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ODD MAN OUT
Newspaper editor Max Hastings looks back over the career of journalist Martyn Harris. After 11 years as a newspaper editor, I’m cynical enough to have noticed that some of the journalists who are most polite to me in the corridor are those most nervous of being sacked frankly, the less talented ones. Conversely, brilliant reporters are often the most awkward to handle, partly because they know they can afford to be difficult since they can always go somewhere else, and partly because almost all gifted performers are tormented by self-doubt, and tend to take this out on everybody else.
Martyn Harris once declared: ‘Few writers really believe they can write, and fewer still know how they learnt. They think they are pulling off a lucky trick every time they do it’. He seemed bemused that I had volunteered for some of my own experiences as a war correspondent, because several times he told me how convinced he was of his own cowardice, and of his inability as a writer to cope with violent conflict. I said, perfectly truthfully, that it is far easier for a journalist to write about a great drama unfolding before him than it is to create a brilliant literary confection out of the commonplace ingredients of everyday life, an art in which Martyn displayed his exceptional skill, week in and week out, year in and year out through the best part of a decade in which I was lucky enough to be his editor at The Daily Telegraph.
Successful journalists are those who see the world from an unexpected angle, who take up a seat in the balcony unoccupied by other privileged spectators of the divine comedy. Harris thoroughly understood what some top reporters sooner or later lose sight of, first that they are indeed only spectators and second, that the play is always a comedy. The essence of good journalism is surprise. Good journalists like to make trouble. They instinctively mistrust those who possess wealth, authority or power.
It is their job to inform, to entertain, and perhaps most of all, to serve as the grit in the oyster. At the time, The Daily Telegraph had become a sadly predictable bastion of ageing conservatives, a home for readers who wanted a newspaper which would merely nod through their prejudices. When we started to rebuild the newspaper, we had to find writers who thought and behaved and wrote in a new way, which a new generation of readers could respond to. Although Martyn could be perverse, graceless, bloody-minded and maddening, from the day he came to the paper we prized his originality, courage, charm, wit and brilliance.
These was never a danger he would fail to provide the grit in the oyster. The joy was to behold the profusion of pearls which he showered upon us as well. His versatility was astonishing. He could sketch the life of a cruise liner, interview a politician or describe a street party with equal facility. He could write a feature about anything or more important in our trade about nothing. As a descriptive writer, he could sketch the socks off any rival. His laconic prose possessed a willingness to jar, a power to make the reader think, which is rare even among good journalists. He scorned the traditional boundaries of taste and frequently attacked interest groups which had hitherto been thought untouchable. With rare lapses, his judgement was very shrewd.
His career took a new turn when we persuaded him to become The Daily Telegraph’s star interviewer. Within a few months he had made himself recognised as the ablest practitioner of that craft on British national newspapers. I sometimes found myself defending him against allegations of brutality towards his subjects. It was not in Martyn’s startlingly direct nature to avoid what seemed to him plain truths. One piece on an ageing Hollywood star, for instance, was savage, but it seemed to me justifiable. As a star, she believed that while she had offered herself for interview, she enjoyed the right to set the agenda. Martyn took a different view. He scorned the ritual of allowing a star plugging a book to set the rules of the game. ‘She is no great actress or intelligence’ , he wrote, ‘though she tries to conceal the shallowness behind a battery of hard-boiled mannerisms. It is what she leaves out of her self-account that tells you the most’. And these, of course, were the bits Martyn coolly, perceptively, sought to put in.
31. What does Max Hastings say about journalists in the first paragraph?
A. Experience of being an editor has changed his attitude towards them.
B. Good ones feel more secure about their futures than they should.
C. Many who have worked for him have been less talented than they thought.
D. Good ones are often rude because they have feelings of inadequacy.
32. What did Max Hastings tell Martyn Harris about journalism?
A. It was hard for any journalist to maintain high standards for a long period.
B. Covering sensational events usually did not give journalists much satisfaction.
C. The kind of writing Martyn Harris excelled at was very hard to do.
D. The ability to describe ordinary experiences was not valued highly enough.
33. Max Hastings says that one characteristic of good journalists is that they_____
A. cannot help being suspicious of certain people.
B. have no desire to achieve personal fame.
C. do not regard themselves as being purely observers.
D. know certain matters should not be treated lightly.
34. One reason why Max Hastings wanted Martyn Harris to join his newspaper was that_____
A. they were in agreement as to how the paper should change.
B. he had a personality that other people working there would find appealing.
C. his style of writing might encourage younger readers to buy the paper.
D. his articles might change the attitudes of the paper’s readers.
35. Max Hastings says that, in the articles he produced for the paper, Martyn Harris________
A. was prepared to offend people nobody was supposed to be critical of.
B. liked to show that he was better at describing things than other writers.
C. preferred to focus on trivial matters rather than more serious ones.
D. was often unaware of the effect that his articles had on readers.
36. Max Hastings says that when Martyn Harris became an interviewer,______
A. he influenced the way similar articles were written by other journalists.
B. he found it harder than before to be objective in his articles.
C. some of his articles were perhaps regrettable in retrospect.
D. some people objected to the tone of his articles about stars.
37. One reason why Martyn Harris disliked the Hollywood star was that she__________
A. told him things which he was convinced were untrue.
B. behaved unpredictably when he was interviewing her.
C. pretended to be more interesting than she really was.
D. treated him as if he was incapable of understanding her.
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