-
The NUJ: the people united shall never get their act together…
When I first tried to join the National Union of Journalists, aged 22, I was told they were full. Really. This was because they were run by ultra-leftists who wanted to mobilise labour by keeping people out of trade unions. It took two years, but eventually they let me in, and by way of punishment…
-
Journalism and the breakdown of public knowledge
“The breakdown of the means of public knowledge” is a phrase coined by the great American journalist, Walter Lippmann. He used it in Liberty and the News (1920), which is about to be reissued. His argument is simple. Robert Park summarised it thus: that political liberty, under modern conditions, is no longer guaranteed by the…
-
Off topic: great career advice
Marc Andreessen has been posting some career advice. Here is a just a taste: What should I study in college? Some people argue that college will be your one chance in life to pursue your passion — to spend four years doing nothing but studying whatever you love the most, whether that’s Renaissance literature or…
-
What price CNN? Hardball on Israeli cable…
Want to see the business battle over news in the raw? You have to go to Israel, where they hold these negotiations in public. This is from Haaretz: Every few months in the past two years, the HOT cable company has announced it will stop broadcasting popular television channels like BBC Prime, Hallmark and National…