• A TIMELY reminder from your correspondent Rachel Gould on the disintegration of journalistic standards in the mainstream press, (The Julian Assange case is important, November 5).

As armies of overpaid second-raters are boosted to positions of power and influence beyond their intellectual capacity, it becomes increasingly obvious that they are only capable of having hysterics about one government sponsored playground fad at a time (Brexit, lockdown, climate change etc.)

We used to smirk loftily at the fairy-tale “journalism” of the old Soviet Union, and still do about the laughably shackled Chinese press; but have completely failed to notice the beam in our own eye.

Don’t read the papers*, don’t watch TV and don’t listen to the radio. You know it doesn’t make sense. *Apart from the Extra obviously…

MARTIN KENNEDY
Brewer Street, W1