Diocese of Liverpool

Thought for the Day, 15 November 2002

The Rt Rev. James Jones

I've been in London this week for the General Synod. The last thing I've done each morning before setting out was to listen to “What the Papers Say”.

The scandal-mongering about the Royal Households by our free press made depressing listening.

I confess it affected my mood as I walked the route the Queen would take for the State Opening of Parliament.

I walked byWestminster Abbey, through the Field of Remembrance, and through the forest of thousands of miniature wooden crosses, each marking the death of an individual soldier.

“For what did they die?”

“For freedom” I told myself.

But surely not this sort of freedom to rake over people's lives so contemptuously and without proof.

I would always fight for free press not least because as Lord Acton wrote to a Bishop in 1887 “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

A free press is the best defence against the abuse of power.

But there's a world of difference between courageous highly-principled investigative journalism and the buying up of unproven salacious stories that assassinate people's reputations and dissolve our institutions.

The media demand transparency but are surprisingly coy about themselves.

I think we should be told as the credits roll on a sensational TV interview just how much the interviewee is being paid.

I think too the opening paragraph of a Kiss ‘n' Tell story in the press should state just how many pieces of silver have changed hands for this scoop.

Furthermore the journalists and media barons caught up in circulation wars, who expose public figures, seldom have their own lives so rigorously examined – their expense accounts, salaries and private lives.

But the truth is none of us can bear such close scrutiny of our lives – because to use an old fashioned but newly relevant Christian insight – we're all sinners.

It was Iris Murdoch who said in a sentence of classic English understatement:

“If one appeals to the general notion of human nature, must one not agree that we are on the whole not framed to be particularly good.”

All of us would shrink with embarrassment, if not shame, should some private moments or conversations find their way into the public domain.

And should anybody ever devise a camera to photograph our thoughts none of us would have a friend in the world!

It's not hypocrisy to reckon there's a difference between the private and the public. It's in the private realm that we wrestle with our human nature.

To quote St. Paul:

“In my flesh I can will what is right but I cannot do it”.

We struggle with this tension in private, often failing, and then proceed with our ideals on to the public stage – forever conscious of the chasm between what we really are and what we ought to be.

There's only one who knows the whole truth about us. And I thank God that he, at least, is merciful – for the media seldom are.