Bogus Parallels — The Independent’s Donald Macintyre Responds

As British citizens, we, Macintyre included, all bear responsibility for Blair’s actions - our moral accountability is a very clear and obvious factor demanding that we hold Blair to account as far as we are able. Macintyre, by contrast, is in +no+ way responsible for the actions of the leader of a Palestinian government elected by Palestinians.

The moral priority could hardly be clearer, and yet mainstream journalists act as though the priorities should be reversed - official enemies are typically subjected to fierce challenge, whereas ’our’ leaders and their allies are treated as revered statespersons to be received with polite deference and easy questions.

Macintyre wrote that he “considered [it] my job” to report Blair’s “views, in the context of a fast moving story, without them being swallowed up, in a relatively short interview, by polemical argument with the reporter.” So the fundamental journalistic task of holding power to account is reduced to “polemical argument” for which there is no space, while acting as a faithful stenographer of high-level distortions is humbly doing “my job”.

The ethical implications are breathtakingly miserable. In reality, journalists just about +never+ manage to find the time or space to seriously challenge Western leaders. It seems to be seen as impolite, as almost a slur on the democratic process.

(via Instapaper)