Spot the difference
Thursday, November 11, 2010 Squeeze released an album last month called Spot The Difference. It features re-recorded versions of their best known songs that are extremely faithful to the originals. (You may think this is a pointless exercise but the Independent explains why they've done it HERE.)
I mention this (cue tenuous link) because I challenge you to spot the difference between the ASH Scotland press release that announced their Up In Smoke study and some of yesterday's media reports. (Mark Butcher, commenting on my previous post, wrote, "What really gets my goat is so many of the papers just regurgitate all these press releases in full". Quite.)
Equally culpable are websites such as eGov Monitor, "a Policy Dialogue Platform". Policy Dialogue is part of Policy Governance Media Limited which is described as "an independent media company that provides neutral platforms to facilitate open dialogue among stakeholders on public policy and encourage innovation and excellence in governance that enables and equips citizens and businesses to enjoy a better quality of life".
Neutral platform? As far as I could tell they had merely recycled ASH Scotland's press release. So I clicked on the 'feedback' button and suggested that it would have been rather more neutral if they had included an alternative point of view. I didn't expect a reply but late last night an email popped into my inbox:
Simon
As always our goal is to highlight all perspectives (within reason of course) and we will include [your quote] in the news item tomorrow.
The Editorial Team
eGov monitor - A Policy Dialogue Platform
Fair play to them for responding. I just wish that I didn't have to spend what feels like half my life chasing journalists to do what they should have done in the first place.
Click HERE.
13:00 ... They're not in a hurry, it seems, to update the news item with my quote.
Reader Comments (10)
I was at a talk last night and was chatting to two journalists bemoaning that many newspapers just cut and paste uncritically ASH press releases and they said you are probably right, it even has a name, churnalism.
"Churnalism is a form of journalism in which press releases, wire stories and other forms of pre-packaged material are used to create articles in newspapers and other news media in order to meet increasing pressures of time and cost without undertaking further research or checking."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churnalism
(thanks for the quote Simon)
Dave's right of course, churnalism is a problem and likely to get worse as financial pressures increase on papers and media outlets. That said however, I bet they won't cut and paste a Forest press release! Give it a go Simon!
Simon says: "I just wish that I didn't have to spend what feels like half my life chasing journalists to do what they should have done in the first place".
Welcome to the 'banging your head against a brick wall club' Simon.
am I being stupid? I can't see any addition from Simon over what they printed yesterday.
Yes they did quote you. All five and a quarter lines, and right at the end too when most readers would have given up by then. Hardly parity.
A tenusous link from me, if permitted.
I have been listening the Radio 2 whilst driving all day and much was made of the Student protests of yesterday, especially the violence that occurred.
I cannot say that I condone violence, but as a result their cause has had far more media coverage than it would otherwise have had. As they say, no publicity is bad publicity!
It was also mentioned about the Poll Tax protests back in 1990 and how violence broke out then. It did, however, ultimately end in the Poll Tax being withdrawn and replaced with something much fairer.
My other thought when I heard on the news of the violence that had occurred was perhaps this was partially as a result of the sheer frustration and desparation these students were feeling?
Perhaps the pro smoking campaigners need think along these lines in order to get the media coverage, the debates heard on various and varied media and utlimately enough recognition that at least the review might happen! Drastic times call for drastic measures, methinks!
Actually, there is a paid subscription service that newspapers can subscribe that permits them to copy/paste into their newspapers health news, which includes at least one daily anti-smoking propaganda piece, and pass it on as if news instead of pharmaceutical and anti-smoking sponsored propaganda - and by doing it this way, this keeps all the newspapers worldwide in strict lock-step with one another so the daily anti-smoking message will be precisely conveyed exactly the way it was written, by the health fascists who operate the subscription website.
For a fee, newspapers can subscribe to: http://www.healthday.com - and then they are permitted to copy/paste verbatim the daily anti-smoking rants and health news without having to hire a legitimate journalist to investigate any claims.
This saves the newspapers cost of qualifed staff, it remits more funding back to anti-smoking and it serves the goals of making certain anti-smoking propaganda is consistent - as newspapers worldwide will be copying/pasting from the exact same source.
As their front page boasts:
"Daily Health and Medical News for Licensing & Syndication
HealthDay specializes in producing and licensing daily health news for consumers and professionals and delivering the news several times a day.
Thousands of media companies, hospitals, managed care organizations, publishers, non-profits, and government agencies license HealthDay's content for use on Web sites, newsletters, Intranets, E-mail and more.
HealthDay produces the latest, most readable Internet-ready health content written to inform your subscribers, staff, customers and patients of the most important developments in medicine and health."
And this is how a lot of daily anti-smoking tirades work their way into the mainstream media unchecked for fact or accuracy, because it derives from subscription services who earn fee revenue for the anti-smoking health fascism industry who operates such services - as a cost savings benefit to the news media who subscribe to it.
I am always among the first Lyn, to say we should be marching and taking to the streets, and calling instant mass smoke-ins, BUT, just because the student demo got an easy ride from the boys in blue, don't for one minute think that we would.
Has it slipped your mind Lyn, that we are not poor students being denied the right to a free education, we are "mass murderers", and as such deserve every club over the head that the constabulary can dish out, much like they did to the Countryside Alliance marchers a few years ago, who were also seen as "Tory Scum".
How many Labour MPs do you think would be twitting their support for our actions? I think we all know the answer to that one. There would of course be a few Tory supporters, and one certain UKIP leader, but even they wouldn't be able to stem the blood bath that would be meted out to us ghastly smokers.
Protest by all means, and call instant mass smoke-ins, but if we do anything at all, it must - must, be peaceful, and carried out with the full co-operation of the police.
Alex Deane's Big Brother Watch has an article on the Tobacco Display Ban from Mahendra Jadeja is a successful independent retailer and a former president of the National Federation of Retailers and Newsagents (NFRN).
http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2010/11/smoking-and-the-nanny-state.html
I can see what you are saying Peter; just an idea borne of utter frustration and desparation on my part!
It is certainly sad times when the views of the electorate are ignored and peaceful protest gains nothing. Even sadder when our once great police force is now more likely to emulate the total brutality of the past communist era.
Yesterday there was a 2 minute silence to honour and remember those who have given their lives for our freedom. Such a travesty that recent governments do not uphold the liberty for which these great men and women sacrificed so much.