News International agreed to pay Clifford one million pounds in exchange for feeding the paper exclusive stories over the next several years.
Probably my favourite line from the NY Times investigation into the British newspaper News Of The World’s phone-hacking scandal.
Max Clifford is a celebrity PR who will be the link between a celebrity and a newspaper when they need to either deny or promote a story. He is notorious for giving a newspaper a particular story/angle if they promise to bury a different damaging story about one of his clients.
A common example is when a newspaper has evidence of a celeb’s drug use. Clifford then negotiates a tearful “coming out” interview with the celeb instead of an outright exposé, which could be more harmful to the celeb’s further career.
The article as a whole isn’t particularly insightful if you’ve been following the story over the last few years, but it’s a very good overview if you haven’t. It really does show how the “dark arts” employed by British newspapers don’t just tread the line between legal and illegal, but trample all over it without a care in the world.
I had a very stressful day and I couldn’t do any exercise to calm me down so now I’ve had to turn to wine.
Sometimes, I just can’t fault the girlfriend’s logic.
The combination of coalition and financial crisis has, curiously, given David Cameron’s government more, not less, room to be radical. The administration knows it will be deeply unpopular anyway as the cuts bite and so there is not so much to lose in being audacious in other areas.
Mark Easton - Whatever Happened to Coalition Caution? on the BBC.
I always find Easton to be an insightful writer, particularly when it comes to analysing statistics and the way that the rest of the media cherry-picks them to suit their agenda. In this article, however, he is talking about the plans that the coalition government is setting out, and how they are actually amongst the most radical for decades.
These sentences struck me as being very true. It’s an absolute given that both parties are going to come out of this looking like bad guys, so they might as well aim for the skies in putting some of their more outlandish manifesto policies into practice.
The parties are most likely going to be rejected by the voters next time round, but an X in a box doesn’t give reasons.
taking [my cousin] to gatecrash a funeral
The girlfriend’s last message to me on Gchat before signing out.
We have my cousin staying with us this week, and doing work experience at the girlfriend’s newspaper. She’s evidently getting a bit of a crash course introduction to the world of journalism…
[I]t will help to get us fitter, it will help to tackle the scourge of obesity, or Big Society, as it is sometimes confusingly known.
Our great and glorious Mayor (ahem!), Boris Johnson, simultaneously singing the praises of the new London bike-hire scheme, and having a little dig at the Prime Minister’s “big society” programme of policies.
As much as he is a bumbling toff beyond belief, he can be quite funny sometimes.
(Via the Guardian’s liveblog of the launch of the bike-hire scheme, in the 8:22am entry)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!
Some guy outside my window, just a moment ago.
Twice. (EDIT: Four times now)
It sounded like a Wookie giving birth.
I think its rubbish and am offended by its very nature on behalf of all books
The girlfriend, on the Kindle.
It’s finally getting an official release here on August 27th, and I’m very tempted by the wi-fi only one for £109. I’m more attached to the physicality of books than I ever was for CDs and DVDs, but I can see the attraction of condensing it all into this tiny little device.
Does anyone have one, and are they any good?
Hate the new look. Will start looking elsewhere for my news content.
The very first comment on the BBC News editors’ blog, which attempts to explain the redesign of the BBC News website, and the new features contained therein.
Some people really do hate change, don’t they?
The A-Team, you suspect, is the kind of movie that would be greenlit every week if Jeremy Clarkson was in charge of a film studio.
From the Guardian’s review of the new A-Team film.
Just on the strength of those stupid Orange turn off your phone ads that have been running in British cinemas for the last few months, I’ll be giving The A-Team a very wide berth indeed. It just looks awful.
Especially when films like Inception, The Expendables, Splice, and Toy Story 3 are all being released in the next few weeks…
40 Minute. Wembley is back!! Nur umgekehrt wie 1966. Lampard haut den Ball unter die Latte, es geht klar hinter die Torlinie. Der Schiedsrichter hat es nicht gesehen. Man moechte sich nicht ausmalen, was jetzt in der Redaktion der “Sun” los ist.
From Der Spiegel’s minute-by-minute commentary of the England - Germany game. A rough translation:
40th minute. Wembley is back!! Only vice-versa from 1966. Lampard struck the ball against the bar, and it clearly bounced behind the goal-line. The referee didn’t see it. You don’t want to imagine what’s happening in the newsroom of The Sun now.
I love it, that’s gloriously German humour.
Oh, and it was a goal by an absolute mile. This might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in terms of introducing goal-line technology sooner rather than later.
