Few people here in the UK recognise that the British press is one of the worst in the western world. Most countries have some bad newspapers, but only in Britain can we boast a press where the vast majority of the press lie as a matter of course.
These thoughts were prompted by this really quite funny list of claims in the British press about what the EU intends to do. What’s scary about this is how many of these stories have absolutely no basis whatsoever in anything. Some hack was just sat at their desk and thought “crap, I have to get a story in… I know I’ll just make something up!”.
I’m in two minds about the press here. When I’m back in South Africa, I’m appalled at the lax editorial standards and journalistic timidity. Here I’m often appalled by the partisanship and cynicism. This is partially balanced by the entire political spectrum being represented, but that assumes the average person reads more than one paper, which they don’t.