'One of the few hacks left at the Indie after the latest purge, columnist Deborah Orr, is determined to be the victim of the next cull, to judge by her public rubbishing of editor Roger Alton in a letter [sic] to actor and blogger David Benson, who had written to her complaining about the Indie's coverage of the G20 protests.

"I'm afraid I share your feelings," Orr replied, "and I don't agree at all with the way the paper's editor has treated the story." Alton, she explains, "just decided that the media was hyping up the protest/riot stuff too much, decided to err on the side of caution, and ended up literally and totally ERRING on the side of caution."

Since the latest round of redundancies, she adds, Indie hacks have been utterly demoralised as they try to work out "what sort of unique contribution we can make at all. The protest coverage probably just confirms that the answer is: none. Ah well, it was good when it was good..."'

'Street of Shame' column, p. 4
Private Eye 1235, 1st May 2009