Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Homage to Lyra McKee — the journalist I miss most

Stephen Daisley mourns the intrepid young reporter, shot in Derry last year, who dedicated her life to highlighting injustice in Northern Ireland

Lyra McKee in Belfast, May 2017. Credit: Jess Lowe/Shutterstock. 
issue 16 May 2020
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  • Lost, Found, Remembered

    Lyra McKee

    Faber, pp. 208, £12

In the two generations since Watergate, the image of the journalist has gone from that of plucky truth-seeker to sensationalist and partisan hack. Somewhere along the way the fresh-faced idealists of All the President’s Men gave way to the dissociative anti-hero of Nightcrawler.

Corporate-driven news values? Probably. Phone hacking? Definitely.

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