hackbash

I’ve just got back from a great day at Goodwood Revival with my Dad. Heading back home, his radio switched itself on to tell us the travel news, and we were treated to a local radio journalist: “You’ve got your roadworks and tailbacks Eastbound on the A27…” at which point both of us shouted that [...]

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“Fact me till I fart,” Chris Morris once commanded. That man was way ahead of the curve. In this little beauty, the BBC has bravely dispensed with those troublesome linking ideas that pull a story together, in preference for the stark-bollock-naked facts. It’s all rather conventional up until the crosshead, but then the journo lets [...]

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As if things haven’t been busy enough in the three months or so since Charlie and I joined Spannerworks, we’re now involved in interviews for a third journalist. Some might see interviews as a curse, but it’s all pretty new to us. We’ve been amazed by the experience and qualifications of the people who want [...]

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The quip in Simon’s recent post* that journalists on proper magazines enjoy perks like, um, a readership has been playing on my mind. One of our most promising projects is very much, let’s say, under-read at the moment, despite some rather splendid content. I guess the concept of building a readership comes more easily to [...]

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Alright, it’s not just about the BBC, but are all the sub-editors on holiday? Apparently, eight out of ten people feel safe. What about now? Do you feel safe now? And now? Still, at least you haven’t got global warming to worry about, as a Scottish bus builder hopes to invent a bus with zero [...]

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Right blogging powerhouse I’m turning out to be. What’s this, five posts in a month? Anyway, I’ve opened this up to my colleague Charlie, aka the Bird Man of Firle. I hope he’ll offer something more insightful than my usual carping about BBC News. I’d invite other journalists I’ve worked with, but they all work [...]

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On the subject of Wikipedia and changes, am I the only person who isn’t especially exercised about the current Wikipedia sanitation furore? Perhaps I’m just a naturally cynical person: does it really surprise anyone that people and corporations are inclined to massage the entries about themselves in a publicly accessible encyclopedia? I’m reminded of the [...]

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Anyone looked at BBC News today? Stupid question really. You don’t need to see the site’s off-the-scale Social Meter score to know it’s one of the most authoritative on the internet, even if its writers still don’t know where to put an apostrophe. The site’s lovable semi-literate fucknuttery remains intact, then, but the Beeb has [...]

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I’ve just become, probably, the last person who gives a shit to finish reading Harry Potter. Granted, it’s not exactly Tolstoy, but the speed with which everybody else seemed to snarf it down makes me wonder if I’m missing a trick. Perhaps when I don’t have to read, digest and write freelance about stuff like this of a weekend [...]

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I’ve been writing a fair bit about flooding lately. It’s a serious subject; Winter 2006/7 saw the five wettest months since 1914, and the floods this summer are said to be the worst since 1947. Insurance claims alone are expected to total £2.5 to £3 billion, while Evan Davis estimates the total cost to be [...]

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