Nick Davies, an investigative journalist on the Guardian and author of the provocative book on the failings of the media, Flat Earth News, gives a blunt assessment of the impact the commercialisation of news has had on accuracy and objectivity in news reporting.
Click on the player below to listen to Davies’ discussion with New Scientist editor-in-chief Jeremy Webb.
An excerpt from Flat Earth News:
“Every PR adviser to whom I have spoken agrees that the best PR conceals its own hand. The overt links to the media and the whole well-worn idea of ‘spin’ scarcely begins to capture the breadth and ingenuity of the tactics which are now used by the global industry of public relations. And it is this huge industry of manipulation – targeted at a structurally vulnerable media – which feeds falsehood and distortion directly into our news channels, without the old-fashioned need to use proprietors or advertisers as levers.”