We really don't want to be gloomy all the time

Oct 29 2008 By Andrew Hebden

TODAY Programme presenter Evan Davies neatly summed up the dilemma facing many of us in the media yesterday morning following his latest interview with Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable.

“John Prescott accused us of being depressing yesterday – but it’s you lot who are to blame for that!” he told Mr Cable after a typically downbeat analysis of the economy.

And he has a point. There has been a growing backlash against the media for their negative coverage of the financial crisis, but it is hard to be anything other than downbeat when every commentator worth his salt reckons we are facing a crisis of historic proportions.

There has been much soul-searching in the media industry about the coverage afforded to the financial crisis. But the debate does not surround the issue of whether we have all been too negative; the big questions are concerned with why so few of us saw it coming.

These are probably matters for the editors of the Financial Times and the other broadsheets to grapple with. But it is certainly true that, in an era where many of the major newspapers are led by business journalists (The Times and Daily Telegraph are both edited by ex-business editors) these are certainly questions worth asking.

In the regional Press, there are other more pressing issues, I would argue. And the key one is how we report on a subject which is in so many respects bad news, without further under- mining the business confidence that we so desperately need to resurrect.

These dilemmas are not confined to newspapers, of course. I know that some of the region’s leading business organisations sometimes find it difficult to tread that fine line between being realistic about the challenges their member companies face while remaining bullish about the region’s prospects of pulling through. We know that we have a responsibility when it comes to the way in which we report events surrounding the state of the economy. Negative headlines do nothing to galvanise the region into standing tall against the challenges that we all face.

Yet we can also not ignore the reality of the situation. Yesterday our front-page story focused on the worrying rise in unemployment levels in County Durham – a story which is pretty hard to put a positive spin on.

But if we don’t highlight such challenges, then how can we hold to account those in authority who need to rise to them?

Ultimately, the responsible solution is to be balanced about the way we report the news and to accentuate the positive where possible. And, believe me, we’ll be as delighted as everyone else when we have a few more good news stories on which to report.