Thursday 24 September 2020

Neither lawyers nor governments could restrain him

“No journalist of my generation could escape Harry’s influence... we were all brought up on his text books. Everything we knew about constructing an intro, subbing, cropping a picture, designing a page or writing a headline we knew it because of Harry. It was drummed into us... He was to journalism what Doctor Spock was to child-rearing... the journalist who reminds us all why we all wanted to be journalists. At a time when some people are giving journalism a bad name he is somebody who gave journalism a good name. He represents what we could be and what we should be.” - former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.

"[He] transformed Fleet Street and [he] transformed the lives of all of us by understanding and appreciating that investigative journalism defines us. It earns our troublesome place in society and it makes clear for every journalist that what we do, for all our flaws, is invaluable." - former BBC head of news James Harding.

“He was the inventor of team journalism. In the editorial chair, he was a human dynamo and set in motion such a stream of powerful stories and campaigns that his rivals (I was one) could only struggle to keep up.” - Donald Trelford, former editor of the Observer.

"Evans was not just the champion of using journalism to set wrongs right. He was also a quintessential British editor who, for all his high-minded causes, understood that journalism was foremost not an intellectual pursuit but a craft – one that demanded muscular and clear language, captivating pictures, arresting headlines, perfect layout of the newspaper page... and, above all else, in a phrase coined by his foreign correspondent, a strong dose of 'rat-like cunning'.” - award-winning investigative journalist Stephen Grey, Reuters.

Sir Harold Evans, considered to be "the finest newspaper editor of his generation", the guiding light of every journalist and journalism student (myself included) for his comprehensive series of books on the subject of writing, editing, layout and impact of the journalistic craft, has died, aged 92. The world owes him a huge debt.

Having ruled Fleet Street for decades, he finally quit after Rupert Murdoch took over The Times and began to enforce his own personal and political influence on the editorial content of the paper. He departed for New York with his wife Tina Brown, latterly editor of Vanity Fair, and never looked back.

His remarkable journalistic campaign achievements included the pardon granted to the unfortunate Timothy Evans, hanged for the murders of his wife and child that were actually perpetrated by his neighbour the serial killer Reginald Christie, and the victory over the pharmaceutical company for proper compensation for the families of children born with deformities from the drug Thalidomide. His pioneering hard-hitting investigative journalism produced a string of world class scoops during his fourteen-year tenure at The Sunday Times, including the Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland, the unmasking of Kim Philby as a KGB agent working for MI6 and publication of the Crossman Diaries.

As former editor of the FT Lionel Barber, in his obituary, says: "Neither lawyers nor governments could restrain him."

And who could ask for a better epitaph than that?

Harold Evans quotes: 

  • "The camera cannot lie, but it can be an accessory to untruth." 
  • "The democratisation of news is fine and splendid, but it's not reporting. It's based on a fragment of information picked up from television or the web, and people are sounding off about something that's not necessarily true." 
  • "Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches." 
  • "In journalism it is simpler to sound off than it is to find out. It is more elegant to pontificate than it is to sweat."
  • “Things are not what they seem on the surface. Dig deeper, dig deeper, dig deeper.”
  • “Just find out what the bloody facts are!”

RIP Sir Harold Matthew Evans (28th June 1928 – 23rd September 2020)

9 comments:

  1. I think we need a few more like Harry.
    RIP
    Sx

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    1. Too right - before the pernicious predominance of Tw*tter and F***book gets too much. The world needs proper media, proper journalists, truth-seekers who challenge those in power and, most of all, people being paid to write who CAN ACTUALLY WRITE! Jx

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    2. I just don't know where they would go. My local newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Examiner, have gone from being admirable outlets you could hold up as an example of good journalism to resembling texts filed by interns.

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    3. They've probably made the skilled journos redundant, and all that's left are some bored students who just retype things they've read on Buzzfeed. It's endemic. Jx

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  2. Blogger monkeying with things again!
    I did comment earlier that you've posted a fitting tribute. I remember the Harry Evans days and wish today's crop of mud-slingers could be washed off the deck.

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    Replies
    1. Sir Harold, had he not been beaten into submission by that Murdoch creature and flown off to 'Merka, would have continued to provide a standard by which British journalism would, and should be, judged. Such a shame that there are so few actual journalists remaining nowadays. Jx

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  3. Radio Four played a tribute from the dad of a girl affected by thalidomide

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  4. Thank you for this I did not know about him before.
    I agree In a world of fake news, social media and lazy reporting we needed someone like him now more than ever.

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    Replies
    1. I have a treasured copy of his Essential English on our bookshelves. It is a real shame more purported "journalists" obviously do not.

      The requirement of news outlets to present verifiable and well-researched factual information in a clearly-written and understandable manner is a sadly dying art. Jx

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