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Congratulations to Sally Feldman for her spirited defence of media studies from the "vituperative attacks" of a "self-loathing" media ("Painful reflection", 22 March).

Her argument is especially valid when reality defeats the imagination: for example, a prime minister on an Oxfordshire country estate riding a racehorse lent by the Metropolitan Police to the alleged phone-hacking chief executive of News International, a friend of the previous two prime ministers, who is married to a racehorse trainer-cum-novelist and was married to a macho EastEnders star who reportedly had her arrested for allegedly slapping him. Incredible - Jilly Cooper meets Brian Rix.

When will the media self-loathers and the epigones of academic snobbery and condescension finally understand that media studies is philosophy, politics and economics for the 21st century?

Paul Mackney, Former general secretary, NATFHE (now part of the University and College Union)