It is all too easy to just condemn those vile dregs of humanity who work for the gutter press, and pander to the lowest tastes of people in the name of “news”. They are, after all responsible for the low opinion everyone has of journalists which must be galling to those who actually deserve the title “journalist”.
But we must also remember that despite how unlikely it seems, these dregs actually believe that they are real journalists. This makes them dangerously deluded.
In a less enlightened society, we could amuse ourselves by watching the antics of such creatures – as indeed was done in the past with those poor unfortunates who populated places such as Bedlam, but whether we do that or try to treat them, we do need to keep society safe from their destructive activities.
By all means provide them with a safe community where they can carry on with their “journalistic” activities without harming the real world. And eventually once they have been cured of the delusion that they are real journalists, they can be released into the communities as hack writers of romantic fiction and the like.