A Guest Blog by Jan Nieupjur. As ever his views ain't necessarily mine.
What a depressing start to the year.
I had always (naively) believed that the role of the press was to report on events in such a way as to inform it's readers. Four events in the past couple of weeks have demonstrated beyond doubt that the press now believes that IT is the story and that events occur purely as catalyst to the main event; namely the press writing/talking about themselves. No longer satisfied with reporting the facts it must now pontificate, pass judgement, assassinate, harass, defame and then blame everyone else but itself when it gets it wrong.
In fact the press now succeeds in misinforming it's readers most of the time.
I see nothing more than cliquey groups of self important 'would be' somebodies suddenly realising that they are about as relevant as Spam recipes when it comes to providing up to date news.
Newspapers are now nothing more than flimsy 'lifestyle' comics; they are always at least 12 hours behind the rest of us so I guess they feel that, by hypothesising, accusing and judging, they are providing a service.
My advice. Stick to fashion, cooking, interior design and obscure health matters. Leave the reporting of the news to those who can actually focus on the news.
Grounded: Sally Wilton with Lickers the cat |
:We all make assumptions, and one of mine is that if an entrepreneur has sold a business for £21m she will live in
a swanky house. So why am I standing outside a pleasant but ordinary Edwardian end terrace in London’s Kensal Rise?
The clue is in the shy woman who opens the door, and the quirky building a few hundred yards away that announces on
its front wall, “I AM CINEMA, LOVE ME”. This is The Lexi cinema, a thriving art house centre that serves as a focus for the
community around it, and sends its profits to Lynedoch, an eco village in South Africa. Sally Wilton is the chief executive,
although these days she works for nothing. Or at least not for personal gain. READ MORE