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The talk radio formula
Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio is one of my favourite media movies. Eric Bogosian plays talk show host Barry Champlain. Only the politics tell you that it was made in 1988 (instead of a conservative blowhard, Bogosian plays a morally bankrupt liberal). Seeing it again the other night reminded me that the formula for talk radio…
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Anything new under the sun?
We’re often berating ourselves in the media for overlooking important social and historical developments. Take the rise of Wahabism in Islam, for example. It appeared by stealth, you might imagine. And now read American journalist Charles Dudley Warner from 1881, on the impact of the wires on newspapers. …consider how much space is taken up…
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Facts and opinion
The famous line of C.P.Scott, editor and the proprietor of the Guardian – “comment is free, but facts are sacred” – is immortalised not just in the Guardian‘s op-ed, but also in SacredFacts, Richard Sambrook‘s blog. Scott was in his seventies when he wrote the essay from which the line is taken, back in 1921.…
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Blog-vertorial
In case you’ve been dozing, the blogosphere is filling up with the reactions to Valleywag‘s revelation that notable tech bloggers have been dropping Microsoft slogans into their copy. My reaction to the scandal? Well, I’m lovin’ it. Next time, however, the bloggers concerned should think different. Just for the record, you won’t be seeing undercover…