The scale of the transgression is epic, yet only a relatively small part of Davies’ horrifying book deals with the methods which form such an adhesive part of media culture. He demonstrates how newspapers work as cartels. He provides pages of evidence that reporters are used by intelligence agencies, above all the CIA but also the British Secret Intelligence Service, to place fabricated material in the public domain. He writes a compelling chapter on the way that PR has captured mainstream journalism and converted it into a tool for corporate interests. He provides devastating evidence showing how Blair used certain members of the press as his accomplices to make the case for the Iraq war.

Davies brings to life only the shoddy and disreputable in British journalism. This means that he ignores a great deal that is salient and good. His methodology focuses on journalistic failure, while systematically disregarding the many ways newspapers shine light in very difficult areas and do tell truths that would not otherwise come out. He is brutal about The Observer, for example, yet does not pay nearly enough tribute to the eclecticism and generosity of spirit of the newspaper during the years when it was edited by Roger Alton. He is unfair to the Daily Mail, a newspaper for which I write a weekly political column. For example, he accuses the paper of manufacturing quotes. Yet the only case he cites concerns the paper’s former New York correspondent Daniel Jeffreys, who lost his job after the practice came to light. He accuses the paper of racism, then pays at best grudging tribute to the paper’s superb campaign to bring the white killers of the black schoolboy Stephen Lawrence to justice. Only the Guardian, the paper for which Davies works, escapes savage criticism.

But these are minor flaws. Davies has performed an enormous public service. His book should be read by every reporter, editor and proprietor as well as newspaper readers. Its real importance goes far beyond journalism. Newspapers and the broadcast media form an important part of the public domain. They should enhance it. Davies shows that much too often we poison it. This passionately argued and shocking book amounts to a call for action and reform. The worry is that the British press will collude to suppress it.

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