Fox News called last night, wanting an opinion on the collapse of the BBC. I told them no collapse had happened, so they terminated the interview, thanked me for my time and rang off. Clearly it didn’t suit their agenda, which was to gloat over the supposed decline of a once-great news-gathering institution.
Fox News has just called wanting some thoughts on the BBC. “Isn’t the corporation’s reputation trashed, and its future utterly compromised by Hutton and the subsequent resignations?” Well no, I disagree completely. I explain why. The line goes fuzzy, they say there’s a problem with the connection, and they’ll call me back. Twenty minutes later […]
Check out Stuntwatch tomorrow: it’ll take more than 30 seconds to knock this into shape.
Knighthoods are there for the taking at the moment. Mr (soon to be Sir?) Trevor Kavanagh of The Sun crowns a glorious career in the service of Her Majesty’s Government today by casually leaking The Sun’s version of the Hutton Report’s conclusion. At a stroke, the government’s message (sorry, The Sun’s message) has set the […]
In a vain attempt to seem trendy, Mike listens to Radio 1. He tells me that OFWHATEVER regulates these things (or maybe it was the Broadcasting Standards Commission) has upheld David Bedford’s objection against 118 118’s advertisers for using the image of a straggly moustached, long-haired, seventies style runner with red socks, and then pretending […]
And following on from that: politicians are hypersensitive to the way in which the party might be criticized should an individual express a personal opinion. They respond by stripping an offender (such as Jenny Tonge) of her office. But when Geoff Hoon is criticized for failing in his job and imperiling the lives of servicemen, […]
On the celebrity front, J-Lo and Ben are to be congratulated on the collapse of their engagement. Their respective careers have benefited from this classic romance on/romance off PR trick. So much paper has been used up promoting the cause of their celebrity that they need to consider repaying the debt by planting a rainforest.