The benefits of unmediated communication

An <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3698436.stm">illustration</a> of how people take in the anti-politician attitudes of the mainstream press comes from the BBC News site. They showed <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3697434.stm">Tony Blair's conference speech</a> to a group of A-level (17/18 year-old) students in North East London, and asked them what they thought.

The students are surprised by how genuine and heartfelt the speech is, but still suspect everything contrary to the media presentation is 'a publicity stunt'.

One of them, a Melanie Stevens says:

<blockquote>"I didn't know what to think of him before because we've been presented with all the negative aspects of what happened in the media".</blockquote>

Well, quite.