The Anatomy Of A Clusterfuck

 

I’ve been in two minds about whether to comment on this further than what I’ve said on twitter. It’s a news story that probably needs little in the way of drama or debate heaped on it. There is an inbuilt amount of self-defeat in me taking a look at this; I’m moaning about the way people stir up controversy while playing a part in that process. However, it involves my team, it involves a cause I’m passionate about, and it involves so many revealing issues about modern journalism.

Internet controversy is a fun thing. It’s never productive. It’s rarely adult or considered. Into this we have newspapers, desperate for page views and readers, who now follow the trends rather than trying to lead or observe them. They whip up comments on twitter and beg for our attention. Even when the news story itself is worthy and interesting, the news media have developed a way of devaluing them into some form of tawdry circus. However, surely some topics are still considered taboo? Maybe not.

There are times in internet controversy when nobody is wrong, there are just clashes of different opinions. There are also times when nobody is right. Let’s unpack one of those.

First up, let’s get the actual news story out of the way. The Express & Star reported this morning that Wolves Chairman Steve Morgan invited shamed policeman Norman Bettison to watch Wolves play last weekend. There’s a very good news story here. Steve Morgan is from Liverpool. He’s a life-long fan of Liverpool FC (despite his claims to have put that allegiance aside. I think that claim works against him. If it’s a lie, it’s a pointless attempt to appease Wolves fans. If it’s true, it speaks to a money-led fickle nature that no adult football fan can trust.) Bettison is the police chief who was in charge of the original enquiry into the Hillsborough disaster. An enquiry that has itself been challenged and overturned; shown to have ignored evidence, doctored statements and lied to the public.

Morgan can, of course, pick his friends as he sees fit. If he is a long-term friend, as has been claimed, I suppose there is also an argument that Morgan is right to stand by his friend. I don’t agree with that line of thought, but it is there to be debated. Morgan also owns Wolves and -within the rules of football- can do pretty much what he wants. The club hospitality is there for whoever he decides should enjoy it. Despite all of that, his decision to invite Bettison to a football match shows an extreme level of insensitivity and poor judgement. That lack of judgement is sadly no longer really ‘breaking news’ when it comes to Morgan, but this particular instance is more than fair game for a news story.

If we accept that journalism is there to uncover hypocrisy, abuses of power, and bad ethical choices, then I would not stand in the way of anybody who wanted to publish this news story. Furthermore, I am deeply angered by Morgan’s decision. I am one of the people this story would be intended for, if handled in the right way. His stupidity and gross insensitivity is not worthy of the club I love. Decent, right-minded football fans (I originally wrote “working class” there, but forget that, all football fans) stand with Liverpool fans on the issue of Hillsborough, and the Express & Star have highlighted the huge gulf in compassion between the clubs fans and owner. It was a disgusting decision, and was not done in my name, or in the name of any decent Wolves fan.

Have I made my feeling on that issue clear enough? Good. Because if not, this next bit might seem like a huge backtrack.

The most insulting and insensitive aspect of this news story is not the stupid decision of the chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers. It is the actions of the Express & Star.

If we could believe for one second that this story was founded on any principle of journalistic integrity, I would back off and let the story rumble on. But it is purely a shill. It’s about getting page views and hit rates, and working up a storm. How can I say that? Let’s take a look.

Early this morning, the E&S editor tweeted this;

Which was then followed by this;

Note not just the tone and words of the tweets, but also the hash tags and the @ links. The first tweet was openly addressed to a Wolves podcast and to one of the Internets biggest Wolves message boards. The second was an open call -despite, presumably the Wolverhampton newspaper having the ability to contact the Wolverhampton football club by many other private means- to hear from ‘someone’ with what we hack writers would call a ‘ticking clock.’ Big story. Lawyers. Yikes. The message board went into  meltdown. If they were looking for attention, they got it.

The news story itself, which went live around an hour later, contained not just the bare bones of the story, but also pictures of the Hillsborough disaster, just incase we had forgotten. It had screen grabs of tweets, because what serious act of journalism is complete these days without the hard fought research of copying some tweets. (Still, if the E&S say it’s okay, then they won’t mind me…) Also, just to really show the seriousness with which the paper takes it’s role,  a poll. A poll. Quality journalism there. A real assessment of moral bankruptcy and abuses of power. A searing piece of investigation. Topped off with a poll, because that’s all we are these days, we are a yes or a no on a TV talent show or a major news item.

Results of which, by the way, you can’t see unless you vote.

At least they stop short of asking whether we were Team Morgan or Team Football. But hey, even noble intentions can me misconstrued, right? Maybe I was being harsh. Maybe this was an honest and well-meant act of journalism. Maybe they were not twisting the emotions and grief of a tragedy to get page views, and manipulating people into a yes/no right/wrong false argument. Maybe I should calm down and hear the other side of the argument. Fortunately, I didn’t need to look far.

There’s the bottom line. ‘Huge web traffic.’ ’2.5K votes.’ ’10k web vies.’ That’s all this was. There was no assessment of the rights and wrongs. No attempt to provide critical analysis of the story. No attempt at actual journalism. It was look at us. We’re in an age when ‘in the public interest,’ no longer means something that is of value to the public, but something that people will click on. It’s advertising hit rates. It’s clicks. It’s.Just.Money. The Express & Star is the first newspaper I ever read. It was the one I read most frequently growing up, and over the years I’ve known people who worked there. I’m not going to claim that it was ever a newspaper that was carrying out Watergate style acts of valued investigative journalism, but I think they used to be better than this. Looks at us, please, attention, attention, attention.

I called this post the anatomy of a clusterfuck for a reason. There is no right in this situation. Steve Morgan did a stupid, insensitive, maddening thing. And he was fair game to anyone who wanted to weigh in with some considered work on the subject. The Express & Star, though, used that as a chance to make money, to receive huge hit rates, and maybe to briefly raise the profile of a sports desk that is finding itself getting lost amid the modern social media news cycle. It’s tried to grab hold of its own piece of a story that belongs to a whole other group of people, and a tragedy that needs no further stirring.

And now I’ve gone and dragged myself into it to, feeling the need to argue, to shout and to debate.

There is no right in this.

(And as a final thought; I’ve made mentions to serious acts of journalism in this post. If the defence of any of the staff involved is that this wasn’t meant as a serious act of journalism, I suggest they get the hell out of a newspaper.)