A British Journalism Review editorial board discussion on great news stories immediately prompted an argument about the necessary criteria for stories even to qualify for consideration. The main criterion, it was agreed, was historical significance ? the truly great story changes the world in some way. This provoked further argument and an extraordinarily wide range of
candidates ? from the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of John F Kennedy, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and, of course, 9/11, to the first test tube baby and the advent of rock ?n? roll. Since the meeting, events in Iraq have provided another contender. At the end of this article, the BJR lists those stories receiving most editorial board nominations as the greatest of the past half-century (a time-frame chosen to remove World War II from contention). First, former TN editor Sir David Nicholas reviews the great news stories of his journalistic lifetime. |