-
Islamic Rage Boy and the Daily Mail
Never write off the Daily Mail. It always has the capacity to confound. Evidence? Patrick French’s piece on Islamic Rage Boy. French, a writer rather than a reporter, has done what no one in the global village seems to have bothered to do – travel to Indian-ruled Kashmir to meet 29 year old Shakeel Ahmad…
-
Democracy, the Media and Intelligence: the power of lunch
Nick Rufford reviews Norman Baker’s book The Strange Death of David Kelly and in dismissing Baker so reminds us of the likeliest explanation for Kelly’s death [my italics]: …Baker is offering an even shakier explanation than suicide. The most likely sequence of events is one Baker himself admits is “plausible”. On the morning of July…
-
The simple economics of editorial decision-making
Following David Warsh’s recommendation, I am currently reading Partha Dasgupta’s Economics: A Very Short Introduction (US edition here). Warsh writes: Dasgupta is supremely well qualified to write an overview of economics for the layman. Originally, he says, he had it in mind to lay out what he understood to be the research frontier. “But even…
-
The BBC and impartiality
A day after Charlie Beckett hosted a debate on impartiality (missed it – parenting), Robin Aitken, ex-BBC journo and author of Can We Trust The BBC? came in to talk on exactly that topic to Broadcast students. Robin basically believes in the BBC and places great store in the Bridcut report [pdf] on impartiality at…