Comments on: You can’t force people to love EU

By: Hugh Barton-Smith

Hugh Barton-Smith — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 09:16:21 +0000

I can’t make it either. Perhaps we can rely on @Leigh_Phillips for feedback.

Plug-in activated.

By: Mathew

Mathew — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 09:09:57 +0000

Well, we’ll see. I’ve actually heard this idea expressed several times, so I think it betrays a strand of thinking which runs deeper than a subediting slip.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it on Monday. Will you?

PS Activate the plug-in which allows people to subscribe to comments by email on a post-by-post basis. I’d have never noticed your reply if it hadn’t popped up briefly on the Blogactiv home page.

By: Hugh Barton-Smith

Hugh Barton-Smith — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 16:26:29 +0000

I wasn’t seriously suggesting it was a spoof. As it’s not clear exactly where the phrase originated, I’d prefer to give the Foundation the benefit of the doubt. It’s the sort of thing that slips past unnoticed even by those who write it, but when picked up, it gives us bloggers a good excuse for a rant.

By: Mathew

Mathew — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 15:47:14 +0000

Gosh, Hugh, I didn't even know you'd started up a blog here! Running the IABC's web2EU space not enough for you? You make interesting links between my post, China vs EU development aid and "SplatterGate" (!) You're absolutely right that the idea that "journalists should do better" is part of the holier-than-thou / Superiority Complex so many Institutionalised functionnaires unknowingly suffer from. But I doubt the Pascal Decroos Foundation for Investigative Journalism would have enough humour to try a spoof. They look very earnest. As you point out in your first post here, of course, there are plenty of journalism organisations prepared to play both sides of the field and take the EU coin. Time the bloggers took serious note.