Strange Tales - musings of a sound monkey

the national media is in a flat spin this morning over the debacle of Gordon Brown’s overheard statements yesterday. I have many feelings on the subject, but several things spring to mind: 1) I’m no fan of Brown and am still relatively undecided about next week’s opportunity to flex my democratic right but this this was a gift to the other parties who ironically are guilty of much the same thing here, they’re saying ‘poor mrs grandmother’ in mock outrage, but what they’re really saying is ‘crash & burn Gordon!’ and waiting with marshmallows on sticks for tonights debate. probable case, very few politicians actually care about the grandmother otherwise the smart money would have been on the local opposition candidates to go and pat her hand first.
2) there’s so much ‘casting the first stone’ it’s unreal. I’m no betting man but I doubt there’s many who are bating for blood both politically and in the media who haven’t done exactly the same thing, very few watching too I suspect. Gordon got caught is all. as Ambrose Bierce said “Criminal: an unlucky or stupid person who got caught” 3) if you carefully read the transcript, Brown does not call the lady a bigot. I actually have more problem with him implying that her opinion is something to do with her gender as he sweepingly stated she was ‘the sort of bigoted woman who…..’; it’s a semantic point but if we’re not going to discuss semantics then there’s no point in a political discussion. the CED describes a bigot as ‘one who prejudicially refuses to accept another person’s opposing opinion’. most people do that with politicians each day, Gordon was shooting fish in a barrel really. 4) as a sound engineer, I’ve caught a lot of people saying what shouldn’t have been heard. people wear microphones to pick up what is to be said during a performance or interview. and this is my biggest problem. there ought to be a perceived level of privacy that when that performance is over, what is said into the mic is no longer public and… a scrupulous and professional sound engineer should respect the privacy of that person, accept that they have made a mistake and seek to rectify the situation as soon as possible. now I suspect the Sky engineer in question is a media hero this morning and has already received a bonus. but, should he have done it. is he any more moral for suposedly ‘exposing Brown hipocracy’ than someone who illegally bugs spmeone’s house. it’s what’s been said that’s important. if Gordon had got in the car and mentioned that he was, say, really nervous about an impending prostate exam (which I believe is being broadcast tonight at 8, bbc1), or that a member of his family was upset over a recent death or illness, there would be outcry over the publishing of private comments and a demand for respect of privacy. but this is a blatant double standard, it’s only because of WHAT has been said that this is over the media, but the mechanism is the same.

we’ve all done it as sound engineers, mistakenly left a mic on, it happened to a colleague of mine this week who caught an actor off-stage expressing their irritation with various cast members in very colourful language and steps were taken to find the offending mic asap, but no-one suggested we should post that to NODA for a fiver. I would not be celebrating as a sound engineer this morning, but doing a lot of reflection about my role and the power I have.

that said, anonymous people going to the toilet with mics on never gets old.