Editing John Pilger (section)

=== Newspaper ===
Beginning his career in 1958 as a copy boy with the ''Sydney Sun'', Pilger later moved to ''[[The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)|Daily Telegraph]]'' in Sydney, where he was a reporter, sportswriter and sub-editor.<ref name="Pilgerbio" /><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/media/media/2013/05/hold-front-page-we-need-free-media-not-order-mates|title=Hold the front page! We need free media not an Order of Mates|last=Pilger|first=John|date=8 May 2013|work=New Statesman|access-date=22 April 2017}}</ref> He also freelanced and worked for the Sydney ''Sunday Telegraph'', the daily paper's sister title. After moving to Europe, he was a freelance correspondent in Italy for a year.<ref name="Hayward4">Hayward (2008), p. 4.</ref>

Settling in London in 1962 and working as a sub-editor, Pilger joined British United Press and then [[Reuters]] on its Middle-East desk.<ref name="Hayward4" /> In 1963, he was recruited by the English ''[[Daily Mirror]]'', again as a sub-editor.<ref name="Hayward4" /> Later, he advanced to become a reporter, a feature writer, and chief foreign correspondent for the title. While living and working in the United States for the ''Daily Mirror'', on 5 June 1968 he witnessed the [[assassination of Robert F. Kennedy]] in Los Angeles during his presidential campaign.<ref>John Pilger & Michael Albert, [http://www.zcommunications.org/the-view-from-the-ground-by-john-pilger "The View From The Ground"], {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130219060727/http://www.zcommunications.org/the-view-from-the-ground-by-john-pilger |date=19 February 2013 }} ''Znet'', 16 February 2013.</ref> He was a [[war correspondent]] in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]], [[Cambodian humanitarian crisis|Cambodia]], [[Bangladesh Liberation War|Bangladesh]] and [[Nigerian Civil War|Biafra]]. Nearly eighteen months after [[Robert Maxwell]] bought the ''Mirror'' (on 12 July 1984), Pilger was sacked by [[Richard Stott]], the newspaper's editor, on 31 December 1985.<ref>Roy Greenslade, ''Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits From Propaganda'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2003 [2004 (pbk)], p. 401.</ref> Pilger was banned from South Africa in 1967.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=Danger - Pilger still at large |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/danger-pilger-still-at-large-1151923.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241211033136/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/danger-pilger-still-at-large-1151923.html |archive-date=2024-12-11 |access-date=2025-02-09 |work=The Independent |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Pilger was a founder of the ''[[News on Sunday]]'' tabloid in 1984 and became its editor-in-chief in 1986.<ref name="Heroes572">John Pilger, ''Heroes'', London: Vintage, 2001 edition, pp. 572–73.</ref> During the period of hiring staff, Pilger was away for several months filming ''The Secret Country'' in Australia. Prior to this, he had given editor Keith Sutton a list of people who he thought might be recruited for the paper, but found on his return to Britain that none of them had been hired.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074s7x ''Lefties: 3: A Lot of Balls''], BBC Four, 11 October 2007.</ref>

Pilger, however, came into conflict with those around him. He disagreed with the founders' decision to base the paper in Manchester and then clashed with the governing committees; the paper was intended to be a workers' co-operative.<ref name="Greenslade494">Roy Greenslade [https://books.google.com/books?id=KPR0pB9UCS4C&pg=PA494 ''Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits From Propaganda''], London: Pan, 2003 [2004], pp. 494–95.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110525125629/http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2006/no2_front_pages "Gone and (largely) forgotten"], ''British Journalism Review'', 17:2, 2006, pp. 50–52.</ref> Sutton's appointment as editor was Pilger's suggestion, but he fell out with Sutton over his plan to produce a left-wing ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|Sun]]'' newspaper.<ref name="Greenslade494" /> The two men ended up producing their own dummies, but the founders and the various committees backed Sutton.<ref name="Greenslade494" /> Pilger, appointed with "overall editorial control",<ref name="Heroes572" /> resigned at this point before the first issue appeared.<ref>Maurice Smith, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19870213&id=TPQ9AAAAIBAJ&sjid=AEkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4948,2993964 "A Newspaper In Pursuit Of Lost Ideals"], ''Glasgow Herald'', 13 February 1987, p. 13.</ref> The first issue appeared on 27 April 1987 and ''The News on Sunday'' soon closed.

Pilger returned to the ''Mirror'' in 2001 after the [[September 11 attacks|9/11 attacks]], while [[Piers Morgan]] was editor.<ref>Hayward (2008), p. 10.</ref> In discussing why he left the paper after only being there for 18 months, he told Ian Burrell of the Independent in 2008: "It was a very rewarding 18 months," he says. "I was happy to keep on writing for the Mirror, but Piers was under pressure from the management and American shareholders who objected to the kind of journalism that he was publishing, often written by me. It was a myth that the readers didn't want a serious approach to journalism in a popular newspaper.""<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |title=Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it&rsquo;s |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/pilger-s-law-if-it-s-been-officially-denied-then-it-rsquo-s-probably-true-959206.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20231026190210/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/pilger-s-law-if-it-s-been-officially-denied-then-it-rsquo-s-probably-true-959206.html |archive-date=2023-10-26 |access-date=2025-02-09 |work=The Independent |language=en-GB}}</ref>

His most frequent outlet for many years was the ''[[New Statesman]]'', where he had a fortnightly column from 1991 when [[Steve Platt]] was editor to 2014.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.redpepper.org.uk/beyond-the-dross/|title=Beyond the dross|last1=Pilger|first1=John|date=July 2010|work=Red Pepper|last2=Platt|first2=Steve}}</ref><ref name="Walker">{{cite news|url=http://pressgazette.co.uk/john-pilger-says-guardian-column-was-axed-in-purge-of-journalists-saying-what-the-paper-no-longer-says/|title=John Pilger says Guardian column was axed in 'purge' of journalists 'saying what the paper no longer says'|last=Walker|first=James|date=26 January 2018|work=Press Gazette|access-date=26 January 2018}}</ref> In 2018, Pilger said his "written journalism is no longer welcome" in the mainstream and that "probably its last home" was in ''[[The Guardian]]''. His last column for ''The Guardian'' was in November 2019.<ref name="Walker" />