Favourite Posts

Whenever people ask me why I left tele­vi­sion news (a world which — I have to say — I loved) to run a J-School, I never give the real answer. Because the real answer is just the name of someone they (and you) prob­ably won’t ever have heard of: Richard Wild.

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I sup­pose there are two peri­ods of my father’s life. Before unem­ploy­ment. And after­wards. My father was a tim­ber sales­man. He was a con­fid­ent and pop­u­lar com­munity act­iv­ist. He set up a scout troop — brought people together and organ­ised things. And then the boat­yards aban­doned their mar­ine ply­wood for fibre­glass and the repro­duc­tion fur­niture makers went bust. Unem­ploy­ment arrived whilst I was still at school.

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The Trust Obsession

April 28, 2008

CNN bills itself as the most trus­ted name in news. Director-General Mark Thompson reck­ons pub­lic trust is the life-blood of the BBC. Politi­cians and TV presenters wail and tear their clothes in pub­lic at the public’s loss of trust in the media. “Woe is us,” wails the col­lect­ive cry from the journ­al­ism pro­fes­sion, “they don’t […]

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Reporting Terrorism

June 20, 2007

It’s nearly two years since I wandered away With the local bat­talion of the bold IRA, For I read of our her­oes, and wanted the same To play out my part in the pat­riot game. I don’t mind a bit if I shoot down police They are lack­eys for war never guard­i­ans of peace And yet at desert­ers I’m never […]

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