My favourite website of the moment remembers a long forgotten media age and celebrates the memory of a breed of journalism that seems to have vanished. The website is thegentlemenranters.com and it features splendid stories and reminiscences about such legends as the late Peter Batt and Leo Clancy, both of whom died recently.
At long last the question of how much of our daily news originates from PR pixies is to be answered. A new website, churnalism.com, has been launched and its mission is to expose the extent to which articles have been lifted from press releases. I welcome the site – it’s not something good publicists should…
We are living in a karaoke media culture – everything we see is a pale, recycled copy of something that’s gone before and, worse still, this sincere flattery of icons and iconography past is being actively encouraged. Miley Cyrus is heading off down the well-trodden path of over-sexualised image that has been presented 1000 times…
I took part in a debate at the University of Westminster last night alongside that wily old fox Max Clifford (the second time I’ve shared a stage with him – it always makes for an interesting experience) and others, discussing Celebrity Brands: Desire, Dollars and Danger? It was a rather curious and disappointing night; most…
Put any misgivings about Jade Goody’s Barnumesque three-ring Circus sideshow to one side for moment. Instead, focus on the silver fox who has been the undisputed ringmaster of recent events in her life; Max Clifford. He may not be attired in a garish ring suit, but Max Clifford is clearly visible as the man, centre…
His darkest night: a divorce in Hollywood He is one of cinema’s most bankable and best-loved actors. Morgan Freeman also kept his private life away from public scrutiny – until a midnight car crash By Guy Adams Friday, 8 August 2008 There is, of course, one final thesis as to why major Hollywood stars might…
I received my old friend Julia Hobsbawn’s Editorial Intelligence report called The Power of The Commentariat. It features research which involved a self selecting small group of individuals from business, media, politics, public life, academia and a group set up by Editorial Intelligence on Facebook called Keep Up With The Commentariat to say who they…
For all the control that Hollywood publicists try to exercise over the press, they pour disdain on the supermarket titles like Weekly World News and The National Enquirer. But when one of these rags breaks a story, there is very little they can do to stop the chaos. Witness the acres of press surrounding Patrick…
Never mind Nick Davies’s suggestion that overworked ‘churnalists’ are being hoodwinked by PRs, Mark Borkowski says flaks and hacks are both struggling to cope with the news cycle. So the media world is flipping over and over like a gigantic overdone pancake because of the ethical fix caused by publication of Nick Davies’ book Flat…
This is from CMU Daily, a daily email round-up and one of my favourite sources of info – this nib exposes PR at its worst with journalism as it should be… great stuff PLAY.COM ENTER THE DOWNLOAD MARKET Etailer Play.com yesterday announced it was launching a new UK download platform that will make music available…