Taking Out The Trash

Watching the watchers

There's a rather rabid debate on Iain Dale's blog with regard to proposals for some kind of oversight body for blogs.
Getting away from the EU/Labour/Big Brother conspiracy theories which Dale's readers lapse into, I think the responses do miss a vital point: accountability.
Their answer seems to be, if you are traduced you can ignore it or sue. But bringing a libel action is notoriously expensive and ignoring it doesn't stop a libel being spread.
Blogging is not a level playing field however much gurus of web 2.0 might like to believe otherwise.

Out of the loop

Channel 4's Can't Read, Can't Write follows an adult literacy class as their teacher tries to get them to learn basic reading and writing skills. It's inspirational TV but also jaw-dropping that people in their 50s have got through life unable to spell their own child's name or read a shopping list.
According to the National Literacy Trust 1.1m people aged 16-65 are at or below Entry Level 1 - the most basic competence level. A further four million people in this age range have a literacy level comparable to an 11-year-old.

You can read the rest of my latest post on the Total Politics site here

Orwell diary

The George Orwell Trust will be running a blog with daily entries from the great man's diaries 70 years after he first filed them.
Such a brilliant idea. You can see more here.

Cash in the policy

Picked this up from LabourHome - a reminder that some companies have no shame when it comes to dealing regimes such as the Burmese junta.

Death toll

The Centre for Corporate Acountability has won a decision from the Information Commissioner forcing the HSE to publish the names of those people killed at work. It will help them track cases.
I've written elsewhere on this topic which is truely a national scandal.
The HSE argued that releasing the names would badly affect relatives. I would imagine that the fact their son, father, mother, daughter, husband or wife was needlessly killed has already affected them pretty badly.
The HSE is hamstrung by poor legislation and a lack of resources which mean that few people aer properly brought to account for killing their workers. The blame needs to be laid clearly at the door of firms which put profit above safety - but the HSE don't help themselves.

Where there's muck...

There's no better way to spend a few hours than escorting a group of journalists around a giant rubbish tip - well, there are lots of better ways, but several weeks of planning paid off with a pretty good event.
And we got to show off our new videos which look rather splendid.

Tree hugger

Guido Fawkes posts here about how the print media (AKA the dead tree press) is finished and cites the poor credit rating for the New York Times as a further sign of proof.
It's long been a theme for the self-styled libertarian and full-time nasty piece of work - but I'm not sure Fawkes can sustain his own argument.
Roy Greenslade has a bit of a go but the day after Fawkes' bold statement he follows up a Daily Mirror story and the day after that a Sunday Times story. Tracking back and half the stories are inspired by or follow-up or just plain repeat a newspaper story.
If the dead tree press are doomed what on earth will Fawkes use to fill his bucket of bile?

You are here

Interesting piece from Jemima Kiss in today's mediaguardian on location-based devices.
My neighbouring council has a very good GIS system which allows you to log on, give your postcode and it will bring together all the info it holds on different database and show you planning applications, roadworks, schools etc.
What about getting that data for your mobile and letting parish councils add their own layers to get every specific information for your locality?
Just over the road are a set of satellite dishes and some tasty military communications technology. It would be nice if some of the R&D that went in to that could be used to power civilian comms devices.

Breaking the habit

I'm half way down the street with a copy of the paper under my arm before I remember that today was supposed to be an Observer-free day.
Each week I'd barely glance at the news stories, read some good book reviews, get annoyed by Henry Porter's middle class dinner party self important guff, check out the football reports and bin it all by the afternoon.
But it's a tough habit to break.
Today's was standard fare although the book reviews were thin on the ground and Porter spoke some sense on the Mosley case before going all wide-eyed and jabbing his finger, again. (Note to Henry: you've been writing about privacy for several year now so you should know that the phrase "biometric fingerprints" is tautologous; but I guess you want to make it sound more evil).
Thank god for Monday's Guardian to look forward to. Next Sunday; must be strong and resist.

Taking your lunch money is only the start

The NUJ has just released the results of a survey which show:

Nine out of ten journalists who responded to a survey by media union NUJ said they had been affected by bullying. The survey, carried out on the union's website, showed that 74 per cent of respondents had themselves been bullied whilst a further 18 per cent had witnessed it happening in their workplace.

Declaration: I am an NUJ member
I'd question the methodology behind the survey as it is one that would draw as respondents those that had been bullied.
Nonetheless, bullying in journalism remains a problem as it is hectic, ego-driven, the personnel training is rubbish (they teach you shorthand but not how to skills in dealing with colleagues), there are too many men in senior positions and the industry is about ten to 20 years behind others in basic HR practices.
People join trade unions for lots of reasons and mostly as an 'insurance policy'.
Making sure you've got someone standing behind you with a big stick should some Neanderthal news editor decide to throw his weight around is worth £15 a month.