Public apologies for all sorts of issues are now commonplace so I am going to make a few of my own, starting with a serious one. I'm not sure about the efficacy of public apologies but I do like the principle behind them having worked in many contexts where admitting fault was strongly resisted.
This is an apology to any NZ journalists who, over the years, I have unfairly maligned based on:
- one or two inaccurate stories;
- stories in the 80s on the fourth Labour Government;
- stories I didn't like or agree with;
- the way some media stories are snapshots and have missed the context;
- the supposed 'middle ground' that journalists write from.
In the last 15 years I have been a lot more positive recognising shinking newsrooms, underresourced staff, understaffing, low pay, workload and deadline demands and a few poor journalists have made the profession less effective.
What this apology is about is my experiences of the last few months working on stories in the agricultural science area. I've looked at some important stories and thought; these are far too scientific, complicated, specialised and out of the mainstream to get coverage. And you know what- the journalists I've shown them to have understood their significance, investigated them, printed and broadcast stories based on the information. Some of the issues have not been easy to understand and have made my head hurt, but undeterred print, web, TV and radio journos have got into them and produced strong, informative, fair stories.
I've always known we have some excellent journos but now I'm wondering if the NZ profession as a whole is much better than I ever appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment