Re: Covid-19: Testing testing. Politicising of the BMJ
Dear Editor
I have been receiving and reading the Journal for some 70 years, I am grieved and annoyed to witness the increasingly strident political tone of the Journal in recent years. We have just emerged from the Journal's unrelenting and partial campaign against Brexit. Now the pandemic is providing another crusading cause.
Prominence is given to editorial staff and journalists so that the Journal has assumed the aspects of a campaigning pamphlet. When space is at a premium, what can be the justification of a two page section by Alison Shepherd, consisting largely of a photograph of a railway platform - in fact, the photograph does not illustrate the claimed overcrowding!
Rather than rush to condemn the Government in general, and the Prime Minister in particular, would it not be more profitable to look at the scientific advice he has sought to follow, and the tiers of management in the NHS and civil service? Why not simply try to be helpful in a situation that is crying out for this? I would say the same to those speaking on behalf of the BMA. We can turn to the BBC if we need a host of journalistic critics.
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Re: Covid-19: Testing testing. Politicising of the BMJ
Dear Editor
I have been receiving and reading the Journal for some 70 years, I am grieved and annoyed to witness the increasingly strident political tone of the Journal in recent years. We have just emerged from the Journal's unrelenting and partial campaign against Brexit. Now the pandemic is providing another crusading cause.
Prominence is given to editorial staff and journalists so that the Journal has assumed the aspects of a campaigning pamphlet. When space is at a premium, what can be the justification of a two page section by Alison Shepherd, consisting largely of a photograph of a railway platform - in fact, the photograph does not illustrate the claimed overcrowding!
Rather than rush to condemn the Government in general, and the Prime Minister in particular, would it not be more profitable to look at the scientific advice he has sought to follow, and the tiers of management in the NHS and civil service? Why not simply try to be helpful in a situation that is crying out for this? I would say the same to those speaking on behalf of the BMA. We can turn to the BBC if we need a host of journalistic critics.
Competing interests: No competing interests