Brian Cathcart, 'Professor' of Journalism at Kingston University and generally beloved of the chattering classes has produced an interesting piece which is, essentially, about the nature of journalism and the rôle of journalists. He has some harsh words for the tabloids and Dacre, but I think he polishes his own helmet a bit too much...

Worth a careful read

Index on Censorship

_________________
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

Brian Cathcart wrote "Were You Still Up for Portillo?", an entertaining account of The 1997 General Election.

I lent my copy to a Labour MP (elected that night) and the bastard has never given it me back.

_________________
I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

That was a really interesting read. Thanks for the link!

Sadly no longer in print.

_________________
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

But available for 1p from Amazon.

Brian Cathcart's mistake is to assume there are only 2 types of person in the "Newspaper Business",journalists and privacy invaders.

I see the reality is a continuous spectrum between hardcore news reporting (You don't get a lot about the Saturdays in the financial times)
and Celebrity titillation.
I don't agree that there's necessarily a correlation between the "weight" of a news piece and its trustworthiness.

Add to that something we discussed recently, that most serious journalists see themselves as necessary interpreters of facts for their consumers.


The whole thing makes for a nasty mix of agenda, domination and dishonesty where it requires a bloody saint to remain on the side of the good guys.

An excellent piece in the FT

_________________
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

For anyone naive enough to think that the News of the World was, in any sense, the clean and lovely flower garden that their journos would have you believe in the last few days:

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2011/07/08/my-encounter-with-the-news-of-the-world/#ixzz1RcFeO4WS

_________________
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

There are some journalists I'm prepared to give a very qualified benefit of the doubt to, and Jon Snow is one of them. Partly because of this blogpost - though it is about 20 years too late.

_________________
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

Inclined to agree regarding Snow.
Broadcast is where it's at now, and it contains some of the sharpest tools (as well as a few conspicuously dull ones).

Minus poingt for mentiong the -gate word though (and not standing in front of a bin with arms crossed)...

An interesting post on Labour List on the future regulation of the
press:


http://www.labourlist.org/will-the-phone-hacking-review-deal-with-media-bias

_________________
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

Thought The Guardian was in the fucking yellow corner

_________________
I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

Hard to say. Sort of a pinkish, bluish yellow.

_________________
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

This is an excellent critique of the Sun, and the failure of journalism as a whole to call Murdoch to account.

_________________
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

When considering the role of the press, I always find myself coming back to a quote from Inherit the Wind:

"It is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

_________________
"If the past really is a foreign country, I'm surprised that 'The Daily Mail' would want to live there.” - Roger Quimbly