Spot the news parody

First up, The Onion on 24-hour news:

Next, Charlie Brooker on, well, the news:

Finally, Taiwanese network Apple 1 on the Gordon Brown’s bullying:

Amazingly, the last one is real, from the same people that brought you the digitally recreated Tiger Woods debacle. Genius. In a post-modern kind of way. More!

England’s World Cup Squad: The People’s Choice

We are cleverererer than Fabio, so let’s make sure he takes the correct arrangement of philanderers, egomaniacs, idiots and drunks to the World Cup this summer. This will be running until the end of the month, after which we shall submit our demands, and kidnap Theo Walcott until our squad is chosen.

Technorati tags: england football public poll survey world cup 2010 south africa england squad fabio capello vote

6 reasons why ditching 6 Music is stupid

1. 6 Music is the best music radio station in the country

2. Not all listeners are created equal… yes, the numbers might be low, but they are dedicated, regular listeners. These are the type of people who will whine loudly when pissed off.

3. No-one else is providing a similar service. If a publicly-funded media organisation is competing in a sector where there is healthy commercial competition, then fine, cut it. One can fully understand cutting the Asian Network, as it was skewing the market, perhaps unfairly. Many commercial Asian-orientated media outlets have complained that they couldn’t compete with the BBC’s wages and remit. But there is no direct commercial competition for 6 Music. So what’s the point?

4. One of the primary responsibilities of a public broadcasting service is to fill niches. Yes, radio stations like 6 Music could never be commercially successful, which is exactly why I want my tax money to fund it.

5. The BBC, like many publicly-funded bodies, is extraordinarily wasteful. I say this from direct experience, having worked with them. Their budget deficit is public proof of this. The solution is not to axe low-cost loss leaders like 6 Music, it is to cut waste.

6. Gideon Coe is a masterful radio host, and needs a home.

The rise of ‘offshore journalism’?

Following on from Nieman’s story that Iceland could become an off-shore, libel-proof journalistic enclave, the editor of WikiLeaks has written a fascinating post on the Guardian’s Organ Grinder blog:

I’m excited about what is happening in Iceland, which has started to see the world in a new way after its mini-revolution a year ago. Over the past two months I have been part of a team in Iceland advising parliamentarians on a cross-party proposal to turn it into an international “journalism haven” – a jurisdiction designed to attract organisations into publishing online from Iceland, by adopting the strongest press and source protection laws from around the world….

Because of the economic meltdown in the banking sector, which, per capita, was the largest of any western country, Icelanders believe that fundamental change is needed in order to prevent such events from taking place again. Those changes include not just better regulation of banks, but better media oversight of dirty deals between banks and politicians…

Not surprisingly, the foreign press has developed an interest in the proposal. All over the world, the freedom to write about powerful groups is being smothered. Iceland could be the antidote to secrecy havens, rather it may become an island where openness is protected – a journalism haven. Sleet Street 2.0.

[Read the full piece here]

Wilton’s Music Hall

This is the first video I have ever directed, on the Wilton’s Music Hall in Tower Hamlets – a truly incredible place with a past punctuated with significant historical events. It was here that Champagne Charlie grew to fame, where the London Dockers congregated during the Docker’s Strike, and where East End rebels sought refuge during the Battle of Cable Street. And it’s still going – wait until the end of the film for recent footage of a Magic Numbers gig there.

Huge thanks to Felix Clay for shooting the whole thing, and to Christian Bennett for cutting it.

Recent work

Here are some things I’ve been up to recently:

For the New York Times:
• A Check In, Check Out review of the Kensington Hotel [Pictured above]
• A Goal Blog piece on UEFA allowing politics to influence the Euro 2012 draw
• Another Goal Blog piece on signature moves in football

For the Guardian:
• A news piece on the National Trust taking Google Street View off-road
• A round-up of Latin dance holidays
• A tip on the glorious Blackpool Tower Ballroom for a Valentine’s special
• A map of Venetian Bacari
• Maps for a selection of road trips in Europe and the British Isles
• A map for Le Cool editor Chloe McCloskey’s alternative guide to Seattle

NileGuide 5 Interview

[This interview first appeared on NileGuide]

1. Most underrated destination

Albania and Sarajevo . Although that’s a bit of a trick answer, because they are barely ever rated, let alone underrated. The Balkans are my favourite part of Europe. The recent, tragic history of the region somehow makes it all the more intoxicating – a bit like what the rest of eastern Europe might have felt like after the Wall fell. Sarajevo got me with its ethnic mix; a Muslim city dotted with minarets in mainland Europe, where a strong Jewish and Orthodox community have coexisted happily for years. Albania [pictured above] is the most hospitable country I have ever visited – I’ve never been invited into people’s homes so many times.

The journalist’s voice, and the blogger’s voice

A fantastic read on the past and present of journalism by Terry McDermott at the CJR, with some fascinating thoughts on the voice of old journalism compared to the voice of the blogging age. Here’s an extract:

I hated the conventions that bound daily journalism, the stilted, odd language in which it was written as well as the contrived structures into which that odd language was shaped. The common newspaper style is so heavily codified you need a Berlitz course to interpret it. More than formal, the style is abstract and artificial. I once (on the very first day at a new job) got into a frighteningly intense argument with a city editor who had objected to my use of the word “slumbered” to describe the behavior of two political candidates during a debate. They didn’t really sleep through it, did they? he asked. Of course not, I said. I meant it figuratively, not literally. We don’t use figurative language here, he told me. Then he changed the word to “lumbered.”

That was one benighted guy, but the problem was nearly universal. Until recently, you couldn’t escape it. Now you can. The advent of the Web and the proliferation of smart, aggressive bloggers around the globe have torn journalism loose from its hinges. The hounds have been unleashed.

While disliking it intensely, it is easy to forget there was a reason for the soporific style of newspaper writing. Newspapers were actually trying to do something good. They recognized that they held powerful, uncontested positions as conveyors of news to their communities. After much coaxing, they took it upon themselves to shed their partisan pasts and don a cloak of social responsibility—a practice that they called objectivity. They did it in part to sell papers—they thought if they made fewer people angry they would have more readers—but mainly they did it because they thought it was the right thing to do. [Read the rest...]

My failed bid for West Ham

Last Friday, in the midst of great confusion surrounding the imminent takeover of West Ham, I decided to enter the race.

Yesterday, a source close to Straumur, the beleaguered bank who owned West Ham, admitted to the Guardian that I had in fact been the only other bidder in competition with David Sullivan and David Gold – although a few quid got lost in the exchange:

After ensuring it had won itself a job lot of positive publicity Intermarket Group’s bid for West Ham United foundered over a lack of funds, just as this column said it would in October. Tony Fernandes, too, could not on his own raise the cash required for a purchase so it meant Straumur was left with only two bids that contained verifiable proof of funding. David Gold and David Sullivan won the day with their injection of £30m-£35m of new money yesterday. The only other bid was submitted by an enterprising fan offering a grand total of £351. But at least he provided bank details to show the money was really there. [Guardian]

Apparently West Ham chairman and Straumur director Andrew Bernhardt didn’t see the funny side, and refused to process the bid.

Either way, I’m slightly gutted that my first ever takeover bid didn’t get off the ground. That said, only 50% of the club was sold. If at first you don’t succeed….