It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth

Maybe I'm being petty - no, no maybe, I am - but it's recently come to my attention that me and my team (okay, my bosses and their team) really need to boost our profile.

It's more a case of what tabs our esteemed bloggers look at, but last week I stumbled across a presentation by the Treasury secretary which I dutifully wrote up.

We splashed it across the wire and Stuff and the Herald picked it up - no probs there.

Imagine my consternation the following day when I see not only Danyl, but DPF (he who knows all) attributed it as a Herald report. Hmph. I couldn't handle three hours on the Herald, let alone be a part of their politics press team.

I'm still a baby after all.....

Anyways, the curious aspect is that it was up the previous day on both the Herald and Stuff business tabs - my favourite bloggers only picked up on it 'cos the Herald ran it in its political tab too - hence the attribution (I'm looking for any excuse to excuse 'em).

Still, it would've been nice if it was "BusinessWire reported".....

Oh woe is me - will I only ever be taken seriously by the blogging world if I make it into the politcal realm......?

PB.

(Anyone know why Whitehead's out in the trenches rallying the troops....? I for one would love to see an uprising by senior executives and board directors in the coming year..... the streets would run red with Central Otago pinot noir.... 'twould be beautiful....)

Slippery adj. 1. difficult to hold firmly or stand on through being smooth, wet, or slimy

I've been playing this one out in my mind for quite a while.

It was one of those moments when you realise "ah crap, now I've gone and done it...."

A few weeks back a friendly, but difficult to get hold of, press sec came through for me and tee-ed up a chat with his guy. He's a fairly busy fellow and I don't tend to want much on his major portfolio, so I'm down the pecking order - I can deal with that.

Anyway, here's how the exchange should have gone:

Me: Hello minister, how're you going?

Minister: I'm pretty well -
how're you finding Brent?

Me: You must be working him like a dog,
'cos he's always tough to get a
hold of...

Minister: Ahahahahaha....

Chat proceeds as it should.

Here's how it actually went.....

Me: Hello Minister, how're you going?

Minister: I'm well - how're you finding Brent?

Me: Uhhh, well, he's a bit slippery?

Minister (incredulously): Slippery?!?

Me: Uhh, yeah, I mean, he always returns my calls.... (inward groan)

Chat proceeds - call comes straight away:

Brent: Slippery?!?!?

Me: Uhhhh, I was, it just, I didn't mean....

This is when it pays to remember the second definition of slippery:

2 (of a person) evasive and unpredictable.

Not to mention the amount use it got last year..... jeeeeez being a baby reporter can leave you with a lot of red faces.....

When I'm back on speaking terms I'll let y'all know....

PB.

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception

The life of the baby reporter can often be a disheartening thing.

Not so much because you come across such horror as to send you into a spiral of despair (although that happens too), but from having to front up to the most ridiculous mistakes. Regularly.

Here's a tip for those who have yet to suffer this pitfall:

When you're floating an idea with the flack for a chat with the top guy, be prepared to talk to the guy straight immediately.

I had the pleasure of having a half-decent idea ruminating in my skull for a couple of days - put in the call to the company's minder (not a bad sort) with some vague topic for an interview, and got a call back 30 minutes later sayng I had the head honcho on the phone.

Needless to say, I wasn't prepared and had to put it off.

Fortune smiled on me in this circumstance (it hasn't in the past, but I'll go into those when I try addressing them... my face still burns when I think of one of them), and I got my ten minutes with the guy and should be able to spin a half-decent yarn out of it. I'll tell you about it later...

But god, the flack had a point when he said he'd never expect a hack to turn down an interview with the CEO of one of the country's biggest players.

What was the lesson you ask?

Well sniffing the Smellie breeze, if you can't be prepared, just put your best foot forward and wing it.... I'm not sure if my man under the hill would agree, but I never seem to be short of red faces at the moment..... I'll tell you about them soon.....


PB.

There will be nothing here for the diary entry

There was going to be a slightly more interesting blog about nothing and the banality of daylight savings, but then blogger pulled an IE and destroyed all of my beautiful musings.

Just look at the labels and think what might have been.

In the meantime, enjoy this:




PB.

Indeed there will be time to wonder, 'Do I dare? and, 'Do I dare?'

Sheesh - it's amazing what a good day can do to your attitude.

I'd been toying with the idea of making this a kinda thing that I dip back into when I have something eloquent to say for a while - six odd months to be precise. Unfortunately, it's rather embarrassing when you realise you don't actually have anything to add...

So, in a fit of rage yesterday, I considered turning this into the life and times of a baby reporter.

Am I still a baby? Unsure....

I've been doing this gig for six or so months full-time, which in the scheme of things could make me a veteran to some, but considering the old hacks I hang around with, I'm definitely a baby.

