…gets a pretty bad press. Journalists are trusted by the public possibly even less than politicians. It’s only at times like this, when the entire nation is dependent on the free media to cover stories like the Muffingate scandal - where MPs are planning to jump queues when purchasing muffins - that one really begins to appreciate the work of the humble reporter - all the phoning, fact-checking, desk research, interviewing…
Yesterday at about 10am, I noticed a BBC Online piece about Muffingate, including a quote from our venerable union rep.
Ken Flack who represents 380 TGWU union members said: “What will they want us to do next? Doff our caps?”
Later in the day, I grabbed an Evening Standard and saw yet more coverage, including a further quote;
Ken Flack, who represents 380 TGWU union members at the Commons, said: “What will they want us to do next? Doff our caps?”
Note the additional three words and two commas in the intro. And then in this morning’s Mirror;
Ken Flack who represents 380 TGWU union members said: “What will they want us to do next? Doff our caps?”
Funny though that all three organs have coincidentally called our rep “Ken” Flack, when he’s actually called “Kevin”. I’m sure it’s not a cut and paste error - no doubt Kevin got his own name wrong on the press release.
editor[at]recessmonkey.com
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Her Majesty’s fourth estate…I’ve never heard the press called that before and can only find one other use of the phrase on the internet. Do you know the origins of the phrase? What are the other three estates?
roger said this on October 13th, 2007 at 3:37 am
Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work The Fourth Estate made this observation: “In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the ‘Estate General’. The First Estate consisted of three hundred clergy. The Second Estate, three hundred nobles. The Third Estate, six hundred commoners. Some years later, after the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, ‘Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.’”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_estate
Alex said this on October 14th, 2007 at 12:39 am