“A Very Royal Scandal” And the emptiness of modern journalism.
An intriguing feature of our time is the near universal contempt for journalists. The facts speak for themselves: they are some of the least trusted people in society, and amidst this frenzy of disdain, the industry has been forced to re-market itself to a sycophantic base of subscribers. When we talk about a loss of trust in the resulting system, we’re not just talking about a now extensive catalogue of mistakes, selective narratives and cynical omissions but a far deeper schism: we have lost complete faith in the old myths that sustained it.
News was always a confidence trick, perhaps one of the few industries where it had to conjure the illusion of its own demand. Much of its mythos was formed in the 20th century: to take his place in the liberal democracy, the citizen had to be informed. Those trusted to do so were at least expected to have the common man’s interests at heart. Occasionally, this vague ideal flared up as high drama speaking truth to power: Nixon brought down by two dishevelled hacks behind a typewriter.
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