The Black and White Media Show

Right now, it’s hard to be a person of colour in England, especially one who reads newspapers or listens to the news.

In the past few days, I’ve had to watch the John Terry show and the news that the England captain is to be charged with a public order offence in the new year for racially abusing a black player.

Terry called QPR defender Anton Ferdinand a f***** black c***. There’s no “allegedly” about it - Terry’s racist rant was posted on Youtube for all to see. The Chelsea captain made a statement that he intends to fight the charges “tooth and nail”. Really? Has no one shown him the footage? As a black journalist, I waited patiently for a news outlet to feature comments from a black football player about their experience on the pitch. I waited and waited, then I waited some more.

The way this story has been covered is curious to say the least. The implication is that Ferdinand should have put up and shut up, that to accuse an England captain of being a racist is “political correctness gone mad”.

Unlike Mel Gibson, Terry cannot claim that he was drunk. In fact, he has no defence. He made racist remarks and was filmed doing so. The extraordinary fact is that virtually no one in this country owns up to being a racist. No one even likes to be open and honest and admit they have witnessed racist behaviour. Truth be told, this is a racist society. Everyday I go out, I can expect to experience racism in some form or another - from being closely tailed by security guards in stores, to not being served in cafes and restaurants. I have worked for a national newspaper where a journalist thought it would be a jolly wheeze to make monkey noises whenever I came in the room. On a woman’s magazine, an editor seemed unable to bring herself to talk to me, preferring instead to write notes on pieces of paper and throw them at me.

And racist discrimination starts early. I was recently invited up to the BBC new offices in Salford where I watched a segment for a new children’s show, The 4 O’clock Club. The show features two black brothers who are both rappers. My heart sank when I saw the clip. Yes, I understand that lots of young people listen to hip hop, but given that this is the only programme featuring two black male leads, can we not have them do something else? Is it really that much of a stretch?

White Britons have no idea what it’s like to be discriminated against in this way. They just don’t get it.

Women in the British Press

A few days ago The Guardian’s Kira Cochrane wrote about the lack of women in the national press. Over the summer, she compared the number of bylines between male and female journalists. According to her research, out of all the newspapers, the Daily Mail managed to publish the highest number articles by women.

This brings me to the Leveson inquiry. With all the acres of coverage the inquiry has generated, not one journalist has questioned the editorial reasoning behind the phone hacking scandal. The whole sorry affair serves to illustrate the paucity of thinking at the most senior level of the British media.

If I was going to hack someone’s phone, why on earth would I bother with Elle Macpherson and Vanessa Feltz, for goodness sake? No, I’d hack the phones of pharmaceutical company bosses, politicians, hedge fund managers and city financiers. Look how many extra copies of newspapers were sold during the MPs expenses scandal. Does any newspaper editor really believe that any story involving Vanessa Feltz is going to generate that much interest? It certainly doesn’t justify the tens of thousands of pounds spent on private detectives and lawyers.

There are only two female editors of national newspapers in this country.  Yet there are any number of studies that show that women buy newspapers and magazines more often than men, and tend to be bigger consumers.  Would it really be too much of a stretch for media executives to make an effort to employ more women at senior levels in newspapers? Perhaps they might be more in tune with the readership and help increase circulation.

Nothing New Under the Sun (Or On UK TV)

As the channels publish their Christmas schedules, it looks like 2011 is going to be yet another disappointing year for TV. There is a reason why US television is so much better than British TV and it as nothing to do with the significantly larger budgets. Even if we had £750,000 per episode to spend on a drama, we still couldn't make a 24, a Lost or even a series like The Wire. Why? Because the kinds of people capable of writing these shows are not the writers who get hired in England.

If there's one thing I've noticed in the years I've spent travelling between the US and the UK, is how much more egalitarian the American TV industry appears to be. Writers, producers, directors come from all walks of life - they are housewives and dentists, former marines and actors. Yes, there are still too few women working in the industry - but at 25%, that's still twice the number working in the UK TV industry. In the US, Prime Suspect, the series created by Lynda La Plante, has been cancelled - but that doesn't detract from the fact that in 25 years, La Plante is still the most successful woman British TV has seen. We do not have a female Russell T Davies or Paul Abbott and I can't see that changing any time soon.

