The person who first told Arcatiland that Roger Alton could be in trouble at the Observer writes again ...
Your Gorgeousness,
You know I have form on this, having first tipped you off. So here goes.
Re. Alton going/Ahmed etc.
Kamal loved all the fuss the last few weeks, much as he loved trying to be Alastair’s friend – he seemed to care little for how much he was being used, little for any journalistic pride in doing a good, independent job. (And re. his new job, he also loved banging on about waste of public money on quangos and the like – er, hello. ) ...
Forget the sexing up chatter – that'll be more a question of Kamal inflating own importance. But Davies is missing the larger point: The Observer, for several years, barely qualified as an independent voice, so slavishly did it follow whatever Blair/Campbell dictated.
This was the truly sad thing for an otherwise v. good newspaper. The slavishness
to the Campbell/Blair line was often embarrassing. Forget Ahmed. He's just an arse, who was doing Campbell’s bidding.
The most depressing thing, ultimately, is that as Observer editor Alton often thought it more important to keep the government happy than to offer a proud, independent voice.
To read our source's original tip-off, click here
1 comment:
So true. The front page often read like a government press release. You could almost spot the phrases dictated to them by Campbell. And how hard it is not to conjure up images of Peter Capaldi screaming down the phone in "The Thick Of It"...
Post a Comment