Book Review: Breaking News by Jeremy Thompson

Until his retirement at the end of 2016, Jeremy Thompson was one of the longest-serving journalists and news anchors in the UK. During a forty-year career in television news, Thompson gained a reputation as the consummate broadcaster, latterly as the anchor of Sky News’ early evening programme, though as frequently broadcasting on location from the heart of the story. Thompson worked for all the major news broadcasters in the UK: the BBC, ITV and finally Sky, where he started as a foreign correspondent in 1993. He covered many of the most important news events of our time and reported from all over the world, picking up countless awards for his work.

The first TV journalist to broadcast live as British peacekeeping forces arrived in Kosovo, he also covered the first Gulf War and, in 2003, anchored Sky News’ coverage of the second Gulf War from Iraq. There he presented every night for a month on the front line and was the first anchor to present from inside Baghdad. He was also in South Africa to cover the death of Nelson Mandela and the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius. This extraordinary book tells the life story of one of the nation’s most popular broadcasters.

My Review:
In all the years that I've watched Sky News, Jeremy Thompson was always on screen, reporting from around the world and then as a tv presenter in the studio. He was an interviewer that actually let his subjects speak rather than just interrupt and argue with them as too many current presenters seem to do. He was never afraid of asking the difficult questions and wouldn't let the guests get away with anything. But at the same time, he was very professional, got on with the job without bias and just told us what was happening, without trying to be the centre of attention. I thought he was really great and always liked seeing him on the sceeen. It was pretty sad to hear he was retiring as it really felt like the end of an era.

The book covers all aspects of his professional life, starting with his early career of covering news and sport for local radio before going to work for the BBC, ITV and later on Sky. He was a southern reporter who was happy to report from the north of England but was not always welcomed, being seen as an outsider when he covered the miner's strikes. He reported on a variety of big stories as a roving reporter including the Yorkshire Ripper, the Bhopal explosion, the Indira Gandhi assassination, the South African rebel cricket tours, Tiananmen Square demonstrations, the first Gulf War in the 1990's and a variety of coups around the world. I enjoyed the section about the Yorkshire Ripper where he was trying to convince the bosses down south to cover the murders and their disinterest over it being a northern issue. As Jeremy notes, had it happened in London, the bosses would have been all over the story. It shows what lind of north-south divide there was back then.

It also seems that Jeremy and his colleagues also knew how to party during that first Gulf War. I was amused by the observations of a CNN reporter based there who said that the ITN team and their base at 3am were like a scene from Animal House yet they were all able to report for duty at the start of the next day without any issue! I can imagine that you would need to find a way to get rid of all the stress after reporting from a war zone and some of the things witnessed. Jeremy's team seemed to like the chance for a bit of fun. Picture the scene, trying to fly back to London on a flight from Manila that kept breaking down, and the bored reporters after 56 hours dressed up as cabin crew complete with makeup to serve the few remaining passengers. Now that would have been a sight to see for sure.

He was in a lot of war zones other than the Gulf War, trying to get deep into the countries and get the human stories out rather than be spoonfed the stories that the military wanted the media to report on. Those embedded with the troops were told where to go and what to do, kept away from anything embarrassing or nasty, But Jeremy's decision to do his own thing led him away from that and got him some real exclusives. It certainly sounded pretty dangerous roaming the countryside during the Balkan war and trying to speak to people on all sides, but the race riots in South Africa sounded even worse. Jeremy seemed to really love his time spent in Africa covering the end of apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela, someone that Jeremy came to greatly admire.  

Joining Sky News was the start of the studio phase in his career which took a bit of getting used to as he admits, especially trying to keep talking when things are going into technical meltdown all around you. I certainly wouldn't be able to do that kind of job. I'd end up losing my temper with obnoxious guys or those obviously trying to evade answering the questions. I can imagine that all the travelling, the shabby accomodation, flying in rustbucket aircraft, worrying about your luggage etc would be a real pain to endure as a field reporter and is not something I'd enjoy but he certainly seemed to relish the challenge. It would be pretty tough on your family as you can be called away on assignment at a minute's notice to any troublespot in the region that you cover.

This book takes the reader and shows them what it was like to go to trouble spots and events all over the world, meeting world leaders and being a part of history. He tells of coming under fire and being threatened and what happened to a few of his colleagues who died on the job. Overall it was an interesting book to read.

Read November 2019
4 stars.