From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's on the media.

Bob Garfield is away this week.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Chris Bannon.

Some may belittle politics, but we know who are engaged in it,

that it is where people stand tall.

It is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster.

And if it is on occasions the place of low skull

dougary, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes. And I wish everyone,

friend or foe, well, and that is that the end.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped down this past Wednesday,

ceding control of the Labour Party and its government to longtime Treasury head Gordon Brown.

When Blair first took up residence at 10 Downing Street, a full decade ago,

his political nickname was Bambi, a wry reference to his do-eyed expressions of optimism.

A new daughter's broken. We have been elected as new labor, and we will govern as new labor.

Few Brits would describe him that way now. Blair leaves office deeply unpopular with his own people.

Only 22 percent said in a recent poll that they could trust him. For the first seven years

of his tenure, Blair's image was entrusted to Alistair Campbell, his communications director,

and the man often credited with introducing spin-docturing into British politics. He says he was

just doing his job. In general terms, I was always at the view that the press was there

and the media was there to help me help Tony get a message across to the public. I never saw

my job as being there to help the press. They would agree, probably. They certainly would. But,

...