media & PR archive
Today’s journalism in full, as seen from Whitehall
Horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse. Horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse. Horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse. (Oh, and EU leaders sign major new treaty in latest attempt to avoid economic meltdown.) Horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse, horse. Horse, horse, horse, [...]
Polly Toynbee and journalism
A letter to The Guardian: Polly Toynbee writes (24 February) that journalists “précis a muddled reality into a narrative of right and wrong”. However, the very best of journalists manage to combine a clear sense of morality with an understanding of the muddled and complex nature of reality – presenting a fully rounded picture to [...]
Paul Waugh: 12 years ahead of the rest of the media pack
Paul Waugh*, writing in July 2000**: OMG! High cost of fig trees for Portcullis House! Rest of press pack, writing in February 2012: OMG! High cost*** of fig trees for Portcullis House!**** * An old journalist interjects: I wrote about it back then too! ** A young journalist objects: oi! some of us were still [...]
This week’s news in Islington, brought to you by, er…, me
From the billboards outside newsagents… …to the teaser story on the front page of the Islington Gazette… …to the page three splash story… …verily the local news this week is dominated by this one humble blog post of mine.
How the Guardian makes the news, then reports the news
A nimble two-step from The Guardian: 1. Polly Toynbee sends tweet encouraging all and sundry to take part in an open-access online poll being run by the BMJ. 2. The Guardian reports result of said BMJ poll. Then only thing missing, alas, is: 3. The Guardian then realises that reporting a voodoo poll which its [...]
Dear Spar Supermarket… Could you improve your knowledge of science?
Dear Spar Supermarket, You have me confused. It’s this advert of yours for Red Bull which is the cause: It’s that “Only 8 calories” thing, you see. Calories are, of course, a measure of energy. So the advert really says “No sugar. Just energy” followed by “Look how little energy!” Should I be impressed by [...]
Why I (still) read the Daily Mail
Four years on, I’m still a Daily Mail reader (even if they think I’m a foreigner). Here’s an updated explanation. I once rang the Daily Mail to mildly complain about a story I had a connection with. The journalist I spoke to put me on hold while he conferred with a colleague. At least, he thought he [...]
Media left reeling in shock as its stories turn out to be true
Media Blog has the story of how three newspapers are all shocked that a story they had reported turned out to be right.
A year of Daily Express headlines in one graphic
Lovely bit of compilation and analysis done over on Bibliophylax’s blog, putting together all the front page main headlines from the Daily Express for 2011. In that list they are sorted by theme, which made me wonder which words crop up most often. And so this word cloud: UPDATE: And here is a similar list [...]
Engines of War: how wars were won and lost on the railways by Christian Wolmar
Both military history and the railways regularly generate large numbers of publications, with even the small details of minor events often covered in copious detail by numerous different authors. Strange then that the overlap of the two, the role of railways in military history, has generated little attention and no over-arching standard history. Christian Wolmar’s [...]
