Some of my favourite writers and journalists were or are British, and perhaps most that I despise are Irish. But I can’t think of many (off the top of my head anyway) journalists with knighthoods, peerages, OBEs, CBEs or other wages of sin, whom I’d urinate on if
they were on fire.Deliberately anyway, for an old man’s prostate has no conscience.
But I must take my hat off to one journalist, Andrew Marr, for the shameless confession of his youthful ambition in “MY TRADE – A short history of British journalism”. He recalled being involved in some rebellion in the Cambridge English faculty when “one of the early stars of my time” returned to interview him . “He arrived at the pub where we had arranged to meet in a trench coat. If he didn’t actually have a trilby with a paste card reading ‘press’ stuck on one side of it, the effect was the same. We’d known each other slightly – well enough to be on Christian-name terms. ‘Robert Harris – BBC -Panorama,’ he said, holding out his hand without a flicker of a smile. ‘Hi,Robert, I replied. I thought he was a complete prick. Then I thought, almost instantaneously, and that’s exactly the kind of complete prick I want to be, too.”
The quondam rebel has written “The Diamond Queen- Elibabeth ll and her People, ” though, as a Scot she’s only Elizabeth l in his homeland, and produced TV programmes suggesting he’ll get a gong or two for his labours.
Marr also wrote “THE MAKING OF MODERN BRITAIN -from Queen Victoria to VE DAY” in 2009. He remarks:
“It is rare for a country to take part in a general election and then ignore the parliament for which it was designed, but that is what happened in Southern (sic) Ireland when Sinn Fein swept to victory in 1918 and formed the independent Dail, boycotting Westminster.”
I leave you to judge how completely Andrew Marr has fulfilled his youthful ambition.
What’s the problem this time? It’s just a statement simple statement of fact. He doesn’t say anything about whether it was a good or a bad thing or whether if fulfilled their pre-election manifesto or not. Did he say “it’s rare for a country…” or “it’s rare for a party…”?
BYC
Yes agreed.
If you are going to attack someone it might make sense if some evidence was offered to support the basis of the attack.
According to the European Court of Human Rights, journalists are the “watchdogs” of democracy. It seems that some just do not even bother to bark anymore. Noam Chomsky goes further, he states,
“Journalism is being murdered.”
He also said,
“…the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”
In some countries, military dictators undermine democracy and abuse human rights. In some countries financial scandals trigger political resignations.
In Ireland, for some political representatives, financial scandal is not a resignation issue. No comment is the stern reply from the theological assessors.
Seems you don’t have to be a journalist to be a prick!
But isn’t it wonderful when people offer their own proof.