Government Affairs Blog

Making a non-story news

Most Sundays I take a walk around Highbury Fields before returning to my flat.  Then, in the afternoon I sit down and write this blog.  While walking various ideas, thoughts and words percolate in my mind.  Once I return home I usually have the piece written.  Then all I have to do is type it.

This time I was a little stuck.  There were several stories that were relevant to communication professionals.  I couldn’t decide which one to write about.  To help me I picked up a copy of the Observer.  During the week I read the Guardian, FT and Times.  On a Sunday if I read any paper it is the Observer.  This explains why all my references are from that paper.

Should I explore the issue of holding a British day?  Tristram Hunt’s article on history and how to teach it is far more eloquent than I could hope to be on the subject:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2099512,00.html

Then there was Henry Porter on the possibility of a written constitution and renewing parliament.  If these things happen they will have an enormous impact on how we all do our jobs.  Porter is an indignant supporter of liberty and a harsh critic of Tony Blair.  For those who describe themselves as Blairites he isn’t comfortable reading.  However, he offers an interesting insight into what might happen in the next year or so:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2099527,00.html

I saw little point in summarising Porter’s analysis when people can simply read the article.

Then I spotted this headline: Choirgirls refuse to strip for their art.  Next to this intriguing prose was a picture of four attractive teenagers.  Apparently, they are successful classical singers.  When they signed their contract with a record company they demanded that a clause be put in stating they would not strip or wear skimpy clothes.  It is highly unlikely that an intrepid investigative reporter discovered this ‘story’.  Rather it is a piece of puffery.  If the girls don’t want to go nude make that the selling point and use a very nice picture of them.  The journalist gets to write about other classical performers who do use sex to sell their wares.  Not that the choirgirls aren’t using sex to sell their wears.  In this non-story they invert the sex angle and achieve editorial coverage. 

Sadly, the story has yet to make it onto the Observer’s website. 

A lesson to us all on how to make something out of nothing. 

Simon Goldie is Head of Communication at The Chartered Institute of Taxation – www.tax.org.uk - and a member of the CIPR GAG committee