Broadsheets Category
Top news from The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Indepedent and The Guardian newspapers
David Aaronvitch’s Cuttings
DO they read their own papers?
Splendid cock-up from David Aaronvitch in this morning’s Times. On the question of taking people who carry knives to see stab victims in hospital he said that ‘no one in Government was suggesting any such thing’.
Meanwhile a few pages previously the following transcript from Jacqui Smith on Sky on Sunday is quoted where she is asked, ‘one of those proposals is that people caught carrying knives should be taken to see people in hospital who have been stabbed, or to meet th familes of victimes, is that correct?’. Her response? ‘It is’.
Posted: 15th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians | Comments (3)
Teach Knife Crime Teens Useful Skills In Hospital
KNIFE crime is big news. A knife features on the cover of the Scotsman, the Mirror and the Mail.
In “KNIVES TSAR IN CALL FOR NATIONAL SERVICE”, the Daily Mail speaks with “Police chief” Alf Hitchcock, a Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner appointed by the Home Secretary to head a new national anti-knife crime programme.
He tells us:
“Most kids are not beyond the pale. Most kids are decent young people. We have let them down. Now it’s time to give them the hope they deserve.”
With that cleared up, Hitchcock advocates a non-military “national service”, what used to be called community service. Although the Mail hears: “Send jobless youths on national service, says Britain’s new knife crime tsar.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 14th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Tabloids | Comments (4)
Locating Art And Child Pornography
JOE Hildebrand writes in The Daily Telegraph (Aus):
LIKE many Australians I have been stunned and also captivated by the recent controversy surrounding the internationally renowned Australian artistic community.
Central to the debate has been the question of where art ends and child pornography begins. The answer to that question was traditionally thought to be “Paddington”…
That’s Paddington, Sydney. Although…
Posted: 14th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets | Comments (2)
Angelina Jolie Prepares Fort Knox And Vivienne For Picture Money
“BABY Boy and Girl for Brad and Angelina,” says the new celebrity-focused Independent on its front page, news that echoes the Express’s lead headline.
“ANGELINA twins in £10million bidding war,” announces the Mail.
“Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s twins spark $11m bidding war,” says the Telegraph, underestimating the power of Knox, (the bundle of hair and poo named after the fort) and Young One Vivienne.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 14th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Celebrities, Tabloids | Comments (4)
Alan Rusbridger And Emily Bell Make The Media Guardian’s 100
THE Guardian newspaper’s MediaGuardian 100 is “our annual guide to the most powerful people in the industry. Candidates are judged on three criteria – their cultural, economic and political influence in the UK.”
This arbitrary test of media might is decided by a panel of ten, including:
Janine Gibson, executive editor of guardian.co.uk and editor-in-chief of MediaGuardian.
Jane Martinson, editor of MediaGuardian.
Brent Hoberman, a non-executive director of Guardian Media Group
The questions is: where does the panel place the Guardian and its editor?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 14th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Money | Comment
Madeleine McCann: Clarence Mitchell For Hire, Richard Desmond And The Guardian Repeats
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell ponders PR move
As Kate and Gerry McCann return from their first family holiday since their daughter Madeleine disappeared 14 months ago, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell is in talks to join a PR agency where he plans to help other parents who have lost children to deal with the media.
Such is the news of the McCann case that the internet traffic-hungry Telegraph is looking at Clarence Mitchell’s career options. An interviwer might ask him what good has come of all the PR and media handling, and point out that not every missing child is the the blonde, photgenic progency of middle-class doctors and thus not deemed to be as newsworthy.
Says Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman:
“I’m happy to help anyone in the eye of a media storm, but I need to put myself on a firm financial footing. I should stress, however, that there’s absolutely no question of me abandoning Kate and Gerry McCann.”
Working for the McCanns is a job, and it pays. But when will it end?
