An author in today's "Your Say" page in the Herald posts some interesting questions. I have set out some answers below.
Tucked in the middle of the letter, Mr Blatchford asks about the photos used. His descriptions "Grimly resolute/positively alarming", matched my own thinking. I am up for changing a lot to make
Mr Blatchford was right, the Herald do hold a photo library, they often need a view on something, a court case, an incident or the release of data and to stick the same old shot up each time is more than the Herald's readers should be asked to bear! These things often happen at short notice, so taking a photo then wouldn't work. If you want to see the lot, you can look at: http://3303.e-printphoto.co.uk/peh/index.cfm?z=z (type Jim Webster into the search box).Personally I think the smiling ones are scarier that the "grim faced", but you have to do the best with what you have got!
I would also say that while I am responsible for many things, writing headlines isn't one of them. Wether the headline of this particular article was obvious or not, or sensible or not, is a matter for the sub editor of the paper. Clearly the words used were accurate quotes, but they were taken from a lengthy telephone interview, some of which was used in the article.
Now for the answers to Mr Blatchford's questions:
Q How do these things work? Did The Herald contact Mr Webster and ask for his response to the fact that his men didn't turn up very quickly to a potentially dangerous situation?
A Yes
Q Or did Mr Webster proactively contact The Herald?
A No
Q And the photos? Were they from The Herald library
A Yes
Q or did people actually spend time doing new ones
A No
Q Page 1: Hat on, grimly resolute.
A Agreed
Q Page 5: Hat off, positively alarming?
A It alarmed me!
Q Mr Webster regretted the incident but did not apologise because there were 15 other incidents across the city at the same time. That doesn't tell us anything. Is 15 incidents a high, low or average number?
A There were 15 incidents in that area of the City at that time. Friday evenings are busy for us in any event, this evening was particularly busy at that particular time. We can and do deal with multiple events, but there will be occasions when if they occur in the same area and at the same time, eventually we run out of staff. We then have to redeploy from situation to situation.
Q Was not the fact that over the evening there were more incidents. What were the severities of those other incidents?
A I will post up some details on the blog later. I don't have the list of all the events available where I am now.
Q Considering what happened to Mr Newlove in
A Agreed. This incident was reprioritised once the facts became clearer. This sort of incident should be treated as a priority.
Q So what did he regret? That he doesn't have unlimited resources? We all regret that. Maybe the word 'Sorry' is more appropriate. A bit of humility goes a long way, it is not a sign of weakness and it might well endear him more to his customers.
A
REGRET:
a feeling of sadness about something sad or wrong or about a mistake that you have made, and a wish that it could have been different and better:
SORRY:
used to say that you wish you had not done what you have done, especially when you want to be polite to someone you have done something bad to.
I am sorry that any one in
Q Finally, the announcement of a robust presence in the area in the coming weekend. These statements of intent - 'crackdown' is another commonly used one - how convincing are they?
A I don't expect any headline in the paper to be convincing, but as you say a "statement of intent" has value. Particularly where it is used to alert those who might be otherwise drawn into trouble and to create a sense of urgency about the issues.
Q Is it a sound tactic to announce where you are going to be to prospective criminals?
A It can be if part of a wider campaign, in which you declare some aspects and keep others to yourself.
Q Isn't news supposed to be what has happened, not what may happen?
A Isn't news often both?
Q So, in the interests of a real newsworthy story, how many yobs were arrested in Eggbuckland last weekend as a result of the 'robust presence'?
A I will be doing a piece on that when I am back in the office. Bear in mind, this is not just about Eggbuckland and not just for a weekend. This is about dealing with the immediate consequences of yobbery through enforcement, while working with others to build a better longer term future.
