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The professional shame of journalism
Currently re-reading Primo Levi’s account of his experience of Auschwitz, The Drowned And The Saved. The pages have yellowed since I first read it back in 1987, the year Levi killed himself . We’re not good at reading books by victims. We seem to prefer protagonists, be they vain, wicked or shameless. In the chapter…
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Stephen Grey’s Ghost Plane
My friend Stephen Grey (interest declared) has just produced a superb account of the CIA’s ‘extraordinary rendition’ programme. It’s called GHOST PLANE The Inside Story of the CIA’s Secret Rendition Programme, and it’s out today. Some reviews: ‘An explosive new book provides a rare glimpse into the full extent of the Agency’s controversial terror renditions…
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Armando Iannucci
Now it is one of those ironies that on the few occasions you see the worlds of comedy and news collide – the quiet, pensive people tend to be the comedians, and the wise-cracking dispensers of bonhomie tend to be the journalists. Armando Iannucci has been laying into broadcast journalism and its ‘shameful failure’. He…