9/11 journalism: how it is done
“Leicester to be first city where whites are minority”, revealed the Independent on September 11. But why carry the story on this particular day?
The Mail, after all, had the same story from the same sources on August 31, and the Telegraph on the very next day, as did the Mirror.
In fact the story has been floating around for most of this decade and regularly resurfaces in one form or another.
So why should the Indy run with it now? Could it be that the anniversary of 9/11 found the paper without the obligatory story reminding middle England that those uppity Muslims are still making our lives difficult for us six years on? The other papers had “controversial expansion” of Muslim schools, while Newsnight is banging on about books in libraries.
The Independent quoted the author of the research on Leicester, known for his anti-racist views, saying that discussion of “minority white cities” is a “a crude expression of fear”.
But the fine traditions of Fleet Street have never allowed rationality to get in the way of a good headline.
