 |
 | |
Our reporter, Zubeida Malik has written this week's newsletter:
There I was, reader, minding my own business, digitally editing my piece watching green waves go up and down on my screen. When there was a tap on my shoulder. I fully expected the next comments to be "Will there be snow in Moscow?" or "Will the sand move in the hejaz?". But it was only the Deputy Editor Gavin Allen. I thought: "Here goes, he's going to send me to Penrith to find nut cracking geese… (deep breath) be calm, think of an excuse quick…" So when he said "I want you to write this week's Newsletter", I was speechless, always a good start when you work in radio. "I want you to write about your exclusive interview with Oona King (former MP for Bethnal Green and Bow) and Eason Jordan (former CNN Chief News Executive)...there's a common theme there somewhere", and with that he walked off.
All these years on the Today Programme and somehow I'd managed never to write a newsletter. It must have been those skills I picked up in school of sitting at the back of class and hiding behind a copy of Smash Hits and blending in….. ( the Smash Hits has now been replaced by the Economist.. of course).
Oona King gave her first interview, since losing her seat to George Galloway, with me. The Editor's idea had been to spend a day with her. I rang her, talked her through what we would like and then tentatively, slightly tip-toeing, mentioned that we would like it if it was her FIRST interview. She was charming about it and said ''yes I'll turn down Newsnight and all the others" or words to that effect. Words, dear reader, that most reporters fantasise, some it has been known even salivate, about.
We met at the arranged time at her office in the East End. There were removal boxes and refuse sacks full of unused posters and election leaflets. The place was cold, the central heating was off and their broadband connection had been cut off. Things were definitely moving on. It was the first time I'd met Oona King. She was friendly, and in good humour. Skulking behind her was someone from New Labour. As we began to record the interview he joined us and sat down and pulled out a notebook. I feared he was going to interrupt the interview if he didn't like the way it was going and take notes all the way through and quote bits back to me. In fact he did neither and just sat there bored, doodling the whole time.
The result in Bethnal Green had been one of the most spectacular of election night with New Labour losing to the Anti War party RESPECT. The campaign in the East End had also been one of the most vitriolic and divisive in Britain, with the war in Iraq being the central issue. My interview with Oona King covered that, allegations of electoral fraud and the now infamous interview between Jeremy Paxman and George Galloway (the one, and quite possibly only, thing she agreed with George Galloway on was that her work as an MP should not be defined by the colour of her skin). Interview over I rushed back, as much as you can on London's Central line and started to edit and mix the interview with sound effects for the next day's programme.
Listen Again.
Once it was broadcast I thought that was it. The only comment I came across was a piece in the Daily Mail's Ephraim Hardcastle column, about my interview with Oona King and her feelings about the Paxman interview. His pay off being: 'Somebody has it in for Paxman at Today'. Ermmm... just for the record, I don't.
All was well and I'd moved onto my next story when I got an email from Gavin Allen (yep, he is rather active for a Deputy Editor) saying there had been a couple of complaints. Mainly that we had spoken to her and not George Galloway. But that had been the point of the piece: she was leaving as MP after eight years and we wanted her thoughts on the defeat. And we had spoken to Mr Galloway on the morning of his win. I know because it was on my mobile that he did the interview with Sarah Montague.
Listen Again.
The other concern had been that Oona King had talked about getting anti-Semitic abuse during the campaign. It was and is valid for her to talk about this, but at no point did she accuse any political party or person: otherwise she would have been questioned further about it. She was talking in general and about the atmosphere of the campaign.
What often happens in journalism is that a big/interesting story breaks, but the person at the heart of it doesn't want to talk. That was the case with Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive. Early this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in a session which was off the record, he along with others talked about the high number of journalists killed in Iraq. He spoke of journalists being 'targetted': his words were, he says, then misinterepreted and reported by bloggers on the internet. For days TV/Radio/Print ignored the story but on the internet it was a hot issue and eventually led to his resignation. He said in his resignation letter: 'I have never stated, believed, or suspected that US military forces intended to kill people they knew to be journalists. My words were not as clear as they should have been'
The story was interesting both because of the attention he bought to the issue of journalists being killed in Iraq and because of the rise of the Bloggers.
Days after his resignation I got in touch with a view to an interview. The answer was no. But I kept e-mailing and he finally responded. After months of this he agreed this week to talk. He was intelligent and erudite about what had happened at Davos and is genuinely concernd about the safety of journalists in warzones. I ignored all requests from my Editor to ask him about his reported relationship with Hollywood film star Sharon Stone… which probably means no pay rise for me for the next five years.
The next hurdle was whether, after so many months, anyone else on TODAY would remember the story or care. There were a few glazed expressions and colleagues nodding meaningfully who obviously hadn't got a clue what I was talking about. But luckily Gavin Allen (yep its that man again) and the Editor did and, more importantly, they saw the significnce of the story.
The trick now as I go to print is to peruade the Night Editor (they have a will of their own… it must be those biscuits they scoff at three in the morning)…
(Editor's note: Zubeida's powers of persuasion obviously worked.)
Listen back to the interview here
___________________________________________________
|
|
|
