Criticism of the media

Before we get into the media debate, there was some sad news yesterday and that was the death of Carol Barnes who, among other things, used to be a former ITN newsreader. This is just one of the many places to read about the sad news.

Anyway, if you haven't heard Lisa Presley is planning to sue over a newspaper article in the Daily Mail, reported here and followed up here because she says the original article upset her and has called the press "disgusting" on hey myspace page. More here.

I don't want to focus on this case in particular but this is the peg of the post, so to speak and so is the assessed debate I had on Friday for part of my Uni course. The industry I am planning to go into has had its fair share of criticism - some rightly and some wrongly.

One of the most recent is the reporting of the Bridgend suicides and the coverage it received brought all sorts of ethical and moral issues into play. One side is talked about here by Daniel Finkelstein, comment editor of the Times and Roy Greenslade blogs about thoughts from the Guardian and Independent on the media's role.

Personally, I don't think the media is too blame for the suicides but I agree with Mark Ansell that it isn't entirely innocent either. The reporting may not be too blame but it has been sensationalised a bit, probably to sell papers or just through carelessness but either way I want the industry I hope to ply my trade in to be a responsible, calm figure - am I just living a dream?

Final thoughts come from Adrian Monck and a in-depth look at the issue. Hopefully the media will have learned a little bit from this but without putting my foot down on either side really I don't think the media is too blame - it is just a sad and tragic series of events which has not been handled in the best way and not helped the situation.