One night a little while ago I sang an awful karaoke attempt of Heal the World and, in a less than sober state, duly lapped up the moment while being recorded on a friend’s mobile. I woke up dreading what could appear on Facebook the next day.
Today I feel decidedly less stupid. Imagine waking up and remembering doing this?
Oh dear. Here we are, then, this reporter, the Birmingham Mail’s Adam Smith, who is clearly (and the brummies might say) “off his tits”.
Journalists being drunk isn’t a new craze by any means (hurrah!), but what Adam’s done is a tad more serious. He’s noted the fact that he’s gone — on the Mail’s payroll, let’s not forget EDIT: It was a voluntary trip — to Miami to report the election. By his own admission, Miami wasn’t really an exciting place to be. Everyone knew it would end up going Democrat, as always.
He was there because it was “where the party is”. And, he admits, he can’t get enough of the women. He’s clearly doing a great job of attracting said women while he sits on a bench in the dead of night writing away on his laptop. Hardly the Diet Coke man.
But sadly for Adam, that’s not it. He openly delves into his journalistic technique of copying and pasting from the BBC website. He acknowledges the flaw of what he’s doing, saying that while history is being made, the B’ham Mail readers are merely getting his take on history and, well, he’s bladdered. He may have even started the first paragraph with something like “You know what readers, you’re my best mate. I bloody love you.”
He finishes on a high. He resigns. “Fuck you,” he says, flicking a v-sign at the camera. And in an instant, a journalism career is ruined.
Fool. His copy was, I’m guessing, originally here, but it has since been wisely removed.
[via Hold the Front Page]
EDIT: The journalist has made some comments via YouTube:
Right, the thing is, right I’ve just woke up. And seen this video, which I don’t really remember. I’ve been told to phone the Birmingham Mail because I am in trouble. I was off duty, I am on official holiday working at the South Beach Miami Barack Obama campaign where I had just done a 18-hour shift trying to make the world a better place. Please check every BBC News outlet and see if I have cut and pasted anything. I have not, it was a joke and should be taken in the spirit it was said.”
And then later:
Thanks for the kind comments, it has meant a lot to get the backing of so many people I respect. I’m currently in hiding at the Gansevoort South hotel in Miami tryin to come to terms what’s happened whilst sipping rum and coke at the pool. I guess I’m going to have to face the music when I get back.
Adam Smith, aka Steve Zacharanda
Technically, still a Birmingham Mail reporter.
But definitely editor and founder of Goggle-eye magazine and Cheeky Media.
Cheeky Media indeed!
Dave, I so don’t agree with you! If anyone in our profession was recorded pissed and their “interview” posted over YouTube, I’d be concerned for them, I’m not usre that it’s clear that the paper sent him there – I have read other snippets online that suggest he paid his own way, but certainly, according to his own comment on Youtube he says he’s just worked a 16-hour shift, give the lad a break! I for one, wish him every success.
Linda’s last blog post..Now that’s the type of feedback I like to hear!
Sorry, me again, he says he was on holiday and that he had been working in the campaign office for Brack Obama and was filing copy as a favour for the Mail and there is a suggestion that he had been made redundant. Journalists getting pissed isn’t new is it? I don’t think he deserves the stick, I considered posting about this yesterday but decided not to cos I thought he came across as a decent bloke and I didn’t think it was fair to make one night’s behaviour some sort of barometer for the state of journalism as it does seem to be becoming for some commenters. Right, I’m off! Cheers. x
Linda’s last blog post..Now that’s the type of feedback I like to hear!
You have got to be kidding. I know plenty of decent blokes, but let’s be clear, there’s a responsibility of professionalism that comes with journalism.
Imagine the impact of this. Imagine the negative effect it’ll have on the reputation of the Mail.
To openly admit to some absolutely shoddy practices, laughing about it, and then looking for a high-five in celebration makes a mockery of all the people who read the newspaper and trust it.
Journalists getting pissed is one thing. I do it as often as I can. But I’ll never let it get in the way of doing a good, professional job. There are thousands of journos out there that would give anything to be in the position that Adam was in, and here he is pissing it up the wall.
16 hour shift or not, it’s bad work. I’ll amend my post now to make it clear he wasn’t being paid. Doesn’t excuse him, though. If I was in charge of the Mail, I wouldn’t let him anywhere near my paper again.
