ABSTRACT
We hear and read a lot about the public these days. In the media, the public appears as an important player in national and international politics. If not exactly in the front line, the public is nevertheless presented as a force that political decision-makers must reckon with. Putting drastic plans into effect can depend on a wave of its support, while when events take an unpredicted turn, the politicians may find that it has become their scourge. In the wake of the invasion of Iraq, claims that governments had misled the public about the justification for war littered the press. There is a moral dimension too: ‘The British public won’t forgive such shameless scape-goating’, said one newspaper article, referring to the British government’s accusation that the BBC had lied when claiming the government had ‘sexed up’ the information at its disposal to make a more convincing case for war.1 Yet, when the tumult dies down, the public often shows itself able to forgive. Or should that not be, rather, to forget?
