Simon Jenkins In his column on the 2nd December 2010 for the Guardian wrote an excellent piece entitled: In this World Cup sewer, we reptiles of British journalism hold our heads high and I suggest it is worth reading.
However from the viewpoint of this post, one paragraph caught my attention and I 'cut and pasted' it to my Notepad and intend to learn it by heart, because it totally sums up my view of British Journalism and henceforth when I hear any of the following
Well there you have it a major figure in British Journalism whilst obviously only commenting on his own lack of ethics, responsibility and accurate reporting, has further confirmed my own impression of the state of British Journalism in general.
Whilst I have always accepted that Print Journalists in particular carried the 'baggage' of their Publication owners agenda and all Journalists had a need to 'keep in' with the main figures of their 'patch' whether Politics, Law and Order, Defence etc, etc. I did feel that other than the 'dirty Mac brigade' (who's only difference between them and a Peeping Tom, was they were paid to do it and would corrupt by bribery or other means anyone they felt necessary to obtain a corruption story in high, or even low places) there was a smidgen of ethics and some residual Integrity in the Journalism Trade (I gave up considering it a Profession around 1990).
I still hold some Journalists in high regard and indeed respect for their writing, or broadcasts. Unfortunately although I still will, on occasion read Simon Jenkins, I can no longer view him as someone I respect. Not that he will care as he has made a good living in his sewer of journalism.
However from the viewpoint of this post, one paragraph caught my attention and I 'cut and pasted' it to my Notepad and intend to learn it by heart, because it totally sums up my view of British Journalism and henceforth when I hear any of the following
- Journalistic Integrity.
- Journalistic Responsibility
- Accurate Factual Reporting
- That Journalism is a Profession
- Journalists only report what is happening, they do not make things happen.
I have no illusions about the press. I have watched enough dirt swilling down the journalistic sewer to abandon any quest therein for responsibility, accuracy, sensitivity or humility. The great American editor Oz Elliott once lectured graduates at the Columbia School of Journalism on their sacred duty to democracy as the unofficial legislators of mankind. He asked me what I thought of it. I said it was no good to me: I was trained as a reptile lurking in the gutter whose sole job was to "get the bloody story".
Well there you have it a major figure in British Journalism whilst obviously only commenting on his own lack of ethics, responsibility and accurate reporting, has further confirmed my own impression of the state of British Journalism in general.
Whilst I have always accepted that Print Journalists in particular carried the 'baggage' of their Publication owners agenda and all Journalists had a need to 'keep in' with the main figures of their 'patch' whether Politics, Law and Order, Defence etc, etc. I did feel that other than the 'dirty Mac brigade' (who's only difference between them and a Peeping Tom, was they were paid to do it and would corrupt by bribery or other means anyone they felt necessary to obtain a corruption story in high, or even low places) there was a smidgen of ethics and some residual Integrity in the Journalism Trade (I gave up considering it a Profession around 1990).
I still hold some Journalists in high regard and indeed respect for their writing, or broadcasts. Unfortunately although I still will, on occasion read Simon Jenkins, I can no longer view him as someone I respect. Not that he will care as he has made a good living in his sewer of journalism.
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