Malcolm Armsteen wrote:
I had words on Twitter with someone I actually quite admire, because I pointed out that this is a journalists' view of education. Because journalists are essentially educated (in some cases) ignoramuses they can't envisage the idea that others have highly developed knowledge and skills, which is why they downgrade doctors, nurses, teachers etc. They think that everybody wings it and makes it up, like they do. That any old performance, however crap, will do. It's why they hate being called on Twitter and other social media - we should just accept what they write and believe them.
There are some honourable exceptions amongst journalists, but not many, and you won't find them adorning Dacre's organ.
I'd agree with that assessment. A lot of journos (and not a few right wing people in general that I have met) do seem to think that doctors behave like some sort of sinister cabal whose purpose it is is to poison kiddies with their evil vaccines and close ranks when they are "discovered" doing this, or that all teachers are hard line communists who are devoted to brainwashing their pupils minds with their marxist ways. That the "boffins" (note the slightly derogatory; out of touch / elitist assumptions in that moniker) at CERN really are trying to set off a black hole in the Earths core just like in that Star Trek film they saw. These hacks do seem to think that professional people are almost all doing what they do for some dodgy ulterior motives, rather than more mundane and straight forward reasons. It doesn't seem to click in their small brains that doctors / nurses may just do their line of work out of a desire to help people, or that a teacher teaches because he wants to errr.. teach. That many scientists do what they do cause they're interested in how the world works and not because they want to invent superviruses or death rays or whatever else journos dream up to justify column space. They do seem to think everyone is as cynical and on the take as much as they are. Pretty shitty worldview to have if you ask me.
I know it's veering off the topic a bit, but it's relevent to the journos and professionals discussion. Is this part of the reason why nurses in particular seem to get so much flak off journos like Christina Odone and Kelvin McCuntzie? They seem to personally despise nurses even if they haven't even had any direct reason to, such as a bad experience in hospital with their treatment. Are these people just taking their own morals and values (or lack of them) and extrapolating them onto others? Do they dislike nurses so much becuase they cannot conceive that anyone would do such (to their eyes not mine) "menial" work for such a small salary without having dodgy intentions. That nurses are to be distrusted and detested because they are seen by default; to be in the role to abuse their position, becuase that's exactly what the likes of these journos would do if they were in their shoes (something they would never "lower" themselves to, I'm sure.) Or this dislike of professionals may be because they are resentful of people who do jobs that demand a lot of hard work and personal sacrifices to help others, and this reflects on them like a mirror how worthless their own "professional" lives are, where they get the hundreds of thousands of pounds they don't deserve, for typing up all their bile and lies on a daily fucking basis. Or am I just being too generous on these people having that sort of facility for this sort of self critical analysis?