Hypocritcal Bollocks

Humans are unique creatures on this planet to be capable of such remarkable complexity in thought. Hypocrisy is regrettably one of the tragic consequences of that complexity, and something that can really get to a person. It shakes your sense of fairness, undermines your trust in someone and ultimately removes the foundation for a positive relationship between colleagues and friends.



Yesterday myself and a handful of other photographers ran head-on into this hypocrisy.

A discussion on a professional mailing-list was in progress about the shock and horror of how little freelancers get paid for their work. Writers mind you. Aside from the dwindling value attached to freelance submissions, the question arose over people trying to get a start in the game by submitting their work for free. Nada. Nix. Nothing. No Charge. Gratis. Complementary. I need to be clear about this, we are talking about absolutely no payment of any sort what so ever.

There was suitable outrage. There were editors, freelance editors and freelance writers chipping in to point out how awful such a scenario would be. It should never happen, it causes all manner of ills. One editor posted these words to hoist their flag firmly on the moral high ground of the debate...

"But I draw the line when (and it happens often) writers offer me stories for free. Usually they are just starting out and want to get a foot in the door. But I explain to them (actually shame them) that to give it away devalues their writing/work and puts the income of freelance writers in jeopardy."

That was emailed at 11:19am.

Soon after I emailed the same editor independent of the discussion about what to invoice for my photos that had accompanied a story they commissioned. At 2:29pm the reply came back...

"Sorry Ewen, if you misunderstood, we don’t pay for images. Cover pictures yes. If this isn’t acceptable let me know and I’ll access pictures from elsewhere. Cheers"

So let's be clear about this. Writers giving away their work for FREE is devaluing their writing and threatens the income of all writers. Photographers however can get stuffed. I had not offered my photos for free, but when asked for payment I'm told that my contribution can be replaced elsewhere. I assume for no charge?

This is about hypocrisy. There are plenty of editors who don't pay for photos, and I've had to swallow that. They run my story because they get my photos. I'm a better photographer than writer and I know my shortcomings. But those editors don't post one-paragraph manifestos denouncing the acceptance of unpaid writing. In fact they repeatedly tell me that it frustrates them that they can't pay for images, they are restricted by decisions higher up.

What gets me steamed is how at 11:19am I'm told that freelance writers should never be published without payment, and at 2:29pm I'm told freelance photography is fine to print for free. Nada. Nix. Nothing. No Charge. Gratis. Complementary. I need to be clear about this, we are talking about absolutely no payment of any sort what so ever.

Hypocrisy is like when a seed gets stuck in your teeth. It's so small you cant easily get a hold of it but it can drive you totally insane.

Wyadup Rocks

These rocks do rock. The talented Fletcher boys have been shooting a lovely video of Christian Fletcher shooting some lovely still images. Beautiful place, artistic photography and some great video production.



Check out this video and other fabulous examples of the EOS 5D MkII...

EOScars.com

Dirty Wash

What's worse than waiting four weeks to get a washing machine fixed? Spending hours on hold with the same 30 seconds of music cycling over and over and over.

Let's start with the nitty gritty. For christmas we bought an LG washer-dryer unit, a fancy one that saves on space, saves on water and was being sold at a great price because the economic downturn had hit hard on luxury items such as Lexus 4WDs, Time Share packages on the Gold Coast and washing machines. One of the selling points is a ten year warranty on the motor, and a 2 year extended warranty on the rest.

Now we know why the warranty is so long, because you use up most of your warranty waiting for the repairs to happen.

The day before my wife is heading off for a 6 week film job the machine start spewing smoke into the room. Time to call LG and get it fixed, hopefully in the next day so she can do a load of laundry.

What should have been a quick call to start the process turned into a nightmare. The pleasant and helpful girl on the phone got almost everything right. She somehow managed to completely bugger up the name of the store where we bought the machine. It's difficult to fathom how she got it so wrong, it's not like she misspelled a part of the name but instead fed my words into a random word generator. The trouble is that LG decided the unit was bought second hand, as they had never heard of the retailer listed.

Of course they hadn't heard of it, the one they listed was completely fabricated!

It took a week to sort that one out. Mainly because the next level manager at the call centre failed to reply to calls. It had to go one more level up. So that's not just a week of waiting, that's a week of calling and being promised someone will call back today, tomorrow, etc. You know the drill.

So we now get booked in for a call-out. Not from LG though. That's important, LG don't service their own machine, it's outsourced to the nearest contractor. There are implications on this, as from here on the status of the repair is no longer tracked by LG. I was told that my guy would arrive between 9am and 5pm, which means any regular wage-earner has to take a day of annual leave to attend the call out. Hmmm, that makes it an expensive repair already and so far a week has already elapsed.

The dirty clothes are stacking up.

He arrived at 6pm. On a scale of 1 to 10 the efficiency of the call centre and the timing of the repair technician is rating a 2. It doesn't take long to ascertain the drum is buggered and it needs to go back to the workshop for repairs. But he doesn't do that, they have to book it in for a pick-up. Oh. So that's another day of annual leave that the poor suckers who buy this machine are expected to give up. This repair is getting very expensive indeed.

And here's the kicker. They wont do the pickup until *after* the new parts have arrived.

