Dark Satanic News Mills

Anyone who has worked in the production side of a wire news service (AP, Dow Jones, Reuters, AAP, Bloomberg, AFP) will tell you the atmosphere in those always chaotic newsrooms can feel something like an 18th century mill where the machines never stop. Reporters, chief reporters, sub-editors, news and picture Read more…

State of Play?

On holiday at the moment, I’ve been catching up with movies I’ve missed, including ‘State of Play’ a political/media thriller built around a collaboration between an old school MSM investigative reporter and a blogger working for the same newspaper in Washington. Behind the main story about dirty dealings in the Read more…

News with Attitude

Media organisations, like most businesses these days, like to talk and fuss about their “brand”. The idea of the brand is a nebulous concept at the best of times, and journalists are notoriously (and rightly) cynical about such self-serving management psychobabble. But with the need to differentiate a commoditised  product Read more…

Uncurrent Affairs

The first response in the twittersphere/blogosphere to the Kerry O’Brien retirement announcement has been to ask who will replace him. The more pertinent question is what will replace a tired format? Nothwithstanding Kerry’s verbal chess games with leading politicians, the 7.30 Report structure and content is dated and predictable – Read more…

Fairly Unbalanced

“Rupert Murdoch keeps me on air because I have proof that progressives want to control every aspect of your life. Progressives work in the cover of darkness and manipulation. They are using regulation to seize control.” That’s the clearly deranged Glenn Beck from America’s top-rating Fox Network, a network owned Read more…