It wasn’t like that

Thursday, ITV news reported it had been found the Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer had a broken bone in his neck. At the same time BBC Radio news reported Bob Woolmer did not have a broken bone in his neck, it stated the rumour had been traced to a “rouge” policemen. Which report was correct?

On Friday the Jamaican police made the shocking announcement that Bob Woolmer had been murdered. He had been strangled in his hotel bedroom early Sunday morning. To be fair to the BBC, on Thursday the police stated they were investigating a suspicious death, they denied it was murder. The murder brings into stark reality the corruption that is a cancer at the centre of World cricket, or is it?

I would like to examine the confidence we can have in news reporting. We watch television news, listen to news on the radio and nod our heads in agreement; feel shocked at reports of tragic events. We believe what we see and what we hear.

I have been either centrally or on the fringe of about five news stories. On each occasion, irrespective of whether it was an account on TV or the newspapers, the accounts were at best only 50% correct. A few of the basic facts reported were correct, but the interpretation was distorted. What was more disturbing, was the additional unconnected information provided to support the reporter’s interpretation.

For about twenty years, between the mid 70s and 90s I was working overseas, where news came via a small short wave radio. I listened mainly to the BBC World Service. The problem with the BBC is it has a rolling news service, so every half hour you hear the same report. To relieve the tedium I would spin the dial and listen to Voice of America (VOA) or on occasions other stations including Radio Moscow, and the Dutch overseas broadcasting station.

I cannot remember the exact news story, but it occurred around about 1976 ~ 77. The BBC reported on the event; which naturally I believed. The VOA report was in close agreement with the BBCs’, but Radio Moscow’s was a complete contradiction. I wondered, why Radio Moscow would think that people would believe such blatant lies. Some months later the truth immerged and was reported in the press and the BBC - they matched almost exactly the original Radio Moscow report!!

In 1982, during the Falklands Islands War, the BBC reported the British had bombed Port Stanley airport placing it out of service for the Argentineans. Yet during the same time Argentinean TV was showing news footage shot in Port Stanley and flown out of the airport! The truth was, while the airport had been bombed it had not been placed out of service.

There is also another factor which adds to the risk of distortion of news reporting, and that is the introduction of the 24hour rolling news television channels. To grab the interest of viewers they need news. They need new news and often. This has resulted in off the cuff reporting without the time necessary to perform background research and verification of facts.

YesBut just because you see a reporter standing in front of a camera at the scene of a news story; it doesn’t mean he or she knows the facts; or what is reported is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.