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Why Journalists Hate Celebrities Who Speak Out: James O'Brien
14 February 2017, 12:32
James O'Brien has nailed why journalists are attacking celebrities so often - it's because they are doing the job newspapers are supposed to be doing.
Lily Allen was criticised on the front pages when she apologised on behalf of Britain for our reaction to the migrant crisis, while Gary Lineker, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ken Loach have been on the end of broadsides from the newspapers.
James thinks he knows why: they are speaking truth to power and that's what journalists should be doing.
Speaking on his LBC show, he said: "When an actor, or an artist or a writer or a lawyer or a priest comes forward and says 'This isn't right, how can you let a photograph of a bloke with a five o'clock shadow persuade you that we should leave hundreds if not thousands of unaccompanied children festering in hell?'
"'Oh, I've seen a picture of a bloke with a beard.'
"If you're a journalists and you're pedalling that sort of crap, no wonder you hate it when actors and artists and writers and medics and priests come out and say 'This is just wrong'.
"What the hell is the point of my profession if not to speak truth to power and to speak out against injustice? 'I'll tell you what the point of your profession is James. It's to do whatever Mr Dacre and Mr Murdoch have told you to do.'"