Beyond the cordon
The events at Glasgow Airport brought home to people in Scotland the stark reality that terrorist attacks are not confined to England or to countries further afield. Nowhere is now immune.
Several of the many, many eye-witnesses who recounted their stories to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ began by saying they thought the scenes unfolding in front of them were linked to a road rage incident.
Gradually, they realised that they were at the centre of a drama which would shatter any notion that somehow Scotland was cocooned from incidents more commonly reported from Iraq and Afghanistan.
It's never a good idea to spend time navel-gazing but for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland, covering this story presented some extra challenges.
The News & Current Affairs Department is roughly halfway through moving from our old headquarters at in the west end of Glasgow, to a new base at on the River Clyde.
Our radio news operation was installed over the past fortnight at Pacific Quay and Saturday was the first online journalists' shifts there. Television will start the crossing later in July.
There's a close relationship between these three sets of journalists, who share information on stories. Under normal circumstances, the broadcast and online output would all come from the same place but until the move's finished, radio and online will be produced at Pacific Quay while television news is broadcast from Queen Margaret Drive.
In effect, we're running a dual operation for a few weeks at the same time as learning new digital production systems at Pacific Quay which will help us to improve and expand our news services.
Saturday evening saw rolling news coverage on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland followed by a two-and-a-half hour special programme on Sunday morning and another half-hour long one in the late afternoon. Television mounted a special Reporting Scotland programme on Sunday evening.
On our website, the on Saturday was clicked on nearly 1.5 million times.
Much of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage was driven by user-generated content in the form of still pictures and video clips taken on mobile phones and e-mailed to us. Yet again, we saw how technology has changed the way news is reported.
Without this material, the scenes showing the blazing Jeep smashed into the terminal building would have remained unseen by anyone not present as the media's journey to the scene of the story was hindered by roadworks on the M8. Then journalists were held back by the expanding police cordon around the airport.
When reporters were able to talk directly to eye-witnesses, there was no shortage of those prepared to step in front of the microphones and cameras.
It's said that Glaswegians are natural story-tellers and despite the life-and-death nature of the situation, humour was still evident.
One in particular struck me. Airport worker John Smeaton spoke about having slipped outside for an unscheduled cigarette break during his shift. He heard the impact of the Jeep hitting the terminal building.
In a matter-of-fact way, Mr Smeaton explained that he ran towards a man who was said to be resisting arrest by a police officer and aimed a kick at him. Reflecting on his actions, his main concern was that he might be disciplined for leaving his post for a fly smoke.
Another exchange is worth repeating. I looked through the many pictures submitted to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and sent texts back to those whose images had been used online and on television to thank the contributors.
Quick as a flash, one person replied and wrote back: "Nae bother, jist glad it wisnae worse. Any chance o' tickets for Knock Hill [a racing circuit in Fife] tomorrow?"
Sadly I couldn't oblige.
Update 1440: It's now been pointed out to me that has been set up in honour of John Smeaton.
Comments
All the folks who disregarded their own personal safety from Saturday deserve our sincere gratitude. John Smeaton is just one of them, but the thing that endears him to many is the fact he just went for it, and was completely matter of fact about the whole thing. He is also honest with himself that this could have gone the other way and he wouldn't be here to tell his story. I look forward to buying the man a pint, it's the least I can do.
Fantastic stuff.
I note there is a challenge to try and create 1000 pints for John behind the bar at the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport.
I wonder what it is about this story that has fuelled so much interest. It seems to have caught the public's imagination enormously.
John
Glad to see you mention the link to www.johnsmeaton.co.uk on your article, the British public can take inspiration from this great man. How about a direct link from one of the main articles though? There are surely many ´óÏó´«Ã½ readers across the globe that would like to know more about this hero, and perhaps contribute to his beer fund on the site.
"Saturday evening saw rolling news coverage on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland followed by a two-and-a-half hour special programme on Sunday morning and another half-hour long one in the late afternoon. Television mounted a special Reporting Scotland programme on Sunday evening."
One can't help but wonder if you unintentionally end up doing the terrorists' work for them. (By 'you', I mean the news media generally, not just the ´óÏó´«Ã½)
In your desperation to inform, enlighten and engage the audience of every single development, with every possible analysis, accompanied by every available eye-witness, have you ever stopped to wonder if news outlets are proving to be a crucial pillar in 'the spread of terror' in the 21st century?
Am I suggesting self-censorship, holding back on information, tongue-biting? No, not at all. Just coverage that's a bit less breathless, and schedules that are a bit less saturated.
The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is far from being the worst offender in this respect (*cough*Murdoch*cough*), but it's a general trend that I fear will pull everyone down with it and ultimately increase the power of terrorist attacks to cause widespread terror.
Incase you missed it:
John Smeaton speaks
"You come to Glasgow,
Glasgow disnae accept this
We'll set about ye"
What a hero.
John Smeaton, a modern day cult hero...
... and his employers (the contractors he works for) are likely to discipline him for unauthorised discussion of his actions with the media.
This raises an interesting question of when user-generated content could be controlled by corporate bodies, and I don't like the initial thoughts that gives me.
Why did we not see Scottish correspondents on UK ´óÏó´«Ã½ news - Sally M, Jackie B, David R etc ?! Why did London have to fly up a raft of reporters at our expense when you can do a perfectly good job yourselves ?
Thanks Mark, for an interesting and informative piece, as well as amusing.
Slainte
ed
Very weird angle on the terrorists. We are told that the common thread linking them together is ... the NHS.
Ummmm, wonder if they have anything else in common ?
Surely they don't share the same re-re-rel-reli-religion ? Whoops, sorry.
The link to Pacific Quay is a bit useless as Google Maps map of Glasgow is rather old, over 2 years at least as not only does it not show the shiny ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland building next to the Science Centre it also omits the Squinty Bridge.