Today's media comment.

The feral beast debate continues,Steven Glover in the Indy,argues that far form being baited by the press,the Prime Minister has had a good innings

"

The biggest misconception, which even some of the speech's
critics have accepted, was that Tony Blair has been given a hard time by the
press. Arguably, he has been recently, at least by some titles. But for the most
of his time in Number 10 – from 1997 until the summer of 2003 – he enjoyed by
far the most favourable media treatment of any modern British Prime Minister.
His brilliant achievement, and that of Alastair Campbell, was to square both the
right-wing and the left-wing press."

Peter Wilby in the Guardian maintains that

"Most journalists hunt as a pack. This truth was
marvellously captured in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop, where the correspondents assigned
to the African republic of Ishmaelia depart from the capital in a motorised
convoy, leaving Boot, the nature columnist mistakenly sent by The Beast, to get
a world exclusive. Like most human beings, journalists are driven by fear more
than by ambition. "

Robert Worcester interviewed in the Indy was

not impressed by Mr Blair's performance at Reuters last
Tuesday, ........It's the height of hypocrisy from the man who employed Peter
Mandelson, the architect of spin and manipulation

But agreed with some of the sentiments and

feels that an overhaul of British media standards is
long overdue. "Most newspapers, in fact all news outlets these days, have an
attitude and they are aggressive about it," he says. "News is not sacrosanct
it's a commodity, journalism is not a calling it's just another job. Why has it
happened? Because editors don't keep their jobs long if they stand up for good
journalism and behind their journalists."

The Guardian looks forward to the Brown era,James Silver asking,Will Gordon stop the spin?

Brown's communications team is setting out to restore
the public's trust in New Labour by bringing the shutters down on the so-called
age of spin.

But will it be that different

"

At the moment the signs are extremely positive," says Sky
News's political editor Adam Boulton

But:

The suggestion that the age of spin is over is I'm afraid
just spin. Actually there will still be a lot of spin; it'll just go into a
different spin cycle with maybe a change of temperature

.