Tag Archives: Human Interest

Audio: voices of the gentlemen (and ladies) of the press

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Next Friday, 8 June 2012, I am going to cycle alone and unsupported 1400km from my home town in Brighton to Oslo Norway to raise money for the Journalists’ Charity. I aim to complete the journey in 11 days.

The Journalists’ Charity used to be called the Newspaper Press Fund. In 2004, the BBC Radio 4 programme The Time of My Life visited one of its care homes and interviewed some of its former Fleet Street residents. The charity kindly lent me a cassette recording of the show and I have converted it to digital for your listening pleasure below.

I think you will agree it’s a delightful piece. And I am hoping it will finally convince you all that this is a worthwhile cause (because frankly raising money so far has been like getting blood out of a stone!)

So, if you haven’t already sponsored me, please do so here. I aim to raise £1,000 and, at the time of writing, I am just under half way with £475 with six days to go before I start.

You can also learn more about the work of the Journalists’ Charity in this video and more about my ride and route here.

When interview subjects strike back…

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Two separate examples of how journalists can be challenged/brought to task by the subjects of their interviews post-publication:

1. Freelance journalist Kat Brown gives an account of how she believes her case study interview for a feature on depression in Stylist magazine was misreported.

2. The singer M.I.A. has posted audio clips on her website that she secretly recorded whilst being interviewed by the New York Times, challenging some of the statements and quotations attributed to her in the published piece.

As the New York Observer’s write-up of the M.I.A. story explains:

The duel between reporter and source has spooked the journalism world, reminding writers that, thanks to Twitter and Facebook and other online sources, they may no longer have the final word.

Journalists who call Hugo Chavez a dictator should be jailed, says Sean Penn

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From last Thursday, an interesting interview in the Guardian with Sean Penn, in which the US actor criticises the treatment of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by the US media.

Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it. And this is mainstream media. There should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.

Full story at this link…