Tag Archives: Media

Media regulation: Carnegie recommends voluntary regulator

Carnegie UK have published Blair Jenkins’ report on Better Journalism in the Digital Age (report, summary pdfs). The report calls for a voluntary regulation regime, with strong incentives for joining, such as easier press accreditation or possibly labelling schemes. A … Continue reading

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Dueling Cults of Personality

This thoughtful piece is about the US Primary campaign, but it doesn’t take much to translate it to the British context: I seem to keep encountering folks who respond to new bits of news unfavorable to their guy by reflexively … Continue reading

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Media Regulation: Case for a Press Ombudsman

I resume this post on press regulation warily [the first part is here]. After all, no less an authority than the editor of the Daily Mirror informed Lord Leveson’s enquiry that bloggers are cowboys. Perhaps, instead of sharing ideas we … Continue reading

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Media regulation project: first meeting

Happy New Year to everyone. Just before the Christmas break, we kicked off our media regulation project with a discussion session in London. Kathryn Corrick, Kevin Anderson, Douglas White from Carnegie UK, and Anthony from Demsoc took part, and the … Continue reading

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Media regulation and democracy project

It may be almost Christmas but we’re still hard at work, and this week we’re kicking off a new project on media regulation and democracy, leading to an event in late February/early March. We’re working with the Carnegie UK Trust, … Continue reading

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Uncharted waters

I tweeted about this Robert Gates speech (as reported in the LA Times) earlier in the week, but it’s still worth a read. Gates (who was defence secretary under Bush then kept on by Obama) worries about the state of the US … Continue reading

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When is £14,000 more than £50m? When one's in a press release and one isn't

High-impact campaigning organisation the Taxpayers’ Alliance are in a right old tizz about EU flags. Yes, those bits of cloth with the blue and gold are an outrageous affront to the British taxpayer, costing £14,003 over five years – an outrageous £2,800.60 per year.

In case you are wondering, £2,800.60 per year is 0.00002% of the UK’s annual budget deficit.

But of course it’s the thought that counts, and in this case the thought is the usual mystical mishmash of Churchill complex, free market dogma and nationalism that could be called “Euroscepticism”, if sceptic weren’t a word that implied rationality and logic.

If the Taxpayers’ Alliance were really serious about European-level financial waste, they might look into the question of how much it costs the British Government to appease the Daily Mail by staying out of the Schengen agreement and maintaining our internal border with other EU countries. Continue reading

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Heffer on the EU: Nostradamus he ain't

It’s always enjoyable to come across a hysterical prophecy that has been disproved by the passage of time. How much more enjoyable it is when the author is as self-righteous and opinionated as Simon Heffer. The prophecy in question comes … Continue reading

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The Talk Issues Thinktank Roundup

Welcome to this week’s Talk Issues ‘Thinktank Roundup’ – your one-stop review of all the best publications, research, commentary and events from leading UK think tanks. Not surprisingly in the week of the Queen’s speech various thinktanks responds to their … Continue reading

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It's a very different election in Scotland

David Cameron didn’t win last night’s final TV debate for Scottish viewers. In fact if Nick Clegg had announced a new compulsory programme of bestiality in primary schools and Gordon Brown had broken down in tears and lay in the … Continue reading

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