Posted by Axegrinder on 8 January 2009 at 16:11
Tags: Journalism
Axegrinder suspects that Independent on Sunday diarist Matthew Bell is not a big fan of the beautiful game.
At the weekend, he ran a piece about former Labour Party leader Michael Foot, age 95, a lifelong supporter of Plymouth Argyle, turning up to see the side’s FA Cup clash with Arsenal on Saturday. His story began: [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 8 January 2009 at 13:21
Tags: Journalism
Axegrinder experienced a rare jaw-dropping moment this lunchtime when watching the BBC News Channel. In a rather surrreal encounter, “gonzo” porn film-maker Ben Dover was interviewed live by Jane Hill and Matthew Amroliwala.
Wearing a fetching black t-shirt advertising the Ben Dover Porn Academy and emblazoned with the silhouette of a naked porn star, Mr Dover was [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 23 December 2008 at 15:46
Tags: Journalism
Oh dear oh dear! Who in their right minds would be a freelance?
Word reaches us that a certain publishing company has delivered a most unseasonal message to its freelances: they won’t be getting paid before Christmas.
The always highly creative accounts department has told the poor hacks that their payments will not now reach their bank [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 19 December 2008 at 15:03
Tags: Journalism
So farewell then, ‘The Observer’. Say hello to ‘the Observer’.
The loss of the upper-case ‘t’ from the Sunday paper’s title is just one of the changes resulting from the unveiling today of a unified style guide for the Observer, the Guardian and guardian.co.uk.
Axegrinder hears that some people at the company’s new Kings Cross home regard [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 17 December 2008 at 13:25
Tags: Journalism
Congratulations to BBC2’s Newsnight, which has picked up a Plain English Award for best national TV programme. The judges consider “how well entrants have used plain English, and how successfully and passionately they have fought gobbledygook”.
One wonders if the judges have ever checked out economics editor Paul Mason’s blog. This bit, for example, discussing the [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 17 December 2008 at 13:18
Tags: Journalism
Theatregoers who read London’s Evening Standard must be feeling pretty confused: A couple of years ago, the Standard’s Nicholas de Jongh wrote angrily: “Is it time for Kevin Spacey to hand over his crown? The Old Vic’s latest show is a flop and there are no new productions to fill the next few months. If [...]
Continue ReadingPosted by Axegrinder on 15 December 2008 at 17:06
Tags: Journalism
Irrepressible, orange-faced journalist Matt Chapman is set to return to the At The Races channel on Monday night, a move that is being hailed by some as a victory for punter power.
As regular readers of this blog will know, Chapman – a former reporter for the Racing Post newspaper – has not been seen on [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 15 December 2008 at 11:15
Tags: Journalism
Axegrinder is full or respect for thesp Kenneth Branagh after his sterling work for the BBC on Sunday night. First, he appeared in the title role as a Scandinavian detective in the new drama series Wallender.
Then, immediately afterwards, he popped up on the BBC News to defend the corporation’s behaviour in the wake of the [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 11 December 2008 at 13:04
Tags: Journalism
Hacks from The Guardian and The Observer can briefly let their hair down tonight and forget the ordeal of moving to their new King’s Cross offices when GNL holds its Christmas party.
And Axegrinder would love to be joining the happy throng, if only to see how the refined, piano-playing editorial supremo, Alan Rusbridger, enjoys the entertainment — [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 3 December 2008 at 18:24
Tags: Journalism
Strolling down the very beautiful High Street in Rochester, Kent, on Wednesday afternoon, Axegrinder popped into a newsagent to buy an Evening Standard.
“Enjoy it while you can,” said the newsagent handing me a copy. “We’ve just heard that from Monday it won’t be distributed anywhere in the Medway towns.”
Quickly turning to page two, one finds [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 1 December 2008 at 17:27
Tags: Journalism
Keen Simon Heffer watchers will have greatly enjoyed reading the Daily Telegraph associate editor’s angry email to staff castigating them for a series of embarrassing spelling, style and grammatical errors.
But Axegrinder is surprised that Heffer hasn’t picked up on another example of his paper’s reporters and subs blatantly ignoring the Telegraph’s Style Book (author, Mr [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 26 November 2008 at 12:57
Tags: Journalism
The Daily Mail’s Ephraim Hardcastle is puzzled by TV critic AA Gill’s attack on the new Channel 4 series, The Ascent of Money.
Written and presented by Niall Ferguson, it is, says Gill, “a GCSE-class project” while “wee” Ferguson is “academe’s answer to Jimmy Krankie”.
Why, wonders Hardcastle, is Gill so rude about the “brilliant [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 26 November 2008 at 02:17
Tags: Journalism
As expected, Fleet Street’s women columnists have leapt on the Gordon Ramsay ’scandal’ like a pack of vicious, sharp-tongued hyenas.
Leading the assault in recent days have been Allison Pearson in the Daily Mail (“As his monumental hypocrisy was revealed, the 42-year-old Celebrity Father of the Year could at least have shown some embarrassment, even [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 24 November 2008 at 18:04
Tags: Journalism
When excitable, orange-faced Matt Chapman vanished from TV channel At The Races recently, many of his fans – the newspaper journalist turned broadcaster has his own fan club – were convinced he was set to join the cast of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.
The rumour gathered steam on many online racing [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 24 November 2008 at 15:47
Tags: Journalism
Today’s Daily Mail is typically outraged to learn that 15 council staff – including social workers – have been punished or given warnings after they circulated an email image of Gary Glitter carrying a child in a shopping bag.
The Mail article calls the image – which shows the disgraced singer holding a bag with a [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 24 November 2008 at 14:50
Tags: Journalism
When magazine publisher Hachette Filipacchi UK acquired Digital Spy in April, many wondered if the entertainment news website – set up by Neil Wilkes and James Welch in 2000 – would lose its quirky charm.
Well, the site now boasts “over 80 million monthly page impressions and a unique audience reach of 5.4 million (October 2008)” [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 24 November 2008 at 13:34
Tags: Journalism
Tabloid allegations that Gordon Ramsay conducted a seven-year secret affair with a so-called “professional mistress” should provide tasty material for Fleet Street’s unforgiving women columnists (aka the Glenda Slaggs).
But one fears The Sun’s Jane Moore will not be among those giving the potty-mouthed celebrity chef a good kicking.
As Monday’s Daily Mail reminds us, Ramsay’s spokesman [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 3 November 2008 at 14:41
Tags: Journalism
This is an abbreviated version of a story from the Axegrinder column that appeared in the October issue of Press Gazette magazine. For the full version of November’s column, subscribe now by going to the home page.
Claims by veteran Daily Mail correspondent Ann Leslie that she was bullied by a sexist news editor in her [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 31 October 2008 at 01:35
Tags: Journalism
Thursday night’s edition of Newsnight is sure to go down as an all-time classic, thanks to the wonderful presenter Emily Maitlis telling BBC director-general Mark Thompson: “I’m now so old my pussy is haunted.”
Just in case the DG was too shocked to take it in fully, Maitlis helpfully repeated the line.
For those who missed Newsnight, it [...]
Posted by Axegrinder on 30 October 2008 at 18:30
Tags: Journalism
There was much amusement at IPC this week when Ignite – IPC Media’s men’s lifestyle brand, which includes NME, Loaded, Nuts and Uncut – merged their iTunes servers and several staff members found their music library publicly available to everyone on the 4th Floor.
The staffer with the reddest face was Nuts writer Adam Ralph, whose [...]
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