THE GUARDIAN: “Fakery fallout hits TV sector”
Deception rows caused several top television figures to slide down the top 100. It’s the MediaGuardian 100, an arbitrary league table of TV shows and staff.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 14th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann | Comments (620)
Jay Rayner: Bloggers Kill The Newspaper Opinon Writer
JAY Rayner on why bloggers kill the newspaper writers:
It could be worse. At least those of us in Britain who make our living from our opinions are still gainfully employed. Across America it’s a different story. Paid newspaper critics from a number of disciplines are being laid off or redeployed, their judgment deemed superfluous to requirements in the age of the net. Book review pages are becoming increasingly skinny. Television sections are disappearing. In April, Sean Means, the film critic of the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, used his blog to publish a roll call of his movie-reviewing colleagues who, since the spring of 2006, were no longer in the opinion business: ‘Steve Ramos, Cincinnati CityBeat, position eliminated … Jami Bernard, New York Daily News, contract not renewed … Michael Atkinson, Village Voice, laid off …’ At that point it ran to 28 names across the US media but since then it has stretched inexorably on.
Newspapers are chasing web straffic – the Mail’s site is a soft porn and celeb fest; the Telegraph’s site specialises in tales of weird bodies; the Guardian site has more cheap comment than anyone can ever read; the Express site is just crap…
Watch out for the new Anorak…
Posted: 13th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets | Comments (3)
Seven Stabbed To Death In Crazy 32-Hour Day
“SEVEN MORE STAB DEATHS IN A DAY.”
So says the Daily Express.
The Mail chimes in with: “SIX stabbed to death in just 24 hours as Blade Britain’s knife epidemic spirals out of control.”
But not as out-of-control as in the Express, which sees seven killed in “just 32 hours”.
The Independent does the maths: “Seven killed in a brutal 24 hours
Journalists are not famed for their grasp of maths but surely between them the Express’s John Chapman and John Twomey could agree that 24 hours make up one day, in the traditional sense?
Of course, the Express is, ait confesses, “TEN times better than the Mail”, and as any Express hack will tell you, seven is precisely ten times six…
Posted: 12th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Tabloids | Comments (3)
Josef Fritzl Watch
FRITZL Watch: Anorak’s look at Josef Fritzl, Elisabeth Fritzl, Nazis and assorted Frtizls in the news
Josef Fritzl, who locked his daughter in a cellar dungeon for 24 years, has asked permission to leave his prison cell after admitting he can no longer stand being cooped up.
Posted: 12th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets | Comments (9)
Madeleine McCann: Child Alert, Daily Mail Knows And Fay Weldon
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY MIRROR: “McCanns win child alert fight MADELEINE”
Kate and Gerry McCann yesterday won their fight for an EU-wide missing child alert system, in tribute to their daughter Madeleine. A declaration supporting the couple’s plea attracted backing from at least 398 MEPs – more than half the 785 European Parliament members.
Or as the Mail said earlier in the week: DAILY MAIL: “Brussels throws out McCann’s appeal for European missing child alert system”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 11th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (891)
Gordon Brown Heathcliff
GORDON Brown is Heathcliff – Don’t come home:
However, in the interview, Mr Brown says it is “absolutely correct” for people to compare him to Heathcliff. He then adds: “Well, maybe an older Heathcliff, a wiser Heathcliff.” Many MPs were openly questioning last night whether Mr Brown could have even read the book to make such a comparison.
Andrew McCarthy, the acting director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Yorkshire, told The Daily Telegraph: “Heathcliff is a man prone to domestic violence, kidnapping, possibly murder, and digging up his dead lover. He is moody and unkind to animals. Is this really a good role model for a prime minister?”
Posted: 10th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians | Comments (3)
Girl Wears Bat In Bra
BAT found in girls bra:
Miss Hawkins said she got dressed at 7.30am and arrived for work at the Holiday Inn Norwich North, near Norwich International Airport without noticing anything unusual.
“When I was driving to work I felt a slight vibration but I thought it was just my mobile phone in my jacket pocket,” she said.
It was not until her lunch break, at midday when she felt a strange movement inside her bra, which had been hanging on her washing line the previous night.
Bat in bra (The Telegraph, via Fortean Times)
Posted: 9th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comments (2)
Wow: Matthew McConaughey Has A Baby Boy
THE Telegraph continues its drive to become a tabloid with news that Hollywood actor and topless model Matthew McConaughey has given birth:
Matthew McConaughey Has A Baby Boy
Well done Matthew.
