Guerrilla warfare is to be preferred

Claud Cockburn, the original guerrilla journalist – New Statesman

Journalism without idealism is little more than the daily vomit of convenient facts in the service of power and money. It’s a dreary and pitiful occupation, and that’s how much of the public regards it. At the other end of the trade, however, idealistic journalism or “guerrilla journalism” can easily curdle into self-pleasuring smugness – the romanticism of the floppy-haired lone hero, one foot forever hovering by a nearby barricade. Who was it that said more journalists had been ruined by self-importance than by alcohol?

Andrew Marr reviewing Believe Nothing Until It Is Officially Denied by Patrick Cockburn (Claud’s son)