Phone hacking: what a cosetted time I spent in journalism (From Watford Observer)

Phone hacking: what a cosetted time I spent in journalism

3:40pm Thursday 8th December 2011

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AS A JOURNALIST, I suspect I must have lived a very charmed life in the backwater that is Watford and The Watford Observer. I base this suspicion on the way in which journalists are depicted in various television dramas and I was reminded of this recently when catching up with missed episodes of Wire in the Blood, Frost, Waking the Dead and their successors.

I noted journalists are given a somewhat devious and unpleasant nature, all but glorying in the discomfort of others and, generally speaking, I dislike the characters portrayed. I have on occasions turned to Ellie and stressed that I never came across any journalists during my time at The Watford Observer, who behaved in such a way. Of course some offended the public or were accused of cherry-picking facts – which is a point of view and not necessarily a fact – but, as I note the revelations of the phone-hacking inquiry, I feel I really did have a charmed career.

There is a certain gratitude and peace of mind that comes from not being involved in this so-called cutting-edge journalism.

I have thought long and hard about those former colleagues and the worst incident I can recall was when a young reporter, denied access to a ward at the local hospital where someone was recovering from an incident, popped into an anti-room, donned a white tunic and then boldly made for the ward to conduct an interview.

Upon discovery of the ruse, the hospital complained over the incident and the reporter was given a severe ticking off.

That was about as bad as it got, and even then I did admire the youngster’s invention and audacity.

I have never thought in terms of putting my foot in the door when a prospective interviewee has declined an interview and attempted to shut the door of their home or business. If any colleagues did undertake such an approach, then I can say with certainly, I never heard of it.

I was never part of a gaggle of Pressmen trying to bar the path and shouting questions to a reluctant someone whose comments would be appreciated or sought. I attended Press conferences, waited outside boardrooms and football grounds attempting to seek a quote or observation but I never saw such scenes.

One of the old Pressmen who I used to see regularly on the circuit was a chap called Tom Taylor, who was based in Scunthorpe. I used to enjoy the prospect of seeing him at the Old Show Ground and talking to him as the lower division warriors battled for points on the pitch.

Years later his son Graham became Watford and ultimately England manager and it must have been a shock to a journalist of the old school, such as Tom, to find Pressmen walking through the back door into his kitchen uninvited as they sought some quote or angle to their stories on his son’s stewardship of the England team.

I believe a photographer or two may have gone on to become members of the infamous paparazzi, some of whom adopted a well-known ploy to extract an unusual picture of such as Lady and then Princess Diana . That was to stick a camera lens in her face, call her the c-word and press the button at the same time. Apparently it works the first couple of times and you obtain a photo whose subject looks suitably shocked. After that in order to capture similar photographs, members of the paparazzi have to go to further extremes, suggesting certain sexual proclivities.

I know from others about such things but they are not in my personal experience.

Every week I met up with sports journalists from national newspapers and got on well with many of them. A couple I dealt with every week and both worked for a red-top. However, when Watford dropped out of the top flight in 1987, I did not receive a further call from one of the journalists.

It was and is the way of the jungle. I was no longer in a position to pass on information deemed important. And frankly I had no further cause to phone him.

The other journalist had left the red-top, fed up with being sent out to provoke quotes from transferred players, preferably rubbishing his old club or manager, and, if necessary, lie and suggest the club or manager had given not so flattering quotes about their departing player.

Clearly a player saying: “I am really grateful to my previous club for giving me a chance, treating me fairly and not putting a prohibitive fee on my head so enabling me to get this dream move,” is not the type of quote to make a headline.

The journalist felt it was immoral and left for more professional waters. There are, in my opinion, too few to make such a call.

I will return to this theme, but when contemplating such anecdotes, is it a real surprise so many embraced the potential of phone-hacking with enthusiasm.

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