People In Glass Houses

There’s a new star in the television firmament, joining the likes of Goldie, Bouncer and Roly the enormous and slightly effete Eastenders poodle in the Animal Hall Of Fame.

Cookie the kitten was officially introduced to the adoring masses last week by a selection of rather sheepish-looking Blue Peter presenters, who looked like they’d been caught with their hands in the, ahem, cookie jar.

Alongside Cookie was a fellow Blue Peter cat named Socks, who, if all was fair and good with the world, should have himself been called Cookie - but because of some naughtiness in the BP office, he’s now ended up being the only TV pet with an identity crisis.

Such bad behaviour will be making the sainted Shep turn in his grave.

The apologies made by Konnie Huq et al are just the latest in a seemingly never-ending procession of contrite media personalities saying sorry for a wide range of misdemeanours, whilst in the background, previously-faceless members of the production crew are quietly let out of the back door.

Richard & Judy, GMTV, Deal Or No Deal, BBC Radio Six Music and the British Comedy Awards have all been in the firing line in recent months - and the agony of their respective periods in sackcloth and ashes has been added to by a procession of commentators in the written press all itching to have their say on the matter.

The recurring theme has been trust – how terrible it is that we can’t trust noble institutions like the BBC and Judy Finnegan, how the trust of the poor, gullible, quiz-hungry nation has been betrayed and how can the trust that’s required for us to believe that Ken Bruce’s Popmaster quiz isn’t fixed ever be regained?

Now, is it just me, or are the words pot, kettle and black not ringing out incredibly loudly somewhere in the background?

All the journalists that I work with are obviously fine, upstanding paragons of propriety, but in the surveys that tend to come out every couple of years or so of who the general public believe is trustworthy, the generic journalist ranks roughly as high up the list as double glazing salesmen, politicians and rattlesnakes.

Journalists (and PR people, come to that) have, I believe, been known to make up quotes, paragraphs or even full stories, to exaggerate when the need arises, or to leave out key pieces of information which might, er, interfere with their creative flow.

All this isn’t to say that the recently-uncovered wrongdoers of TV land shouldn’t be brought to book for what they did or didn’t do.

It’s just that, with all parts of the media universe being entirely enclosed in a glass house, those who choose to pick up stones should be thinking very carefully about how and at whom they throw them.

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