The Hot Line
Sut,—David Frost devotes an entire article to `BEA and the Press' His thesis is that the press was absurdly slow in getting round to discussing the malaise at BEA after the pilots' Great Petition. He refers to `the biggest mystery of all. Until Sunday [July 10] the press had scarcely put BEA into the dock at all. Derek Wood, in the Sunday Telegraph, led the way when he pointed out that management decisions going back six and seven years have put BEA where they are today...?
But let us go back merely a few days. On June 26 an important leader page article, headed `the shock- ing truth about the blunders at BEA,' by Arthur Brenard, appeared in the Sunday Express. I say important because it not only anticipated the petition, which followed only a week later. It clearly helped to lead to the petition. The points it made (including the facts about those management de- cisions) became the substance of the pilots' com- plaints.
It was a remarkable journalistic achievement. I do not expect David Frost to know about these things—any more than I would expect it of Ken Dodd or any other busy comedian. But then one does not expect to see busy comedians trying to write columns on the press.
ROBERT PITMAN
The Press Club, Fleet Street, London. EC4
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