How news is reported in the UK
H/T IPJ
Meanwhile, Gordo is planning to change the mechanism of Westminster politics:
Gordon Brown has been addressing the IPPR and has stated he wishes to draw up a new constitution, to be ready for the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in 2015. He also believes that only the three party system should be allowed to prosper – witness his statement :
…….to those who are tempted by the fringes and the extremes, it is clear that the way we do politics in the future needs to be different from the past.
… and Andrew Allison has this:
Ben Farrugia highlights in this article how once again reform of the House of Commons is going to be blocked by the government. Changes that could and would have made a difference to democracy in this country will not happen in the lifetime of this parliament because of a procedural trick played by Harriet Harman.
Filed under: Politics & economics
Up to a point Ms. Brooke.
I would accept anonymous sources who were giving accurate information that would damage their position,and I think that journalists are right to protect their sources in those cases.
But if anonymous sources put out lies, as detailed in this video clip, then it would be right for journalists to expose them as liars and manipulators.
This is a code that could be adhered to by all journalists, so no journalist who protected anonymity even for liars would have an advantage in building contacts.
But we need to look further. There is a political class in the UK that, by and large, views you and me and your readers as ‘the enemy’. Many prominent journalists are in that political class.
The worst recent example I can recall, and I’m not entirely up-to-date because I don’t live in the UK, was David Frost on his Breakfast with Frost show on Sundays.
I always got the impression that the front bench spokesmen he had as guests had been at the same dinner parties as him in the preceding weeks.
For many journalists staying within the ‘club’ is their priority.
Sadly, this is the way in the UK.