Radio and TV Presenters

The four men died between 1989 and 1991 so while we can applaud former construction manager Peter Neale for organising the plaque, it’s been a long time coming while the families have had thirty years without their menfolk.

What’s been asked is a variant of the lazy: How do you feel? Soundbite radio presenters who are unlikely to have done their homework.

I wonder if the families have been involved in campaigning for improvements in construction safety or were involved with Neale in having the plague designed and installed. Such tragedies can sometimes galvanise people into action.

Let me turn the question around. What would you have asked?

I am not a "trained" journalist but I certainly wouldn't have asked her this asinine question!

I think I am more uncomfortable with the idea of reporters not asking questions.

Galaxy

I think I am more uncomfortable with the idea of reporters not asking questions.

I have no problems with reporters asking questions - as long as they are sensitive to the effect those questions could have on people. How often do we see a journalist ask a question, the interviewee getting upset and the camera zoom in to catch every tear!

I agree it could be construed as insensitive as well as lazy but it was also an open question which might have yielded an interesting answer such as: It set us on a campaign to fight for improvements in construction safety.

I didn't hear the interview or know what station is was on but many (most?) local radio presenters are probably not trained journalists either. What did the interviewee reply?

I dont think them only asking the questions we want to hear is what I want either. I think that question is a reflection of the culture rather than a reflection of journalists.

I think that it’s a very difficult and skilled job to do.
There are many ‘things’ going on at once.
The fact that most presenters make it look effortless, and that the occasional slip up sticks out like a sore thumb, proves this.

Over thirty years ago a young and locally known man was found in an alley. His body was dismembered after he was bludgeoned to death. A BBC radio Merseyside reporter was talking to a local detective she asked if there’s any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.
In the same area a couple of months later a woman was found stabbed to death. The same reporter asked the same question to detectives working on the case. What a stupid and idiotic question to ask when they had been murdered.

I think some reporters are insensitive but not all. I remember several years ago a reporter was talking to a man who had been sent to Australia as a child having been told his mother was dead.

He told the reporter that as an adult he found out that this wasn't true but by the time he had tracked her down she had died. At that point he started crying, the reporter put his hand on his shoulder and pushed the camera down so as not to film his distress. That kind gesture has always stayed with me.

Beckett That sounds like one of the cases uncovered by Margaret Humphreys described in her book Empty Cradles and the Jim Loach film Oranges and Sunshine based on it.

I often think newsreaders are way off when interviewing but realise it is the times we live in when they are expected to run with it whereas predecessors were fully advised with research...

On the flip side I have now returned to listening to Woman’s Hour hosted 4 days a week by the excellent Emma Barnett. She asks a question, hardly interrupts, flags up when anyone is repeating themselves and offers an alternative view. I know that she is paid twice what Jenni Murray got, but she is a master/mistress of her craft. ?

Beckett

I think some reporters are insensitive but not all. I remember several years ago a reporter was talking to a man who had been sent to Australia as a child having been told his mother was dead.

He told the reporter that as an adult he found out that this wasn't true but by the time he had tracked her down she had died. At that point he started crying, the reporter put his hand on his shoulder and pushed the camera down so as not to film his distress. That kind gesture has always stayed with me.

I doubt that would happen now. The camera would be lapping up the poor man's distress.

“Apart from that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln?”

Having worked in the production side of national radio and tv for over 35 years I know how hard any radio or tv interviewer works. They have to make it seem easy when in fact someone is talking to them all the time in their headpiece dictating what kind of questions to ask. Producers want people to cry on camera or say something controversial, that's what the public want, that's what gets the most views and that's how programmes get commissioned. Being sensitive and not asking what the producer is calling for is a quick way to be replaced. There is always a queue of people who are willing to do want the producers are shouting in their ear.

I am always amazed at the inane questions shouted at politicians and others coming out of 10 Downing Street - they are positively embarrassing.

The widow consented to be interviewed. What ELSE is she going to talk about than how his death affected her and the family?

I was working at a hospital that was due to be closed and a television reporter stopped me as I was driving out of the car park and asked me what I thought about the planned closure,
I replied “ Sorry I’m not allowed to talk to the media about the closure” That evening on the TV news there I was saying [Sorry about the closure] it had edited my conversation. The following morning one of my managers said the press officer are paid to talk to the media I should not made any comment.

Do you remember, did the clip have the interviewer doing a noddy as you purportedly made that remark?

I remember when Channel 4 started there was a half hour programme on Friday evening where they demonstrated a one camera news crew filming an interviewer doing what they called a noddy afterwards.

One use is so that if they edit something like what happened with you, they put a quick bit of the noddy within it so as to hide a jump in the image where they have joined you saying "Sorry" to where you are saying "about the closure" so as to deceive the viewers who would realise the editing if they just showed you.

We live in a time of sensationalism. Celebrities are all over the media with the slightest misdemeanor and it's journalists who write the stuff. The general public are fair game too. Wonder how that reporters would have reacted if the widow had asked her how she would feel in her circumstances.

I am as much amused and liable to Laugh out Loud when this sort of thing happens, but, the situation that annoys me most, is the asking of a question, and the constant interruptions before the question is allowed to be answered.

Are other people affected in this way?

Grandma, I too wonder why reporters shriek questions at anyone coming out of Number 10 - do they seriously expect an impromptu press conference at the kerbside?

Nona4ever

“Apart from that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln?”

Beat me to it!

When an interviewer stick the microphone into the face of a sportsman/woman who has just lost after years of training and ask How do you feel? I wish that he/she would tell the interviewer exactly how they feel, many bleeps would be needed.

I do not t think the question was that bad actually . The effects could have been various .