It used to be reasonably commonplace that bloggers, especially American ones, would say that at least in Britain there was enough diversity in the press that no equivalent to the classic US pundit wanker existed – no-one like David Brooks or David Broder, essentially content-free and heavily invested in the self-regard of the political class.…
Read More Martin Kettle Is a Worthless Old HackThis New York Observer interview with Ann Coulter is being heavily blogged (sample), but I think there is an important point that’s being missed here. If you follow the link, you’ll see that the reporter adopts the old trick of shutting up and letting the subject natter; this is a classic of journalistic craft, as…
Read More The Dynamic of Extreme Conservative RhetoricI recently read about a Zimbabwean refugee who was sent a letter by the Home Office, which stated that his presence in the UK was “not essential for him to enjoy family ties with his new partner and her family”. The letter went on to demand that he leave “without delay” and that this might…
Read More Yours, Very Sincerely IndeedGuess what? This study isn’t in today’s Independent.
Read More The Rays, againOK, then; remember the beef I had with the Indy about THE RAYS!! and THE BEES! ? Well, we now know what the problem is with the bees; they caught a virus. Interestingly, Australian bees are immune to it; I recall beekeepers on the Web back in February suggesting that this might be so. So,…
Read More Independent of FactsThis tale about Steyr-Mannlicher sniper rifles was thin enough to start with, but it’s now been officially disavowed by the US Army’s press chief in Iraq, who states that no such weapon has ever been recovered anywhere in Iraq.
Read More Another Iranian-arms story officially deadThere is no British netroots, and God forbid there ever will be. Why? Well, the original thing is/was an effort to mobilise the grassroots support of the US Democratic Party, to shove in the underpinning of a mass party that it doesn’t really have. This was intended to a) supply activists and donations, and b)…
Read More I never wanted the love that you showed meYou probably don’t know that the government wants to implement wholesale filtering of URL requests from the end of next month, do you? Not that the national press, TV, or anything else has reported on it, nor has there been any serious parliamentary debate. Nuh. But the Home Office is pressurising British ISPs to install…
Read More It’s for your own good (again)So the cult of the amateur is killing our culture, right? What if I was to tell you that bloggers had accused someone of abducting Madeleine McCann purely on the basis that he spoke foreign and had associated with Bogus Asylum Seekers? You’d be shocked. Well, the national press did it. Robert Murat, the only…
Read More Your Professional National PressIn case you’re wondering what the fuss is about, the Daily Hell is trying to get Owen Barder fired from the DFID for saying rude things about George Bush and Margaret Thatcher and nice things about Neil Kinnock. Rather, they’re trying to get him fired for quoting rude things about George Bush, not erasing a…
Read More Slightly less intemperate response