Under the spotlight

Sep 24 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

Under the spotlight

WHEN people groan about ending up in the media spotlight I have, as a journalist, had the same message: If you don’t do it, we can’t write about it.

Sadly, or happily, depending which side of the media fence you face, there are enough people doing enough things to fill more pages than we can ever handle.

Last week, there were groans about a BBC1 television programme which zoomed in on issues sur- rounding the run-up to Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture.

There has been a complaint to the BBC about the programme’s one-sided stance.

I was interviewed on the programme and put forward, in a matter of fact, and professional way, the view I have long held.

The skirmishes between Mike Storey and Sir David Henshaw, and later the fall-out between Warren Bradley and Jason Harborow, cannot have helped Liverpool’s corner, nor the city’s already well-tarnished image. Nor can we have been helped by the adverse publicity surrounding the appointment of Australian Robyn Archer as artistic director of the culture programme. These battles were bound to leave their scars.

Despite the unwelcome diversions, I still believe the event-focused culture programme in 2008 will, in all probability, be a big success. What concerns me is the legacy left behind after what should be the city’s most important ever year.

Can a programme of events be much of a legacy? People flocking to watch Sir Simon Rattle would just as readily head to Manchester if he was conducting there.

The big tragedy is that people in high office should have known their actions would provide a feast of publicity. There’s no need for a Woodward or Bernstein to flush out the disharmonies in the corridors of power. And wanting to shoot the messengers won’t make it go away.

The Daily Post and the Liverpool Echo are solidly behind Capital of Culture, and everybody here wants, craves even, success – even me.

We cannot sweep things under some civic carpet as though it doesn’t matter. People in this city, many of them struggling to make ends meet, will be paying for our year-long jamboree. By the end of next year the council, from its own funds – that is, council taxpayers’ lolly – will have forked out around £70m to run the culture machine. There will be many who would have preferred that money to be spent on youth clubs, homes for the elderly, education, etc.

The rulers and decisions makers know the rules. Let’s put it this way: if they didn’t squabble we (the media) couldn’t write about it. Their actions feed the news machines and throw the spotlight on this city for all the wrong reasons.

Programme makers and journalists have their appetites whetted by high drama. As one television executive put it me: “We’re not in town to make a promotional ad”.

The people rewarded handsomely for advising the civic machine on matters relating to image might well have mentioned the need for Sunday best behaviour. Complaining about the coverage is adding the dessert to the main course.