[zwischenzug]

Not just local papers.

I worked for The (London) Times on a student scholarship back in the mid-90s.

I heard editors telling senior journalists to lie about anti-government movements, and asked to phone up a sister 'paper and lie about calling from another news organisation to find out whether a story was going to be run that weekend.

They offered me a job, but I turned it down. I'd had enough being a machine to generate words at university. I then had to chase them up for payment for my three weeks' work. A measly 150GBP (total) and they tried to screw me out of that.

Ironically I ended up working for Rupert Murdoch in IT again (in a completely separate non-media company - not MySpace) for 10 more years.

I have to say I read this article and thought: isn't this what journos are paid to do?

[mattmanser]

Well, I guess they can't all be Robert Fisk.

I get the impression that it's rather a lot like rock stardom, a lot of wanabees, with a few receiving all the pay/accolades.