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mi7rennie
It's not for a lack of means or opportunity that people choose to remain silent, or alternatively contact the press should they wish to: journalists such as those we're discussing are serving no-one but themselves.
Even if that is true, considering their modest circulations, it is arrogant in the extreme for journalists to justify their behaviour with the wants of a such a small minority.
It's almost as if a Code of Practice is required...
A Code of Practice issued by an external regulatory body, who's membership is not optional and who's rulings are enforceable in law that is.
His article is risible.
It's not enough that the same-old, lame-old, self-justifying mitigations are rallied to the cause (although it being disrespectful not to contact the family is a new one on me and warrants a special mention, if only for its complete disengagement from reality).
No, we're supposed to swallow the idea that hacks shoulder this burden unwillingly, spurred on only by their earnest desire to serve the greater good.
"I'll take one Sword of Justice, a Shield of Truth and a Heavy Heart please."
And the onus is on the public to contact IPSO ("IPS-who?"), in order not to receive a "death knock"? Rather than journos acting with a presumption of "not behaving like a cunt"?
And the Liverpool John Moores University report cited, does not find that the public welcome a doorstepping. It finds that they're less than keen on hacks resorting to Facebook et al when the door is slammed in their face!
But it seems you're not the only one who "sees no ships": "One daily newspaper journalist described it [plundering social media] as ‘a virtual version of taking comments from cards and flowers at the scene'”.
Oh.
I see.
Mind you, it's little Moores (I thang yew!) than a barely opaque attack on calls for Moores (Have you tried the veal?) press regulation off the back of Leveson, so I'll be using my copy to wipe the arse of an ursine forest-dweller.
Were it not for the undue influence these widely unread rags have (ever expanding, cheap-to-produce current affairs shows on radio and TV, plugging gaps in their schedule with "What The Papers Say" slots) and the undue political influence their owner's have (thanks to the undue influence of their widely unread rags), they'd have collapsed under the weight of public disinterest by now.
Much like the monarchy and the church. But don't get me started...