Well at least I agree with some of what Alistair Campbell says

Whatever our own personal opinion of Alsitair Campbell and his role in the culture of spin and manufactured news,he made some quite poignant remarks during his speach to the London College of communication


None more so than the responsibilty that journalists have

The media needs to face up to the need for a genuine debate about its own role, and to understand its responsibilities in a modern democracy go beyond making money and filling space.

This to me underpines all the other arguments that surround the role of journalism and the media in today's society.There are several reasons why this is not the case.The media will argue that they are giving the public what they want which is or appears not to be hard news.

But there are others amongst which Campbell argues

The pressures to get the story first, if wrong, are greater sometimes than the pressures to get the story right, if late

There is also the fact that

The bad news for journalists today is that the media, however seriously people who are in the public eye take it, is not taken as seriously as it once was - by the public.

The question for the media is two fold.How does it win back the trust of the public and secondly how does it convince them of the importance of hard news and debate