Disintermediating democracy

Does this show that people have lost faith in democracy? asked Ed Stourton of John Simpson on this morning's Today programme.


They were talking about this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6464277.stm


So. Bearing in mind that nothing has actually happened but that this 'survey' is the top news story on the BBC website this morning http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/default.stm, we have two journalists talking to each other, exchanging their opinions on air about a flagrant piece of news-generation (the 'survey') and fretting about loss of faith in democracy????


How do they keep straight faces?


The entire purpose of this 'survey' as a news item, giving the likes of Simpson the chance to pontificate thereon (at our expense), is to disintermediate democracy: to undermine and bypass the importance of representative institutions and to superimpose on the deliberations of elected representatives the narrative of these self-appointed People's Tribunes. And then they have the temerity to worry about whether people are losing faith in democracy.

Gawd bless the toffs for worrying on our behalf.