Volume 15, Number 2, 2004 |
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ContentsEditorial - Happy honeymoon, Michael 3Mary Riddell - Blackadder bites back 7 Stewart Purvis - And finally? Not quite yet 15 Starting out Elizabeth Day - Why women love journalism 21 Samuel Pecke - Local heroes 26 George Melly - The jazzman cometh 31 Mike Jempson - Clearing up our own backyard 36 Jackie Errigo & Bob Franklin - Surviving in the hackacademy 43 J M Wober - Top people write to The Times 49 Tessa Mayes - Here is the news-as-views 55 Bill Hagerty - Still on the waterfront 60 Ian Mayes - Trust me — I'm an ombudsman 65 BOOK REVIEWSWill Wyatt on Simon Rogers 71Charles Perkins on Jayson Blair 74 Bernard Shrimsley on Toby Moore 77 Nicholas Jones on Andrew Blick 79 Patrick E Tyler on Tom Rosenstiel 82 Alastair Brett on Joshua Rosenberg 85 
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Editorial - Happy honeymoon, MichaelCongratulations to Michael Grade on being appointed Chairman of the BBC, and greeting the task with such enthusiasm, saying he was “proud and delighted”. In the past Mr Grade has been a disappointed suitor, complaining after he was spurned as chairman in 2001 that there were two certainties in his life: “One is that I would like to be chairman of the BBC. The second is that no one will ever ask me. I’m a bit of a strong taste, I think. Bit too independent.”... [Read full article]
Mary Riddell - Blackadder bites backThe first time I encountered Mark Bolland, he was the one asking the questions. We met in one of those Jane Austen parlours favoured by the Prince of Wales, and Bolland was sizing up my suitability to interview his master. Now it’s my turn to be inquisitor in a very different setting. There is no chintz today, or rosebud china teacups, or Duchy Original shortbread biscuits... [Read full article]
Stewart Purvis - And finally? Not quite yetSeptember 22 next year will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Britain’s most popular television channel and, for the majority of that half-century, the home of the most-watched television news. Of the broadcast companies that were there on day one of ITV, only ITN survives. Why is it then that so many people assume ITN Ltd won’t make it to anniversary day, and that Richard Lindley’s history of the company, scheduled for publication by the birthday, is said to have had the working title And Finally?... [Read full article]
Elizabeth Day - Why women love journalismIt was my first job interview and I had the hiccups. I tried everything to make them go away. I held my breath to the point of nausea. I asked people to frighten me. I drank water backwards, my head lolling between my knees. I did a series of ill-advised deep-breathing exercises in the manner of a yogic guru. That only made the hiccups worse. In the end, I pumped myself full of black coffee and attempted to memorise the finer points of the Northern Irish peace process, and where I wanted to be in five years time, in a bid to sound uber-employable... [Read full article]
Samuel Pecke - Local heroesJournalists rarely have moments of profound self-realisation and when they do they are unlikely to be when standing in heavy drizzle outside a south London rail station. That is where I found myself, however, when I had my own epiphany a few months ago. I was attempting, without much luck, to give out to harassed shoppers flyers promoting the National Union of Journalists’ latest campaign against low pay in the industry. “Do you do a below average job?” the flyers screamed. “Then why are you being paid a below average wage?”... [Read full article]
Ian Mayes - Trust me — I'm an ombudsmanSince I became the readers’ editor of The Guardian in November 1997, appointed to discuss publicly and impartially in its pages complaints and queries about its journalism, the idea has not exactly – to quote the editor of the paper, Alan Rusbridger – caught on like a bush fire. Clearly, it still seems eccentric to some: flagellation and/or exhibitionism. The principle is a simple one: news organisations that, almost by definition, constantly call others to account should be more readily accountable and open themselves, and should be seen to be so... [Read full article]
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