URL: So is the BBC 'anti-politics'?
Barely a week out of the headlines for his "grandstanding" at a White House press conference, the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson has posted an uncharacteristically long blog entry where he answers criticisms made against the organisation by Steve Richards.
Richards, who Robinson is keen to stress is a chum, has taken umbrage at the BBC's lack of depth and analysis when it comes to dealing with political stories.
It's a point that has oft been raised, most recently by Tony Benn in his fantastic "interviewin the interviewers" documentary produced by Mentorn for Channel 4.
But two read big journalistic beasts of British politics battling out this issue that normally goes on behind the scenes, in public is fascinating.
Time Life, the direct marketing giant, has tapped Brightcove for a multi-phased Internet video initiative.
Back from the cold. Will sort out the death of stories asap. In the mean time spotted this story that kind of puts pay to those nay-sayers who complain that social networking is a mindless trend that is heading nowhere fast.
The New York Times has added a new function to its site that allows readers to send its stories to the Digg, Facebook and Newsvine websites
My only question is why did nobody warn my how addictive Myspace can be?
9.04am...not bad for a Monday - especially as I no longer have an office. If you haven't heard after 41 years of publishing it was finally confirmed that Press Gazette has closed.
It's a strange feeling - Wednesday was actually my last official day, by which time I was being paid on freelance basis rather as a member of staff so who knows if I'll ever see the promised cash for those days ever appear.
Thursday was spent at home re-ordering my room into a workable space on by Friday - the day on which news was supposed to break - I was having a chat with some contacts at a radio station about doing some producing/presenting (it's all about the multimedia baby).
I popped into the office to hand in my invoice in person - these accounts can be slippery things when the shit hits the fans - and received a call from the editor inviting me to join a contigent of reporters who had forsaken the doom and gloom of the newsroom for the solace of our local - The Old Bell.
I'm one for commeraderie but spending the afternoon waiting for the Grim Reaper to appear in the company of copious amounts of alcohol wasn't really the way I wanted to start my weekend, so instead I jetted of to Knightsbride to relax in true fashion - in the hands of my wonderful hairdresser Junior Green.
A couple of hours later, feeling both relaxed and gorgeous, I was on the road to meet up with my boyfriend when I recieved the call.
It was the slightly emotional sounding Dom saying, "That's it. It's all over. We've all been made redundant with immediate effect."
We'd all been fearing it, and to be honest expecting it, but I don't think anyone realised what a horrible punch in the guts the decision would be.
Like a family reacting to a death we flocked together. It felt like a wake with staff, old timers, subs and hangers on gatherered back in The Bell, which felt like our make-shift front room. As we reminisced, were were passed the point of complaining, there were last-minute reports of a rescue bid being made in the closing seconds of extra-time but as far as I know it never materialised.
I'm not very good in sad situations, I find the genuinely depressing, so I left after half a pint. Half an hour later and I was at the Frontline Club, celebrating their third anniversary with the great and the good of foreign correspondents and spooks (or Walter Mitty's) as Martin Bell likes to call them.
Richard Branson’s appearance on This Week was utterly under whelming and more over worrying as there appeared to be little understanding or depth to his arguments. He didn’t appear to know the difference between ITV and ITN. Seemed remarkably like sour grapes from a man who wouldn’t even have been sitting in the BBC’s studio if it wasn’t for the fact that he is one of Britain's biggest entrepreneurs. Plus who can trust a man who wears his shirts with three buttons undone revealing a freshly waxed chest?
Check out the soft launch of IQONS - it's MySpace for fashionistas
IQONS is a new on-line fashion community that aims to have the same impact on fashion as MySpace had on music. The ambition is to “set fashion free” from the existing fashion system which has too many ‘gate-keepers’ with high concentrations of power. Instead, we want to promote talent and work based only on merit and integrity.
Trouble brewing Italy as authorities slap on the fines.
Agcom, which is like their version of Ofcom has landed RAI 4 with a whopping 625,000 for repeated violation of rules regarding the interuption of films.
Bad taste was the cause of Italia 1's 25,000 euro fine - the cartoon The Family Guy, known as I Griffin in Italy, was deemed to have used "vulagar and obscene language".
Sorry for the self-congratulation but it was nice to see that my last ever story for PG made it on to the BBC Editor's blog...
Last week Thursday was imprisoned journalists day. It's easy to grow immune to the reality facing journalists struggling to do their job in oppressive countries but this clever tool which allows you to use Google Earth to zoom in on the prisons where they are jailed really brings the message home.
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