Letter to The Times on the Role of the Press

I wrote to the Times on Friday last:

"A former head of BBC News complains, letters 3 April 2020, that Ministers, when interrogated at No 10 Press Briefings, “dodge” questions.  Apparently, Ministers escape being “open and honest” because journalists are denied the opportunity for follow-up questions.  It seems to me that many of the discerning public are dismayed by the way political debate is conducted, and not just in the present circumstances, but it takes both a Punch and a Judy for a show.  The press and other media should pause to reflect on the impact that their, apparently, relentless desire to “move the story on” has on the quality of debate.  The barrage of statistics, leading questions to health and emergency workers, and league tables of mortality designed to attract viewers may, actually, have the opposite effect.  One wonders just what role the complainant envisages for a free press in times of grave national crisis? For those of us heartily fed up with the overwhelming negativity of the evening news perhaps it is time for the press to turn their intellect and resources towards defining a way out of the current mess rather than trying to lure Ministers into a logical cleft stick.  Of course mistakes will have been made and those charged with making difficult decisions on our behalf are bound to make further errors.  But for goodness sake, let us have the inquest when all the facts are known and can be assessed calmly and in context?"

The following day, Saturday, the front page of that newspaper was full of yet another report from yet another expert undermining the Government - "PM's virus adviser calls for way out of lockdown claiming Britain had painted itself into a corner."  As the Editor clearly seems to be moving the story on, there was no need for me to check the letters page to see if they had published my contribution. I rest my case.