On 4 November this year an early morning TV programme on the BBC reported a story linked to the Presidential election in the United States of America. Just before the election The Guardian newspaper in the UK urged its readers to write to the people in a crucial area of the state of Idaho suggesting that they vote for John Kerry, the democrat candidate, in order to help prevent the re-election of President George W. Bush. The initiative failed in its attempt (as we all now know) and in its report, the BBC highlighted the reaction of some of the US citizens to this intrusion into their affairs.

For me the most interesting comment came from Natasha Kaplinsky, one of the BBC presenters who was interviewing the features editor of The Guardian. She asked the editor if he felt that attempts to influence the election should be a journalist's role, or should it be to report on events in an unbiased way? His reply was that newspapers attempt to influence people all the time and that was how he saw his role, as an influencer rather than a pure reporter.

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