Here is a description of a BBC journalist……
‘What would Lord justice Leveson make of this journalist?
The most influential journalist in Britain, a man of boundless energy and conviction who breaks almost every rule imaginable. He has twisted the truth, invented quotations and doctored pictures….all he said in the name of the greater good. He fancies himself as Britain’s moral guardian who wants God to give him a big whip so that he can “go around the world and whip the wicked out of it.”
He sees himself, as well as having a fierce sense of his own importance, as the voice of the people, his job, he claims, is to interpret the aspirations of the lower, inarticulate classes to those in power. His team are a band of similarly minded people on a mission….visionaries and charlatans….he sometimes claims a fellowship with Jesus or Ghandi…a spiritual link that drives and inspires his journalism and zealous reforming fervour.
He seamlessly blends sensationalism with great indignation whilst being a curious mixture of conviction, opportunism and sheer humbug……”he twists facts, invents stories, lies and betrays confidences….but always with a genuine desire to reform the world!” ‘
Well OK, alright…. that was an adaption of a description of Victorian journalist William Stead by Dominic Sandbrook in the Sunday Times book review….it wasn’t Jim Naughtie, nor Richard Bacon, nor Jeremy Bowen or Richard Black, nor even Victoria Derbyshire. Assuredly….
However…..I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of those names or possibly many others hadn’t flickered across your mind as you read the piece.
What? A BBC journalist believing in God? Never!
Allah maybe.
Sounds like Johann Hari – the invention/fraudulent parts anyway and egowise …. reincarnation??????
Ironically it was Stead’s ‘maiden tribute to a modern Babylon ‘ campaign of 1885 that led to the passing of a law raising the age of consent from 13 to 16.