What Makes News

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By Jeff Ansell on April 30th, 2008

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“Dog in custody after shooting man,” read the newspaper headline, in a story about Trigger, a mixed shepherd, who put his paw on the trigger and shot his owner in the arm. The shooting took place after the owner killed three of Trigger’s litter-mates.

Much else happened in the world that day, yet it was the Trigger story featured on front pages everywhere. Why? Is it because people love animals? Yes, plus stories about dogs shooting their owners are unusual and do not come along every day. The Trigger story may not be “man bites dog,” but it does come awfully close.

For a novice journalist learning how to recognize news, there is no substitute for on-the-job experience. Standing in the way of knowing how to recognize news however, is often youthful inability to accept as possible, that which, at first blush, seems absurd.

Working in the newsroom one evening in the late 1970’s (when my hair reached my ass and I knew it all), I received an anonymous phone tip that Margaret Trudeau, then wife of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, was partying with the Rolling Stones at the El Mocambo Club in Toronto. Most journalists would consider a tip like that to be pretty hot, right? Not in my hands. To my young mind, the idea that Margaret Trudeau, the wife of the prime minister, would pal around with the Rolling Stones seemed unlikely. Foolishly, I failed to investigate.

The next day, a local newspaper featured front page photos of Margaret dancing and having a blast, you know where, with you know whom. Had I sensed the newsworthiness of the tip and followed up, I could have been the one to discover that Maggie met Rolling Stone Ron Wood in a hotel hallway where he invited her to take pictures of the band. I could have learned too that Maggie invited the Stones back to her room to “drink, play dice, smoke a little hash,” as she herself later revealed. The Maggie Trudeau / Rolling Stone story was certainly not worthy of a Pulitzer, but it was unusual, and no one else had it, until I turned it down.

News isn’t always famous people and dogs that shoot people. David Brinkley also said, “The one function TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.”

News can be about naked people. Today’s newspaper bears the headline, “Naked protestors attract a huge flock of onlookers during call for KFC boycott.” Two naked supporters of PETA, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, called for the boycott, alleging that KFC mistreats chickens. What do you think, film at 11?

Then there are times when news is about understatement – like the time Andrew Speaker spoke to media about how he boarded an international flight even though he was diagnosed with a contagious drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. “In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t the best decision,” Speaker said later. You think?

News can also be made when you think you don’t say something, but actually do. After 17 Muslims were arrested on charges of plotting a terror attack, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair was worried he would offend the local Islamic community. At the news conference to announce the arrests, Blair bent over backwards to be politically correct. “I would remind you that there was not one single reference made by law enforcement to Muslims or Muslim community,” Blair told reporters. The media got their quote. Chief Blair made the very statement he was determined to avoid. It was a case of the chief telling us what he didn’t want to tell us.

News is also about emotion, either the use of or the lack of it. While campaigning in Davenport, Iowa, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stumped alongside husband Bill. Reporting the story, New York Times reporter Patrick wrote about Hillary’s non-connection with people. “Mr. Clinton became visibly emotional in Davenport on Tuesday, for instance, as he recalled a New York City fireman who professed devotion to Mrs. Clinton for her work after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. ‘I have a hard time telling this, Mr. Clinton said with feeling.’” Continued Healy, “Mrs. Clinton has her own powerful stories about her mother’s struggles and the love for America in some countries, but she rarely sounds as if she has a lump in her throat.” Proving once more, it’s not only what you say – it’s how you say it.