Worst Tricks of Modern Journalism

In his early days Hibbs However had had a great talent for one of the worst tricks of modern journalism, the trick of dismissing the important part of a question as if it could wait, and appearing to get to business on the unimportant part of it.  Thus, he would say, "Whatever we may think of the rights and wrongs of the vivisection of pauper children, we shall all agree that it should only be done, in any event, by fully qualified practitioners."  - G.K. Chesterton, The Flying Inn

I saw Lenny Harper on a Channel 5 clip, and it was very interesting what he said about the ACPO (Accociation of Chief Officers Review) - that they were happy with the way the investigation was proceeding, but they would make certain recommendations, and apparently they were amazed at the speed Lenny's team took those on board; they'd never seen their recommendations taken on so fast! Apparently, also the way the press release was done on one of the tooth (with a coin to show scale)was also in fact on their recommendation as to how to do that. I think this is extremely important because it contradictes the image of Lennie as a rogue officer doing his own thing with complete autonomy.

The recent presentation of "facts" about Haut de La Garenne smacks of the "worst tricks of modern journalism" described by Chesterton. It is boldly stated that the evidence is "in tatters", and the question is then "How did this happen?", thus neatly avoiding the question "Is the evidence really in tatters?" or "Is the evidence really as discredited as you are making out?" Instead, I have watched Frank Walker and Andrew Lewis both commenting on this as if those questions should not arise, because the matter is already settled, and the question is instead how this state of affairs came about. It is precisely how Chesterton describes the method!

Certainly, it is the very worst possible way in which the truth - whatever that is - can be found. I find the whole idea that all the evidence to date, painstaking collected -  and overseen by ACPO! - has been proved to be wrong, and the evidence PROVES nothing of the sort, has an a priori improbability.

If I was to seek a historical antecedent for the recent multimedia presentation - that pretty well everything so far given has turned out to be, after review, completely false - I would be put in mind of the "big lie" - a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously", as one politician put it, or as another mention, "the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous." Or in the words of Victor Meldrew, "I don't believe it".

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2086677.0.home_truths.php?act=login
Harper and the Jersey police, to be certain they are carrying out their work correctly, they have voluntarily called in a review team from the UK mainland. The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) Working Group will review the investigation so far. With Jersey not being part of the United Kingdom and therefore not under Home Office jurisdiction, Harper is nevertheless keen to ensure his investigation is working by the book, even if it is someone else's.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/30/ukcrime
Wendy Kinnard said she had commissioned an independent review from the Association of Chief Police Officers to look into how Harper's team had handled the inquiry so far. The first, confidential report from Acpo, which covered the period between February 29 and March 2, showed the police were doing their job well, she said.