Tim Ireland on tabloids, media, blogs and politics
Updates
Mail server down
16th Apr 2009
All email to bloggerheads.com has been temporarily suspended in order to keep the site stable during the clean up after an exceptional spam attack today (a coincidence that I can assure you has little to nothing* to do with Iain Dale).
If you wish to reach me by email before tomorrow, please use the gmail address:
bloggerheads DOT com AT googlemail DOT com
If you have sent an email today and I have not answered you, then you will have to wait until tomorrow or resend your message via Gmail.
Cheers all.
(*I say ‘little to nothing’ rather than ‘nothing’ because some people have reacted to Iain’s side of the story by submitting my email address to BNP newsletters and the like, so there’s an incremental influence, but I mention that merely to be accurate. I wouldn’t want to play it like the vicar and give a false impression of who has been doing what.)
Morning, all!
16th Mar 2009
As you may or may not have heard by now, yesterday’s editions of the Scottish Sunday Express carried no apology for the appalling front-page attack on Dunblane survivors last week.
So they’re not going to apologise for the article, but they’re not going to go on the record and defend it, either.
(The most editor Derek Lambie had to offer was an evidence-free denial of Elizabeth Smith’s claims and an attempt to end the matter there.)
Clearly there must be something about the article that the Express staff regard to be less-than-perfect, because they themselves removed it from their website.
I’m still waiting for my copy of the Scottish Sunday Express, as I need some region-specific advertiser data before my next big move.
But there may be a small feature about Paula Murray later today, regardless of what does or does not get delivered.
(Psst! On an unrelated but equally current affair; there will also be some very, very special items relating to Glen Jenvey, freelance spy/reporter released later today. I’ve found something quite magical in the audio.)
Eclectic link dump #25
9th Mar 2009
Mr Jenvey is busy elsewhere early today, but he has promised to share a statement with us later.
I’m happy waiting for that, but here are a few extras for those of you who have looked through the old magazines and fiddled with the empty play-table and are now getting fidgety:
Teh Man somehow saw to it that I missed this epic thread.
Save the ‘ I Love Horses’ website!
Julian Petley cups John Beyer’s logical fallacies. (link via another great weekend link-fest from Septisicle)
Ignore the link if you like, and just love the headline; Arrest in Mandelson custard probe
Telegraph – Binyam Mohamed torture claims: Calls for judicial inquiry
And finally, as if some strange hand of fate were at work, I arrived at (pfft!) the Jack Straw weblog this morning to discover that is was updated yesterday with the following message:
With regret blog comment moderation has been turned on. Political argument is welcome (see posts below), but name-calling and general abuse is not and won’t be published.
So good luck bringing up any of that torture nonsense there and seeing anything substantial published; even thinking for a moment that the sainted Jack Straw would allow torture on his watch constitutes ‘abuse’. How very dare you.
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UPDATE – You’re *still* bored? Tch. OK, I’ll have the nurse put some cartoons on:
Saturday Morning Watchmen (more) (via)
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UPDATE – Tut. Me and my memory. Sir Paul Judge would like a quiet word with you about the party system.
Morning, all!
4th Mar 2009
Two pretty things to kick us off:
2. While I’ve got you nicely freaked out, here’s a little sample of what manufactured pop used to sound like.
And now, to business:
I shared a direct email exchange with our Mr Jenvey last night and I expect our conversation to continue later today.
Also on the immediate horizon is a little show of numbers in the media war.
Brace yourselves.
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UPDATE (12pm) – It goes slowly with Mr Jenvey, who has just signed off for a time. The short version is that I’m willing to take on board all claims of ummah.com’s involvement with terrorism and listen with great interest to anything he’s got to say on the record, but Glen’s doing everything he can to avoid answering this question:
Did you register to comment on ummah.com using the profile names ‘saddam01′ and/or ‘r.tims’ ?
(I should point out that, in reply to this question, Mr Jenvey has again denied posting as ‘abuislam’. Twice.)
Eclectic link dump #24
3rd Mar 2009
Outstanding: The Crisis of Credit Visualized (via)
Viz now has a website that’s even slightly less shit than before, which makes me very happy.
Some kind (and really quite true) words from Ian Appleby leading into the antics of the Indy and their bad habit of pretending to accept comments when they’d really rather you shut up and went away. It could be a simple case of poor housekeeping, but I’ve watched entire comment threads disappear from the Independent website; they’re as bad as many of the tabloids on most fronts. More newspapers have been willing to try the comments-lite solution since the public face of blogging was taken over by a bunch of comment cheats. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
The new and renewed Daily Mail Watch is about to loom on your horizon. You have been warned.
Via Carl comes news from (and of) another jolly useful site from the good people at mysociety.org:
FOI Request re: Mark Thompson’s trip to Israel for talks with Ariel Sharon
The Sun didn’t really discover Atlantis via Google Earth. I can tell by that look on your face that you’re totally shocked by that.
