The People’s News

I don’t know whether it’s linked to the decline in trust of politicians or not, but it seems to have gradually become more and more acceptable for news reporters to ask just about anyone for their opinion on the news agenda. There’s no point in asking politicians as they’re all just lying gits, so instead we’ll ask John or Sue. If you haven’t noticed this trend already, then watch out for it and you’re bound to see or hear an example soon.

The rise may also be connected with the pseudo-reporting you get on celebrities. It’s always ‘a friend’, allegedly close to the celebrity, who dishes dirt of dubious provenance which no real friend would ever dream of passing on to the media. So if they’re not letting the source get in the way of a good story, this gives them open season to shape the news however they fancy.

Often they ask people who, normally because of a tragic incident, are connected to the issue. But this lends a wholly polarised view to the news.

For example, on the issue of knife crime, they might interview someone whose child has been stabbed. Of course this person does not say “yes, it was unfortunate, but I do feel it’s probably an isolated incident.” Instead, they call for knife bans, metal detectors in schools and body armour for all children.

Imagine if we did this with B2B news reporting. It would be quite handy. We wouldn’t need to bother sourcing or paying independent experts or backing up information with statistics technical tests; we could just ask anyone to chip in their two penneth. “Every business needs to be using this type of service, otherwise it could be connected with a higher risk of alien invasion,” commented Ben Dover, the chairman’s next door neighbour’s son.

I suppose it could certainly liven things up…