I used to work for the Prison Service so notice a lot of bollocks reporting of the sort discussed upthread.

Me too.

Indeed there is only one leisured class I can think of, now that the old aristocracy must spend the winters working flat out to get their stately homes ready for the summer tourist season. The most flagrant leisure class in recent history consists, dare I say it, of a certain breed of journalists. There are hard-working journalists, but they are not writing pieces like my death-bed interview.

Journalists who write junk like that aren’t really working at all. As happens in Scoop, they take dull stuff out of one tray and brighten it up until it is ready to go into another tray, on its way to publication.

They were discussing this on Today when I got up thsi morning

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16783678

Check out Ben Gummer at the bottom regarding the current scheme. It "fails the common sense sniff test". Have you heard anything more idiotic?
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Interesting- my time was 1999-2000, then some time in the Home Office. How about you?

I fortunately missed the biggest write in, re one of the Krays. Reggie, I think. He didn't get parole, though apparently the reasons given were very solid.

This, to me, touches on a wider problem with journalism. It claims to hold other people to account (it often does so capriciously, concentrating on the sins of the underclass and those who challenge wealth and power, rather than those of the billionaire class for whom most journalists work). But it is itself almost completely unaccountable. Few journalists provide references for their claims, so that readers can judge for themselves whether they are accurately representing the facts. Fewer still show where their own economic interests lie: whether or not, in other words, they are the disinterested commentators they purport to be.

the principles that underpin ethical behavior in the profession, and how journalism ethics can and should evolve.

Rather than focusing on the usual concepts of accuracy, transparency and accountability, I found myself thinking more about humility, honesty, fairness, empathy and vulnerability.

I attempted to address the human aspect during my panel by using a word that rarely shows up in discussions about journalism: vulnerability.



To admit your errors is to show vulnerability. To show vulnerability is to enable yourself to be really seen. Our flaws are what connect us, not perfection. It’s true for humans, and that’s why it’s true for journalists and news organizations.