journalism

Joyce, the General Slocum and the novel as journalism…

Mick Fealty on June 20, 2010, 11:19 am

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At the heel of the V]Bloomsday celebrations, here’s a great piece from Frank McNally in the Irishman’s Diary yesterday where he ties in the recent death of a German American woman with an Irish name to an obscure pub conversation in Ulysses: …the defining event of her extraordinarily long life was the work of a few fraught minutes on the morning of June 15th, 1904, when she was only 11. Then, along with her mother, brother, sister, and at least 1,300 …

Does ‘FOI’ privilege the contingency of ‘now’ over a ‘complete record’ in the future?

Mick Fealty on June 2, 2010, 11:45 am

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There is a fascinating exchange (transcript below) on the BBC Radio 4 PM programme last night between the historian Anthony Beevor, and Open Democracy’s Anthony Barnett. It arose out Beevor’s rather feisty remarks at the Hay Festival in which he noted: …with journalists wanting to write history on the hoof there is a tremendous pressure on people wanting to protect themselves and their reputations for the future; and they are weeding out information before it gets to the archive, or …

The Irish News and operating profitably on the net…

Mick Fealty on May 28, 2010, 1:02 pm

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Roy Greenslade has an interesting piece on the Irish News’ firewall. Not least the money figures: If you click on the Irish News website up comes a page demanding that you pay for access to a digital edition. There is a choice: £5 for one week’s editions, £15 for a month’s and £150 for a year’s. The result? According to journalism.co.uk, since its launch in December 2009, the News’s site has secured just 1,215 paid subscriptions: 525 weekly, 370 monthly …

Murdochgate: Time to stop feeding a desparate and overbearing ferryman..?

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2009, 12:55 pm

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The #Murdochgate affair trundles on with big guns coming out on both sides. On Sunday Tim Montgomery one of the most respected figures (on all sides) of the British blogosphere came out with not so much a defence of Mr Coulson (no one who looks closely at his alleged role in a NOTW fishing expeditions can do that) as a spirited attack on the Guardian. Meanwhile Nick Davies at the Committee for Culture, Media and Sport yesterday, has named the …

Murdochgate: A scandal that’s only just beginning…

Mick Fealty on July 10, 2009, 5:01 pm

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If you were watching closely enough yesterday you’ll have noticed that there was a buzz all around Westminster and associated media ports over the revelation that two of Rupert Murdoch’s papers have been conducting regular fishing trips against public figures (some political, some not), and that they had settled with three ‘victims’ for £1 million (or ’shut-the-f*ck-up’ payments as Rick puts in this excellent piece on where all of this is really heading). That’s a public interest story, if ever …

Hacking row widens as Yates of the Yard investigates.

Brian Walker on July 9, 2009, 4:16 pm

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The very idea of a gagging out of court settlement in the News of the World hacking case is highly dubious in this age of trumpeted accountability. That a media group should seek such a settlement is typical hypocrisy of a high order. That a court should grant it and that the police and the CPS should take no further action when, as it appears, they knew most of the Guardian’s facts boggles the mind. Without the Guardian’s scoop who …

On the importance of melancholy [in political journalism]…

Mick Fealty on April 5, 2007, 7:37 pm

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“Cheeky” Piers Morgan’s acerbic interviewing style misses only one of the qualities recommended by Ken Tynan (and lauded in the leader page of the Guardian on Monday). It was light, certainly. Stinging yes. Insolent, without a doubt. But the part he left out of his interrogation of that paper’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, was melancholy. I have to admit that when I first read Tynan’s recipe for good review writing (in Monday’s leader, as it happens), it was that word which …

Blogging the riots…

Mick Fealty on February 26, 2006, 1:50 am

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The eye witness accounts have been stunning from Back Seat Drivers and Dossing Times, along with DT’s great capture of the scene ripped from the City Council’s traffic cameras. Take a bow lads! Strong shot from Flickr of a Guard apparently about to be hit with a brick – with, bizarrely, a Villa fan in foregrond). More from Celtic Freedom; Chris Logan thinks RSF are a disgrace. Dublin Met Blogs has loads of stuff. Kevin was on the ground too. …

Suspension; eye witness

Mick Fealty on October 15, 2002, 11:28 am

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In the subscription only Irish News Newton Emerson, editor of the satirical website Portadown News was in Stormont on the last day of business. One thing that consistently erks the reasonable middle ground parties is the way that most commentators rarely talk to them: “The Women’s Coalition are first to brave the spotlight. Cruelly, several reporters take this opportunity to make final adjustments to their cameras and microphones. There are no questions. As they leave, the DUP arrives and the …