Eminent Edwardian Editors

Edward Pearce compares the careers of two giants of Fleet Street, A.G. Gardiner and J.L. Garvin.

MODERN ORTHODOXY says that politics is in decline, journalism in the ascendant. But the brittle influence of a modern editor is commonly defined by his proprietor's relationship with politicians. An editor today is frequently authorised to savage one party leader or government and directed to be subservient to another. And this does not happen in the old style of Tory, Liberal or Labour papers employing editors of those persuasions. It derives from a government's ability to feed editors with stories and to supply the men who own editors with access to Court. Modern editors lack free-will.

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