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| Don't be this guy. |
It’s only common courtesy, but it can mean the world to your fellow professionals, and those that show a lack of it are frequently ostracised right out of the business. Even as we’re all scrambling for exclusives and scoops, we don’t do it by shitting on the people in the same race as us, because then we all end up covered in it.
There are two excellent examples of professional courtesy in this business that can be seen every day. One of them takes place out in the field, and the other is confined to the office, but a bit of basic politeness in both is essential for the well-being of all journos in this country.
The first is out in the real scrum, at a media stand-up or press conference, where a number of reporters and visual journalists are trying to get the full story from a spokesperson or politician or emergency services representative. These things can get pretty fucking crowded, especially when everybody is covering a big story, and they can take place in a confined area, when everybody needs good audio or visuals.
Fortunately, there are unwritten rules about dealing with these scrums - everyone should get the same chance to ask their questions, and shouting over somebody who has already got well into their question is highly dubious. Everyone involved also needs to be aware of everyone else's line of sight, and has to ensure they aren't blocking anybody else off from getting an important shot.
Anybody who breaks these rules will get some sour looks from other reporters on the spot, and justifiably so. If we didn't follow these rules, it would be anarchy at the stand-up, and nobody would get anything useful because it would all get wiped out by everyone trying to fuck up everybody else's day.
The only one who really gets away with overpowering a press conference in this country is the mighty John Campbell – even reporters from his own newsroom can dread seeing him rock up at a news conference, because he’s going to run right over everybody, and soak up a lot of the question time, especially when the group who have called the conference have made it clear it’s a strictly limited amount of access. Campbell gets away with it because he’s just a genuinely lovely human being, and we all know he’s probably working on some transcendent piece of journalism. So we usually just let him do his thing, but that’s rare, and anybody else who hogs all the questions, or fucks up someone else’s audio cut or photo, is not going to be popular.
At least in cases like this, the aggrieved journos get to make some splendid stink-eye at the other reporters who are fucking up their day, but there are also some unprofessional shenanigans going on back in the office, where online editors are actively encouraged to rip off (or “match”) their rivals’ big stories, and to give the original source as little credit as humanly possible.
The strange nature of scoops has been discussed here before, and there is the paradox of wanting to be the first and only one to break a big story, but also needing everybody else to pick up the ball and run with it if you ever want to see your story grow.
But sometimes, one news outlet gets a brilliant interview, or a particularly juicy OIA request comes back, or they just do the hard fucking yards and pull together a great story through sheer hard work, and nobody else can match the story without giving the first newsroom to break the story the full credit.
To be fair, some media outlets in this country are great at giving the full credit, and don’t hesitate to throw a link to the original yarn, even if it’s at a hated competitor.
But other places seem to have an online policy of giving as little credit as possible, and can frequently be seen ripping off a story word for word, with barely a mention of where the story originated. An official response to a story can be used as a way of getting around the credit, but it is still a shitty thing to do.
This is far more passive-aggressive than a shuffling for position at a press conference, but it’s no less annoying, and just plain rude. Some places, like the Newsroom website, have broken a lot of great stories in the past year, and they have often been denied the credit they deserve from other organisations (which have far, far more reporting resources than the young media outfit).
This is an industry where your reputation is everything, and a lack of professional courtesy - whether it’s bad behaviour in the scrum, or failing to properly credit great work – will be duly noted by everybody. There are only so many newsrooms in this country, and that kind of dick behaviour isn't going to get anybody very far.
We're all in this together, and sometimes that means stepping back and letting someone else take the lead for a while. It's only polite, and journos should help show the world it could use a bit more politeness.
- Katherine Grant
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