Banksy and the Public Interest

Reuters tells us that it unmasked the artist Banksy, a private individual who is answerable neither to voters nor shareholders and takes no taxpayer money to support his work, because “the public has a deep interest” in knowing who he is.

Yet every day, all across the file, the news service is perfectly happy to afford legions of unnamed public officials, politicians, corporate executives and their paid advisors a convenient cloak of anonymity to “shape social and political discourse,” to quote words Reuters uses to justify outing Banksy (aka “spin”).

As to those who question whether Reuters should have reported this story at all, the agency's editors decided In Search of Banksy is a “Reuters story” worthy of a gargantuan 8,000 words.That's entirely their prerogative. The reporters certainly also showed admirable investigative sleuthing of the calibre Reuters has brought to far weightier topics. 

But please, Reuters, spare us the sanctimonious spiel about why the public needs to know (again) that Banksy is a middle-aged white guy from southwest England.

Perhaps in pursuing this “caper” – as investigations editor Blake Morrison has called it – the reporters and their editors simply got carried away ... ■