CNN bills itself as the most trus­ted name in news. Director-General Mark Thompson reck­ons pub­lic trust is the life-blood of the BBC. Politi­cians and TV presenters wail and tear their clothes in pub­lic at the public’s loss of trust in the media. “Woe is us,” wails the col­lect­ive cry from the journ­al­ism pro­fes­sion, “they don’t believe.”

Media organ­isa­tions want to wal­low in trust like hip­pos in mud. They want to roll in it until they’re covered from head to toe. When it dries up, thanks to dodgy edit­ing on a royal doc­u­ment­ary promo or phoney com­pet­i­tions, the mud cracks and it’s a “crisis”. Con­tinue read­ing →