Contents
Editorial - All our yesterdays 3
Not finally... Subjective views on matters journalistic 5
Maggie Brown, Jane Moore, Alistair Beaton
Future of press
Les Hinton - They’re stealing our lifeblood
Alan Rusbridger - I’ve seen the future and it’s mutual 19
Phil Harding - Pandemics, plagues and panic 27
Bill Hagerty - Mort Zuckerman: Web could spell catastrophe 35
Expenses scandal fallout
Chris Mullin - Fear and loathing in tabloid Britain 45
David Hencke - Why a Commons club fouled up 51
Jeremy Hayes - FOI: Whitehall strikes back 57
Daniel Simpson - Media ineptitude? We’ve been framed 63
Quentin Letts - Congrats BJR (but do try harder) 71
BOOK REVIEWS
Matthew Engel on Robin Daniels 81
Colin Freeman on Susan D Moeller 83
Mary Riddell on Lynn Barber 85
Mark Urban on Nicholas Wilkinson 87
Brian Winston on Andrew Nichol QC, Gavin Millar QC and Andrew Sharland; and on Andrea Millwood Hargrave and Sonia Livingstone 89
Mark Brayne on Peter Beaumont 91
Brenda Maddox on Tom Stacey 94
Quotes of the Quarter 1 – 34
Quotes of the Quarter 2 – 44
Ten years ago The way we were 56
BJR events 80
Paul Foot award 96
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Chris Mullin MP, though conceding that some indefensible scams were exposed by the Daily Telegraph’s expenses revelations, points to examples where “the media have connived to tell a series of falsehoods about MPs.” He lists several specific examples before asserting: “The sad truth is that for much of our media (and not just the tabloids), political journalism has become a form of warfare in which anything goes.”
Quentin Letts celebrates the British Journalism Review’s 20th anniversary with a retrospective look at some of the magazine’s articles. He also muses on those that should have been written in an entertaining piece calling for the BJR to stimulate more rows.
If one week is still a lifetime in politics then, for sure, the past 20 years has been a cosmic eternity for journalism. It was difficult enough to launch British Journalism Review in the 1980s...
Future of the Press - the Chief Executive:
They’re stealing our lifeblood, argues
Les Hinton, former executive chairman of News International and now CEO of Dow Jones in New York, who remains an optimist about print and worries over “the dark side” of an internet journalism ruled by “digital vampires.” By which he means the aggregators, such as Google, which “are dining at our expense, threatening to make newspapers road-kill along what we once called the information superhighway.”
Future of the Press - the Editor:
I’ve seen the future and it’s mutual
The Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger writes: “When I look back over some of the most high-profile things we’ve done recently at The Guardian I see an interesting pattern emerging – a form of collaborative journalism that I can best describe as a mutualised newspaper.” While heralding a new form journalism he believes there is “a vital role… for more conventional forms of journalism” and defends the virtue of reporters engaged in “long, painstaking – and expensive – work.” So who will finance it? He opens a debate on the possible merits of public funding for public service journalism.
Pandemics, plagues and panic
Phil Harding takes a close look at the media’s swine flu coverage, which moved from “total panic to major disbelief and then halfway back again to genuine cause for alarm.” He believes that there are lessons to be drawn from the episode, for journalists, politicians and health officials. “Journalists need to ask themselves some hard questions about the way this story was covered,” he writes. While admitting that it is difficult to know when to raise the alarm and when to keep calm, he concludes: “Journalism is often bad at finding any sort of middle ground.”
The web could spell catastrophe
Bill Hagerty interviews Mort Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News and the US News & World Report, and America’s 147th richest man, who likes journalism rather than journalists. Though he denies expressing disdain for their “limited world view and economic ignorance” he goes on to say: “There are very few people in the world of journalism who can not only understand it [finance] but can try to express it, shall we say lucidly, for people who are not deeply familiar with it.” That said, he proves to be a hands-off proprietor of the Daily News, which was profitable until two years ago, adding: “This year has been the worst we’ve had.”
Expenses scandal fallout - failure of the lobby: Why a Commons club fouled up
David Hencke, former Westminster correspondent for The Guardian, explains why the lobby failed to break the expenses story and laments the fact that a pervasive club atmosphere continues to prevail despite greater openness in recent years. He also touches on the effects of the internet, arguing that though it has been liberating it has also limited detailed reporting, tending to narrow the focus of lobby journalists and thereby inhibiting their ability to obtain stories.
Expenses scandal fallout – the backlash: FOI: Whitehall strikes back
Jeremy Hayes, who researched the journalistic use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) for Reuters Institute, reveals that Whitehall civil servants routinely thwart requests. He also criticises information commissioners for failing to be supportive of journalists frustrated by official Whitehall resistance to the public “right to know.”
Media ineptitude? We’ve been framed
Daniel Simpson, who recently produced a fake issue of the Financial Times, argues that newspapers are in thrall to propagandists for free markets and economic growth. Through cunning distortions, omissions, seductive narratives and judicious use of soundbites they help to “frame” the news agenda. In a challenge to mainstream reportings, he contends that truth is concealed by passive “press stenography”.
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