I was really struck on the morning after 9/11 – and to a lesser extent
Posted in General on 21. Sep, 2010
I was really struck on the morning after 9/11 – and to a lesser extent 7/7 – by the power of still photographs and written accounts, which tend to hurtle by to some extent on rolling news.”Asked for his high point of Sky’s own coverage, Pollard gives a surprising answer, citing a day of coverage called Inside Islam, based in the Beeston area of Leeds. “I accept that generally in continuous rolling news it is harder for journalists to cultivate and know how to use informed contacts as much as in the old days, when people had more down time and we all had thicker contacts books,” he says.Conscious of critics such as veteran war correspondent Martin Bell who have suggested that the demands of 24/7 news discourage journalists from uncovering the real stories, Pollard has recruited 30 more staff who are encouraged to work off-camera, “digging out the story, going and shooting material off-site”. When rumour and wild claim are swirling around, Martin will make sense of them and tell the viewer what we know and, crucially, what we don’t know I would trust Martin’s instincts and contacts. It’s a classic old Fleet Street talent of having contacts and nurturing them.”It is a skill that Pollard admits is not widespread in this area of journalism. “He breaks stories continually and is unflappably good at what he does.
I’ve worked at the BBC, I’ve worked at ITN and I’ve worked here and I would say this is without doubt the best team of broadcast journalists in Britain.” As if anticipating the next break in the fast-evolving terror story, Pollard ends his every sentence with a glance over his shoulder at a bank of TV screens in his office.The star act in Pollard’s team over the past weeks has been his calmly spoken crime correspondent, Martin Brunt, who has repeatedly brought news of developments in the story before they have been officially confirmed “I think he is without peer,” says Pollard. I have a feeling that viewers, who are now quite attuned to 24-hour news, understand the rhythm and dynamics of an evolving story and would rather be told what we believe is the detail of an unfolding story, rather than waiting until the whole story is known.”Pollard, who worked in radio and television news for the BBC before spending 12 years at ITN, where he executive-produced News at Ten, says he “fundamentally rejects” the claim that “the BBC inevitably puts forward that Sky is much less accurate than the BBC”.He says: “I don’t accept that because I think our journalists and production people at every level are the equal – and, in fact, the superior in many respects – of the BBC. “It’s interesting to see the BBC jumping through hoops of their own making on this. Last Thursday they clearly made a decision to be very, very conservative and stuck with one caption saying ‘police investigating incidents on the underground’ for about an hour-and-a-half.”Our philosophy is that we will tell viewers what we believe is going on, we will attribute every source, claim and figure that we quote We will also tell viewers what we don’t know. Senior BBC news staff believe that Sky is too quick to shout about its scoops and that the subscription channel’s frequent willingness to jump the gun often leads to mistakes.Pollard is angry at the suggestion.
People are hungry for news like that and you are providing a classic public service as well.”This approach gives Sky an advantage over the BBC, whose public service requirements carry a greater pressure to cover other news. My view is that you can’t go far wrong sticking with a big story even slightly longer than necessary, rather than leaving it too soon. During eight years at Sky, Pollard has learned that the way to react to a genuinely big story is to “clear the decks, just drop everything”.He says: “We’ve got a well-honed plan, even though it’s not written down. You bash the phones, start putting up maps of where these incidents are reported and, most crucially, try to get on the phone somebody who’s seen what was going on, whether it’s the managing director of London Underground or someone on a mobile phone standing outside a tube station.”It’s an awareness of the importance of chucking all your resources at the stories that really matter and being content to ignore the others.
After 7 July I don’t think we covered another story at all for 48 hours. We had it in the air very quickly over Aldgate tube, showing live scenes. That was a big step forward for us.”But it has not been luck alone that has delivered a succession of scoops, including the revelation that the attacks were the work of suicide bombers and that a man had been shot at Stockwell tube station, although ITV News’s stunning footage of Friday’s Notting Hill arrests were unrivalled. Pollard says: “It was the day after the Olympic decision and we were going to use the helicopter to do aerial shots to demonstrate projects that were going to get green lit. “He said there was absolutely no question it was a bomb and we went with that.