A Two-Pronged Attack?

This paper critically assesses the journalistic practices adopted by the British magazine Private Eye. Drawing on interview data with key Private Eye personnel, this article examines the Eye's favoured journalistic technique of combining satirical humour and investigative journalism, and assesses the strengths and limitations of combining these different journalistic practices in British post-war journalism and British democracy. It also examines the magazine's contextual features which facilitate this combination of journalistic techniques. It is argued that this mix of satirical humour and investigative journalism is possible because of the distinctive manner in which Private Eye is organised editorially and politically. The paper concludes with a discussion of the future of combining satirical humour and investigative journalism as a journalistic technique.