- Feb 5, 2002
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Future generations will not look kindly on those who betrayed the truth for comfort and career advancement.
The reckoning is finally arriving, echoing the dilemma in Eugene Genovese’s powerful essay, ‘The Question’. Writing in 1994, Genovese confessed that he and many others had remained loyal to the Soviet Union long after they knew about the mass killings and the gulags. ‘For many years’, he admitted, ‘I have lived in dread of having to answer The Question… “What did you know, and when did you know it?”’ Eventually, he acknowledged the uncomfortable truth: ‘We knew everything essential and knew it from the beginning.’ Many mainstream journalists will soon find themselves confronting the same question.
The sudden resignations this week of BBC director-general Tim Davie and CEO of news Deborah Turness has focussed minds on the role of the media. It has been startling – and grimly predictable – to watch senior figures at the BBC scrambling to defend their failures by muttering darkly about ‘right-wing conspiracies’ and ‘inside jobs’. Few, if any, have paused to consider whether the real problem might be their own cowardice.
Continued below.
www.spiked-online.com
The reckoning is finally arriving, echoing the dilemma in Eugene Genovese’s powerful essay, ‘The Question’. Writing in 1994, Genovese confessed that he and many others had remained loyal to the Soviet Union long after they knew about the mass killings and the gulags. ‘For many years’, he admitted, ‘I have lived in dread of having to answer The Question… “What did you know, and when did you know it?”’ Eventually, he acknowledged the uncomfortable truth: ‘We knew everything essential and knew it from the beginning.’ Many mainstream journalists will soon find themselves confronting the same question.
The sudden resignations this week of BBC director-general Tim Davie and CEO of news Deborah Turness has focussed minds on the role of the media. It has been startling – and grimly predictable – to watch senior figures at the BBC scrambling to defend their failures by muttering darkly about ‘right-wing conspiracies’ and ‘inside jobs’. Few, if any, have paused to consider whether the real problem might be their own cowardice.
Continued below.
The trans reckoning has arrived
Future generations will not look kindly on those who betrayed the truth for comfort and career advancement.
www.spiked-online.com
