Douglas Murray on the problems with "Gotcha" journalism
Nothing in this article is meant to suggest that journalists should not have the right to ask difficult or challenging questions. The article I link to doesn't say it either.
Free speech means that journalists or anyone else should use their right of free speech to ask whatever questions or make whatever comments they think appropriate and anyone who thinks that the journalists concerned have said something daft can use their right of free speech to say so.
The quality of journalism we have seen during the pandemic has varied greatly. Some have risen to the challenge and recognised that the usual rules do not apply at the moment. Some have indulged in the worst kind of "look at me, aren't I clever" showboating.
Even worse, some journalists appear to have decided that when politicians have recognised that in this crisis we need to dial down the factionalism and stand together in reinforcing the important messages about what everyone needs to do, that it is therefore the journalists' job to take over the role of opposition and dial UP the aggression.
I'm not going to attempt to list the worst offenders but I bet most people reading this have a very good idea of some of the people referred to.
There is a balance to strike here and an exchange about the new NHS Nightingale hospital which has just opened with 500 beds and will soon have nearly ten times that, including thousands of ventilators for COVID-19 patients with breathing difficulties, exemplifies the difficulties of striking that balance.
One journalist attacked Matt Hancock over what he's said about the hospital, tweeting that NHS Nightingale "is impressive" but that Matt was wrong to describe it as equivalent to nine general hospitals because of things it doesn't have that a normal general hospital has, e.g. "no maternity wards … it is a giant ventilation centre."
A number of people, myself included, were quite cross about that, and pointed out that a specialist hospital to deal with COVID-19 patients does not need a maternity ward, and that a giant centre able to provide breathing support for Coronavirus patients is exactly what we do need.
Another prominent journalist replied thus to the first tweet:
"This is an example of why so many people are so pissed off with the media. Some 'clever clever look at me' remark that serves no purpose other than to show how out of touch so much of the media is. That includes me btw. I do it myself and am rightly pulled up when I do."
To his credit, the author of the original tweet took this on the chin and responded
"I agree. A bad tweet. I only meant that NHS Nightingale is v impressive and doesn’t need bad spin.
Much of public has gone into full wartime, support the troops mode. The media has to remain cynical to do its job, and so is loathed.
But oh well. That’s our burden, is it not?"
A response which, although it still suggests an attitude which makes it too much about the media rather than the original news, did at least have the merit of some humility in the sense of admission that they may get it wrong sometimes.
Douglas Murray has a good article on the Unherd site arguing that too much "Gotcha" journalism is not what is needed at the moment, which you can read here.
The article is called We don't need 'gotcha' journalism now", and after discussing some of the less impressive reporting we have seen during the pandemic it reaches the following conclusion:
"Journalism is at a difficult enough juncture, and there are many people in the trade who know a great deal.
But the whole profession would be enormously helped if its most prominent representatives stopped giving off the impression of thinking that the primary problem with real experts is that they don’t listen to journalists enough."
Free speech means that journalists or anyone else should use their right of free speech to ask whatever questions or make whatever comments they think appropriate and anyone who thinks that the journalists concerned have said something daft can use their right of free speech to say so.
The quality of journalism we have seen during the pandemic has varied greatly. Some have risen to the challenge and recognised that the usual rules do not apply at the moment. Some have indulged in the worst kind of "look at me, aren't I clever" showboating.
Even worse, some journalists appear to have decided that when politicians have recognised that in this crisis we need to dial down the factionalism and stand together in reinforcing the important messages about what everyone needs to do, that it is therefore the journalists' job to take over the role of opposition and dial UP the aggression.
I'm not going to attempt to list the worst offenders but I bet most people reading this have a very good idea of some of the people referred to.
There is a balance to strike here and an exchange about the new NHS Nightingale hospital which has just opened with 500 beds and will soon have nearly ten times that, including thousands of ventilators for COVID-19 patients with breathing difficulties, exemplifies the difficulties of striking that balance.
One journalist attacked Matt Hancock over what he's said about the hospital, tweeting that NHS Nightingale "is impressive" but that Matt was wrong to describe it as equivalent to nine general hospitals because of things it doesn't have that a normal general hospital has, e.g. "no maternity wards … it is a giant ventilation centre."
A number of people, myself included, were quite cross about that, and pointed out that a specialist hospital to deal with COVID-19 patients does not need a maternity ward, and that a giant centre able to provide breathing support for Coronavirus patients is exactly what we do need.
Another prominent journalist replied thus to the first tweet:
"This is an example of why so many people are so pissed off with the media. Some 'clever clever look at me' remark that serves no purpose other than to show how out of touch so much of the media is. That includes me btw. I do it myself and am rightly pulled up when I do."
To his credit, the author of the original tweet took this on the chin and responded
"I agree. A bad tweet. I only meant that NHS Nightingale is v impressive and doesn’t need bad spin.
Much of public has gone into full wartime, support the troops mode. The media has to remain cynical to do its job, and so is loathed.
But oh well. That’s our burden, is it not?"
A response which, although it still suggests an attitude which makes it too much about the media rather than the original news, did at least have the merit of some humility in the sense of admission that they may get it wrong sometimes.
Douglas Murray has a good article on the Unherd site arguing that too much "Gotcha" journalism is not what is needed at the moment, which you can read here.
The article is called We don't need 'gotcha' journalism now", and after discussing some of the less impressive reporting we have seen during the pandemic it reaches the following conclusion:
"Journalism is at a difficult enough juncture, and there are many people in the trade who know a great deal.
But the whole profession would be enormously helped if its most prominent representatives stopped giving off the impression of thinking that the primary problem with real experts is that they don’t listen to journalists enough."
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