Flanagan doorsteped – old fasioned journalism still gets results

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and former Chief Constable of the RUC, was today the subject of one of the oldest journalist tricks in the box, the doorstep.

 Having evaded interview since the collapse of Sean Hoey’s trial in December, Channel 4 and Victor Barker’s persistence paid off when the artful dodger was trapped in the camera’s lights as he left a meeting with Mr Barker who’s son was killed in Omagh.

This is fair game in my books. Ronnie Flanagan has big questions to answer and his failure to do so to date has cast a shadow over a reputation which had survived a damning police Ombudsman’s report and serious political attack.

When the question was put Flanagan was masterful as always in his reply. An unequivocal and apparently heartfelt apology to the families was forthcoming followed by a series of considered and conciliatory remarks about the failings in the police investigation and the hurt this will have undoubtedly caused the families. He told Channel 4 it was on his watch and so it was for him to say sorry but that is where it stopped. He would not be resigning and Chief Inspector of Constabularies.

In communications terms Sir Ronnie demonstrated that even the most undesirable doorstep can be contained if calm is maintained and a simple message communicated. His actions do beg a very big questions however. Why the radio silence to date? I always tell the kids its never too late to say sorry but Ronnie Flanagan is no kid, he is one of the most calculated and effective communicators in these islands and tonight his reputation remains damaged by the long silence which has been so damning. The doorstep did its job. It broke the silence and allowed the debate to continue. Having spoken once it will be near impossible for Ronnie Flangan to return to purdah.

 I’ll post a link to the story when it appears on Channel4’s website.

 On another matter entirely Mr Flanagan might wish to share some private advice with Mr Wallace Thompson, the Special Adviser at the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment who yesterday fell foul of the other end of the journalistic spectrum and gave an interview to RTE which clearly he should never have. Enough said on that matter as I suspect it may well be the last we hear of Mr Thompson for a very long time. First rule of PR. Always have a good think about what the impact of a message might be before communicating it.