A Letter In The Guardian
A friend of mine has just had a letter published in the Guardian. It’s here on their letters page.
I’ve had several letters published in The Times and there’s one big difference between the two papers.
I have never been contacted by The Times before publication, but my friend was phoned the day before to possibly check they were who they are.
The only time, I’ve been phoned by The Times, was when they didn’t publish my letter. They asked me to review the days paper in a few hundred words and that was duly published the next day.
The Can Of Worms That Is Leveson
Shami Chakrabarti would not generally be considered a friend of newspapers and big business, as she is the director of Liberty.
But read this article on the BBC’s web site about her views on Leveson. She feels that any legislation on the press as posed by the enquiry could get entangled in the Human Rights Act.
The Leveson Enquiry
What a waste of time and money! If the law is broken, throw the book at them.
Anyway regulating the newspapers is a waste of time, as everything can be posted on the Internet without checking. And it will be!
Newspapers will just be used to wrap fish and chips.
The Times On Jimmy Wales
The Times drops its serious front today with a third leader about the marriage of Wikipedia’s founder; Jimmy Wales, in the style of the on-line encyclopaedia.
My Son Gets In The Times Again!
I had a letter published in The Times today about the birth of our first son, as Neil Armstrong set off for the moon.
Sir, My late wife gave birth to our first son on July 16, 1969, in the Middlesex Hospital in London, as the astronauts left for the Moon.
From the time of his birth until the Eagle landed, no babies were born in the hospital. Perhaps mothers had something more important on their mind. But after the successful landing, all hell broke loose and there were babies everywhere.
The compositors in The Times may have been in a similar emotional state, as our son’s birth announcement was out of order.
I’ve never seen another birth announcement out of order. But then there were two editions of the paper that night; one said they’d landed and the other said they’d walked on the moon.
Free Newspapers Anyone?
This guy in red was handing out free copies of The Sun and The Sunday Times.
Free Newspapers Anyone?
Well they certainly looked to be free and News International was doing the same at BTLondonLive.
The Times Calls For Summer
The Times in its third leader makes a passionate and heartfelt appeal for summer. Here’s the last couple of sentences.
Let us make our position crystal clear: we are against this weather. It must stop raining, and soon. The British climate is supposed to be unpredictable. At the moment, it is anything but. If sustained sunshine is too much to ask for, most of us would settle for a little bit of fickle.
Let’s hope it’s campaign is as successful as the one it had recently to change the adoption laws. But does the jetstream have a subscription to the paper?
On the other hand, at least most of us can still laugh at the weather.
Free Newspapers From Councils
Eric Pickles wants to ban these. Read about it here.
I get one from Hackney and it goes straight in the recycling.
If I want to find out what is going on, I use the Internet or read the local neighbourhood news, I get by e-mail.
I haven’t yet, but I might read a proper local newspaper, as I always did on Saturday in Suffolk. but that was only for the football and the small ads.
Hodgson Speaks Italian at a Press Conference
The BBC seems very surprised that he did this, but he did manage a top club in the country. If they read his Wikipedia entry, it says he speaks eight languages, five of which fluently.
I haven’t seen or heard what he said, but perhaps he threw the Italian into the press conference to make sure that the Italians knew he would understand what they shouted from the touchline. I suspect too, he reads the Italian papers’ comments on the match. That must be a great help, as newspapers are always trying to be better than the managers. And usually failing!
The Anonymous Widower 