And now, some things you can see from Google Earth that The Sun would rather you didn’t.
(So is The Sun spending most their budget on watching Jade Goody die and filling in any blank spots with stuff they found on Google Earth? It certainly seems like it. And if you don’t mind me saying so, it’s this kind of clever newspapering that makes Rebekah Wade long overdue for a promotion.)
Iain Dale’s somewhat misinformed view on Star Wars reminded me of Starcrash, the world’s greatest space adventure movie ever, ever, ever. It’s even got a hairy-chested Hoff. Watch the whole thing here, if you like.
Speaking of hollow imitations dressed with shiny lights; here’s what the pollsters are saying about Sarah Palin’s future.
On the subject of Google-bombing YouTube, here’s a result you might enjoy (screengrab)
And finally, some good news from the land of we-don’t-do-torture:
AP Newsbreak: CIA destroyed 92 interrogation tapes
The Times – Britain admits rendition of terror suspects
Guardian – UN attacks Britain over torture claims
Septicisle – Rendition flashback
Justin McKeating – David Miliband and Jaqui Smith: something to hide, something to fear
A year without cigarettes
26th Feb 2009
It’s been a year since I smoked my last cigarette. I know that I’m never going back.
1. Stay away from cigarettes, kids! Be cool like your Uncle Tim and stick to the candy fags.
2. If you’re addicted to nicotine and you live in the UK Try. The. NHS. Stop. Smoking. Service. It’s bloody brilliant.
3. Bite me, Philip Morris. And your little dog, too. That’s £1650 you’ll never see. Fear my hearty laughter. Mwahahaha. And so on.
4. ‘Zero’ is the most perfect of all numbers. There should be more of it.
OK, job done. Back to the grindstone.
PS – Yay, Tom: Government levels the playing field for Open Source … oh, and thanks again for the NHS, and for the smoke-free environments, just in case that didn’t come across. Now, can we maybe tidy up this torture nonsense? Please? I’d be able to enjoy all of these benefits a lot more if they didn’t come at the cost of some poor soul having their genitals mutilated. It’s putting me off my tea.
Before I forget (again)
29th Jan 2009
Put aside where Jonathan might be agreeing with me about this or that, and look at the quality of the device. Admire the smooth, sharp edges.
Straight to blogroll
6th Jan 2009
Some of you will already know mushybees; we teamed up all the way back in 2005 for WMD Hunt.
Mushybees has just re-discovered the joys of using text with images, and the result is out-freakin-standing.
Enjoy tumescent with rage; I know I will.
[Note - A tidy-up of the blogroll is overdue, I know. Let me finish this bloody filing cabinet first.]
Sparing a thought for some of the fun I’m missing
15th Dec 2008
- Camera in a Guy’s Head has been a ‘featured’ video at YouTube (UK) for a couple of days now. Views are in their tens of thousands and comments in their hundreds. I’m still having trouble understanding the purpose of some of the comments some people will make on YouTube (example), but it’s kind of nice all the same. (Cheers to BenSix for the heads-up.)
- My next video (on the subject of sock-puppetry) will most probably be on Vimeo, BTW. The animation insists on being unexpectedly awesome, and it’ll require resolution that YouTube can’t deliver. And more time. Like ‘not before Christmas’ time.
- Lame/duck interface: Person in Iraq throws shoes at Bush (via). Bush tells us it’s no big deal*. Even the security services seem quite relaxed about it. So we’re allowed to throw shoes at him now. He’s quick enough to dodge them, he won’t be fazed by it and burly men won’t leap on top of you and/or shoot you in the back of the head several times if you try it. Trust me on this; Bush will be disappointed if he thinks up all those great shoe jokes for nothing. And do be quick about it, as you have less than 36 days in which conk the noggin while it’s still worth a full 50 points.
(*He doesn’t know or he doesn’t care, or he doesn’t care who thinks he doesn’t know or doesn’t care.)
- Respect, office, yadda yadda yadda (#1)
- Respect, office, yadda yadda yadda (#2)
- Rebekah Wade is flirting with mob justice again. Perhaps even invisible mob justice.
- But, sadly, there’s no outrage from tabloids over this. (Maybe if the miners had been famous pop singers or attractive teenage girls…?)
- This on the Menezes verdict (via Septicisle):
“Princess Diana, killed in a car crash – unlawful killing. Six passengers and four crew killed when a man drives his Land Rover off the M62 on to the Selby rail line – unlawful killing. Man throws his son from the roof of a Greek hotel – unlawful killing. A UK soldier is killed in Iraq when a US pilot opens fire on him – unlawful killing. BBC journalist Kate Peyton shot – unlawful killing. Two policemen shoot an innocent man seven times in the head on a train in front of witness who say no warning was given – not unlawful killing. Could someone please explain?” – Dan Tanzey – Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire
- Yes, I’ve seen the mention of Paul Staines in Private Eye, but Paul doesn’t want to talk about that. Or anything else. Sorry, Alex.
