depicting journalism


journalism”, as one usually sober academic commentator said recently, journalists, novelists and fi lm makers don’t know which way to turn. In James Meek’s The Heart Broke In egregious tabloid editor Val Oatman establishes a sinisterly unaccountable online celebrity-skewering website: the inference being that even at their very worst our tabloids are not as bad as the online wild west. In Kevin Macdonald’s fi lm version of State of Play (2009) the best of both worlds – the footslogging traditional hack and the cheap, fast blogger -combine to uncover political machinations on Capitol Hill. But even in this nostalgic paean to a fast-receding world of Fourth Estate newspaper journalism, reporter Cal McAffrey is morally ambiguous, torn between being a friend and a reporter.


One reason for this, says the journalist and author Eric Clark, is that ‘good’ journalists don’t make for great fi ctional characters: “People with faults, the morally compromised, are much more interesting.” Former Guardian journalist and author James Meek agrees,


saying that today, particularly in the post-Leveson era, a “preachy” do-gooder journalist character just wouldn’t be believable to audiences. Since the public mostly gets its ideas about journalism from the big screen it is clearly a problem when they are more often absorbing images of Rita Skeeter than the hard working hacks of Spotlight. Journalist and broadcaster Rich Peppiatt whose documentary fi lm One Rogue Reporter addresses many of the inherent tensions in the news industry says: “I must have watched every single fi lm about journalists while hunting for archive footage to use in One Rogue Reporter. You do start to see a pattern: the archetype of the fl awed character recurs again and again.” He says that while the industry “does tend to attract waifs and strays and interesting people”, often fi lm portrayals tend to omit the crucial fact that “most journalists start off their careers by wanting to do the right thing. But their idealism tends to get crushed by the need for sales or by the proprietor’s politics”. This problem of the public image of journalists is now being addressed by the Manchester and Salford NUJ branch which earlier this year launched a fi lm club showing fi lms about journalism followed by discussion of the issues the fi lms raise. So far the club has shown the American classic Ace in the Hole starring Kirk Douglas as a low rent scumbag reporter, Shattered Glass, another American fi lm about a journalist who makes up copy, and Veronica Guerin about the Irish crime reporter murdered in 1996. Viewings are open to the public at £4.00 a ticket. “The idea came up during a branch meeting when we were discussing things we could do to address the damage recent events, particularly phone hacking, have done to the reputation of journalists,” says Rachel Broady, branch joint secretary and Equality Offi cer (and another journalist who has written a novel). “There’s a lot of debate on social media about how vile journalists are, how we fail to hold power to account any more. I think people tend to assume that journalism is this romantic job where you can storm into your editor’s offi ce and say: ‘I’m not writing this rubbish!’ if you’re asked to write trivia. But we all


16 | theJournalist


“ ”


I’ve written stories such as ‘My Dog Earns More Than Me’


know it’s never as simple or easy as that. I’ve written stories such as ‘My Dog Earns More than Me’.” Broady hopes that the opportunities for discussion after


the screenings will help explain to people the realities of journalism. “Even Spotlight, which puts journalism in a very good light shows that journalism must be paid for and that if a major news event such as 9/11 comes up then investigations must be dropped and it’s all hands to the pump.” John Le Carré wrote, in his novel about spies and


journalists, The Honourable Schoolboy: “It is not the English habit, as a rule, to accord distinction to journalists.” It is not indeed. Whether on social media, or on the big screen, journalists are too often reduced to lazy stereotypes: the shabby and untrustworthy male hack; the ambitious female reporter who sleeps with her contact or her editor, or both, to get a story. At a time when we need good journalists more than ever, how about some journalist-heroes for a change?


10 Best Films about Journalism


Defence of the Realm (1985) Gabriel Byrne and Denholm Elliott star as shambolic investigative hacks who uncover a secret service plot implicating their own proprietor. The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) A Fleet Street disaster movie. See if you can spot the cameo appearance by legendary Daily Express editor Arthur Christiansen. Citizen Kane (1941) Consistently voted by fi lm critics as the best fi lm of all time, charts the fi ctionalised life of William Randolph Hearst. Spotlight (2015) Oscar-winning account of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the


paedophile priest scandal. Ace in the Hole (1951) A scoundrel of a reporter allows a man to die following a car crash for the sake of a story. All the Presidents Men (1976) The classic account of the Washington Post’s Watergate investigations starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoff man. His Girl Friday (1940) Classic screwball comedy


with ex-husband and wife editor and star reporting outdoing each other with one-liners. Philadelphia Story (1940) Jimmy Stewart stars as the puck-like tabloid reporter who re-unites a warring celebrity couple with his piercing ability to expose the truth. State of Play (2009) Old-time newspaper hack and shiny new blogger team up to expose corruption against a backdrop of a struggling newspaper industry. Making a Living (1914) Charlie Chaplin’s fi rst Hollywood fi lm about a down-on-his-luck chancer who takes a job as a news reporter. Hilarity ensues.


The Journalist in British Fiction and Film by Sarah Lonsdale is published by Bloomsbury, £19.99 (paperback)


CINECLASSICO / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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