Posted: 9th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Celebrities | Comment
Madeleine McCann: Child Alert, Fear And Tony Bennett’s McCann Club
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann: Kate and Gerry’s fury at ‘club’ devoted to prosecuting them”
Gerry and Kate McCann have expressed their anger at the establishment of a fee-paying “club” dedicated to seeing them prosecuted over the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.
A retired British solicitor, Tony Bennett, has set up a fund called The Madeleine Foundation, which aims to bring a private prosecution against the McCanns for alleged child neglect.
Tony Bennett has been on Anorak.
But Madeleine’s parents fear members of the public will inadvertently donate money to it because they may mistake it for the McCanns’ own Madeleine Fund, which pays for private investigations into her whereabouts.
Mr Bennett says his fund is a “subscription-only members’ club, charging a £10 annual fee”.
Says Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman: “It is a great shame that Mr Bennett feels the need to make money out of Madeleine McCann. He did not seek permission from Gerry or Kate to use Madeleine’s name.”
It’s a brand?
“This so-called foundation is in no way doing anything to help find Madeleine.”
Says Bennett:
“Some of the money immediately raised will be used to pay for a barrister to give his or her opinion on how best to proceed with a legal action against the McCanns. We are a group of people, which is rapidly growing in number, who want to get to the truth of what happened to Madeleine. We will also campaign for changes to the law about parents who leave children on their own.
DAILY MAIL: “Brussels throws out McCann’s appeal for European missing child alert system”
Kate and Gerry McCann’s campaign for an alert system for missing children across Europe will not be adopted by the EU, ministers said yesterday.
FENLAND TODAY: “McCanns win more backing for child abduction alert”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 9th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (701)
A Judge And Durex At The Max Mosley Case
THE story so far: Max Mosley, motor racing boss, is suing the News of the World for invading his privacy.
Mr Justice Eady sat stony-faced as he heard that the woman was known for arranging bondage sessions involving a man dressed in a judge’s gown and girls.”
– Times
Posted: 8th, July 2008 | In: Back pages, Broadsheets | Comments (5)
Madeleine McCann: Justice Hogg Says, Portugal Reacts And No Evidence
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY STAR: “COPS GIVE UP MADDIE DOSSIERS!”
POLICE yesterday agreed to show Madeleine McCann’s parents 81 witness statements. The couple’s detectives will study the confidential documents and re-interview the witnesses.
And what have we learned so far, after 14 months of inbestigating – other thn a child is missing?
Her GP mum Kate and heart consultant dad Gerry, both 40.
Says High Court Judge Mrs Justice Hogg: At the court in London, the judge said:
“There is, of course, one person who knows what has happened to Madeleine and where she may be found.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 8th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (555)
Shahid Malik Belittles The Holocaust
SHAHID Malik is Britain’s first ever Muslim minister. Says he in the Independent:
“I think most people would agree that if you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe,” he said. “I don’t mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost – and still is in some parts – to target Jews, many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians | Comments (3)
Media Ways To Spell Colonel Gadaffi
Gadaffi Duck:
Gadafy – (as used by the Guardian and the Irish Times)
Gaddafi – (probably the most common, as used by most newspapers and this website)
Gadaffi – (as used by the Financial Times)
Ghadaffy – (as used by London’s Evening Standard, although not for long)
Gadhafi – (as used by the Wall Street Journal)
Kadafi – (as used by the Los Angeles Times)
Kaddafi – (as used by Newsweek)
Qaddafi – (as used by the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Economist and the New Yorker)
Quakers. Kwakers…
Posted: 7th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians, Tabloids | Comment
Gordon Brown Declares War On Food
“BRITAIN declares war on food waste,” announces the Independent.
How do you fight yesterday’s tuna casserole? If you imprison food, it will only turn nasty and attack you by biological means. Perhaps the old ways of sticking the wrongdoer in the stocks and pelting it with rotten fruit would work, or only exacerbate the problem?
Reading on, we learn that: “The Government is to launch a campaign to stamp out Britain’s waste food mountains as part of a global effort to curb spiralling food prices.”
Food prices are not going up because of increased production and energy costs, but because you are not cleaning your plate.
