Yesterday I commented on Ian Blair’s accusations towards the press. While agreeing with the thrust of his remarks, I defended the press on the grounds they were bound to be responsive to their readership.
The papers today could have used a similar argument, effectively blaming their readers for their faults.
Alternatively, they could take one fairly sensible thing Blair said and invent huge quantities of spurious outrage, thereby totally obscuring any debate over their own role, and incidentally discouraging other public figures from being so reckless as to criticise the media.
etc.
They have their flaws, but they’re not stupid. That’ll teach Blair to say bad things about the press.