Meanwhile, Charlie Brooker's three-part satirical series Black Mirror starts on Channel 4. Despite a full-page write-up in the Radio Times and a number of plugs in The Guardian, I can safely predict that viewing figures for this will be small. Brooker appears to have been commissioned off the back of his notoriety, not the concept or execution. I'm sure the Channel 4 executive who gave him the gig would have enjoyed his "pitch" meeting immensely. But given the channel's original remit, is this a good use of its limited resources? I would have to say no.

As someone who has studied screenwriting in the US and the UK, I have observed that British writers simply do not take the business of screenwriting seriously. I've heard British writers of long-running series brag about "knocking up" scripts in the pub the night before filming. You simply wouldn't find an American writer making such a boast.

It's interesting to note that Brooker wrote the first two parts of Black Mirror but the final part is written by Jesse Armstrong of Peep Show fame. Did Mr Brooker run out of steam? And that's another uniquely British phenomenom - we are good at coming up with concepts (The Office, Fawlty Towers, Lost In Austen), but we lack the stamina to maintain any show beyond its first series. There were only six episodes of Fawlty Towers and Lost In Austen pretty much ran out of ideas after the first episode.

I cannot see this situation changing - unless all the channels make a concerted effort to ensure their workforces are as diverse as possible. Diversity fosters creativity; it really is that simple.
When everyone is white, male and middle-class and from Gloucester, you are just not going to get the best ideas. 

The British Media in the Dock

As the Levenson Inquiry into press standards rumbles pointlessly on, I’m going to add my ten cents’ worth. First, it has to be said that David Cameron’s press officers must be dancing a jig right now. It’s the perfect time to bury any (more) bad news, as there’s nothing the British press likes better than gazing at its own navel. In England, we have the highest number of people under 25 unemployed in twenty years, and we are about to see changes to the state pension which will leave tens of thousands of women destitute in their old age. But never mind, we can listen to Sienna Miller talking about being made to feel that she was living in a video game.

The solution to the subject of press intrusion is really very simple. At present any fool who can afford a camera can call himself (and it’s always a him) a paparazzo.  If regulation is required, then that’s a good place to start. It’s clear also that the inquiry is talking to the wrong people. Picture editors should be in on the discussions. If editors can agree on set prices, then you wouldn’t get photographers risking their own necks as well as others to get the picture that will literally set them up for life. When newspapers and magazines pay £100,000 and more for the right celebrity shot, then clearly something has to be done. If there was an agreed ceiling on prices, this would go somewhere towards preventing paps from jumping out of bushes and bashing on car windows, as the McCanns described during the inquiry. And if editors can agree not to employ unlicensed photographers, that would be a step in the right direction. After all, we don’t allow just anyone to drive a black cab. Drivers have to pass a rigorous test.

Then there’s the subject of training. Many newspapers used to have apprenticeship schemes. These have largely been done away with, especially as local papers have been hit by the double whammy of the recession and the rise of the internet. The traditional route of starting off as a cub reporter on your local doesn’t really exist anymore. And believe me, it makes a difference. I’ve been a freelance journalist now for ten years and I keep coming across people who have little if any understanding of media law. In a situation like this, only the lawyers can win.

Colegate: the saga continues...

Doesn’t Ashley Cole have any real friends? Someone might want to tell him that the very worst thing he could have done was to marry Cheryl Tweedy. Ashley may be one of the finest footballers of his generation but his ability on the pitch is constantly overshadowed by his relationship with the former Girls Aloud singer. Mr Cole could open an orphanage, set up an animal sanctuary and rescue a burning building full of old age pensioners, but he would still be known as the man who cheated on Ms Tweedy.

It was interesting to see how little media attention Ashley Cole’s business venture with Jay Z merited. The pair plan to set up a restaurant along the lines of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, which trains unemployed youngsters. Perhaps Mr Cole has finally began to realise that no footballer can play forever, no matter how talented they are. Cole should look to David Beckham, who serves as a poster boy for all professional footballers as to how to extend your shelf life away from the pitch. Beckham has successfully lent his name to a host of product ranges and activities generating millions of pounds of income. He could quit playing for Galaxy tomorrow and not worry.

Ashley Cole is without doubt an attractive man but which clothing brand or designer would sign up the left-back now to be its frontman now, after his disastrous marriage? Meanwhile, the relentless PR machine behind Chezza the "Biffa" continues its onslaught...

