Newspapers
Irish Newspapers Attempt to Kill the Internet
If Andrew Sullivan offers one example of how to thrive in the confusing, difficult, exciting new media world then, by god, the Irish newspaper industry offers another. The Irish newspaper… Continue reading
6 Comments
Today’s easy question: Why won’t minorities support right-wing parties?
I’m afraid that I can’t help but feel some of the comments left responding to this post go some way towards answering a question Daniel Hannan asked recently: why do… Continue reading
88 Comments
Who speaks for the British press?
At the end of the editors’ meeting in 10 Downing St today, there was an awkward moment when someone asked if the past hour had been on or off the… Continue reading
49 Comments
Ed Miliband’s Leveson response shows his weakness: he’s a follower, not a leader.
The biggest risk in punditry is the determination to see what you want to see. Confirmation bias is an ever-present clear and present danger to solid thinking. Nevertheless, though keeping… Continue reading
5 Comments
Pressure on the editors as Labour threatens own Leveson bill
One of the foundations on which David Cameron based his decision to reject statutory underpinning of press regulation was that editors would set up a new system based on Lord… Continue reading
19 Comments
Suing Twitter for Libel is a Mug’s Game
Rod Liddle asks a question of the kind one frequently sees raised by media types: [W]hy is [Lord McAlpine] not suing Twitter itself? It is not Philip Schofield who the… Continue reading
14 Comments
We need a free press more than ever
I’m a bit late with this, as the book has been out a few days or so. But it’s worth getting hold of Mick Hume’s book about newspapers: There is… Continue reading
9 Comments
Scandal of Soft Touch Britain Revealed
Yet more evidence that the country is going to the dogs. Doubtless this is the ECHR’s fault too. Or, of course, It’s Liverpool, Jake… [Thanks to GM]
1 Comment
Also not found in Essex: the worst lion-related headline ever
In honour of the Essex lion, which seems now to have passed into legend, here is another urban myth. This one is subeditorial. It concerns what was said to be… Continue reading
0 CommentsTom Watson’s Strange Sheridan Obsession
I see that, following Andy Coulson’s detention as part of a police investigation into perjury at the Tommy Sheridan, er, perjury trial, Tom Watson MP is up to his old… Continue reading
27 CommentsThe return of the Tony Blair Show
The Tony Blair Show was back in town today. The former Prime Minister was clearly less nervous in front of this inquiry than he was in front of Chilcot; there… Continue reading
33 CommentsVillains of the Financial Crisis? Neoconservatives, of course…
Fulminating against the government’s economic policies, the Observer complained recently that: For a generation, business and finance, cheered on by US neoconservatives and free market fundamentalists, have argued that the… Continue reading
10 Comments
Boris keeps on charming his party
Not since Michael Heseltine has there been a politician who is so adept at finding the g-spot of the Tory faithful as Boris Johnson. His column today in the Telegraph… Continue reading
35 CommentsWeak, Weak, Weak: Cameron’s Brooks Affair Will Haunt Him.
The public is not, I suspect, nearly as bothered by or interested in the Leveson Inquiry as some editors think. Nevertheless it is not just a Guardianesque enthusiasm. And even… Continue reading
7 CommentsDid Cameron Text Rebekah Brooks 12 Times A Day?
The Prime Minister’s supporters will hope that this detail in Peter Oborne’s column today is not true: A fresh embarrassment concerns Rebekah Brooks, who providentially retained the text messages she… Continue reading
17 Comments
The political effects of all this hacking talk
I doubt that many votes will be moved by the split report on hacking of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee. This is not a subject that sets the… Continue reading
35 CommentsMPs squabble over their own phone hacking report
The education select committee reported earlier, but it is the report of another select committee that will get all the attention today. The culture, media and sport select committee has… Continue reading
56 CommentsAmarillo Slim, 1928-2012
From one great Texan to another: Amarillo Slim, giant of poker and peddler of western wisecracks, has died. Now that poker is a mainstream entertainment, you have to do some… Continue reading
1 CommentIs Sir Simon Jenkins the Worst Columnist in Britain?
I know that this must seem a large claim while so many other rotters still breathe but at least, as questions go, it makes more sense than the one bold… Continue reading
13 CommentsMurdoch versus Brown
Testimony A, from Rupert Murdoch speaking to the Leveson Inquiry today: ‘Mr Brown did call me and said “Rupert, what do you know, what’s going on here?”, and I said… Continue reading
32 Comments