Slow death of the newspaper editorial – Knightly Views with Gavin Ellis
Consensus is an increasingly rare commodity. For that reason, I view the death of the editorial with more than sadness. I see it as counterproductive. As a society, we must harness whatever means we can to draw people back toward a shared view. Editorials can and should play a part in that process and be promoted by media for that reason.
On my bookshelf is a yellowed Penguin paperback by a former editor of The Times, Wickham Steed. Titled simply The Press it contains a passage that sums up the role that a newspaper discharges through its editorial column. It reads like a very sound argument for editors to do their utmost to preserve that column.
“ … to chasten the haughty and succour the weak, to scorn the bigot and confound the sceptic, to serve truth without fear, to admonish the people and expose the demagogue, to chide the wayward and embolden the faint-hearted – in other words to provide sound comment upon public life in all of its aspects – should be the task for the Press and the source of its power.”
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