THE DEPENDENT INDEPENDENT

 

Another decent journal yields to the pressures! 

 

Using a team of outstanding journalists to write their op ed columns, the Independent developed a large following.  According to editor David Felton, "advertising revenues have struggled to cover the escalating serving costs that result from our ever-increasing popularity."

 

How did the Independent get so popular?  By featuring journalists like Robert Fisk, Mark Steel and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, whose articles have not been influenced by mainstream propaganda, editorial pressures or political correctness.

 

These journalists figure among the few who have taken on "the establishment”.  Fisk and Steel haven't been afraid to get the typical flak of being labelled anti-Semitic when they reported truths about Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians. 

 

Alibhai-Brown hasn't shunned the vilification she's received for expressing her views.  She recently commented on the "deluge of abuse" that she received for expressing her unease about September 11th.

 

Readers around the world have forwarded these articles to other readers on their email lists.  Now, suddenly, they've stopped.  The journalists still write.  But the online editor has decided to charge readers for access to the opinions of those who have supported legitimate Arab causes when no one else would.

 

What does David Felton have to say about it?  "We live in a world where costs must be met."  What makes the whole business suspect is his next comment in an email to me on May 1, 2003:  "All our current news and sport articles are still available without charge, as is our Education section - plus Enjoyment articles covering the arts, books, films, music and theatre."

 

In other words, practically everything but the op ed columns is still available for free!  I can read the ordinary news, but not the opinions of those who have exposed the likes of Ariel Sharon, as Fisk has, or complained about American and British warmongering in Iraq, as Mark Steel has.

 

How many newspapers would carry Robert Fisk's story questioning whether the US had murdered journalists in Baghdad?  According to Felton, you can still be privy to these exposures if you're willing and able to spend 30 - 60 quid a year.  Otherwise, forget the columns by the honest reporters who are not embedded in the establishment.

 

Perhaps Mr. Felton hopes that those who don’t pay (or can’t) will turn to analysts like William Safire, Ariel Sharon’s friend on The New York Times.  Safire serves up plenty of Arab-hating, Islam-bashing viewpoints, and they're free!

 

In December, Robert Fisk wrote, "Journalists are being attacked for telling the truth, for trying to tell it how it is.  American journalists especially."  The British have always been much more sophisticated than the Americans.  They don't attack journalists directly for telling the truth.  They simply charge enough to remove them from the public domain.