Archbishop hits out at web-based media 'nonsense'

THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has criticised the new web-based media for ?paranoid fantasy, self-indulgent nonsense and dangerous bigotry?. He described the atmosphere on the world wide web as a free-for-all that was ?close to that of unpoliced conversation”.

[…]

?There is a tension at the heart of the journalistic enterprise. Its justification is that it promises to deliver what other sources can’t — information that is needed to equip the reader or viewer or listener for a more free and significant role as a human agent. But at the same time it is bound to a method and a rhetoric that treats its public as consumers and the information it purveys as a commodity.? —Archbishop hits out at web-based media ‘nonsense’ (

The headline creates the impression that the long quote I included above applies to web-based media, but the article notes that Rowan also criticized traditional media. The article also ends by noting that Rowan “said that it was important not to scapegoat the media,” and that Rowan praised BBC journalist Frank Gardner.