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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| The Independent: Journalists have no morality, PM's wife tells students |
| 2006-11-26 |
| Cherie Blair has launched an extraordinary attack on the media claiming there is "no professional morality in journalism". She's right, and I'll bet a dollar to a dog turd journalists are upset because they don't understand the difference. The Prime Minister's wife took her revenge on a profession that has bedevilled her for years when invited to address students at Roehampton University on Wednesday. Ma! Popcorn! Now! She told a stunned audience that it was "not a noble calling" and journalists "have no ethics". Then, Mrs Blair - who was at the university in south-west London to open its Human Rights Centre - turned her attention to the Daily Mail and the Press Complaints Commission. Probably stunned for the wrong reason. Since the latter has repeatedly failed to uphold the Blairs' complaints about the former, Mrs Blair's words - "the pathetic PCC dominated by the Daily Mail - are not, perhaps, surprising. I'll try to figure that out later. Munch munch munch . . . Her spokeswoman yesterday sought to play down the incident. "Mrs Blair was merely playing devil's advocate to stimulate discussion amongst the students." No she wasn't. Wuss. But the students say the PM's wife delivered a "rant" and they weren't given an opportunity to defend their putative trade. She's ranting? You mean "saying what she feels"? Mrs Blair had been invited to join the university chancellor, John Simpson, as the BBC's world affairs editor addressed a small group of journalism students. One student, Lya Pfaffli, said: "I think we were all quite taken aback at her complete lack of tact and diplomacy... she was in a room with at least three, reputedly ethical, journalists. At least we were told they had ethics, so we believe it. "Her unabashed accusations of 'no professional morality or adjudication of the truth' clearly rattled a few of us." Hadn't given it much thought, eh? Fortunately for the "adjudication of the truth", another student, Cat McGovern, took detailed notes of Mrs Blair's harangue. Wasn't stunned, apparently. Probably heard it before. John Simpson declined to comment. "It was a private meeting," he said. Translation: Pi$$ off for now. We're re-jigging what was said to make it more tactful and diplomatic. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #1 Journalists and their allies on the left gave up being human a long time ago. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can start fixing our society. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2006-11-26 22:59 |