So – what’s The Iron Lady biopic all about? For that we have to look at the soundbites. Never think a soundbite is dumbing down. The papers have been full of wrong answers in the last few days. Feminism? Nope. Class war between a lower middle class woman with ambition and upper class Tory toffs with a false sense of entitlement? Wrong again. A woman with the backbone and balls to pursue her convictions brought down by a Cabinet ignored? Er… no. The reason The Iron Lady is getting such attention is nothing to do with the incendiary story of one of the most admired and hated political figures in recent decades. It is about today’s story….dementia. Director Phyllida Lloyd has cleverly steered every interview away from the politics (of which there is very little in the movie) on to the universal issue that places it firmly on today’s news agenda. The end we all face – the loss of faculties, the temporary nature of everyone’s life. That’s been picked up by the movie’s star Meryl Streep; “It’s Lear for girls!” A great soundbite that says in four words exactly what this movie is – Shakespearean in scope, feminist in intent, current in its relevance. And nothing to do with wearing a hat in the Commons – though that apparently is something the movie got right, too.
Down at New Start Scotland this weekend and we’ve been videoing the exhibition. Have a look at some of our videos highlighting Scotland’s largest business support event, New Start Scotland.
CNN’s world exclusive pictures of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the only man convicted over the Lockerbie bombing, in what is obviously a near-death state, have done more than anything to cease the political wrangling over whether or not he should be extradited back to prison in the UK. Governments on all sides have not been able to back up their arguments with hard evidence of his condition. The man’s family forcibly ejected journalists who’d tried to track him down to his luxury villa in the suburbs of Tripoli. Yet when persistent journalists refused to give up, and finally got the picture they wanted of the convict on his death bed, we could all see that here was a man in no fit state to move, or be moved, anywhere. Will Governments and minders learn the lesson, that an open and free media is essential to stability and democracy? Probably not. But CNN have done everyone involved – the US Government, the Foreign Office, the Libyan NTC and the dying man himself – a big favour. One they could easily have done for themselves.
Journalists tend to become journalists because they have a natural ability to express complex ideas in the sort of language that everyone can understand. It is a constant source of bewilderment to journalists when highly intelligent and successful people find it impossible to do the same. It’s literally a non-meeting of minds, and can usually lead to conflict – neither side can understand the other’s point of view and both assume, usually wrongly, that they are being deliberately awkward.
This morning’s Today programme on Radio 4 was a perfect example. Read the rest of this entry »
Norwegian judge Kim Heger’s courtroom media ban was the right call – Anders Behring Breivik must never earn a platform for his insane views through his murderous actions. Sometimes the oxygen of publicity must be denied. That is why in our view it is right for Norwegian citizens to boycott media who have reported Breivik’s views. Read the rest of this entry »
Has the tide turned? Has Hackgate begun to lose its heat? I detect that it may have. The sight of an eighty year old man being very, very ‘umble did Mogul Murdoch no harm at all. The reason? He was being grilled by MPs. And MPs hold no moral high ground at all in the eyes of the public, and more importantly the media. So yesterday’s Commons Committee grilling failed to ride the public wave of disgust, because in the back of everybody’s mind, seeing MPs holding a powerful man to task, was a sense of hypocrisy that proved impossible to shake off.
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith yesterday attacked Ofcom’s decision to clear Channel 4 of misleading viewers during both a report on his election campaign expenditure in July last year and his appearance on Channel 4 News with Jon Snow the following day.
Channel 4 had focused on discrepancies between Goldsmith’s actual expenditure and the declarations of expenditure on campaign materials such as signs and branded jackets. During the subsequent interview Goldsmith and Snow maintained a heated debate of which Goldsmith spent the first 10 minutes disputing Snow’s statement on Twitter that Goldsmith had originally refused to appear on Channel 4, despite interviewing with Sky.
This morning saw an internet free-for-all as savvy browsers flocked to a blog that was flouting the paywall and positing articles written by Times journalist Caitlin Moran. There was even a Twitter account set up to direct readers to the site.
The Times response to the situation was to have the blog taken down immediately (the Twitter account has also vanished) while Moran’s tweeted the rogue blogger: “I applaud you, my friend. Very quietly, but I applaud you.”
Start the New Year with a mixed metaphor, that’s what we say. Our headline was inspired by one of the most mixed quotes ever published – in The Guardian business section which opined “‘These problems existed beneath the radar before the recession struck in 2008, but they were masked by the fruits of an economic system that has now laid us low.”
We are moved to bring you news of Lord Sugar’s New Year Message to SMEs: the expected mix of bile and brou-haha guaranteed to cause any business owner to choke on his breakfast cornflakes. Few sectors of business emerge unscathed from the arch-salesman’s withering glance. The Government? Lacking in ideas. Banks? They don’t have to lend money to every Tom Dick and Harry. Business Plans? Best done with a pencil and plain paper. Networking? A total waste of time. He describes networking events like this ““They have become an escape for people to justify sitting around wasting a day bullshitting with each other while they should be working.”
The Baron Sugar of Clapton speaks his mind, and that’s directly linked to his success. Business owners often resist speaking out, for fear that they will accidentally give away valuable secrets to competitors, or that somehow their authority will be damaged by sensational coverage. But they’re wrong. Customers and clients have confidence in those who display confidence – it’s as simple as that.
So the next time you encounter a head of business who is reluctant to go before a microphone or a camera, or who believes that speaking to an inky-fingered journalist can only bring disaster, tell them this. Lord Sugar is worth £730 million.
As the whistle-blower de nos jours, Julian Assange, ponders his imminent release from the “Dickensian” conditions of Wandsworth prison, he can take comfort from the fact that he’s made his point. Wikileaks has proved that we are indeed living in a viral age.
Look at the evidence – information was drip-fed to carefully chosen media outlets. This doubled the coverage as half the media reported the evidence and the other half attacked them for being spoon-fed. Read the rest of this entry »