Anyhooo, that's not really what I wanted to say.

Oh yeah, hi, sorry it's been a while, if I could find the xkcd cartoon where it has the panel with the guy who blogs every six months to apologise for not blogging more often, I'd link to it, but I can't, so sorry on that front.

So what did I have to say today?

Just something I found curious about the Herald and Stuff in picking up me currency story and tyring to lose the crux of the story in the head they used.

Stuff did it a couple of days ago when they picked up a PA story on the appointment of David Mayhew as the new financial adviser commissioner.

Which poses the question as to why they don't add or edit the wire stories when they don't say what the web editor wants....

Sure they'll get the hits they want, but somehow that naive idealist in me just sees the reader getting swindled. And journalism ain't about.... is it....

PB.

Oh, as an aside, it was nice to see me currency piece forced PA to pick up on my theme - I'm not particularly one for the free market, but it is refreshing to see how competition can tangibly improve quality...

As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naive and simple hearted than we suppose

Well I can't say I'm too surprised at the superficial coverage given to our State Services Minister's sleight of hand yesterday evening.

Kudos to Tom Pullar-Strecker at the Dom for pulling together a story for the front page of the business section - at least he gave it a try.

And I guess the Labour Party's belated response in the form of yet another press release kind of fanned the fire.

That fire being the NZPA and its under-resourced pump out the re-written press release machine.

I can't even criticise them 'cos everyone knows that's what they do, but I do lament the lack of scepticism on the part of our full-grown journos who didn't feel like chasing the Hon Mr Ryall and finding out when the tender's going, if anyone's already applied to take over the contract, how many people will lose their jobs (I'd love to see a cost benefit analysis for the sacking public servants - right down to the consultant's fee) and a number of other questions relating to the pruning of the bureacracy.

I do hope Mr Ryall's PR team don't try to sneak through more bad news in the still of the night - it's just not a good look and much easier (and honourable) to face the light of day when you make a ballsy call.

But hey, what do I know...

I'm just a baby journalist...

PB.

Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste

It was only a matter of time.

And in this case, time is the essential item.

I can already hear my socialist friends chanting "slash and burn, slash and burn", because the man with the manifesto to slash red tape in the health bureaucracy has now begun his role as Minister of State Services.

Sitting at my school PC (that's what baby reporters do), I noted a scoop e-mail alert titled "Government Shared Network to be discontinued" pop through at 5.13pm.

The fact that the State Services Minister Tony Ryall is cutting the GSN ("a secure network linking government agencies with high-speed Internet and telecommunications services) is not, in and of itself, overly surprising.

Nor is the fact that the "[p]articipating government agencies will be moved to a new provider in the private sector."

The thing's losing money, and has done since its inception in 2007 (don't ask me why it was supposed to make money), so it was obviously going to be a candidate for slashing under our auspicious minister.

But 5.13pm for the press release?!? After the layout of most morning papers have been drawn up and TV's putting on the finishing touches to its 6pm bulletin?!? Hoping against hope that it gets lost in the avalanche of press releases accompanying the return of the politicians?!?

Puh-leeze - that's just plain stupid.

It looks suspicious and it draws attention to the move when it could have been sneaked through earlier in the day while all the media focus was on the RMA changes.

This is a senior minister with experienced PR professionals in his office, and it's not something that they saw at 3.30pm this afternoon, decided upon at 4.45pm, and wrote up a press release at 5.12pm.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Will the media fall for it and ignore a potential follow-up for something that looks, sounds, and smells like scuttling public sector jobs? Probably.

But it shouldn't - and touch wood, someone will pick it up and ask Mr Ryall what else is on the agenda for the slash and burn treatment.

This baby journalist would, but afterschool care's closing up, and I've got a ton of stuff to do.

Maybe I'll leave it to the professionals.... maybe...

PB.

These words force you to a new madness

After what seems an interminable amount of time, I've drawn myself back to the blog.

Two weeks, five weeks, 32 weeks, it all seems like much of a blur at the moment.

I've just come off a two week internship at the Dom Post, which was very much an eye-opening experience. While you can see some of what I managed to achieve here, here, here, and here, let's be perfectly honest about this - I was out of my depth.

Sure, the baby reporter moniker has always been something of a piss-take, but I would not envy anyone jumping into the atmosphere of a metropolitan newspaper (or its equivalent) in an entry level position. It's... it's... it's difficult to explain, so I shan't.

I shall merely say that while it wasn't what I expected, I could take away some serious lessons, and so could my compadre, Sandra the luddite (who was able to start off our internship with this wonderful surprise - which sounded incredibly familiar).

And when this baby reporter grows up, he's going to be a full-grown hack...

Something to look forward to...

PB.

Other intership adventures can be found here and here.

Gratuitious plug number three

And three is for me. Check it out - my first lead.

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