Truth, profits and the purpose of journalism | Letters
Clive Myrie nails down much of what is eating away at the heart of modern written journalism (What is journalism for? The short answer: truth, 11 March). His piece also neatly ties together the debate about Piers Morgan and his exit from ITV before joining GB News as he undoubtedly will. When I was a trainee, Sir Harold Evans was our hero. He was fearless and opinionated, but we never doubted that his opinions were based on the principle of reporting with inbuilt integrity. I built my journalistic career on those principles. Yet today’s print media is dominated by publications that lack honesty and integrity. Columnists run amok with untruths, smears and blatant racialism. Then they attack social media platforms for being out of control.
This from the fourth estate which hacked personal phones of hundreds of people, which accessed the phone of a missing child, and which ran a character assassination of an innocent man (Christopher Jefferies). That is the tip of the iceberg. We now have the spectacle of Mr Morgan, who was fired when he published fake photos of alleged British army atrocities. Is he a role model for modern journalism? I hope not. Our media is riven with these kinds of people. There’s a battle to be won. I hope the Guardian and other like-minded journals can win.
Michael Newman
Shefford, Bedfordshire
I read with great appreciation Clive Myrie’s hugely significant article. Mr Myrie pointing out the importance of broadcasters ensuring that coverage fairly represents opposing views reminded me of the 20th-century English philosopher Owen Barfield’s quotation of a line from Blake: “opposition is true friendship”.
Barfield was inspired to use Blake’s observation as a result of the different opinions shared and argued between him and his very close friend CS Lewis. Barfield had realised that because of opposing viewpoints, especially if they are respectfully listened to, a much deeper truth inevitably reveals itself. The serious and extreme absence of this type of culture within the US media and elsewhere, which Mr Myrie points to, has at least already clearly revealed how dangerous it is when prejudice lives within an unrestrained environment that allows for the continuous manufacture of its own supposed proofs.
Eddie O’ Brien
Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland
This letter was amended on 18 March 2021 to make clear (for avoidance of doubt about authorship) that Owen Barfield was quoting William Blake.