Nothing New Under the Sun

I've just come back from Los Angeles, where I made a point of catching up with all the news shows. I can't help but be a little disappointed at this season's premiers. There's really very little to get excited about. Playboy and Charlie's Angels quickly bit the dust and it's not difficult to see why. Both could easily have been successful but lacked the courage of their convictions. (Hey, ABC and NBC, there are female showrunners now. Really.)

It's interesting to note that the most successful shows are all based on classic books or stories. Pan Am is William Thackeray's Vanity Fair in the air. Revenge is simply Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo with a sex change and set in the Hamptons. While Grimm and Once Upon a Time both use classic fairy tales from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to Little Red Riding Hood.

Showrunners take note: if you want a show to stay on the air, mine the world's canon of literature for stories to adapt. So come on down! Let's play Fantasy TV shows! With the success of The Help, what about revisiting Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird? Let's see, Scout and Jem are now adults. While Scout has followed her father Atticus' footsteps into the law, Jem has just returned after serving two tours in Iraq. He is haunted by his experiences - and his unrequited affair with Calpurnia's  mixed-race son (yes, Calpurnia and Atticus had a secret love child, so that makes him Scout and Jem's half-brother).

Here's another one: what about Charles Dickens' Great Expectations meets Training Day? A rookie New York cop falls in love with the daughter of a Supreme Court judge, only to be cruelly rebuffed...
Or what about Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov as Mad Men meets The Kennedys? When a Senator is murdered all his sons fall under suspicion, including his eldest son who harbours political ambitions of his own...

See how much fun this is?

The Standard in the dock

It disgusts me that London, one of the greatest cities in the world, has only one newspaper and that is the Evening Standard. The paper used to be a good one. When it was a paid-for title, I remember a series of well-written, well-researched articles, including one of the best articles I've ever read by Kate Hilpern about people who go missing in the city. Now I see the magazine piled up outside rail stations and hardly ever see anyone pick up a copy. Perhaps because it seems to be filled with stories of chinless socialites and the daughters of Russian billionaires who have nothing to say for themselves and are not in the least bit interesting.

Now the paper is little more than a mouthpiece for London Mayor Boris Johnson. How I wish we had the equivalent of the New York Times in London!

Afro Spring: Now They See Us...

Since the riots started, it's been open season for every not-so-closeted racist and Charles Murray apologist to make their feelings known in the national media. Cameron's decision to allow police to use plastic bullets and water cannons will only inflame the situation. And the language he has used is nothing short of abominable. He spoke of "phony human rights", the subtext being that people of colour don't have any rights because we're less than human. Wasn't that the argument used to support slavery?

It's interesting to compare Cameron's knee-jerk reaction to the calm, measured response of the Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg after the Oslo bombing and the shootings on Utoeya island. It's clear that Cameron is at sea over the riots. Britain needs a steadier, surer hand at the helm than his.

Cameron should really stand down over the riots but unless the rioters make it to Downing Street, I can't see that happening.

We're Mad as Hell and We're Not Going To Take It Anymore

I hate to be the harbinger of doom but for months I have been saying that this country would witness an unprecedented level of civil unrest over the summer. For me, it’s been like watching a car crash happening in very slow motion. What happens when you have large numbers of angry, disaffected youths, a negligent government and a police force that has failed to adequately address racism within its ranks?

The riots in Tottenham were just waiting to happen. Tensions have been simmering beneath the surface for some time - it would not have taken much to ignite, least of all the “accidental” death of Mark Duggan.

What’s been really interesting is watching and reading the media coverage. I always find it amusing watching white reporters on “ghetto duty”. Usually a riot is the only time a black or Asian reporter gets their moment in the sun, so to speak. And then that usually means playing second fiddle to a white journalist (watch out for those “additional reporting by” credits!).

Wild and woolly doesn’t even begin to describe the coverage I’ve seen so far. (In fact, the coverage reminds me of the initial reporting after Hurricane Katrina. Remember all those stories of widespread rapes, which later turned out to be untrue?). The conjecture, subjective statements and blatant rumours reported as fact - all to hide that for most journalists on national newspapers, this is an utterly alien world. They live “safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor” in places such as West Hampstead and Hoxton. Perhaps Clapham, at a stretch. These journalists find such anger hard to fathom. So I’m going to explain: try to imagine being punched in the face every single day - for no reason. You can see that there would come a point when you would snap and fight back, can’t you?

