From: Name withheld Subject: Substance misuse Your correspondent
last week who was concerned about Axegrinder’s “shameful” piece about
the Sun and Mirror journalists receiving treatment in the Priory
(right) seems to have missed the point of the column. As its strapline
suggests – “the column that settles scores and buries hatchets” – it’s
hardly meant to be the most objective journalism the world has ever
seen (although he could have given us more of a clue at some of the
names… particularly the Cheshire Cheese pisser, but I digress).
However,
there is a more serious point here. The use of Class A drugs such as
cocaine among journalists is not the best-kept secret in Fleet Street –
and that’s one of the reasons I don’t want my name to be printed with
this letter. As your other new columnist David Banks pointed out, the
whiff of hypocrisy becomes a terrible stench when the sanctimonious
moralising of some of our newspapers over Kate Moss, Pete Doherty et al
fills page after page.
It’s about time someone did their own
investigation into Fleet Street’s own Drink and Drugs Shame. Now
there’s a challenge for the new PG.
Name and address withheld
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog