![]() Somewhere between the "D-Notice" episode and the editor of clickbait site The Canary appearing on Question Time, the antipathy between professional journalists and their social media detractors reached some kind of bitter zenith. Well now, we have the UnHeard being fairly explicit that they preferred a time when information was tightly controlled. Journalists felt smug – we'd never actually put up with that sort of censorship, and our professionalism had called out the idea as a joke. Media outlets queued up to do withering takedowns of the fake news. A "D-Notice", now called a DSMA-notice, is a non-binding agreement not to report things that would impact national security. ![]() The story was pushed by the kind of blogs which love nothing more than to drag the hated "MSM". This is a disconcerting echo of a fake rumour following the Grenfell Tower fire that there was a "D-notice" on the number of deaths. It's telling that the age of total war – where journalists waited to be told what they could and could not print by the Ministry of Information – is seen as a golden era. Tim Montgomerie, editor of The Unherd (Photo via Policy Exchange) Every month or so another journalist writes a profound Medium post either strongly defending or bleakly questioning the point of it all when a data robot can write a story for the Press Association, and a murder weapon can be rinsed for clicks. With the media industry in a bad way, there has been a lot of that going on recently. One of the holding site's first articles was about why former Tory Chancellor George Osborne's editorship of the London Evening Standard is actually a good thing. It's especially unfortunate when the theme of its launch is dedicated to the state of journalism, with a whole raft of content under the banner "Newsaholics Anonymous – our deep dive into the news industry". It's unfortunate for a new media venture to be bizarrely unable to articulate its intended audience. The UnHeard looks set to be another huge and epic contribution to British public life. Before that, he wrote speeches for William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith, two failed Tory leaders. Previously he had edited ConservativeHome, the "grassroots" Tory comment website that has been owned by billionaire Michael Ashcroft since 2009. He still had a column, which he used to make a big huffy deal publicly when he quit the Conservative Party last year, to protest David Cameron wanting to stay in the EU. Paul writes a column for UnHerd and is a regular commentator on The Political Correction on GB News.Editor Tim Montgomerie is a Thatcher fan-boy who became comment editor for Times in 2013 and lasted a year before resigning. He has written widely about the growing disconnect between the working-class and the Left, caused by the latter’s embrace of liberal cosmopolitanism, including in his 2020 book Despised: why the modern Left loathes the working class. Paul has been a member of the Labour Party since 1994 and is active in the Blue Labour movement. He is the national organiser of Trade Unionists Against the EU and was prominent in the Leave campaign during the EU referendum. Paul Embery has been a firefighter for 25 years and has served on the executive council of the Fire Brigades Union. Firefighter trade unionist columnist author, Despised: why the modern Left loathes the working class broadcaster
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