Why exclusives like the Liam Neeson interview are accompanied by opinion articles

Chastising individual journalists for supposed failings in articles that are only being considered in isolation entirely misses the wider point

When it comes to exclusive news stories, making sure we’ve covered our bases in terms of varied coverage is imperative here at The Independent. And it was no different when our US culture writer, Clémence Michallon, secured the extraordinary feature interview with Liam Neeson during his press tour promoting Cold Pursuit – which has now, unsurprisingly, become a box office flop.

Accompanying Michallon’s feature – in which Neeson told how a friend of his had been raped, apparently by a black man, and how he hoped to take revenge on any black person who happened to provoke him – was a straight news piece detailing the facts of what had been said during the interview with the Taken franchise star; and alongside that was an opinion piece written by me.

Given the shocking nature of Neeson’s words, it’s not surprising so many, especially black, people were outraged by his remarks. It’s been a trying time lately for marginalised groups (in this case, black people) in all corners of the world. I understand what it would’ve felt like as a reader to see such violent language nonchalantly delivered to a journalist, and then set out in a feature format that sought out the context in which to place Neeson’s words.

Yet when I received a tweet praising me for having called Neeson’s reaction exactly what I thought it was – racism – and scolding Clémence for allegedly failing to do the same, I realised that some readers were ignoring the key difference between our pieces: mine was an op-ed; Clémence’s was a feature article about an interview she had conducted.

In other words, the functions of our articles were entirely different; and the news report was different again.

It’s also worth noting that the argument – made by some on social media – that an editor should have given the interview assignment to a black writer instead, as if they had prior knowledge that Neeson would drop the bomb that he did, doesn’t stand up in this particular case.

It should also be remembered that over subsequent days we ran a wide selection of comment pieces in response to the feature, which expanded on what happened and offered intelligent and original takes on the underlying issues surrounding Neeson’s interview.

I’ve written before about the importance of making sure writers are the best fit for specific pieces, especially where race, gender, sexuality and ability are concerned. And I still believe that to be the case. I also think there are some interesting points about media squeamishness when it comes to identifying racism, as well as the need for journalism to be more inclusive.

But ultimately, chastising individual journalists for supposed failings in articles that are only being considered in isolation (for instance, criticising news reporters for failing to offer their opinion, or opinion writers for having one) entirely misses the wider point: not all articles serve the same purpose.

Yours,

Kuba Shand-Baptiste

Voices commissioning editor