Abstract
From the British Journalism Review of 10 years ago (vol. 16, issue no 4, 2005)
‘New Or leans dominated every newspaper and television channel… The usually under stated Economist thundered “The Shaming of America” on its cover, and even the flag-waving Fox TV… sounded a note of jaw-dropping disbelief… It is estimated that 700 people – most of them elderly – died after the initial storm as a result of neglect or mismanagement. They were deaths that could and should have been avoided. Why they were not will continue to be the subject of bitter debate.’
– Matt Frei, then Washington correspondent of the BBC
‘I stopped being a journalist because I wanted to write plays, but I missed journalism. Both ambitions co-existed for quite a long time. My favourite review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was spoken to my friend Gordon Williams by a Daily Sketch reporter… who said to Gordon: “I get it. It's two reporters on a story which doesn't stand up.”’
‘My papers are on my doormat, five floors up, before seven o'clock. It's one area of life that's still like the good old days. I once asked the delivery people for the Evening Standard to be added to my order. They said: “We don't do the Standard, obviously.” I said: “I mean yesterday's Standard.” I realised I might be slightly deranged.’
– Two extracts from an interview by the editor with Sir Tom Stoppard
‘The Prime Minister is much concerned with his legacy. Surely it would be a poor one for either him or the current generation of BBC bosses to leave the BBC either destroyed or emasculated, and to earn for the Government the reputation of a bully. Tony Blair ought to remember that one Chairman and one Director-General have already been lost on his watch… anything more would count not as mere carelessness but a flaw of character.’
– John Cole, political editor of the BBC, 1981–92
