Final Thoughts (from Alex)

Here's a sound thread from blog favourite Alex Deane:

I make no friends saying this (such a change) & no doubt harm my own paddling-in-media prospects as a commentator saying it, but the sight of many journalists seemingly untroubled by any examination of the issues expressing “solidarity” with Emily Maitlis here is troubling. 

In truth, it’s merely the latest example of a growing, and peculiar, clubbish, circle the wagons, we are special mindset - one that presently seems even worse than it usually is, given recent events so thoroughly & insistently examined by the media itself. 

Because the media’s near-manic desire to focus ad nauseam on the questions raised in a story & demand grovelling public apologies is bulletproof - until applied to one of their own, when it vanishes. 

The sheer number of journalists who think it enough to assert that their criticised colleague is “really good” as if that answers the issue is astonishing, & wholly lacks self-awareness. One need only imagine their reaction if that had been the government’s line to see this. 

The suspension of any evaluation of the issues when the question is about one’s own profession is deeply unattractive. It is especially so when your profession is meant to hold people to account, a function normally revelled in except when shunned for collegiate purposes. 

TL;DR: don’t like people criticising “the MSM”? Don’t do this.