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18th August 2018
06:59am BST

Professional journalists, however, have their own struggles without doing Cosgrave or Dorsey's work for them.
But it’s hard to know what benefit comes from challenging someone like Le Pen or Trump, as if the game is still being played by the old rules when in fact it’s a brand new game.
When Boris Johnson emerged with a tray of tea for reporters last weekend, with every step, he appeared to move closer to reclaiming his position in British politics as the seagull who lands on Wimbledon centre court and won’t fly away.
For many years, Johnson maintained this position in English life. “Boris Johnson's speech at Tory Party conference is the one perennial delight that everyone can enjoy,” The Mirror said in 2015 and it seemed then that those Indian summer days would never end.
He was among that vast collection of unfunny things that people found funny, a list which begins with nearly every joke made at the theatre and peaks with Wimbledon, especially if, say, a bird happens to land on centre court.
Like the seagull, Johnson is initially treated as an hilarity, one of the funniest things all those present have ever seen.
Sometimes the seagull flies away and the crowd dry their eyes before reluctantly returning to watch the action, even if they will never forget that seagull and the good times he brought them. Sometimes, however, the seagull won’t budge and while the laughter remains, it dims a little as it becomes apparent that this immovable figure is not a benevolent joker, but a heartless scavenger who will take what it wants from whoever has it before moving on to its next target.
Cast in the role of the Wimbledon crowd who will laugh at anything -the unfunnier the better - was, unfortunately, the media as represented by those who were presented with tea outside Johnson’s house.
In this moment, we could see how thoroughly challenging and scrutinising can be more difficult than you'd imagine, especially when presented with a cup of tea.
It was another testing moment for the media as they attempt to work out the correct position in these anarchic times: what should they do when the US president lies to them or when his press secretary backs up those lies? Should they thoroughly challenge and scrutinise the lies or should they walk out? If they object when he calls the media the enemy of the people should they also object when he disparages the more vulnerable? Or can they simply counter all this delinquency with a stirring speech about the values of the republic, mr president, and how he is jeopardising those values with his behaviour.
In Britain, they have similar issues and maybe it was appropriate for a country which is determined to become a parody of itself that the latest battleground was a tray of tea.
We should walk a mile in the shoes of anyone before judging them, even if walking a mile in many journalists’ shoes would essentially mean waiting around in their shoes. Who knows how any of us would have reacted if Johnson emerged with tea at the end of a long day, but it would be nice to think the reaction would be, ‘Why is this lying bastard trying to palm us off with some fucking tea?’
But the media were playing their part in the pantomime, reacting as they always have to Johnson, most notably when they gathered outside his house to hear him announce he would be backing Leave before the referendum in 2016.
“The commentariat, and almost no one else, has been waiting excitedly for Boris Johnson to show his colours in Britain’s upcoming EU referendum,” was the Economist’s reaction as they reported on that giddy day.
Many of that constituency would presumably have seen nothing wrong with his ‘letterbox’ joke about the burka, viewing it as the kind of harmless banter that passes the time in the golf club on a Sunday, a safe space for them to say the kind of things you can’t say these days, even as they say them.
Of course, Johnson’s tea delivery was an act as one journalist who missed out on it confirmed when he pointed out that when he shouted a question to Johnson through a fence and Johnson’s tennis partner swore at him for antagonising the great man on his private land.
https://twitter.com/OliverMilne/status/1028744854988353537
In those moments, we glimpse the truth and it always comes when someone breaks away. When the game, which is always played on their terms, is ignored there is a chance at countering the bullshit. Any attempt to pretend differently, or act as if the rules of engagement are the same, is doomed to fail. You might have noticed, it has already failed.
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