School Dinners

I’m an ardent believer in ethical journalism.
I’m not going to run off and write an expose – not unless it’s to reveal criminality of some kind.
We’re not into scape-goating locals on local papers.
But just two month’s into the job and I’ve already received complaints on a couple of stories.
Today’s moan came from the headteacher of a primary school.
The story on page five of the Advertiser began:
LUNCHTIMES will never be the same again for an Enfield school that has been fitted with a swanky new kitchen.
Xxxx school is putting good health and taste back on the menu now that they can prepare home-cooked meals on site.
Previously pupils had to make do with “mushy” vegetables brought in from xxxx school nearby. A school spokeswoman said: The food wasn’t particularly good before as vegetables were rotten by the time they had been transported to us.”
And so on.
I failed to see the problem.
And so did my editor.
But alas – I had made a grave error with “mushy” and “rotten” in the copy, which “showed the school in a bad light”.
Hands up – but I only wrote what I was told.
Even the school chef of the school that did the cooking before the other school got its new stove phoned in offended.
And the council suggested I go and eat lunch there to write a piece to prove the food is not "mushy" or "rotten."
WOAH - that'll teach me.
I invited the schools to write a letter to my news editor and he chatted to the aggrieved parties and asked them to stop giving his reporters a hard time.
We’re just doing our job.
In my view, they were pretty lucky to have been the subject of a page five lead in the first place. We were half expecting a raging call-in from he subject of the splash this week – which was a REAL expose.
And would have warranted the required explaination.
But we didn’t hear a tinkle and had a school in a tizz instead.
Maybe tomorrow the "racists" will catch on.
See above post to go up shortly.