Two weeks go by, and no action. I finally call the LG centre again to ask what's going on. I give my reference number, get asked a bunch of random questions that lead me to believe they haven't actually typed in the reference number at all, and then get transfered to another second level operator. And that hold music is circling inside my head like a scythe wielding banshee, slashing at my sanity. How I hate that frigging tune, that 30 seconds of pseudo music that has come to symbolize the trauma of LG and their repair protocols.

I get a cheerful person on the line who just says "Hello how can I help you?" Oh no, do I have to repeat this entire conversation all over again? Does anybody actually use that reference number? Or is it just another product of their random word and number machine that spits out useless and non-related data to re-enter into their customer information systems?

And here's the fun part. LG don't know who is repairing my machine. They have no record of that.

In a few days time I'll be marking the fourth week without the washing machine. No minor inconvenience when you live without a car in a suburban neighbourhood where laundromats went out with the vinyl record. Our hideously expensive christmas present still sits in the laundry, quiet and useless.

I'm hoping this thing gets repaired before the extended warranty runs out. And if any of the boffins at LG are listening, please stop selling top-end white goods if you don't intend to deliver on the quality of the product or service them effectively.

LG Steam Washer / Dryer WD1248RD

Good (Travel) News

I am surprised to find this morning that I might be in greater agreement with Hartigan than I first thought. I've never thought newspapers would be killed by the internet, not just yet anyway. I'm of the view it's bad editors that kill newspapers.

This week's comments at Canberra's National Press Club was a rally call to champion the worthy content of newspapers, to stake a claim to the relevance of the daily papers and outline the future for News Ltd to make them more appealing to their customers.

In his own words, "As some of you may know we are completely reinventing our features coverage with new national sections in-paper and online. One of them is travel. Up till now travel journalism has been junket journalism. The airline with the best trip, the resort with the best room, gets the cover. It’s voyeurism but it’s not value. Instead of the same old destination stories we intend to give readers information that helps them research their next holiday and the tools to book and pay for it. Just by reading the newspaper or visiting the site."

Today I read the speech again with a little distance, and it doesn't offend me quite as much as it did the first time I read it. Why? Because when I first read it my colleagues at the ASTW were up to their armpits in debate about the future of Australian travel journalism, and had been under attack from a spurious complaint that any sponsored travel editorial is tainted. In that light, Hartigan's comments look like a red rag to a bull.

Take these comments on their own, you could interpret that Hartigan is admitting his own failures rather than slapping *all* travel journos in the face.

It was his editors at ESCAPE who were running stories about which business class seats were the best, having sampled a handful in the period of a few weeks on special famils. It was his editors who sourced editorial content specifically for a particular airline to showcase their destinations. It was his editors who run the endless stream of facile Fiji resorts without balancing the presentations with other Pacific or Asian destinations where travellers can get better value for money and immerse themselves in some genuine culture.

This is my view of where News Ltd has floundered. They kicked out a couple of great travel editors a few years ago and shoved some square pegs in round holes. Sydney got a news desk man and Melbourne got, well, Melbourne got totally screwed. There's no other way to put it. (I'm told he's a nice guy, but he was a rubbish editor in every possible way) We learned a few weeks back that things were changing, that a new editorial regime would replace the current ESCAPE format. And guess what, they put a decent editor in charge of the show.

I'm going to watch this space with a cautious eye, but it almost looks as though Hartigan is doing exactly what he's saying.

The new emphasis for travel to be informative and a resource for the reader is not novel. Take a look at Vacations & Travel, a national magazine that manages to publish a sensational edition every quarter. Presented in the best of glossy paper the content is attractive, relevant and is accompanied by a cascade of options for the traveller who wants to look deeper into the destination. It's the best shopping guide for Australian travellers in the market. It's not a Lonely Planet, it wont tell you what to do when you get there. Instead it tells you about a bunch of great experiences, why you might want to go there and who in Australia can help make it happen.

Is there a relationship between the advertisers and the editorial - yes. That's the nature of advertising, you have to sell space in the mag to pay for content. The price at the newspaper stand along doesn't cover it. This applies to any travel publication - a good editor sets up a forward plan for content and the advertisers can fight over the slots. Sometimes editorial is commissioned to support advertising too - to highlight a destination that isn't otherwise getting a run.

If you look carefully at Hartigan's speech you find the smoking gun. "Give them something they can’t get anywhere else."

Fair call. I think just about every travel writer in the ASTW would like to do that. We'd much rather be wandering off the trail and reporting on travel that goes beyond the cliche and covered. If that really is the mandate that Hartigan has given to his new look ESCAPE team then we're in for some interesting years and perhaps a revival of the very things that stir our passion for travel.



PS...

This blog diverted from it's original theme, about journalism rather than travel journalism.

Hartigan has pointed on many occasions that he feels journalism is in a healthy state today, compared to decades past. Lots of competition, lots of passionate journos and lots of open debate about issues - and he has a point, the media world is far more dynamic even without some of the familiar mastheads. The trouble is that the agenda being set by editors are usually the wrong issues - the people of Australia are too often being led down the path of the sensational instead of the informative.

Just take a look at what the Herald-Sun in Melbourne puts on the front page on any given day, and compare that to the real stories of the day and ask yourself if the debate is taking place on a level playing field?

I think John Hartigan is less concerned about the influence of Rupert Murdoch than I am. Personally I am less concerned with Rupert in particular than I am with concentrated ownership of the media. It concerns me that any one man would have such a potent influence on the selection of so many editors - and hence the debates take place on the wrong issues.

That's where my views most likely differ from Hartigans.