Dear Gillian, when in a hole, stop digging

Following on from yesterday's piece from Gillian Tett: ‘Why a divided America has united against the media’

https://www.ft.com/content/5d95eadc-6691-11e7-8526-7b38dcaef614?desktop=true&conceptId=884693fd-5b3d-3db5-a781-10b1fc4d1d41&segmentId=d8d3e364-5197-20eb-17cf-2437841d178a

where she stated:

Thankfully, a great many in my industry remain deeply committed to the cause of telling the truth, and media such as the Financial Times remain determined to practise impartial analysis and reporting.

...she has received a lot of strong pushback on this claim...shocking eh? Anyway, she has just left a comment in response, which gives new life to the phrase 'spurious bollox'. Here it is along with my gentle riposte:

"As I pointed out, the issue of the media arouses strong passions - and this comment section demonstrates that. For what it's worth, I would strongly suggest that anyone interested in this should also read my earlier column on the "dirty lens" problem from October 2016: 

https://www.ft.com/content/76bd64d2-90d5-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923

One thought: the comments below appear to confuse reporting and commentary in the FT; Luce, Wolf et al are commentators, not reporters. Their job is to have a provocative point of view. As it happens, I sometimes have a very different point of view, but the point to stress is that these are point(s) of view - because they are columns.

On the reporting side, we try to be balanced and accurate and thoughtful. Like anybody, we can always do better and I strongly welcome ideas about how to improve our reporting. The first thing I try to ask readers when I meet them is "what can we do better?" Journalists always need to listen listen listen to all sides. But, the key point is this...we are trying! 

Please help us! We all have a stake in creating good journalism..

Gillian"

***

Right so when you said:

"Thankfully, a great many in my industry remain deeply committed to the cause of telling the truth, and media such as the Financial Times remain determined to practise impartial analysis and reporting" 

You were excluding 'columnists' and 'commentators'.

Thanks for clearing that up - at least it explains why many of the commentators seem not to be the least bit committed to telling the truth, and it also helps to explain the frequent dearth of 'analysis'.  

MarkGB