Man bites dog - that's news (From Times Series)

Man bites dog - that's news

12:27pm Friday 24th October 2008

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Man bites dog is news. That's the ultimate test newspaper folk have used over the decades to justify stories appearing in print.

I've been in the game a few years and can't, in fact, recall one single story of a man - or even a ferocious woman - biting a dog ... although I was once pulled up on the issue when I was an editor touring the Rotary clubs and Townswomen's Guilds talking about my life in journalism.

A gent firmly took me to task and pointed out that he had read a story of a man biting a dog in Finchley - in the Times series.

I'm sure that if it had happened in my reign as editor that it would have been a big front page story not to be forgotten - "Barking mad Thatcher constituent bites dog". We newspaper folk tend to talk in terms of headlines, you know.

Editors, by the way, are responsible in law for every line that appears in their papers, whether it be in the small ads or the news columns or whether they are in the office or cruising in the Mediterranean. So they do tend to read as much of what is going in as possible.

Newspaper howlers and this question of an editor's resonsibility featured large in my Rotary/TG, etc., etc show stopping tours of the borough of Barnet and beyond, the cornerstone being a story which either brought loud guffaws or gasps of disbelief. Let's see how we go.

The Daily Mail many moons ago carried a story about events in the Congo with a strap headline: "Mercenaries rape two nuns". A gruesome story underneath from the Mail man on the spot ran down the page - with half way down an advert in the next column showing a Harold Wilson-type figure puffing a pipe under the heading "Personally I prefer Three Nuns".

The point being that an editor is responsible for the ad being alongside the story ... even if he doesn't know it's there.

I digress. Back to man bites dog being news. Equally newsy is a group of football fans heaping accolades on a referee.

That's what happened this week after one Jarnail Singh refereed the Barnet v Wycombe Wanderers game, booked a Barnet player and denied calls for a home team penalty.

In the aftermath manager Paul Fairclough awarded Mr Singh top marks, the club reported him to the Football League for an exceptionally good performance and supporters heaped praise on the official on their messageboard for being on the ball.

Now I know that there is a respect the referee initiative this season but surely this is moving Barnet off the sports pages and making news.

I've often wondered why Specsavers didn't utilise referees as short-sighted individuals - "are you blind, ref?" was the call of my youth from the terraces - but this is obviously a 2008 trend when we sing the praises of Singh.

I'll report further when the Bees lose a game at home.

Footnote: In view of the criticism that I am old hat and write about people many of you don't know let me tell you all that Harold Wilson was a Labour Prime Minister who lived in the Garden Suburb, had a nice wife called Mary and spoke, as I once found to my cost when reporting him, at 200 words a minute.