When the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested in a lecture last February that there was room within national legal systems for some degree of religious law for members of particular faiths, the country shook with indignation - not at what the prelate had actually said, but at the menacing story the broadcast and print media extracted from it. The Sun's uniquely helpful contribution was a 'Bash the Bishop' campaign, corroborating Martin Amis's suggestion in Yellow Dog about the way the red-tops view their readers.

LRB 12 February 2009 | PDF Download