11 ' COULD BE argued, of course, that the Press Council's
opinions are no longer taken seriously.
Certainly nobody I know in Fleet Street has any respect for that body; its pronouncements too often bear the seedy stamp of an old pot white- washing adjacent kettles. The uprush of venom against the press, manifesting itself in bitter attacks by men and women who had no first- hand knowledge of what had happened, but whit were so splenetic about the press that they accepted charges against journalists unquestion- ingly, reflect a widespread mistrust of popular journalism; and this will not have been lessened by the self-righteous complacency with which some newspapers greeted their 'acquittal' (it was notable, incidentally, that the papers which made most capital out of it were those which have not previously had a good word to say for the Press Council). Still, I suspect the whole affair will have done some temporary good : editors may be more inclined to restrain their reporters and photo- graphers for fear of adverse publicity; and some distinguished citizens and citizenesses will be in less of a hurry to write hysterical letters to The Times.
Previous page
