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Your one-stop phone hacking correspondentWho wants to assist me? As Lord Justice Leveson gently ushers the British tabloids over a cliff, there is a need not only for good journalists to report on the bad, but for good journalists to trump the bad.
We are witnessing the most sensational and forensic scrutiny ever experienced by our industry, perhaps any industry. This website is dedicated to providing reports, opinion, argument, analysis, revelation, investigation and, yes, entertainment.
Will popular journalism even survive, both as a practice and a viable commercial model?So much is coming out of the Leveson inquiry at the High Court in London that even well-resourced outlets such as The Guardian and the Independent are struggling to give it the coverage it merits, and which media people want. Here, as an unashamed tabloid hack, with pen and notepad in hand, I am getting off my backside and interviewing, investigating and reporting on the reporters and, yes, on their editors and their publishers.
But the inquiry has opened the floodgates so wide and released such a cascade of material that most of it is hardly seeing the light of day. Good stories are being buried beneath even better stories, which themselves are buried beneath yet better stories.
I am looking for journalists, perhaps now retired, who can help me provide a supplementary and alternative service.
I subbed the opening address of Robert Jay, QC, to a mere 22,000 words. Yes, twenty-two thousand. But they were all very pertinent. Well, that’s what they seemed at the time, before events gained their current momentum.
Although this kind of length is too much for newsprint, it can easily be accommodated in our brave, new online world.
A lot of it can be done entirely online and it should not be restricted to the hearing only. We can shape our coverage as we wish. We should get out and about as well, be proactive and embrace the wider story with supplementary interviews, revelations, speculations and investigations. We are reporting on the reporters, and on their editors and publishers, and I seek those who know the field.
What I’ve set up at present is a bit primitive, I'm told. I am open to all suggestions and advice. This could go on for two years or more, and may include legal proceedings. If you are interested in working with me on this project, please contact me at johnkdale@msn.com
John Dale WARNING: Some pages may contain jokes.
The raw transcripts are unpublishable without editing. I need some skilled hands to knock them quickly into shape, with subheads, rather as I did imperfectly here - http://johndalejournalist.co.uk/qcs-opening-address-in-full-clarified.phpNote: The evidence is streamed live and available as transcripts at http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/
It won’t complicate your income tax return. Your remuneration will be the same as mine. A fat zero. * Columnist and contributor to Press Gazette, the leading magazine for British journalists. * Leveson Inquiry Correspondent, gentlemenranters.com * Got a media story I should investigate? Scams, dodgy behaviour? Have things really changed? Contact me at johnkdale@msn.com Frank, Fearless, Frequently Flummoxed twitter: @JohnDale8
'Much wisdom . . . given his long pedigree, his unilateral decision to report on the Leveson inquiry is welcome. See his website, johndalejournalist.co.uk, which is dedicated to the inquiry' - Professor Roy Greenslade, Mediaguardian
‘The code of silence has been broken. Are we at last entering an era of genuine no-holds-barred editorial coverage of the media? This might be a far more desirable and effective way of moderating press behaviour than state regulatiion’ - Gareth Weekes, Deep South Media ‘Came across this very good website from John Dale’ - chief whistleblower Richard Peppiatt, twitter @richpeppiatt
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