Comments on: The News Of The World: everyone’s at it http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/12/the-news-of-the-world-everyones-at-it/ Freelance writer and journalist Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:21:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Queenie http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/12/the-news-of-the-world-everyones-at-it/#comment-1344 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:46:37 +0000 http://sarahditum.com/?p=1801#comment-1344 Wheeling out the old “Journalists are just human, they pay the price for errors of judgement” defence smacks of the classic politicians’ “Mistakes have been made, lessons have been learned” autoresponse. And Murdoch’s retaliatory slap at The Guardian is exactly like Gordon Brown saying “But of course, it was all MUCH worse under the Tories”. You couldn’t fit a slice of parma ham between them.

I don’t know what that proves, other than politicians are horrid, corporate megaliths are horrid, and the world is going to hell in a handcart. Business as usual, in other words.

Can you imagine strong regulation being imposed on journalism? Do you think this may happen? Can’t help thinking the symbiotic relationship between politics and mainstream media in a democracy (oligarchy? corporatocracy? but I quibble…) is such that no strong limits will ever be placed on the papers, even if Murdoch gets a spell on the naughty step for this episode. Hmmmm.

]]> By: Sarah http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/12/the-news-of-the-world-everyones-at-it/#comment-1343 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:57:15 +0000 http://sarahditum.com/?p=1801#comment-1343 Quite. I think that in strict terms of self-preservation NOTW is smart to move this onto the ground of whether journalists should do ‘bad’ things for good stories, and steer clear of the specifics of what they were doing. The paper is going to be hurt less individually if the debate takes that route, but the trade could be hurt more in the end.

Thanks for the links and background.

]]> By: PhilC http://sarahditum.com/2009/07/12/the-news-of-the-world-everyones-at-it/#comment-1342 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:51:25 +0000 http://sarahditum.com/?p=1801#comment-1342 The Guardian’s ‘cod fax’ helpd prove Jonathan Aitken was a liar and I believe Peter Preston resigned from the PCC over it.
In the other case, revealing that its source in the cruise missile story was Sarah Tisdall and so ensuring she was jailed was a low point. “Spineless as a jelly fish” as Paul Foot described it.
But in the first instance the target was a cabinet minister up to his neck in wrongdoing and in the second a matter of national importance where the country and parliament might have been misled.
It doesn’t excuse the outing of Tisdall but I think both pass the ‘Vanessa Feltz test’. They weren’t fishing expeditions against non-entities.
You can read Preston’s explanation for the second incident here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/sep/05/pressandpublishing.politicsandthemedia

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