adrian monck

Month: March 2008

  • Can You Trust The Media? – Cambridge Wordfest [Sunday, 30 March, 3.30pm]

    Before I disappear on holiday (Cornwall. Yes, I know the forecasts. Miserable. Thanks for asking.), you are cordially invited to book to see Allison Pearson and me chew the fat re: the issues behind the forthcoming book. If you want to spend a day punting on the Cam and then spoil it by hearing me…

  • Can consultants save national newspapers?

    The Ernst & Young report on UK national newspapers is available here if you really want to read it. It is worth a look, BUT (…that’s a big but btw) it has the most irritating consultant-style stuff in it. I know journalists are often accused of twisting quotes, but their liberties pale in comparison to…

  • Is this the dirtiest political reporting trick ever?

    There are probably earlier examples of the non-denial denial in political campaigning, but this is my personal favourite. It’s from the dirty tricks handbook of onetime Philadelphia Inquirer owner, journalism education philanthropist, and general bad egg, Walter Annenberg: One day in 1966 a Democrat named Milton Shapp held a press conference while running for governor…

  • When can you use off the record quotes?

    My two penn’orth on Samantha Power from the Guardian: For me as a broadcast journalist, the camera and the microphone are the record. You can’t unsay things to a recording device or speaking live, only apologise or cringe. But in conversation, different standards apply. I was at ITN in the early 1990s when John Major…