Says Gordon Brown ( “If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?” – Pink Floyd: No Education; No Education; No Education):
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians | Comments (9)
Michael White On Cherier Blair, Levy And Prescott’s Booky Wooks
MICHAEL White in The Times Literary Supplement: Cherie Blair and the Tony gang
Prescott’s book, the one with the swear words, was ghostwritten by Hunter Davies, who successfully captures the future Deputy Prime Minister’s tone of voice (“oh aye, we were great little boppers”, he says of his dancing teens) which is cheerfully demotic, often chippy. Levy’s Tiggerish account was polished by another journalist, Ned Temko, who parades all his client’s acknowledged faults, his insecurity, pushiness and vanity, yet renders him hard to dislike. Mrs Blair appears to be her own typist. If she were not a successful QC, her breezy style could earn her a decent living as a magazine writer: her text is peppered with phrases such as “dead impressed” and “dignity is not the word”, and such sentiments as “for me flying on Concorde was a dream come true”.
But her book – the most rounded of the three – is warm, often humorous, at times painfully sad. The generous reader learns to forgive her. “I fancied him rotten and still do”, she says of her husband. The Queen was “clearly very fond of Tony too”. None of which has prevented these three post-Blair autobiographies from being savaged, sometimes in the very newspapers which chose sensational extracts for serialization. To denounce the authors for undignified and mercenary backbiting is to ignore the bargain made: not so much cash-for-honours as cash-for-dignity.
Does anyone buy these books?
Posted: 30th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians | Comments (4)
A GCSE In Swearing
SAT in the GCSE exam room the pupil is presented with the question: “Describe the room you’re sitting in.”
Answer given. Time up.
Pete Buckroyd, a chief executive in English for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance is presented with the answer: “F*** off”. The pupil is given two marks out of a possible 27 for the expletive.
Says Buckroyd: “If it had had an exclamation mark it would have got a little bit more because it would have been showing a little bit of skill. We are trying to give higher marks to the students who show more skills.”
Times readers are really upset:
Try doing that on a job application to me thogh [sic] and the little scrote will get the bums rush off our premises – Geoff Miller, Birmingham, England
I’m with you, John Taylor. This is just further evidence that the powers that be seem to be aiming for a nation of sub Mc-job morons – Simon Webb, Swansea, UK
Morons. Scrote. The exam guidance stipulates: To gain minimum marks in English, students must demonstrate “some simple sequencing of ideas” and “some words in appropriate order”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 30th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets | Comments (6)
Mealy Mouths With Charlotte Hume
“IT all started with a drama over peas. A very, very small portion of whatever vegetable the rest of us were eating was placed nonchalantly by me on my seven-year-old son Freddie’s plate.”
We join the action in the Telegraph, and in slummy mummy Charlotte Hume’s kitchen diner. She’s written a book (available via, er, Telegraph books) about the A to Z of vegetables and how Freddie (F for flageolet) is now eating and learning all at once.
He’d look up at me and the bargaining would begin. I am used to him starting the bids low. “If I eat two peas, is that enough?”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 30th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets | Comments (5)
CCTV Is Rubbish
THEY are watching you:
A spy camera, estimated to cost £10,000 and designed to catch fly-tippers, was cleared by council workers after it was concealed in a rubbish bag.
The expensive camera was placed inside a black bag beside a notorious illegal fly-tipping site. The disguise was so good that workers for Chichester District Council, West Sussex, cleared the camera believing it was genuine rubbish.
Which it was…
Posted: 30th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comments (2)
Internet Blamed For Rise In Middle-Age Sexually Transmitted Disease
CAUGHT in the web:
Viagra-fuelled over-45s having risky sex with people they meet through the internet are being blamed for a surge in sexually transmitted diseases among the middle-aged.
Growing old disgracefully…
Posted: 30th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comments (8)
How Many BBC Hacks It Takes To Cover The Olympics: Update
HOW many BBC staff it takes to cover the Olympics: update?
The BBC will send 437 staff to Beijing, a level essential, it says, for extensive programming. They will deliver 2,750 hours of coverage from 28 Olympic sports across 31 venues. Six channels on the BBC Sport website will provide constant live feeds.
And how many athletes is Team GB sending to China?
Around 300…
Posted: 30th, June 2008 | In: Back pages, Broadsheets | Comments (2)
