Tom Coates, Barry Scott: What’s a good story?
Following my discovery yesterday from Neil about the Tom Coates/Cilit Bang incident, I relayed it to my cousin who happens to work for the Sunday Telegraph. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to tell the news desk about that,” he said, “but not the bit about the detergent.” Turns out he’s far more interested in a story about a man who details online his search for his estranged father, rather than a story about a man who details online his search for his estranged father and consequently gets mugged by a marketing company. “Basically,” he explained, “there’s only about 15 stories in the world”. (A world-weary hack at barely 30.)
Meanwhile, I’ve found that the incident has moved on slightly and in today’s Guardian Bobbie Johnson has put it into print. But he’s interested just in how a marketing has been caught red-handed exploiting people’s blogs. No mention that one of the exploits was of someone’s deep emotional struggle.
I guess there might be only fifteen stories in the world, but there’s still a choice in which one you tell.