Interesting that his ‘article’ has since been removed from the Mail’s website.
But Dave, it’s not that interesting is it? Reporter, who is no longer on a paper’s payroll gets pissed after working 16 hours in Obama’s campaign office and jokes about cutting and pasting copy? Cue people posting him all over the internet and calling him a disgrace without even reporting anything about what he would see as “his side of the story?” Or laughing at him? Of course cutting and pasting copy is bad work, but he is pissed and he is joking. To some, possibly, what is more shocking is that a few drunken remarks are held up as some barometer of the state of modern journalism. Nonsense. Good luck to him.
Linda’s last blog post..Now that’s the type of feedback I like to hear!
At no point have I suggested this guy is a barometer of the state of journalism.
What I will say, though, is that he has embarrassed the integrity of the B’ham Mail, and there is no excusing that for a second.
Do you buy a newspaper in order to read the words of a drunk? I’d hope not.
Now I’m all for some of the emotive writing that comes from a bit of drink, but this goes beyond that.
As I’ve said, the Mail is clearly in agreement as they have removed the piece.
You say “gets pissed after working 16 hours”. I’m all for that. But it seems Adam has got pissed while still at work… and I think that’s not on. A drink or two, maybe, but the man’s pretty much trolleyed.
Dave, I’m sorry I think you are missing the part I disagree with you on – of course it’s shoddy to cut and paste copy, of course readers of newspapers should expect that their copy is produced by people who are sober, same as they expect them to check their facts and seek comment from the person they are writing about objectively, to make sure they have got those facts right and give them a right of reply before going to print. I didn’t say you are using this as some sort of barometer of the current state of journalism but other bloggers are. I am disagreeing because I think that it’s just as shoddy to not check your facts before publishing something and because I think it’s shoddy to set so much store by someone’s actions when they are pissed in a bar and ‘off duty’ Which is worse? Getting pissed and joking you have cut and paste some copy from the BBC or holding up some poor bloke who is pissed and joking about one element of his job (when he may not have a job) for ridicule?
Linda’s last blog post..Now that’s the type of feedback I like to hear!
Is he off-duty? He’s filing copy. If he wanted to spend the election night getting pissed — and who could blame him — he shouldn’t have volunteered to work.
For me it’s the difference between getting bladdered on your lunch break, or getting bladdered after work. Big difference, and I think Smith’s actions were of the lunchbreak variety.
He says he is filing copy as a favour – but the point is I don’t know the full story and neither do you – that’s why I felt it would be misinformed and irresponsible of me to post what I thought about it on my blog.
All I’m saying is that in my opinion, it’s not fair to base condemnation of his professional standards etc on a few minute long video that has been posted of him on YouTube of him in that state.
He’s in trouble for fucking up but my humble opinion is that the people who have been quick to broadcast his actions (with or without his permission) and pontificate on what they think of them, should also be asking themselves questions about their ethics and approach.
Perhaps they will still feel justified, fine but I disagree and I find it pretty uncomfortable and in my opinion it raises questions about what is ‘fair game’ on YouTube.
I hope I have made my point, I’m really not sure if anyone would agree with me, and perhaps I shouldn’t care – I really am off now, Cheers.
Linda’s last blog post..Now that’s the type of feedback I like to hear!
>> my humble opinion is that the people who have been quick to broadcast his actions (with or without his permission) and pontificate on what they think of them, should also be asking themselves questions about their ethics and approach.
But if everybody started doing that, wouldn’t most of the pages of our newspapers be empty most days – no Amy coverage for a start!
Martin Belam’s last blog post..links for 2008-11-05
.. or Kerry or Kate or Britney or what’shername who used to be married to Jude Law.
Linda’s last blog post..Now that’s the type of feedback I like to hear!
A telling example of something to avoid like the plague. To be explicit:
If drunk, avoid people with a video camera, especially if you don’t know them that well unless you have some kind of sway of what they’ll do with the material afterwards.
And don’t, for God’s sake, say things like “Thank God for the BBC coz I’ve been cutting and pasting!” Plagiarism is never a good thing to do nor confess to.
Here endeth the lesson.
Jon Jacob’s last blog post..Remembrance Sunday
The South Park episode broadcast in America last night had a couple of scenes to which Adam Smith might relate (@ 5:25 and 9:00) :
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oWrxuNFtlNE
I wonder if it will do long term harm to his reputation or not?
