Many council comms people began on newspapers and know the Russian roulette of the walk-in. That’s the member of the public who wanders in with a story. Sometimes they have and sometimes they haven’t. Here’s an insight into what that looks like from the author Alex Morrison of an excellent book on the subject There’s Someone in Reception.
What should a journalist do when a member of the public walks in with a complaint about “the council”?
First, take a deep breath. Grab a coffee. Maybe cancel your next meeting. These stories are usually complex, and are often backed up by carrier bags full of discoloured documents.
Take the man who walked into the Surrey Daily Advertiser in Guildford in the early 1980s.
The visitor was partially sighted, and reporter Alan Jones had been running stories about the lack of accommodation for disadvantaged groups in Guildford.
The man said the council had ignored his repeated pleas for housing.
Determined to help, Jones phoned the council there and then.
The council’s housing officer asked Jones to describe the man.
Jones: “He’s late fifties… long hair, he has a white walking stick. Oh, and appears to have a glass eye.”
Housing officer: “Ah, it’s him again. He’s been claiming disability benefit fraudulently… Has he taken out his glass eye yet and bounced it on the floor? It’s something he does when he doesn’t get his own way.”
Jones ended the call and turned back to the man, explaining that the council couldn’t help.
The man said: “You don’t believe I’m nearly blind, do you?”
Then he removed his glass eye and bounced it on the floor, to screams from the receptionists.
Recalling the scene, Jones told me: “It took a while to find his eye, give it back to him… and send him on his way. I didn’t answer calls from reception for a while after that.”
But what is the lesson from this story? Never trust the public? Assume claims against “the council” are usually unfounded?
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. My book on local journalism – which focusses on “walk-ins” such as this – contains over 100 stories, from the 1950s to the 2020s.
There are no solid rules. Some walk-ins told unbelievable stories that turned out to be true (I just windsurfed from Swansea to Devon). Others told believable tales that turned out to be lies (someone shot us with an airgun – in fact these visitors shot themselves in a bizarre bid for compensation).
For council comms people asked to respond to such stories, things could be even more complicated.
Should you lend the story credibility by commenting on it? If you know something’s untrue – or more complicated than the way it’s been presented to a journalist – can you quietly steer them towards the truth?
Again, there are no easy options.
In my own time in local journalism, a walk-in claimed the councillors of Crawley were werewolves.
Disappointingly (for me at least), the council declined to comment.
There’s Someone in Reception by Alex Morrison is available in e-book, paperback, hardback and audiobook via Amazon.