Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe S1E3P3 – Includes a short film by Adam Curtis about the rise of ‘Ohdearism’.

Rupert Murdoch at News Corporation’s headquarters, in Manhattan, July 18, 2008. Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

Michael Wolff in Vanity Fair, Tuesdays with Rupert:

“For nine months, I’ve been interviewing Rupert Murdoch, in an unlikely spirit of openness precipitated by his great satisfaction in having bought The Wall Street Journal, about journalism, his business, politics, his family, and the future for a new biography. I was warned about his charm by many other journalists—warned not to fall victim to it. So the surprise was his lack of it. He’s without introspection and self-analysis and doesn’t like to talk about the past. What’s more, he mumbles terribly (and with a heavy Aussie accent) and seldom finishes a sentence. For the first three months of our interviews, he never addressed a word to or even looked at my research assistant, Leela de Kretser, who was at each of the sessions, and ignored her questions—perhaps because it’s not necessary to acknowledge a girl, or possibly because it was embarrassing for him that she was, at the time, a pregnant girl. (She had the baby. He eventually warmed up.)

But his odd lack of seductiveness or felicitousness—contributing to his aura of villainy—became after a while alluring in itself. There’s no spin, because he really can’t explain himself. Rather, what you see is what you get. He’s transparent. The nature of the beast is entirely evident.”

“Killthecliche.com tracks journalistic clichés found in major newspapers and calls out the worst offenders.”

Via FP Passport. Zie ook DMWH’s Media Mammon.

“Instead, what stories like this really do is to damage the reputation of sex. Whenever there’s a sex scandal, I feel sorry for sex. I felt sorry for sex during the Larry Craig brouhaha last summer. What if he liked being married and procreating and giving anonymous head? What if that was his sexual preference? What if he really was not gay, as he claims, but had sexual desires that seemed incoherent? Some of the response to Craig was like the response to moralists like Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard and now Spitzer–moralists deserve to suffer the same force of negative judgment they wielded on others. Shame on us? Shame on you, ha ha! But lots of the response was sheer homophobia. And all of it was sheer erotophobia.”

“This ain’t Aruba, bitch.” – Bunk (The Wire: Unconfirmed Reports.)

Entertainment Weekly, ”The Wire”: Bright Lies, Big City:

“Last night’s epigraph – ”This ain’t Aruba, bitch” – was delivered by a slurring Bunk at the bar. All those black bodies found in the rowhouses aren’t enough to warrant a continued investigation, and Bunk, McNulty, and Lester tried to drink away their disgust. Perhaps if those bodies had been white; better yet, if just one of those bodies had belonged to a white teenage cheerleader who had gone missing on an island spring break. Now that would warrant front-page news despite being a cold case for months now.”

(Zie ook: Missing white woman syndrome.)

“Apology of the Year
Sunday Times (UK):

An article about Lord Lambton (“Lord Louche, sex king of Chiantishire”, News Review, January 7) falsely stated that his son Ned (now Lord Durham) and daughter Catherine held a party at Lord Lambton’s villa, Cetinale, in 1997, which degenerated into such an orgy that Lord Lambton banned them from Cetinale for years. In fact, Lord Durham does not have a sister called Catherine (that is the name of his former wife), there has not been any orgiastic party of any kind and Lord Lambton did not ban him (or Catherine) from Cetinale at all. We apologise sincerely to Lord Durham for the hurt and embarrassment caused.”

“Als je vroeger van dat soort dingen op de hoogte wilde blijven, moest je eerst naar een enigszins obscuur winkeltje waar ze behalve De Telegraaf en Marsrepen ook geïllustreerde roddelbladen te koop hadden. Om op de terugweg toch weer fatsoenlijk over straat te kunnen vouwde je die dan in een NRC Handelsblad.
Tegenwoordig moet je goed opletten of NRC Handelsblad het nieuws niet toevallig zélf op z’n voorpagina heeft.
Dat is het interessante aan deze tijd. Wat tien of twintig jaar geleden in sociaal-cultureel opzicht nog gescheiden circuits waren, vloeit steeds meer in elkaar over. Je leest ook steeds vaker dat de onderwereld in de bovenwereld binnendringt. Op een dag is de hele samenleving waarschijnlijk witgewassen.”

“De Volkskrant drukt blijkbaar onbeschroomd artikelen af van mensen van wie de krant vermoedt dat ze mogelijk niet goed snik zijn. Iemand die “niet toerekeningsvatbaar” is, wordt in de Nederlandse rechtszaal vaak beschermd tegen zichzelf: bijvoorbeeld door hem of haar niet naar de gevangenis te sturen maar naar een psychiatrische inrichting. Dit mes snijdt dan aan twee kanten. Ook de samenleving wordt zo beschermd. Bij De Volkskrant heeft de hoofdredactie er desondanks geen moeite mee een podium te bieden aan iemand die volgens het blad zelf wellicht niet helemaal bij zinnen is.”

Achtergronden bij het artikel: What’s happened to innovation at the BBC?