Using the boot to generate news
Boris Johnson brushed clouds of doubt aside yesterday as The Sun newspaper endorsed him for Mayor of London. In a double page spread, Britain’s highest-selling paper told their readers to kick out “Caracas” Ken and vote in “Mayor Race Favourite” Boris.
The London edition of the paper also devoted their entire Sun Says column to the race, urging their readers to pick “a new and fresh Champion for London”. And just in case their readers still didn’t know how to vote the paper included a handy how you can vote section.
Of course The Sun’s endorsement of Boris Johnson should come as little surprise. Boris is in many ways the ideal Sun candidate. Here is a public school toff posing as a friend of the working class. A man who speaks almost entirely in mockney puns without actually saying anything even mildly offensive to Murdoch and his chums.
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Twittering politically
Twitter is the thing we’re all supposed to be waffling about right now, ever since some Downing Street fixer hit on to letting everyone know the intimate manoeuvres of the PM in the US, plus the writer’s own progress through the complex world of comparative hot beverages and muffins.
It works like this. The PM’s meeja minders come up with a ‘new media’ communication wheeze which isn’t really that new at all. Then old media journos wake up in time simultaneously to pronounce it a desperate piece of wannabe PR (because the spinners are doing it) and the latest thing in cool (because, hey, we’ve finally caught up!).
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“Grandad, what did you do during the Great Credit Crunch of 2008?”
Back in the day, when I were a lad in a grimy northern town, &c. &c. we used to give stuff up for Lent. Or, any road, we talked about it. I don’t recall actually giving much up personally, apart from Ferraris. continue reading… »
These people carry guns too
Back in the meatspace I’m now a journalism student, and I learnt something very interesting at hack school today:
You do not mess with the police.
No, really.
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Migrants stole my baby (again)
You can tell just how much the Grauniad’s report yesterday on how migrants have not brought a crime wave with them and how, unsurprisingly, they’re not committing more offences than anyone else overall has wound up the Daily Mail and Express by the vehemence of their response today.
Along with the recent immigration report by the Lords committee that, despite tabloid coverage, concluded migrants had on the whole not significantly benefited or been detrimental to the country, the crime angle is the one sure fire hit which they can rely upon to really fire minds against the current immigration policy, with their impact on public services and negligible use of benefits following closely behind. For it to blown apart just as they appeared to be getting the upper hand could not possibly be tolerated.
Hence why both have come out all guns blazing.
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How our media defines the immigration issue
Another report on immigration is out today – 5 years on from the signing of the treaty of accession in Athens – ACPO are claiming that stories of a migrant ‘crime wave’ are a myth. In fact, they say, crime in areas with lots of new EU immigrants seems to only have risen in proportion to the general rise in population.
The Telegraph covers it like this:
The report for the Association of Chief Police Officers appears to contradict claims made by several senior officers that forces require extra money to cope with an immigrant crimewave.
Indy no longer left-wing
The Independent’s new editor, who said today: “I wouldn’t have regarded myself as the most leftwing person,” vows it will no longer be leftwing newspaper. Great.
A home for politics is a depressing place
So politicshome got launched yesterday. My first visit gave me the distinct sensation of having the entire collection of Sunday papers dropped on my head. It was neither pleasant nor enjoyable.
I have nothing against the people behind politicshome, and if they think they can make money out of collecting together the outpourings of all the pontificators and savants of British political journalism, fair play to them. It might make it easier for me to be irritated by Simon Jenkins smug, self satisfied banalities.
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Is the problem that lefties are not angry enough?
Over on the Guardian blog Andrew Collins asks: Can a leftie read the Spectator? and gets into the oft-debated territory of why so many people read the Spectator compared to the New Statesman.
Given that NS still haven’t got a new editor this is still up for debate, and donpaskini, Hopi Sen and Chris Brooke have been down this road earlier. But I have slightly different questions. Two of them in fact.
