Toynbee: the press's hypocrisy
Guardian Unlimited: Our press, the worst in the west, demoralises us all
Polly Toynbee (someone with whom I agree vary rarely) on the hypocritical media condemnations of the sailors who were captured by Iran. It seems that the newspapers who tore into the sailors had earlier made offers for their stories, and turned against them when they sold to someone else. She also touches on the Blair government's history of "cringing" to the press and calls for privacy legislation and a crackdown on chequebook and "kiss-and-tell" journalism.