Volume 13, Number 4, 2002 |
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ContentsEditorial - Use your whistle, ref 3Editor's poll - Announcing the greatest editor of all time 6 Harold Evans - Attacking the devil 6 Government, media and democracy Alastair Campbell - Time to bury spin 15 Geoffrey Goodman - Standards bearer: Charles Clarke speaks out 24 Peter Oborne - A flea in the Government's ear 32 Andrea Allen - Just whose side is God on? 41 Bob Connor - Stealing Cassandra's clothes 50 Marc Lee and Eamonn Rafferty - Lies, damned lies and headlines 56 Don Hale - Why regional editors should rock the boat 62 Tessa Mayes - Privacy versus freedom of speech 67 Victor Davis - There's nothing new about scandal 74 BOOK REVIEWSSteve Barnett on Lord Birt 81MA Nicholas on William Randolph Hearst 83 Jonathan Holborow on Vere Harmsworth 86 Richard Stott on Max Hastings 89 Mark Killick on 50 years of Panorama 91 Saif Shahin discusses online journalism 94 
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Editorial - Use your whistle, refThe Communications Bill, newly arrived in the House of Commons after two years of debate, revision and speculation, affirms the Government’s conviction that the market can be trusted to provide, even in the problematical media. The Bill aims to create a level playing field on which all the competing teams, from the Premiership giants in the national press and broadcasting to the Doc Martens League minnows in weekly newspapers and local radio, will play the same game with the same set of rules... [Read full article]
Harold Evans - Attacking the devilMy first thought was to check out the obituary page of The Times for reassurance. My second, investigative zeal overcoming pride, is that there is a conspiracy here and we must get to the bottom of it. The truth about editorship, of course, is that it is hard to agree on a single standard of excellence, especially in the polychromatic British press. Is it more important to change the world or the front page? Does it matter if you know where Rwanda is but believe Helvetica is an island off the coast of Iceland?... [Read full article]
Alastair Campbell - It's time to bury spinI want to focus in my opening remarks on the relations between not just the Government and the media, but between politics and the media and how that impacts on the political and democratic process. And first of all, I want to give you an assessment of where I think we are as a Government. Though we have lots more to do, and many problems facing us, objectively we are in a strong position... [Read full article]
Peter Oborne - A flea in the Government's earThe last year has been a climacteric period for relations between government and the press. Historically the press is on the attack, government driven back on the defensive. In 2002 it was government that set the pace. It has set out to claim that the media in general, and the written press in particular, is intent on distortion, trivialisation and even the ultimate destruction of the British democratic process. The central assertion is that the British press is a narrow, sectional interest group without legitimacy of its own... [Read full article]
Victor Davis - The father of scandalIt is 50 years since a long-forgotten entrepreneur launched an enterprise that would have a profound impact on the social history of the Western world. His name was Robert Harrison. His trade was scandal. Thanks to him we are commemorating half a century of crashing careers, wrecked reputations and marriages split asunder. Top-shelf publishing empires and red-top tabloids have gorged on the “freedom” that Harrison created ever since. Post-Harrison, we live in a world of wired-up freelance hacks, club girls with miniature recording and photographic devices hidden in their teddy bears, paps with 500mm lenses, and gumshoes with bugs for every occasion – all of them hunting the dirty secrets that will make them rich... [Read full article]
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