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Maybe it’s because I’m not a Londoner…
… that I’d rather not support Ken Livingstone for Mayor? Somehow I just can’t muster any massive enthusiasm for Livingstone, nor do I feel the chilling terror of his major opponent (Tory buffoon Boris Johnson) that the Mayor’s re-election campaign appears to be trying to instil in the electorate. To hear the statements coming from some of Livingstone’s supporters you’d think that this was a race between Che Guevara and some kind of combination of Adolf Hitler and Satan, and I just can’t see what is effectively a council election on steroids in such apocalyptic terms. I also, try as I might, just can’t bring myself to like the oleaginous Livingstone, who is still trying to morph himself from his previous status as a grinning celebrity chat show guest, to having some kind of political gravitas. Ironically of course, Johnson is a product of the same media clowning circuit that Livingstone is. Bojo versus Bozo – what an appetising choice for the people of London. continue reading… »
Obama’s delegate lead widens
Worried about Obama’s delegate count? You shouldn’t be. For a start, the fully counted votes in California now give him 4 delegates that were originally attributed to Clinton. Most news services haven’t updates their stats yet. Secondly, he’s been picking up a whole lot of super-delegates over the last month.
As Kos points out, Obama has gained 14 new delegates over the past week even before the Mississipi vote comes in, where he is widely expected to win again.
In the bigger picture, HRC lead in super delegates stood at 97 one month ago today. Today her lead is only 32. HRC has gained 18 Super delegates in the past month while Senator Obama has gained 83. a month ago nearly 2 out of 3 declared super delegates were Clinton supporters now it is just over one half.
Of course, the media narrative has been that he is losing momentum and everyone’s been too easy on him etc etc etc. But that rubbish doesn’t count. Delegates do.
Brown and class-less
[This was first posted on comment is free this morning.]
I was recently invited to give a speech at the annual general meeting of the NUJ Black Members Council, which I duly did on Saturday morning. I generally try and avoid preaching to the converted so I began, on the subject of how ethnic minority journalists can break the glass ceiling, by illustrating how race intersects with class.
I started with this:
“Over two weeks, BBC 2 films will give voice to the prejudices, alienation, fears and confusion of white working class Britain – a constituency that rarely finds its voice on the BBC, at a time of sweeping social change. … ‘What we wanted to do was look at these issues in a rounded, non-political way and I think we’ve done that,’ says season commissioner Richard Klein.”
There isn’t enough paranoia around, apparently
This image above is actually a parody of this latest idiotic campaign dreamed up by the Metropolitan Police. See odd looking people taking a picture? Call the police! Rohin has the original and some more parodies.
Kay Burley on Sky News—Incompetent, ignorant or just malicious?
Imagine finding out that your husband that you’ve been living with for a few years is actually the serial killer that has been terrorising your town. You’re invited to appear on a supposedly reputable national news programme for an interview and to put your side of the story, only to find that the most significant question you face is this:
Do you think if you’d had a better sex life, he wouldn’t have done this?
In all seriousness, is that even a valid question to ask? Is it in any way relevant? Is Steve Wright excused for killing at least 5 women because his wife didn’t put out enough? As Jennie puts it:
I’ve lost count of the times I have objected to this infantilisation of men – that they can’t be held responsible for their own actions; it’s all the fault of their mother/lover/grandma/female school teacher/murder victim/whatever – on feminist grounds, but surely it’s wrong from a male point of view as well? Don’t men want to be grown ups? Do they actually want to be mothered and smothered into irrelevancy?
Can’t speak for the entirety of the gender, naturally, but this one sure as hell doesn’t. Both Iain Weaver and comedian Mitch Benn give more details on this loathsome excuse for an interviewer, and it has enraged Debi Linton so much that she has started a petition to sack Kay Burley from a position she is palpably unsuitable for.
I have no real belief that such a petition will be effective, and I’m equally uncertain about the efficacy of OfCom, but it can at least be used to highlight the issue. The comments on the Sky News website are gratifyingly negative about the interviewer and the question, so there may be a chance.
Your opinions: is there any justification for asking this question at all? Isn’t it about time the media grew up about sex and relationships and stopped trying to blame crimes on innocent bystanders?
