In a New Delhi bylined piece, the Telegraph passes on the tale of an Indian temple where worshipers show their reverence for the enlightening power of journalism by bowing before a pile of newspapers. (And, no, it’s not the Newseum.)
Alas, amid all the adulation, ugliness rears its head:
According to [a temple priest] all newspapers, irrespective of their language, were revered in the temple unmindful of the mounting criticism over the media’s overall loss of credibility, dishonesty and unreliability.
It’s not so weird to see that kind of self-hating dig in a British press story–lazy sods all of them–but the outrage seem perfunctory and a little hard to believe given that the Telegraph‘s piece was very clearly ripped, quotes and all, from a Hindustan Times story that ran two days earlier. Let the eye wink at the hand.
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.