Ex-Reuters Writer New U.N. Spokesman — From Hack to Flack

The U.N. Image by Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr

Dream job or career-killer? The new spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is Briton Martin Nesirsky, a former correspondent for Reuters in London, Berlin, Moscow and Seoul.

The move from hack to flack is one many journos take, by choice or at the end, sometimes sooner than expected, of their journalism career — more than 24,000 U.S. print journalists have lost their jobs in the past year. Many of those are likely now working in, or seeking a job in, public relations. The transition from one side of the microphone to the other looks like a natural and easy one. It’s still communications, deadlines, explaining complex issues, some assume. Not really.

Journalists are pit bulls, leashed only to their master-of-the-moment, with zero allegiance to any interest other than — at worst — the bottom line of their employer. They/we are out to get whatever we need as soon as possible and, hopefully, exclusively. The PR person’s job is to keep their boss(es) happy, looking good, protected. We want all the information we can get, yesterday. To them, even the most banal and trivial information is too often like a rare form of truffle — dearly valued and well-hidden. The antagonism and mutual frustration with these competing agendas is one of the most unpleasant, and consistent, parts of the job.

It’s sometimes amusing, sometimes really annoying watching flacks spin the worst possible data into happytalk, deflecting your questions or, at worst, ignoring your calls and emails entirely. The very best are sophisticated, skilled and understand viscerally what journos need and how to keep both sides of the table satisfied.

The U.N. has always struck me as one of the most byzantine bureaucracies in the world. I wish him well.