The Sun’s attempt to puncture its own emotional balloon
It’s interesting, these days, watching the Sun (No, please, come back!). Last year after the failed patio gas canister bombings it clearly didn’t have the slightest idea how to respond to them: first with hackneyed blitz spirit type defiance; then scaremongering, and the resurrection of its demands to scrap the human rights act; and finally, resorting to patriotism, ordering everyone to fly the flag. This remember is the paper which over the 80s and up until recently was often considered the weathervane of the nation, or symbolic of how a majority of how it was responding, typified by how when it changed from supporting the Conservatives to New Labour that it was considered the final, death blow against John Major.
Since then of course we’ve had the online revolution; now the most visited UK newspaper website is the ‘loony-left’ Guardian, closely followed by the Mail Online. Circulations continue to plunge, with the Sun recently slipping below the 3 million mark, only rising back above it because of price cutting. The real success story of today is the Daily Mail, and by far the most despicable, distorted press coverage of late, directed at asylum seekers and immigrants, has come not from the Sun but from the Express and Mail.
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They’re obsessed
Are you convinced now? It’s all a vast liberal conspiracy, apparently. And the BBC is leading the masses. From here.
Disgusted of Aberdeen
I don’t often write about my own life here but the most extraordinary thing happened to me yesterday afternoon and I want to share it with you. It was a lovely crisp sunny day, the sort of day which reminds you that spring is on the way, so I went for a stroll around town. With the light twinkling off the granite buildings, Aberdeen city centre looks good in the sunlight.
Passing by HMV, I decided to pop in and pick up some Blackadder DVDs. I’d been meaning to get the full set for a while now so I was pleased to see that they were all available. They also had the Planet Earth DVD box set so I got that too. All things considered, it was turning out to be a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. (It’s the small things in life…)
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Presidential Websites
While waiting for the Wisconsin and Hawaii primary results to drip in, I thought I would have a look at the various presidential candidate websites:
- HillaryClinton.com
- MikeHuckabee.com
- JohnMcCain.com
- BarackObama.com
Its striking how similar they all are in layout. Indeed, the sites for Clinton, McCain and Obama are so alike I thought they might have been created using the same software, but this isn’t so. All have the candidates name and logo in the top-left corner of the site (in common with most websites these days), an e-mail sign-up form in the top-right, and a donate button right below that. All have horizontal menus, a three column layout, with a large graphic element accorss the first two columns, below the menu. While this might demonstrate to some people that the candidates are clones of one another, I’m inclined to see it as proof that all the politicians recognise the value of good design. Following a recognised and established layout allows users to navigate the site quickly and efficiently.
There is, I think, a cliche of the ‘Presidential Candidate Logo’. The surname, of course, coupled with the year digits and then some flag-like representation in red, white and blue. Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich come close, but its Hillary Clinton who takes the prize for the most obvious logo in the field. What’s quirky about Senator Clinton is that her logo is derived from her first name.
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Daily Mail journalist’s racist agenda exposed
You won’t be surprised by this, but when agendas are so sharply exposed they are still breathtaking. As Aaron mentioned earlier today, Alex Hilton over on LabourHome published this email sent by “journalist” Diana Appleyard:
PUBLICATION: Daily Mail (Request for personal case study)
JOURNALIST: Diana Appleyard (staff)
DEADLINE: 14-February-2008 16:00
QUERY: I am urgently looking for anonymous horror stories of people who have employed Eastern European staff, only for them to steal from them, disappear, or have lied about their resident status. We can pay you £100 for taking part, and I promise it will be anonymous, just a quick phone call. Could you email me asap? Many thanks, Diana
HOW TO REPLY:
Email: mailto:dianaappleyard@aol.com
A female editor for New Statesman?
As the Media Guardian reports this morning, John Kampfner has resigned as editor of the New Statesman. Sue Matthias, deputy editor, has taken over for now.
Sky News reports that she will “take charge… until a successor… is found.” This prompts Louise at F-Word to remark: “Because, of course, Ms Matthias can’t be considered a successor despite her years of experience at the New Statesman, Independent and AOL News, can she?” Is there an inherent assumption here that a woman cannot possibly be editor of a serious political weekly?
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civil cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
» Is this the end for the socialist left?
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