highlights
I was interested in your answer to curlynan that there are some subjects that are off limits. There's been a lot of talk recently about women journalists having to be much more confessional than men (a la Liz Jones) and reveal things about themselves to make a living. Have you come under that sort of pressure? And do you agree that women journalists have a tougher time unless they are prepared to write about intimate things?
I have been under pressure to write about myself, it's true, but I don't have much of a problem with that. And after all no one forces you to do so, so if you don't want to, you needn't. My own feeling is that all journalists these days are facing a tough time, and my advice is that if any of you have grandchildren wanting to take media studies at college, to discourage them as much as possible. (I have to say that I was similarly discouraged when I was young and I'm very glad I didn't take the advice, but these days journalism is a terribly difficult profession to survive in, for both men and women, whether you're prepared to bare all or not.)