Roy Greenslade - Guardian

'Journotainment' infects political reporting

19th October

A thought-provoking column in yesterday's Independent on Sunday by Sarah Sands, It can't be true – it was in the newspaper, dealt with journalism in the age of celebrity.

Prompted by the Starsuckers movie - in which pop papers are lampooned for publishing fake stories - she asked: "How can red tops possibly know what is true and not true in the great tide of celebrity stories, and how much does it matter?"

Her conclusion: "I would be worried if journalists started lying about the national debt, but in the arena of journotainment everybody appears to be in on the act – the newspaper, the celebrity, the public."

Fine. I accept that all are complicit in the conspiracy that is the daily celeb circus. But what happens when "journotainment" infects the reporting of the national debt?