God preserve us from the sanctimonious moral majority. Really, the world seems to have completely lost any sense of humour or proportion these days.
I watched it and genuinely can’t see a problem. Here’s my issue: the camera (wo)man initially asks if this guy is on Facebook. So he’s probably not filing copy at that exact moment. So we don’t know if he’s joking or to what extent he’s joking. We don’t know if he’s already filed. If he did copy and paste from a website, it might have been copying a stat, a PR quote, a name.
My point being: we don’t know.
It’s entirely possible he’s pissed up, using some building’s free wifi to catch up on Facebook. It’s entirely possible he didn’t copy and paste anything. It’s entirely possible he copy/pasted a name, or a quote, or a stat. It’s entirely possible he’s exaggerating for comedic effect.
Without wishing to hark back to other pointless media rants of recent weeks, I’d say that judging someone so harshly when you are not in posession of the full facts, have not read the bloke’s story (which clearly passed muster when it was filed) and you’re relying on a video posted by a third party you don’t know, then you’re not acting as a responsible journalist – you’re just another one of the outraged herd, and it’s a poor show.
Who ruined this bloke’s career? Him? The idiot with the camera? Or the pompous, hysterical, judgmental bloggers who rushed to appoint themselves judge of the rest of us?
Oh, also my understanding is that Miami was a swing state and he chose to go there because it would be more interesting than other swing states like, er, Idaho. Which, having been to both places, is probably fair comment.
“Miami wasn’t really an exciting place to be. Everyone knew it would end up going Democrat, as always.”
Miami is in Florida, which is a swing state.
@Johnson — yes, but Miami-Dade has consistently voted Democrat.
@Sally — the guy asks if it’s ‘going’ on Facebook, not if he’s ON Facebook. It took the guy ages to even believe that this guy was a journalist. I don’t know if it’ll will ruin his career, but he’s only got himself to blame if it does. I wouldn’t say I was being pompous or hysterical. I am being judgmental, yes, because I’ve judged this man to be a complete berk. And on this blog, I’m allowed to do that.
@Matthew — well that of course remains to be seen. If, as he says in the video, he’s off to start his own indie magazine, then maybe he’s going to benefit from appearing to be a bit of a loose cannon.
@DB — ha! Wonderful! Thanks for sharing the clip.
Word is he’s in the last week of work at the mail having applied for VR. Further word is he’s now lost the VR cheque. No job and £10k poorer. EEjit.
This explains all – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tg5lUWLBYfU
Y’know.. every place I’ve ever worked, just the act of telling your boss to “F—Off” is very much sufficient to get a person fired!
This idiot did it drunk, on video, and bragged about plagiarism at the same time. He certainly deserves an immediate boot!
Dear God! I have never come across a bunch of people so entirely up their own backsides they can lick their spleens. I smell the dank, stale odour of subs and the poisonous, humourless whiff of the London set.
I worked with Adam and he is a great guy and a damn good reporter. Does he regard it as a disaster? Of course he doesn’t, as is apparent from the video shot the following day (obviously, your moronic commentators haven’t bothered to look at that yet.) If only some of you had the balls he has. It’s people like YOU who give HUMANITY a bad name, not HIM who gives JOURNALISM a bad name. “Reputation of journalism” my arse! The comments above are so obviously by self-important moralists who still call journalism (or reporting, as it should be known) a profession and not a trade.
After 25 years as a daily newspaper reporter I find Adam’s “two fingers up to everything” approach really, really refreshing. He WILL be a success, because he has a personality, a sense of perspective – and a great sense of humour. “Ruining a career”? Oh please!
On a point of interest regarding “the reputation of journalism”, so many of these posts are littered with factual errors. No-one has bothered to check anything out, other than just looking at the video. THAT says more about standards in journalism and the twittering set than Adam says about reporting.
I would say “get real and get a sense of humour” but it is far too late for you.
Cue the “It’s Tough Up North London” Brigade to flutter their feathers.
Looking at the video and the comments posted above, it’s absolutely clear to me that Adam is very open, honest, modest about his talents, entertaining and also unmotivated by petty ambitions or the need to artificially feel superior.
It’s also clear that some folks have got an egotistically inflated sense of their “professional dignity” and the validity of what I would consider to be, frankly, their pretty much worthless opinion.
So, guess who’s the better journalist?
I love it when people suffer from “delusions of adequacy”.
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