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Off topic: a tale of two politicians
Two politicians, both of whom I had a chance to see close up at university. For Labour, I present Dave Miliband, JCR President of Corpus Christi (I was his oppo at Exeter). We both represented the most over-privileged electorate in the world (he more conscientiously than me). For the Conservatives, Boris Johnson, president of the…
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Two takes on news, and one on journalism
Three quotes to chew on, one from soon-to-be Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff: You can’t put this too starkly: the news as a pastime, as a form of media, is vaudeville. The news business — our crowd of overexcited people narrating events as they happen — is going out of business. This from a guy called…
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Barry Diller on the future of newspapers
Just because you’re on the board of the Washington Post doesn’t mean you can’t keep it real. Barry Diller has been sharing his thoughts on the future of newspapers with Portfolio: “I think that the print business, the ink business, is deeply challenged. But I also think that’s just the distribution mode. I think that…
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The last word on noddies
In response to criticism that this blog is “turgid” and “heavy-going” – here is a clip from an old Aussie sketch show, suggested by one reader, in the hope that it “will lighten things up”: