Shambles: That's quite a compliment to the BBC.

When I was a kid (in Northeast US) I was involved in a youth outing where we were assigned different postings in a simulation of the United Nations. We were to focus on the mideast problem and see if we could solve it. I was posted to a small group of journalists with a mimeo machine. I can't tell you how much you learn when life is compressed into a few high energy hours trying to solve world issues. The most important lesson was how unpopular journalists are. The people you quote claim they were misquoted (and are angrier the more accurate you were), the people you write about are outraged that you didn't talk to enough of them, or maybe any). What's information for one is propaganda for another, and everyone, everyone, everyone, lies. I'll never forget when a member of the Jordanian delegation walked into our office:
"King Hussein just abducated!"
"And who are you?"
"King Hussein!"

The only good part was smelling the mimeo fluid.