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Volume 12, Number 1, 2001

Contents

Editorial - The Prime Minister, the press and the election 3

Gordon Corera - It's Al… it's George W… it's anyone's guess 8

Bill Hagerty - Amiable Ulsterman at Trinity Mirror 15

Martin Rowson - We are the true outsiders of journalism 29

Harry Reid - Turmoil in the tartan press 38

William Keegan - The birth of greed… 45

Martin Adeney - …But will business ever love the BBC? 51

Paul Bach - Not just for greybeards 57

Steven Barnett - Half-baked plans for broadcasting 64

BOOK REVIEWS
Brenda Maddox on Lynda Lee-Potter 69

Michael Leapman on regulation 72

Phillip Knightley on moguls 75

Steven Barnett on Greg Dyke 78


 

Editorial - The Prime Minister, the press and the election

It is still probable that there will be a General Election in Britain before our next issue. By the time British Journalism Review 12/2 is out and about the odds are that Tony Blair will have been confirmed as the first Labour Prime Minister to succeed in securing a second full term in Government with a commanding overall majority. That would be a historic moment in British political life – and historic for the media as well... [Read full article]


Gordon Corera - It's Al… it's George W… it's anyone's guess

There is little doubt that November 7, 2000 will forever be remembered as a “black Tuesday” for the American media – the day they first “gave” and then “took back” six million votes not once but twice in a few hours, ending up with what one of the million dollar anchors said was not just egg but an omelette on their faces. But that was only one night; one danger is that the Florida fiasco obscures deeper problems which the American media struggled with through the whole of the election campaign... [Read full article]


Bill Hagerty - Amiable Ulsterman at Trinity Mirror

Until Trinity Mirror moved into the really big league, life was relatively tranquil for Philip Graf. The media spotlight never shone in his direction. He was as anonymous as the next man in Wilmslow, Cheshire, unless the next man happened to be a Manchester United footballer. He must, I suggested, look back fondly on those untroubled times and reflect on how peaceful they were... [Read full article]


Martin Rowson - We are the true outsiders of journalism

I’ve got a treasured possession at home. It hangs, as these things should, outside the lavatory, and it’s an original cartoon by Vicky, the nom de plume of the Hungarian political cartoonist Victor Weisz. It’s not his greatest work; just a rather nice caricature of the holiday camp tsar Sir Billy Butlin, drawn for the New Statesman about a month and a half after I was born, and it was given to me as a 40th birthday present a couple of years ago. What’s really interesting about it, however, is its provenance... [Read full article]


Brenda Maddox on Lynda Lee-Potter

The mystery of what thrusts a woman columnist to the top of what once was Fleet Street is clarified by this brisk book. Being a bit of an actress is a good start. Lynda Berrison from a Lancastrian mining family, was a young drama school graduate when she married a doctor, the son of Air Marshal Sir Patrick Lee-Potter, in . . . . (Sorry. There are no age-revealing dates in this text)... [Read full article]