"What the hell, it's only Chomsky"

The Guardian's readers' editor issued an answer to the several hundred emails that had been sent in complaining about the website, you can still read it on the above blog site by Zmag writer David Peterson.

The whole affair smacks of a "what the hell, its only Chomsky" attitude.

Can you imagine the same pathetic response of a few paras in the corrections & clarifications if Brockes had interviewed Gordon Brown or Tony Blair, for example, and caused the same uproar?

...Oh hang on she did interview Blair, and was very careful to avoid anything too controversial, or anything of real originality or actual political interest whatsoever.

It is very weak that Emma Brockes has remained silent on the matter, not issuing a personal apology, and that the paper has retracted her interview from their website, therefore not "standing by their story" to use the phrase that comes to mind.

In this context the readers' editor, far from being responsible for correcting all mistakes, errors and omissions and following up all complaints, looks like a figure who merely serves to justify them and their occurrence, with explanatory platitudes such as "journalistic pressures".

A new low for The Grauniad - the old image of which, incidentally, it seems a little too determined to shake off.

'It's all about bucks kid, and the rest is just conversation.' - Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's film, Wall Street.

Pointless or A Privilege? - Pilger and Paxman on Journalism

Veteran journalist and documentary maker John Pilger told The Observer that he sees journalism as 'a great privilege, in which the journalist is allowed into people's lives and trusted to go away and tell their stories.'

Meanwhile chief BBC Newsnight inquisitor Jeremy Paxman told The Independent on Sunday that he sees the media as 'underpaid and oversubscribed,' adding: 'What is the point of pursuing a career in the media?'

Surely Paxman's famous cynicism could have taken a back seat for a moment to allow him a minute to think of a witty or inspiring comment that might encourage journalism graduates on their quest?

As someone who regularly holds politicians to account in front of thousands of viewers, one would have hoped he could have come up with one or two reasons why investigative journalism in particular needs all the apprentices it can muster.

Well argued, genuinely interesting stories that challenge the establishment and the status quo now and then are needed more than ever before, as we try not to slip under the wheels of the juggernaut of globalisation, which we are forever being told is 'unstoppable.'


'It's all about bucks kid, and the rest is just conversation.' - Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's film, Wall Street.

The Guardian Plays "The Only Game in Town"

The Guardian seems to be trumpeting its business-friendly, modern and mainstream Blairite agenda in an increasing number of its articles. This writer displays mild alarm at a psychologist working with an investment bank suggesting that material goods provide only short-term satisfaction.

The City editor takes delight in wondering if there is any point limiting supermarket Tesco’s market share and punishing a successful business, if the only result may be that another supermarket’s market share is likely to increase a little.

Jonathan Porritt, former Friends of the Earth director tells John Vidal that capitalism is the agent of change and “the only game in town.”

And finally, Irwin Steltzer, a writer more at home in the business section of The Sunday Times than The Guardian, graced its pages recently. Known as Rupert Murdoch’s “representative on Earth”, and to have an open door to Number Ten whenever he needs to whisper in the Prime Ministerial ear, Steltzer says we should ask if what Blair is doing “is right for Britain?”

It is particularly patronising when he implies we should be eternally grateful that Blair is “attempting to engineer a massive shift of power from trade unions to consumers, to restore to individuals greater power to control large portions of their own lives.”

If we are all condemned to participate in “the only game in town,” it would seem that The Guardian is increasingly putting the case for the winners.

'It's all about bucks kid, and the rest is just conversation.' - Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's film, Wall Street.