Please forgive me if this sounds unbearably pompous, but shouldn't political broadcasters observe some kind of impartiality by keeping schtum in public about their own views?
I was surprised, to say the least, to read Tom Bradby, the political editor of ITV News, writing a passionate attack on the government in yesterday's Mail on Sunday.
His clearly partisan polemic, Voted Tory and livid about losing you child benefit? Well, they DON'T CARE was a full-frontal assault on David Cameron and George Osborne.
It wasn't a bad analysis at all. I found myself nodding with much of it. In essence, it was telling the middle classes just why the Tory strategy involves them taking so much financial punishment.
But should Bradby, who must abide by broadcasting rules on air, be writing in a newspaper in such a manner?
I accept that objectivity is unattainable, and that what we see and hear from political correspondents on TV and radio is not, strictly, impartial. But objectivity is something to aspire to, is it not? Similarly, the TV audience expects fairness and impartiality
Are Bradby's ITV News bosses relaxed about their man launching a broadside against the government?
