I wouldn’t expect the Economist to agree with what Dutch anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders says; but I think I’d expect it to defend to the death his right to say it. Continue reading →

AOL will hire hundreds of journalists, editors and videographers in the coming year as it builds out its content-first business model, says media division president David Eun.

Job lots
The company will be “the largest net hirer of journalists in the world next year,” Eun said.

It’s been revealed that Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws used taxpayers’ money to pay more than £40,000 in rent to his long-term partner.

New politics

The most predictable thing about this was that he would justify his actions by quoting the rules, and explaining in forensic detail the subtle ways in which he did not break them.

Above the Laws
This is almost a conditioned reflex amongst the nomenklatura. It betrays a total lack of interest in what is right and a belief that there is always a way out via the fine print.

But, as I said, it’s predictable. After all, you can’t blame a dog for barking.

Against the Laws
What is astonishing, however, is the following paragraph in the Daily Telegraph’s story:

The more Laws, the less justice
But the whole story hinges on the fact that Laws was paying rent to a landlord who was also his long-standing lover.

Laws wasn’t exposed in the original expenses scandal because he didn’t tell the truth about this.

So how do you do the story without mentioning it?

And why should he get a pass?

Equal before the Laws
Would the Telegraph have been so ludicrously fastidious had Laws been paying rent to his female lover?

(That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. There are no prizes. Read the terms and conditions carefully, though, and…well, you never know…)

As yet more rats leap into the sack…

Sorry…sorry…

I meant to say, as yet more MPs enter the Labour Party leadsdship contest, this piece in the Guardian shows how important it is to get a decent education to succeed in politics today.

The brothers grim
The piece reports, inter alia,  on the Ed Balls campaign launch, commenting on the similarity between Balls and the other candidates, the Milliband brothers: PPEs at Oxford, jobs in the Labour apparat, then a parachute drop into a safe seat.

When I were a lad…
In response, Ed  “Man of the People” Balls says that he “was born in Norwich, grew up just down the road in Nottingham”.

Fee by gum
He might have added that he went to a fee-paying school, Nottingham High School. (I expect he forgot.)

Well schooled
So, if he wins, it will mean nearly all of the Westminster parties will have leaders who went to fee-paying schools: Balls, Cameron, Clegg and Lucas.

Well, it’s equality of a sort, I suppose.

Here be dragons
An aside: the Guardian says:

Basildon isn’t in the Midlands.

Unless you live in N4.

This week’s Media Show featured a fascinating discussion between Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and Sunday Times editor John Witherow on whether readers will pay for online content.

Will they, won’t they?
Rusbridger thinks they won’t; Witherow is gambling that they will. But both admitted they were sailing in uncharted waters.

Rusbridger was candid enough to say that if the paywalls worked, then the Guardian would have to rethink its view.

Fee at the point of need
And he also made a telling point about the proposed charges: the subscription fees, though trivial to UK readers, could be prohibitive to readers in poor countries – which would undermine the global reach of the UK media.

Someday my print won’t come
It wasn’t long, of course, before someone asked the obvious question: why not just dump print and all its associated costs – production, distribution, and disposal? Wouldn’t that be the best way to save money?

Well … er … yes. Both editors said that their current printing presses would be the last ones they’d buy. And both admitted that they could be redundant in a very short time – ten years or fewer.

CSM goes weekly
There’s a model out there: the  Christian Science Monitor, an internet pioneer among newspapers, printed its last daily edition on on March 27, 2009 after announcing losses of $18.9 million per year. The CSM now runs its news operation on the web, and prints once a week.

Could be the shape of things to come? Listen to the show and see what you think.

The Guardian has decided to endorse the Liberal Democrats in next week’s general election.

As the editorial put it, with typical Guardian humility: General election 2010: The liberal moment has come.

Er…no…hang on a minute
Except, of course, in constituencies where the Tories might win, where it is backing Labour.

Rattus rats ‘r’ us

It’s like a rat that thinks it really ought to get off the ship, but is afraid it will look stupid and cowardly if the ship manages not to sink.

My advice: jump. It’s going down.

This is a helpful and informative post from Joss Winn on the excellent work from Nick Jackson on developing a Univerity of Lincoln tool for shortening URLs – a great help for staff and students.

Also, it’s a first-class example of collaboration between CERD, the Library, and two students (Nick Jackson and Daniel Ionescu) from different disciplines.

Isn’t this just the kind of joint project we need more of?