7th June 2007

My grouch this week is about the Press newspaper and in particular the editor.

I'm in the camp that Politicians are way down in the pecking list of trusted occupations and what they say cannot always be trusted.  I certainly wouldn’t count myself as a committed Labour Party supporter and it’s a rare occasion for me to leap to one of their numbers defence.  
It was a letter to the editor in last weeks Press (around 31st May 2007) from the Minister of Immigration, David Cunnliffe that caught my eye and raised the blood pressure slightly.
In the letter, he was complaining that in a Press story, he was reported as making a statement (I won't go into detail on what it was) which he denied he had made and claimed the reporter had made it up. After complaining to the newspaper, his press secretary was told that the reporter had “paraphrased” what he had said.
David Cunnliffe said that the paraphrasing was incorrect and went into detail on how he stood on the subject.

What really got my goat was the small minded disingenuous note from the editor at the bottom of the letter which stated “The Press stands by the story and that the paragraph paraphrased the substance and tone of the comments he made”.

Someone of a more open minded nature might have said, “Thank you for clarifying the intention of your speech. At the time we didn’t interpret your words quite that way which is why the story ran as it did”.

Newspaper editors need to adopt good manners as much as politicians.