NEWS TRAVELS FASTER AND FASTER

When I started as a newspaper reporter a wise old journalist told me: “Don’t do the follow up before the story” in a bid to curb my enthusiasm.

He wouldn’t last too long today as the news machine moves so fast that sometimes the story gets lost in a whole avalanche of speculation, follow-up and desperate attempts to find a more up-to-date angle.

We have seen excellent examples of this in the last few weeks. The UK economy contracted by 0.5% in the third quarter of this year and is expected to slump further in the next quarter. Two quarter falls in a row mean the country is in recession.

In reality that means we will be in recession in a couple of months time – but we aren’t quite there yet. But if you have tuned into the media you would have the impression we are already a good way through it.

The BBC and other news media went into meltdown phase on the day of the 0.5% announcement with stories on how the recession is affecting people. Businesses that have failed were cited; a woman who couldn’t afford to go to a close relative’s funeral was interviewed and tales of job losses abounded.

Politicians leapt on the bandwagon to be interviewed and of course we public relations people leapt in to feed the beast with our own tales aimed at grabbing headlines.

Suddenly “swishing” was invented by some clever PR type – a sort of cross between a car boot sale and a jumble sale where you take your clothes to swap with others. Not sure how this works for the size 26 lady or the man with the 28 inch inside leg…maybe they will be victims of the recession.

Aldi and Lidl announced they were doing well (because they are cheap) and the chattering classes left Waitrose in their droves to sample the delights that they have always offered.

News moves so quickly however that within a day the BBC carried a story that started: “With quad bikes the number one choice on many Christmas lists this winter a plea has gone out to make it a law that people who ride them wear crash helmets”.

If I am huddled over my Aldi soup in someone else’s cast-offs this winter and someone goes by on a brand new quad bike they had better be wearing a helmet – because I shall be bouncing rocks in their direction!

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