Taking Out The Trash

And this is leave?

Since self-employed men don't get paid paternity leave I've still got some writing to do while I take a couple of weeks 'off' welcoming daughter #3 into the world.
So it's 1,200 words on a renewable energy research centre, 1,700 words on a firm which manufacturers bomb-proof glass, a feature on the future of wind power and one on the changing technology of making films.
But what I'm really excited about is a trip to Salisbury Plain next week to see half a dozen companies compete in a competition to design a robot for fighting urban warfare.
Sad? Purile? Unhealthy?
Quite possibly - but you've got to love that variety.

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.

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?

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.

Slap and tickle

The News of the World claims that Max Mosely's victory today is gag on investigative journalism.
What guff.
They got the key point of the story wrong and then tried to claim after the fact that Mosely's job meant he was fair game.
I cannot see how Mosely choosing to pay women to beat him is of any concern to me. The judge said that his actions made him liable to blackmail, but that is only because of the hypocritical stand of papers such as the NoW. A copy of the judgement is available via this page.
This wringing of hands from Myler about being unable to challenge the rich really sticks in the craw. Perhaps he should look at the top businessman who pays virtually no tax despite earning millions in this country. That's a scandal.
If he's short of story ideas how about one of these.
One point that interests me is that the ruling suggests it's OK to be into S&M but not Holocaust-inspired bondage. Does that mean there are other atrocities which are acceptable? Perhaps an Armenian genocide-themed spanking sessions wouldn't get legal protection while a Rawanda-inspired event would? It is because of these questions that we pay good money to send people to public school so they can tell us the answers.

Leave it at the office

This jaw-dropping spat between a TV presenter and reporter is well worth a look - the fun kicks in after about 30 seconds.

Swindled

They couldn’t even be bothered to stick a question mark at the end of the title.

C4’s The Great Global Warming Swindle has been given a hammering by Ofcom for misrepresenting contributors. However, there is enough wriggle room in the judgement for the producers to have the chutzpah to claim they have been vindicated on the substance of the complaints.

George Monbiot flays the film alive in a typically forensic piece in The Guardian today.

The approach of C4 seems to be that it’s enough to have a forthright and opposing view to give people airtime and money. That’s not balance or a full debate, it’s just the crap commissioning of poor journalism.

Week in, week out Ben Goldacre exposes the media’s inability to report science correctly. When coupled with a desire to make a noise rather than shine a light we end up with garbage such as TGGWS.

Expanding your horizons

There's a little section in my bookmarks folder dedicated to those organisations which will give grants for you to study journalism abroad.
The latest I have seen involves the Winston Churchill trust. He's not a particular hero of mine, or a friend of working people generally. But it looks like a pretty good way for a journalist to get a grant and spend a month expanding your mind away from ever-present deadlines.
I think my favourite, though, remains the international Nieman Fellowship. A year studying at Harvard, trips out to Boston and soaking up the East Coast. Marvellous. You get funding for your spouse too!

What's the point of The Observer?

It's been a habit for so long that I rarely question it .... but do I really get £1.90-worth of read from The Observer?
The Sunday Times isn't an option (I wouldn't believe half the things I read) and The Independent on Sunday just doesn't have the meat.
I think this book may have given me the last bit of evidence I need to convince me that I can survive Sundays without half a forest littering my living room floor.