First, let’s be clear: this is NOT a piece on Margaret Thatcher’s place in British or world history. It is a piece on journalism, and the rewriting of, if not history, then at least a rewriting of the record.
Let’s start with the story. While writing to an American friend, I wanted to give her a link to the debate over the BBC’s dilemma as to whether to play “Ding-dong! the witch is dead” on its weekly top of the music charts radio programme this week. “Ding-dong…” is a short number from the 1938 musical The Wizard of Oz, and has been adopted as the anthem of an anti-Thatcher FaceBook group. Since Thatcher’s death earlier in the week Continue reading