Posted by Axegrinder on 31 August 2009 at 15:20
Tags: Journalism
Potty-mouthed hack and TV tart Giles Coren has discovered Twitter, and readers of his Times columns might find his language a little shocking (although Times subs will be used to it, of course)
Here’s a selection from his first fortnight’s tweets:
“Who the fuck’s fucked up ipod is this?”
“fuck I hate computers. No they hate me.”
“trying to [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 31 August 2009 at 13:57
Tags: Journalism
Not every journalist at the Birmingham Post and Mail, it seems, was left reeling by news that 85 jobs could be lost as a result of Trinity Mirror’s plans for a shake-up of the two titles.
Take feature writer Jo Ind. Two days after learning that her job “along with those of my fellow journalists, is [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 8 August 2009 at 16:42
Tags: Journalism
A week ago, Axegrinder revealed that The News in Rochester, Kent, had run a page-three story about claims a “brothel” was operating from premises above Labour Party offices in the town. The weekly paper ran the story even though the very same edition of The News carried an advert from the alleged operators of the [...]
Continue ReadingPosted by Axegrinder on 6 August 2009 at 20:10
Tags: Journalism
Last week, the Daily Mail advertised for news subs to “join the best subbing operation in the business”. Judging by Thursday’s paper, perhaps the Mail really does need an injection of new talent.
The paper reports that the two British backpackers accused of faking a robbery in Brazil are “both 23″ and “graduated from Sussex University in [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 2 August 2009 at 22:04
Tags: Journalism
When the News of the World ran a story claiming a brothel was being run in a flat above Labour Party offices in Kent, naturally the local paper had to follow it up.
The News in Rochester made the story its page three lead, and reporter George Nott excitedly told readers that police were investigating claims [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 28 July 2009 at 21:58
Tags: Journalism
It was was red faces all round at the usually yellow-topped Construction News this week as a production error led to the previous edition’s page 2-3 spread being repeated.
Readers had the questionable pleasure of wading through editor Nick Edwards’ leader for the second week on the trot, while the contents page certainly had a sense [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 28 July 2009 at 21:39
Tags: Journalism
The London Evening Standard may have stopped calling itself a “national” paper for ABC purposes, but its content continues to set it apart from your typical regional evening papers.
Whereas a vox pop in a regional might be expected, for example, to ask punters for their views on a local planning issue, Tuesday’s Standard carried one [...]
Continue ReadingPosted by Axegrinder on 28 July 2009 at 21:16
Tags: Journalism
While the BBC has taken plenty of flak lately for allegedly giving excessive rewards to top executives (huge salaries and massive pension pots), it appears the corporation is keen to stop guests spending a penny.
Axegrinder has heard from a hack who was recently invited to appear on Radio 5 Live to talk about their new [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 13 July 2009 at 23:47
Tags: Journalism
The reappearance of Simon Kelner in today’s Media Guardian 100, the “definitive guide to the people who really matter in the media”, will surely have left some members of the selection panel rather red-faced.
Why? Go back 12 months and this is how the Guardian justified removing from the list the Independent managing director and [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 22 June 2009 at 00:49
Tags: Journalism
Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t just upsetting sections of the gay community with his latest movie, Brüno. He’s causing all manner of confusion for sub-editors at The Guardian.
First, subs received this email:
A note about Brüno’s umlaut
Hello - it looks like our diligence with the umlaut may be scuppering
our SEO, as everyone’s searching without [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 11 June 2009 at 18:27
Tags: Journalism
Hackette Tanya Gold’s habit of sharing with readers virtually every detail of her life (no matter how dull, intimate or embarrassing) has made Axegrinder suspect she is rather light in the friends department. If she had friends, she could confess all to them rather than readers of the Daily Mail, Guardian etc.
Now I fear she [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 2 June 2009 at 12:35
Tags: Journalism
In his unsurprisingly piss-poor column The Insider, in The Mail on Sunday’s Live magazine, Piers Morgan says he and Stephen Fry “haven’t really seen eye to eye since he once went on Radio 4 and invented a new word to describe murdering me”.
Sadly, Piers decided the word coined by Fry was “too rude even to [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 28 May 2009 at 23:31
Tags: Journalism
Just as the Telegraph is allowing us to look into hitherto hidden areas of MPs’ affairs, so this desire to reveal all is extending to its own website, right down to Home Affairs Editor Tom Whitehead asking publicly: “Can I say Baby P’s killer?”
Axegrinder feels this is perhaps taking glasnost too far.
And, no, you can’t [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 27 May 2009 at 11:54
Tags: Journalism
On his frequent journeys north, Axegrinder has occasionally — but not often — come across grumpy, bad-tempered Yorkshire folk. But, having had my attention drawn to newsreader Cory Allen’s broadcast on Radio 5 Live Sport on Monday, perhaps I will give the county a miss for a while.
Once iPlayer opens skip to 30 minutes and [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 20 May 2009 at 10:49
Tags: Journalism
When a former Northampton Town footballer (nickname – The Cobblers) is found guilty of indecent exposure, one might have hoped for an inspired headline. Sadly, this effort by the Northampton Chronicle & Echo fails to rise to the occasion.
And one imagines that it was only for reasons of good taste and decency that the paper [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 19 May 2009 at 19:05
Tags: Journalism
When a shooting took place outside a strip club in the red light district of Sydney, Australia’s Nine News service managed to track down a highly eloquent and polite (she even thanks the reporter) eyewitness.
Nine News’s website gives an edited taste of her account (”There were these two [men] fighting… The fatter [man] said to the [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 19 May 2009 at 10:14
Tags: Journalism
While in a queue at the bar of LSO St Luke’s before a Radio 2 concert by Paul Carrack and the BBC Concert Orchestra on Friday, Axegrinder overhead the following conversation:
First woman, pointing at tall, glum-looking, bespectacled chap : “Look at that man’s hair. Do you think it’s a wig? It’s extraordinary!”
Second woman: “I don’t [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 18 May 2009 at 10:17
Tags: Journalism
Here’s a touching tale that suggests relations between the press and the police aren’t as bad as some would have us believe.
An officer was pounding his beat in the King’s Cross area on the evening of May 8 when he came across a rather unpleasant sight — a young man, clearly the worse for [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 14 May 2009 at 22:49
Tags: Journalism
Keith Waterhouse has joined the campaign — first reported here ten months ago — to persuade the BBC to lift its ban on re-broadcasting what many believe to be the best film ever made about British journalists.
According to Ephraim Hardcastle in Thursday’s Daily Mail, Waterhouse thinks the time is right to dust off and show [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 14 May 2009 at 22:13
Tags: Journalism
The parliamentary committee that will consider whether any MPs should pay back some of their dodgy expenses is led by a former journalist who knows all about clever use of ‘exes’.
Don Touhig, MP for Islwyn and chair of the Members’ Allowances Committee, was previously group editor of the Bailey Brothers-owned Free Press of Monmouthshire series [...]
Advertisement
Advertisement
