"Four decades reporting on the consequences of inequality"
For much of my adult life Jon Snow has let me know what's going on in the world. Mostly from the Channel 4 Newsdesk, we've been everywhere together - from Berlin to Iraq and through Brexit and Covid. In all that time, he's always felt like a trustworthy character - no one gets an easy ride, and the colourful, politically neutral neck-ties have served him well in disarming countless partisans. However, it is only by reading his new book The State of Us that the deeper reasons for trusting the journalism of Jon Snow become evident.
There is a heartbreaking, devastating story at the beginning of the book which sets it all up. His personal connection with the tragedy of Grenfell Tower took me so by surprise I had to go for a walk around the block. Snow sees inequality everywhere and in doing so he also feels a responsibility for it. The role of the free press, he argues, is to prevent disasters like Grenfell from happening. Good journalism can sniff out the drivers of inequality.. greed, power.. and do something about it, bring it to the attention of the public so that truth can be spoken to power before, not after, bad things happen. Lazy journalism is the opposite of this - propping up the arguments of those in power and cheer-leading from the newsstands at the expense of those unable to protect themselves. The State of Us is to some extent a venting about, or perhaps a warning of, the risks of journalistic independence ebbing away, but it's also a look at the last four decades and the changes that have shaped the world we live in seen by a man who has placed himself at its centre, interviewing everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Marcus Rashford.
It's a tricky thing for a white guy coming from privilege to talk about inequality in the way that Snow does, but I am convinced enough by his post-private education story to let it go. Snow crashed academically and it was only by taking a more challenging route via Scarborough TEC and the villages of Uganda, away from his high-performing family, that he was able to get where he did. It must be a very strange time for this broadcaster, to have stepped away from his life's work in an era when the world is so disrupted and more in need of strong objective journalism than ever. Let's hope there's more Snow on the way.
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
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