The latest
Ian Rankin novel portrays the decline of the press as a group of trained and responsible journalists who do research and check facts. DI Siobhan Clarke reacts angrily when a journalist, Laura Smith, asks her to do a trade: inside info in exchange for a heads up on a breaking story that casts the police in a bad light. Smith's response to the police officer's refusal to bargain is food - however unappetizing - for readerly thought.
"Know how few of us are left out in the wild, Siobhan? Journalists like me, we're an endangered species. It's all bloggers and social justice warriors and gossip hounds. How many of them can you put a name to? Maybe you better start trying, because soon they're going to be all that's left."
