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After I tweeted this the other day, I was contacted by a commissioning editor on one of the major national media outlets who wanted me to expand it into an opinion piece. >
I don't do much blogging/ hot-take-peddling these days, but it was something I felt strongly about & happily agreed. I submitted a piece. Shortly after, I was emailed back with a heavily edited version & asked for my consent to the edits. I had to say no, for one reason alone. >
The edit had removed all criticisms of the mainstream media and professional journalists, who were, in my opinion, by far the biggest culprits in the story. We had some to & fro in search of a compromise but eventually had to agree to differ.
So, to cut to the chase, the article that didn't appear is here, for you to peruse at your leisure. medium.com/@allyfogg66/th…
The section that we disagreed about was primarily this. I offered to moderate the intemperate wording, but the issue was not the strength of the criticism, but any criticism at all. 
You're probably wondering why I've decided not to name the paper. Three reasons. Partly that the editors I engaged with were entirely respectful, professional and polite and the issue was the editorial policy they were enforcing. I'm happy to return that courtesy. >
Partly because the same paper had actually been one of the better ones wrt to covering Aman's story and were one of the few to give his side of the story, and it would seem unfair if they end up being the ones who get dragged. >
But mostly it's because the editorial policy they were enforcing is, in my experience, pretty much identical to every other paper & outlet in the country. They all do this. They all routinely circle the wagons around other journalists, and refuse to criticise, >
even when criticism is quite clearly needed and deserved. It is not a problem with one paper, but with the whole of the British media, and it is a MAJOR reason why journalists can so often behave appallingly with impunity, knowing no one will hold them to account.
Anyway, this is not something I'd normally do, but under the circumstances I'd be really grateful if you could share this thread or the Medium link, because I think people should know how this works. /ENDS
And just for good luck, the good folks at the Canary asked if they could reprint this so you can also read it here. I think this is called diversification, or something. thecanary.co/opinion/2019/0…
