There’s some pretty bizarre-named blogs around the world. I doubt ‘Amid The Hacks’ is the oddest, but I’m sure it’s certainly in the top 25% and as such, deserves some sort of explanation.
I’ve resisted the writing of a blog myself, purely out of snobbery; everyone’s doing one nowadays, aren’t they? How passé, I thought. But there’s been a niggling issue that’s been in the back of my mind for some time now, and I felt that it needed addressing. Whether a blog is the best place for it, is really up to you to decide.
Whenever I talk to people about anything in the news, (and I do mean anything), I’m fascinated by their perception of events. Most of it, of course, comes from our media. What you hear on the radio, magazines, TV, 24-hour newscasts, etc. A number of people are very interested when I tell them (having been a radio presenter and broadcaster for most of my working life), how the broadcast journalists, (or ‘Hacks’, as I refer to them with much affection), gather news. And most importantly, how the interpret it.
Now I’m not a Hack myself. I’m a radio presenter whose sole purpose is to entertain. Possibly a Hack of a different nature, I guess. But while my ratings continue to rise, and while the ad-revenue continues to come in, (it’s a commercial station), hopefully I’ll continue to keep paying my mortgage this way. Like the lady says, ‘nice work if you can get it’.
However, doing what I do means that I know a lot of Hacks. Many are my friends; many are on my Christmas card list. I have dated a number, (female Hacks tend to be very pretty - so they can get on TV - and very smart, with a great sense of humour). I work with many of them every week, (including the not so pretty male ones!), frequently six or seven days a week. I’m knee deep in Hacks.
Now with that in mind, I will now write something that my journalist friends will dislike and very much disagree with: Hacks don’t report the news. They interpret the news. I keep hearing a phrase around the office, “how do I make this news?” It would be far too easy to berate this method. But I won’t. How can I? Hacks need to ‘sell’ the news, just as I need to ‘sell’ the content of my show. Just as the ads we play need to ‘sell’ their products and services to listeners. Besides, nothing can ever be totally objective. For example, the choice of words we use when describing something, whether consciously or not, will always reveal a natural bias of opinion. But Hacks seem to always use language that gives off a sensationalist message, as well as their own bias.
So if it bleeds it leads. And it’ll always be somewhat subjective.
But before it gets to what I call the Hacks Filter, the news can frequently arrive in a less divisive state. I’m in a position as a regular bloke, (as appose to a Hack), to see that news first-hand. Or at the very least, translate it from ‘Hackspeak’ into something closer to truth. But what the heck is truth? Whatever is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. So by truth here, I mean a greater level of objectification, to the best of my ability.
But I issue a very important point. From there, it enters an AJ-Filter. I dare suggest that this will be a considerably different bias than the Hacks. But a bias none the less. However, my bias will be based on what the objective story appears to be really saying, and not on how I can “sell” it. When what I write is an opinion, (which will be frequently), I promise that you’ll know it.
Finally, so you can spot the bias when you see it, here are a few bits about me that might help you spot my point-of-view as and when it appears in these essays: I’m a lower-case ‘l’ libertarian. I’m an atheist. I live in the ‘burbs of South-East of
There’s a million other things of course, and I hope these become apparent during the course of this blogs evolution.
Your friend, amid the Hacks,
Andy Jones.