From our own Correspondent - Not

As news of the death of veteran war correspondent Nicholson has been announced today it is timely to reflect on the fact that his trade seems to have died with him as today's correspondents can usually be found skulking and loitering in an adjacent country to any war that is raging and preface their reports by announcing that their source is from an activist on the ground which is about as far from objective reporting as it is possible to get. Whether it is the decadent risk-averse  health and safety culture we are living in now or just  plain cowardice on the part of today's correspondents I do not know but it is a poor show and a travesty of journalism either way. If we have to rely on the tendentious outpourings of activist  'citizen journalists'  or the equally biased UN to tell us what is going on, all of which is relayed and funneled through the equally biased BBC State television, an arm of government at barely one remove, small wonder we have a totally skewed impression of what is going on in Syria right now. It is not only people who are dying in today's wars but journalism itself and with it our proper understanding of world events.