I am a journalist and every day I go out in this country I can expect to encounter racism in some form or another - from the security guard who literally breathes down my neck as I shop, to the women who clutch their bags as I stand next to them in the lift or behind them in the queue at the supermarket. From the national newspaper editor who announced in front of me that she couldn’t sanction the use of black models because, she said, “they looked dirty” (and then instructed her deputy to ensure that I was never left alone in the office in case anything went missing), to the publisher who loudly warned staff not to leave valuables on their desks - while looking at me.

I have lived for several months in America. Not once did anyone move their bag if I sat at a table next to them in a cafe or restaurant. In America, no one has ever asked me stupid questions such as “Do you tan?” and “How do you wash your hair?” (my personal favourite).

If I’ve had enough of it, I can’t begin to imagine how those youths in Tottenham must feel.

News International: the gift that just keeps on giving

The News International phone hacking scandal has been boiling for three weeks - and I'm still waiting for British journalists to get ahead of the story. All the UK newspapers seem to be chasing their tails on this one. Just as it took the New York Times to put this story back on the media agenda, I believe it will take an American journalist to really get to the bottom of this affair, and when that happens I am positive that more heads will roll - namely David Cameron and Boris Johnson.

The Murdoch affair serves to illustrate the falling standards in British journalism. As more and more local newspapers close, there are fewer places for young people interested in a career in the media to receive proper training. I can't see this improving any time soon.

News of the World Scandal

End of the World?

So, Rupert Murdoch has taken the drastic step of pulling the plug on the News of the World to save face and more importantly to save his BSkyB deal. What I find really interesting about this story is that it took a report by the New York Times to put the NOW phone hacking scandal back on the UK media agenda. I have no doubt that if it had not been for that report, Murdoch would be cracking open a bottle of bubbly and celebrating the signing off of the deal.

Anyone who has worked in journalism knows that all the police had to do to “prove” the case was to follow the money trail. It takes thousands of pounds to conduct phone hacking on the scale carried out by the NOW, and no journalist would have paid for that out of their own pocket. And it’s not as though any reporter could walk into the accounts department and say, “I’d like £1000 for a story, please” and have a wad of cash placed in their hands. In this day of cost-cutting, reporters must verify every penny that their spend – and someone senior has to sign off the request. So for senior executives to claim ignorance of the affair is clearly and demonstrably untrue. That it took the Met nearly ten years to figure this out speaks to the level of collusion that must have gone between the newspaper and the police.

What I find even more interesting is the attention British newspapers will devote to this story in the next few days. Clearly David Cameron is hoping that this will blow over in a matter of days and it will be business as usual – ie he plans to allow the BSkyB deal to go ahead. Given Cameron’s background in PR and that he has met both Murdoch and executive Rebecca Brooks socially, I believe that Cameron has been “feathering his nest” – lining up a position for when he leaves office. 

Ding, dong! The enemy of the West is dead...

So Osama bin Laden now sleeps with the fishes. I wish there was an Obama mini-me working in the White House Press Office. As soon as the news broke about bin Laden’s death, I would have called in all the heads of all the world’s major news outlets. Not that there should have been a news black-out, but if ever there was a story that needed to be correctly and sensitively reported, this was it.

Without a doubt, this is the biggest news story of the year, if not the decade, and watching the wall-to-wall coverage filled me with increasing concern. Bin Laden’s death is the sort of story most journalists would kill to cover, and it was unnerving to watch so many gleefully take hold of the wrong end of the stick and run with it. There was so much misinformation, so much misinterpretation, it was disturbing. You could almost see the journalists planning the relevant chapter in their memoirs, writing the book proposal in their heads as the story spun out of control.

And then there was White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. As soon as he took to the lectern after an admirable briefing by John Brennan, I found myself wondering, “Who is this guy?” Then “How did he get his job?”. It was when Carney used the word “narrative” in a room full of journalists that had me reaching for the remote. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion.

A “narrative”? Is Bin Laden’s death a Grimm Brother’s fairy tale for adults? I hope you are sitting comfortably. Now, listen carefully…

A Picture is Worth 1,000 words...

Call me a cynic, but I greeted the news of Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron moving to London together with a weary shrug.

This looks like yet another Hollywood coupling that was dreamt up in a PR agent’s office. Is it just a coincidence that both stars have movies that are currently in production? Reeves is shooting 47 Ronin and Theron is shooting Prometheus.

