****
I might have added that Beaumont also accused me (and many others all at once) of being "
controlling Politburo lefties who insist that the only acceptable version of the truth is theirs alone and that everybody else should march to the same step and sing the same (old party) song. " Standards for accuracy and honesty obviously drop through the floor when journalists assail those outside their corporate club.
Mr. Alton:
In response to a polite and thoughtful letter by Dave Watton to Peter
Beaumont you responded
"This is utter bollocks — the piece wasn't compromised. It was fine.
Please stop bothering people about such junk."
What do hope to achieve with such rudeness? Do you expect people to use
such a tone with you? Do you deny that an institution that deeply impacts
the public should be accountable to the public?
Joe Emersberger
ALTON's REPLY:
We are wholly accountable; but I am not going to compromise the abilities
of the journalists who work here. As you perfectly know, you are not
interested in a debate, you and your friends and media lens are trying to
fuck up decent hard-working men and women who are trying to tell the truth.
So do fuck off
MY RESPONSE:
Interesting that you maintain you are accountable while using language like that. I don't imagine many MP's respond to polite letters that way, nor do I suppose you speak to your superiors or important advertisers that way.
http://www.medialens.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5798&sid=9faeec4a97eb1ee8644304e81e8be007
The reader responded to Beaumont's abuse by saying
"You don't seem prepared to engage seriously…"
Beaumont's reply:
"No I'm not. So kindly fuck off."
It shows not only breathtaking hypocrisy that Beaumont would pontificate in his column about "toxic language" and "honest engagement", it shows how completely certain he is that his readers are irrelevant and incapable of exposing his hypocrisy. Unfortunately, readers are close to irrelvant to the corporate media. Readers are the audience being sold to advertisers – the product much more than they are the customers. That was dramaticaly highighted in 2010 when Roger Alton was runnig the UK Independent.
In response to an article by Bruce Anderson that advocated the torture of children.
(Bruce Anderson: "We not only have a right to use torture. We have a duty" Feb 15, 2010)
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/bruce-anderson/bruce-anderson-we-not-only-have-a-right-to-use-torture-we-have-a-duty-1899555.html
Alton replied to complaints from readers with his usual abusiveness. However, his tone changed markedly when those readers whom he had brushed off and insulted began contacting advertisers and copying Alton on their correspendence. It is quite clear to whom corporate journalists and editors are "wholly accountable".
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