After reading this article in the Sun concerning the antics of Ashley Cole, it occured to me that Newspapers have a huge responsibility, and indeed power which should be exercised more carefully. The article implies that Ashley was behaving inappropriately with a blonde whilst his wife was raising money for charity, but how do most readers of newspapers know what the truth is?
We are in the habit of taking what we read to be fact, without questioning its accuracy, and then make judgements based on what we have read. Newspapers can make stars of us, or destroy us, on a whim.
They have the power to distort our view of the world - I recently read the John Sergeant's autobiography, which contained an interesting tale of him reporting in Vietnam on the war there. They ran weekly radio reports, publicised as coming from the frontline, but the reality was that he was miles from any of the action, and what he reported was only what he was told, and he had absolutely no way of verifying the facts.
We are all aware of the fact that countries such as China, etc, report what they want their citizens to hear, but is our press any better?
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