One wonders just how long their “relationship” is likely to last. At least until the premiere, perhaps?

Watch this space…

Why are there so few female screenwriters in the UK?

Well, the Bird’s Eye View Film Festival is over for another year. In the seven years it has been running, little has changed in the UK for female filmmakers. In 2006, a survey carried out by the UK Film Council showed that just 12 per cent of British films were written by women.

In response, in 2010 Bird’s Eye View and the Script Factory started She Writes, a year-long programme aimed specifically at women screenwriters. I went along to a showcase at Bafta where the selected writers were presented to an audience.

One project, Saint Joan by Grace Banks and Kate Bingham, was selected for a performed reading. I wish I could say I was impressed. Despite an impressive cast that included Celia Imrie and Paula Dixon and a promising subject matter, the project didn’t work and here’s why: it wasn’t a movie. Saint Joan would make a lovely play for BBC Radio 4, but as a film, it failed. As someone who has lived and studied in America, I see British filmmakers make the same mistakes time and time again. It may seem like a Hollywood cliché but when William Goldman famously said that “screenplay is structure”, he was right on the money.

Too many British filmmakers don’t seem to understand the language of cinema and that a script is actually a blueprint for a movie.

Now the Film Council is no more. If the council was guilty of one thing, it was this: too much attention was given to the writer-director. There didn’t seem to be the understanding that there just isn’t the training or opportunities any more for these hyphenates. Danny Boyle served many years as a jobbing writer on Inspector Morse before even picking up a camera. These days few if any get the kind of opportunities afforded to the likes of Stephen Frears and Anthony Minghella when they were starting out.

In filmmaking, everything begins and ends with the writer. As the old Hollywood adage goes, “if it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the screen”. It’s time to restore the writer to her rightful place.

Do Brit TV commissioners not like women?

I caught an episode of the BBC comedy drama Candy Cabs. It was a curious affair and afterwards I felt oddly offended. The episode felt like the dramatic equivalent of the Fosters advert, the one where two unreconstructed Aussie men load a truck full of beer - and then add two bottles of sherry for the “sheilas”.

It was as though the show’s creator went through a checklist of the things women are supposed to like and be interested in. Lots of pink? Check! Diets? Check! Body issues? Check! Useless men? Check! The episode I saw was a string of clichés strung together with plots recycled from successful “chick flicks”. Made In Dagenham, Calendar Girls, Mamma Mia and Shirley Valentine were all referenced here. And this was supposed to be one of the BBC’s flagship series?

Where are the contemporary female-led shows? For those, we have to look across the Atlantic to shows such as The Big C, Nurse Jackie, and The Good Wife. How is it that there are so many great female characters on American TV, and we can’t even manage one over here? It can’t just be down to the money. Can it?

Why do British columnists suck?

I am a self-confessed media junkie and I have a confession to make: I have stopped buying British newspapers and magazines. And no, I won’t be bothering wit their online versions either. I’m done. I’ve had enough. From now on, I’ll just watch the news on CNN and read the New York Times.

I’ve had enough of the appalling lack of diversity, the lack of originality and innovation in British papers and magazines. After twenty years, Baz Bamigoye is still the most high profile columnist of colour on a paper. And he works for The Daily Mail.

I’m tired of male columnists who continually refer to their partner as “the wife”. Really? Is it 1972? If you can’t come up with a more interesting moniker than that, then you should not be writing a weekly column. And, yes, I know becoming a parent for the first time is very exciting, but unless you have something new and original to say, stow it!

Beauty editors, try featuring women of colour as a matter of course, not just around the time of Black History Month, or whenever Halle Berry appears in a movie. There are any number of marketing studies that show that women of colour buy more make-up more often, and are more likely to buy premium brands (as cheaper lines seldom cater for darker skins). Who knows? You may pick up more advertisers as a result. And a few thousand more readers. Fancy.

Fashion people, there are many, many stylish women in the public eye in Britain than Sienna Miller and Alexa Chung. Why don’t you feature one of them? Please?

Liz Jones, stop writing about your cats already. Take some time off and get professional help. Lucy Mangan? No one cares. Charlie Brooker’s angry, middle-aged, white guy schtick? I’m so over that. And Jeremy Clarkson is an anachronism not worth bothering with.

None of these are a patch on the American writers I’ve discovered, who seem to find something truly interesting to write about week in, week out. Why could that be, I wonder? Could it be because they actually make an effort?