Book blogging: Andrew Marr - "My Trade"

I finished Andrew Marr's My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism a few weeks ago and had even typed out a few choice passages that I thought were particularly entertaining or interesting to blog here, but still hadn't got round to putting them up - so here is the first. I was interested in the book because reading and listening to (much less watching, currently) the news is such a big part of my life, both for my work and just because 'I want to know'. Marr gives as good as justification for why being a news-junkie is nothing to be ashamed of as I have come across elsewhere:

"I know people who barely read a paper and who think most broadcast news is mindless nonsense. I think, however, the are wrong. They might go through their weekly round, taking the kids to school, shopping, praying, doing some voluntary work, phoning elderly relatives, and do more good than harm as they go. But they have disconnected themselves from the wider world; rather like secular monks, they have cloistered themselves in the local. And this is not good enough. We are either players in open, democratic societies, all playing a tiny part in their ultimate direction, or we are deserters." (p.63)

More from Andrew in coming days and weeks I think.