"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend"

These are the words of a newspaper editor at the close of John Ford's classic western, the Man who shot Liberty Valance, when he learns the truth of what really happened the night Liberty was gunned down. I first saw the film when I was an impressionable fourteen-year-old, and I was stunned. A newspaper not revealing the truth of a story? I couldn't believe it. Gradually as I grew up I learned a little more about how the world works, and now I am not the least surprised when the media "prints the legend".

Last week Ken Livingstone, in a choice of subject even he now heartily regrets, reminded the world that at one point in his life Adolph Hitler supported the idea of a homeland for the Jewish people, making him at one level a "Zionist", because that is what anyone espousing that view is entitled to be called. In his case he saw it as an easy way of removing the Jews from Germany. This remark was then seized upon by everyone who disapproves of Ken's left wing credentials and indeed the left in general as the most disgraceful piece of anti-Semitism ever seen. Anti-Semitism is rife in the left wing of the Labour party apparently, and must be rooted out. Poor Jeremy Corbyn, still struggling to come to terms with taking the reins of leadership, buckled under the intense pressure from all around him and launched an inquiry into the whole affair. I still don't quite understand why he didn't say "Being against the Apartheid policies of the Zionist government of Israel is not the same as anti-Semitism, whatever they and their supporters around the world would have you believe". Some are now saying that this whole thing has been carefully orchestrated in order to oust Jeremy from the leadership, and so venomous has the campaign become I wouldn't be surprised if it works.

Getting thoroughly sick of the blanket media coverage on the "anti-Semitism scandal" on the British media, especially the BBC, I turned to Euronews, normally less obsessed with British "news" than our domestic outlets, but there it was, right at the top of the agenda! It's enough to make you start watching Keeping up with the Kardashians. At least you'd get a bit of truth there.

My good friend Patrick Graham, through the blog on his website smileofthedecade recently addressed the whole issue of trusting the media before the Livingstone fiasco broke, and his stark conclusion was: you can't. I haven't spoken to him for a couple of days, but I doubt if his opinion has changed since...