True Enough!

A couple of weeks ago, I am sorry to say, I came out with the tired old cliché about journalists never letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Not that there isn't an element of truth in this statement but I try to avoid using clichés and stereotypes. It was during a conversation with a journalist friend in which I was pointing out some of the inaccuracies in a piece he had recently written about me in our regional newspaper. This was not the first time an article has been written about me in a newspaper or magazine and it may well not be the last. I don' t appear often enough in the media to be nonchalant about it but on the other hand frequently enough that I am no longer seriously bothered about minor mistakes or misquotes. It was a good article, people in the street and supermarket are still stopping me to tell me so. The truth is, although some of the facts were strictly speaking inaccurate they were close enough to the truth to make no difference at all to the gist of the article while at the same time avoiding long-winded explanations that complete accuracy would have demanded.

At times, though, facts do get in the way of a good story. For example; listen to a group of people, specially couples, relating their vacation or travelling experiences they will constantly correct each other on the details. Yes, admit it, you do it, we all do it! Even though, as far as the content of the story is concerned, it probably doesn't matter if it happened last Tuesday or a year ago last Friday or what the precise name of the village in Outer Mongolia was where it took place!

I try to not to be specific about names, dates and places when writing these columns but when facts can't be avoided they often have to be shaped, shaved, bent and sometimes bullied to fit into the format. In order to maintain style and story some concessions have to be made. And I make mistakes! A friend twice pointed out mistakes I had made, I was grateful that he had spotted them and that he was reading the columns. At the same time I was annoyed that I hadn't noticed them myself. The thing is, though,  nobody else noticed! It is a matter of context, neither of these factual mistakes made any difference at all to the story I was telling or to the point I was trying to make. In another context, a different story, a different audience maybe, both could have been rather important and embarrassing errors while here they just didn't matter

I rarely watch television serials. However I made an exception for the BBC's dramatisation of Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Half way through the six week period I came across a news item: the advisor on another TV historical drama had spotted that a French aristocrat was wearing an historically incorrect medal. This was apparently important enough to be reported in several newspapers and news sites. War and Peace was a stunning visual production but otherwise I found it disappointing which still made it a lot better than most things I see on television.  And at last I found out how the story ends, having, like most people, never got more than half way through the book. My opinion of the series was, however, in no way affected by one person in one of the many opulent ballroom scenes wearing the wrong medal. I wouldn't have noticed, or cared, if he had been wearing a medal from the American war of independence or the London Marathon! 

“You can argue that it doesn't matter....” he says. Well, yes I do and I'll go even further and point out to this expert that War and Peace is a novel, a story, a fiction, the characters are either made up or fictionalised. Despite the historical setting none of it, including the aristocrat with the wrong medal, is fact! 

SO, my advice to the advisers, specialists and other nit-pickers out there: by all means have a quiet laugh about the inaccuracies you have spotted, I do too, but don't bother other people with them. Leave them to relax in ignorance and enjoy the show!