tripe, that is not even worth reading, or, worse, trading in pure spiteful, cynical bile simply for the sake of it.
These journos sincerely believe that if they set out to monster someone or write pure rubbish about an organisation or a particular individual in a certain abjectly cynical style – then this will get them a reputation to be revered among their colleagues. It is these sad individuals that make up this second group of journalists. And, they can often resort, out of sheer desperation to get themselves noticed, to writing a particularly putrid kind of cynical bile. It is this group of wannabe journalists that I find the most weird and certainly the most dangerous. And, believe me, there are hundreds of this type of sad wannabe journalist floating around in the murky world of low life journalism.
These dogs, amongst other things, pander to the gossipy lowbrow. They cater to and for the lowest common denominator. They don’t give a monkey’s chuff who they hurt, or who they lie about, or who they damage or even destroy in any wicked piece that they may have cobbled together in their drive to sell their newspaper or magazine and get themselves noticed. This is all they care about. These dogs produce their tripe only to sell, sell, sell and sell again the paper or magazine or whatever organ deems their shoddy tripe fit for publication. But even above this shallow motive the piece is usually aimed at little more than getting their name up in lights and noticed – this is often the only criterion that matter to the dirty dogs of the irresponsible, silly hack journalism brigade.
This second group of journos, then, ply their trade of puerile nonsense or cynical bile simply to try to get themselves noticed. They hope to impress their editor. They aim to try and make their readers believe that they are brave, witty and ever so smart and daring in their reporting. They are hoping to be seen as cutting edge. When, in fact, they are often just poor amateurs who have come to believe that if they can find a target to mock, to be cruel about just for the sake of it you understand – then this will get them noticed and promoted among their ranks.
They live for the eye-catching headline or the semi-big splash. Of course – they would simply die for a real front-page scoop. But such scoop stories always seem to elude the silly, puerile wannabe journo type. These dogs and the tripe that they write in their own inimitable, crass and pathetic style that it is as sad as it is bad – will try anything to promote their career. They will do and try anything to get there pieces talked about. They do this because they really do honestly believe that such a strategy will give them a lift up the dirty, greasy pole that is the weird world of a certain type of gutter journalism. This is genuinely what these people think. They are convinced that this style of reporting will push them up the ladder just a bit quicker than if they stayed with an honest style of reporting. An honest approach to reporting, where the truth is all that matters, is completely alien to this type of wannabe journo. They could no more see the point of writing a story that is balanced, fair and reasonable in its reporting – than fly to the moon. Very sad and very dangerous – don’t you think?
In my time, when I was once in the public spotlight – I have come across journalists from both the former and the latter group of individuals. Media professionals from the first group command only respect and admiration for their skill and professionalism. One can only admire their skill at how they can weed-out the facts of a particular story and accurately report it by weaving the facts into a crisp and informed narrative. An interesting narrative that more often than not will aim to properly keep their readers well informed and abreast of a story.
The weird and deluded (sometimes even evil) and certainly bizarre characters from the second group – the dog-eat-dog-like group – have to be witnessed and experienced to be believed. They are just wicked. Truly awful people. You have to actually witness and experience their tactics first hand to believe how truly horrible these human beings can be. It is as if they live in a cesspit of a world. A black, cynical and horrible world. It is the world of the tabloid gutter journalist. Journalists who think that their specialist brand of journalism is what ordinary people want to read. And, I’m sure that we have all seen their bizarre antics in action at some time or another.
I saw plenty of the latter kind of dog in my short time in the heat of the public spotlight. You may be surprised to learn that the latter type of cynical, horrible journo is not necessarily just roaming the streets around the famous old Fleet Street area of London in the cosmopolitan metropolis. Oh no, believe it or not, you will come across these characters anywhere and everywhere. Yes, even in a lovely little city like Carlisle where I once had the pleasure to live for a decade (1992-2002) in that fair city located in the far north of our kingdom. Here, you will find the odd one or two of these bizarre and weird hacks lurking around even in that pretty part of the country. There are certainly a few journo-dogs ( and bitches ) there. They gleefully sniff around looking for a target that they deem to be appropriate for their brand of pathetic, puerile and often damaging journalism. These dogs ( and bitches ) trot around looking and sniffing the ground to locate a target at which to cock up their leg at something or someone at which they then release their vile smelling acid piss in the direction of their selected victim. Here, they will be aiming to drench their prey by pissing all over them long and hard until they are all but drowned in their vile bile.
Yes, sad to say – even in that lovely little city that is Carlisle you will find these dog and bitch-type journos. And, I reckon that I should know that fact – probably more than most.
