ITV Passes Of PR Spin As News In Story On Cost Of Childcare During Teachers Strike
IN “Strike forces parents to find emergency child care”, ITV’s Simon Harris, has news of the teachers’ strike. He speaks with a victim of those striking teachers:
Tens of thousands of parents were forced to adopt emergency child care plans today as the teachers’ strike hit schools in London and the Home Counties. Some parents were forced to book a day’s holiday from work, some relied on the trusted fallback of grandparents while others ended up with a bill from a professional childminder.
One who paid the price for teachers exercising their right to demonstrate for better working conditions was Fiona Jull. She’s “the director of a public relations company who lives in Wimbledon”. And she paid £75 for a childminder to care for Max, her 5-year-old miniature schnauzer (oh, come on, Max is a dog’s name, right?).
Fiona tells ITV:
I knew about the strike about a week ago but I didn’t actually book any back-up child care yesterday because last time they called the strike off. I had to find emergency child care for Max because I’ve got a client meeting this afternoon which I couldn’t miss.
I’m having to find money while they’re striking on pay so it’s not really fair is it? I have no choice. Sometimes I have the option of calling my mother, sometimes I can work from home with Max by my side, but today I didn’t have that choice.
On the ITV website, we get to see a photo of a woman and a boy.
Is it Jull? Most likely it is. The picture is credited to emergencychildcare.co.uk. That company is a client of Stature PR. Fiona Jull works for Stature PR. Good PR work by them to get their client some exposure on ITV. But lazy journalism by ITV for failing to mention Jull’s involvement in its TV broadcast.
It’s not news. It’s spin.
Posted: 27th, March 2014 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
