THERE always seem to be some strange looks when I turn up in
the newsroom or classroom to do a session on the 'Soft Skills of Journalism'.
That all sounds rather pompous so I'd rather call it 'Being
Nice Gets You a Long Way'. I talk about how to cover death knocks by teaming up
with a neighbour or relative before bowling up with your 'We'd like to write a
tribute' speech and the importance of making friends with the really important
people like security staff, drivers, receptionists and even the tea lady, if
there is still such a thing.
The assistant at the care home who will help you gain the
confidence of a 100-year-old; the teacher's aide who will let you into the
classroom; the Minister's flunkey who will let you get close enough for a
walkabout question and the policeman who will tip you the nod past the cordon.
I am reminded of this by a story now running on HTFP that has
got the mutterati at it again. 'Weekly reporter files complaint against police
over house fire cordon' runs the headline about Reading Chronicle reporter Courtney Friday,
who has done just that.
He set the ball rolling with a couple of tweets:
I may humbly suggest that filing complaints never gets you
very far and it certainly doesn't get you the story. Readers have no interest
in the inner working of police-media relations; our job is to get the story out
there on their behalf.
Back when I was a boy reporter the common wisdom was that
Ernie the Cleaner knew everything that was going on. He was indeed a mine of
information from the comings and goings
in the Managing Director's office to when the funeral director was calling with
his latest warm death notices.
Sadly Ernie went the way of a lot of 'support staff',
replaced by agency workers who swept in and swept out. But the modern days Ernies
are still out there; you just got to work hard at finding them. They may even
by manning a police cordon near you...
