Pick a number. Any number
The RSPCA got away with rank speculation on this morning's news. Good luck to them, says Dougal Paver.
One of the challenges facing any organisation when they find themselves in the midst of an interesting story is to ensure balance and thorough investigation on the part of any journalists covering it.
Thing is, news rooms are so stretched and experienced hands much thinner on the ground that the level of journalistic rigour can sometimes be, er, lacking.
And so it was on the local radio this morning in my taxi in from the airport. "Daily organised dog fights in Liverpool, say RSPCA", went the headline. Cut to RSPCA spokesperson who essentially said 'we reckon that dog fights are occuring weekly, perhaps even daily, in Liverpool.'
No evidence whatsoever to support the contention, just mere speculation. As a piece of PR puffery designed to get the RSPCA on the radio it shouldn't have cut the mustard - it certainly wouldn't have got past the news police in the Paver Smith LLP offices.
And yet there was a local radio station airing it, unchallenged, and pitching it as fact to listeners. My taxi driver nearly spat his dummy out. "They'll be saying the Queen's having an affair with Lady GaGa next," he exclaimed.
Now that would be news.
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