¿Han probado con el periodismo?

De mayores acá todos queremos ser tertulianos para pontificar sobre todos y todo cada mañana. Se empieza así y se acaba tomando la propia interpretación de los hechos como el hecho más noticiable. Error. Así se nos va olvidando lo más elemental del periodismo: averiguar y editar los hechos con certeza.

Jimmy McGovern, guionista, hace en el Daily Mirror un ejemplar recuento del Bloody Sunday amontonando adecuadamente los hechos uno detrás de otro…

[…] Jim Wray was too badly wounded to play dead. He was crawling on his stomach. The Para[trooper] shot Jim Wray again, in the back, finishing him off. To the Para's right was an alley to another courtyard. The Para stood, weapon raised, waiting. Gerald Donaghey, 17, appeared and the Para shot him. Behind Gerald Donaghey was Gerard McKinney, 35, father of seven children with a wife just about to give birth to an eighth.

McKinney raised his hands and begged the Para not to shoot. The Para shot him dead.

The other McKinney (William, no relation), lying just feet away, was to die later of his wounds. All who were shot were unarmed. […]

…y dándoles contexto y escenario (¡Sólo Con Los Hechos! ¡Sin Pontificar!):

[…] Within weeks, in the most disgraceful report in British legal history, he exonerated all soldiers and laid the blame on the organisers of the march.

What Widgery was saying, in effect, was this: British soldiers could walk up your street and murder you and the state would JFamilies' absolve them of all blame. So nationalists looked to the IRA. And so began the bloodiest period of the Troubles - 256 killed in six months, 252 the next year, 294 in 1974, 257 in 1975, 295 in 1976.

So yesterday, 38 years after the obscenity that was Widgery, the Saville Inquiry was published and, at last, told the truth. […]

La puntuación y el ritmo de las frases hacen el resto. Cero literatura. ningún estilo –que ya es un tipo de estilo. Ya sé que después de la guerra todos somos generales y que el Domingo Sangriento ocurrió en 1972 y que ahora todos podemos hace este ejercicio, etc.

Aún así es buen ejemplo. Si lográramos hacer eso mismo cuando informamos por primera vez de los eventos... Parece fácil. Si lo fuera tanto lo veríamos cada día y, sin embargo, lo echamos de menos.

Al final, opina, sí, pero al final –es el último párrafo– y basado en hechos:

[…] The British establishment doesn't like it and it's trying to discredit the [Saville] report. One of its weapons is the £195million cost.

The British establishment is implying this huge sum was spent on the people of Derry. Well, it was not. Derry people didn't need an inquiry to tell them what happened. They saw it with their own eyes. British people needed it. That money was spent for the benefit of us British. In any case, the £200million cost of the inquiry is cheap compared to Widgery's. That cost thousands of lives.

Via @mk1969