A report into reports

Have you noticed anything about news coverage recently?

It’s dominated by reports.

I don’t mean the reports that reporters do and have always done. I mean reports that have been commissioned by someone or other and which reporters end up reporting on.

Do you understand?

Instead of ordinary reports from reporters we have reporters reporting on reports.

“A report today revealed that…” “A new report says that…” “A government report claims…”

It’s relentless.

So much so that I – please bear with me – decided to commission a report into reports.

And I am pleased today to report that the people who undertook this report concerning reports have reported back.

They report that reports as reported by reporters are not always what they seem to be.

Of course some reports are valuable. But it’s almost impossible to tell good reports from bad reports and they all get reported by reporters in news reports as if they were of equal value.

They conclude that influential bodies should resort to reports as a last resort.

I hope this has been useful for you.

(Just to keep you in the loop I am pleased to report that I will shortly be establishing an inquiry into inquiries so if you’ve any enquires be sure to ask)

(I have also set up a committee into the usefulness of committees and will report as soon as we’ve had a committee meeting.)