âDisgraceful Journalismâ â The Main Stream Media v. The Blogosphere.
Unless you have a poorly canary, or some other obscure use for recycled dead trees â it is officially a waste of money relying on newspapers for factual and balanced reporting during this election period.
Following on from my article on Friday regarding local newspaper coverage of candidates standing for election on May 6th, I have been continuing my trawl round the local papers.
Eventually I arrived at the Sutton and Cheam Guardian which is part of the South London Guardian and Surry Comet group.
They had a two page spread in their paper edition, containing 8 potted biographies with photographs of the likely local candidates in Paul Burstowâs constituency.
As you might imagine since he has been the MP for the area since 1997, Paul Burstowâs biography appeared first.
The usual blub; a quote to establish his political views, a run down of his successes and failures as an MP, and an allusion to his hobbies including his ability to beget children with someone he was legally married to.
In general, the type of information you would expect from your local paper to help you to make an informed choice in the voting booth.
This was followed by a similar piece on the Green candidate, Peter Hickson; the BNP candidate John Clarke; and the Labour candidate Kathy Allen. All four had been asked to provide a biography detailing their education and general good works, and this had been padded out in some cases by information trawled from the newspaper library or Internet.
Next up was Martin Cullip, a candidate for the Libertarian Party. As a fellow member of the Libertarian party I was interested to learn of his views.
Martinâs âbiographyâ was unusual to say the least. It gave no personal details nor quoted any political beliefs, in fact it appeared to be positively frivolous.
Martin Cullip, Libertarian
Plays with Surrey Darts team and helps maintain their Toe the Oche website.
The website cites his hobbies as The Cranberries, AFC Wimbledon and ârunning across all eight lanes of the M25 at junction eight dressed only in a basque and a pair of Pretty Polly 15 denier stockingsâ.
Martin was not hard to track down, he is a well known local business man, and was listed in the phone book. It took me all of five minutes, from another country, and Iâm a non-fact checking, non-professional journalist. I called him.
Why, I asked, would you give such a frivolous interview to the local paper; your habit of running across the M.25 in 15 denier stockings is hardly likely to encourage your chances of being elected, why not take the opportunity to put forward your Libertarian beliefs?
Mr Cullip exploded. His wife, he told me, had been in tears all night. He said:
âI knew politics was dirty, but I wasnât expecting the local press to join in! My wife went from being immensely proud to almost in tears in a couple of hours. Iâm more thick-skinned, but not happy.â
The story he had to tell was quite riveting. He forwarded to me the e-mail which he had sent the Sutton and Cheam Guardian in response to their standard enquiry to all candidates for a biography. It read as follows:
Age: 42
Where I live: Gillian Park Road, Sutton
Job & Career History: I run a business in partnership with my family. It was started in 1995 by myself and my Father and now comprises four partners (the other two are my sisters). We employ 95 people and operate a fleet of 55 passenger transport vehicles, specialising in wheelchair accessible transport for children with special needs and vulnerable adults. Prior to setting up the business, I worked in a variety of local private businesses as a part-qualified accountant.
Hobbies: I enjoy recreational writing and have previously written regular monthly columns for a magazine for nearly a decade. I also love to cook. I watch cricket with my 9 year old son and am a fan of AFC Wimbledon, who I have supported since formation â I was previously a fan of Wimbledon FC since 1976. I have also been involved in administering local darts since the early 1990s. I was Chairman of the Surrey Darts Organisation until business commitments became too onerous to continue last summer.
Any other interesting facts: I have a black fluffy cat called Bisto.
Election before?: No
Campaign slogan: I havenât really got one, except the libertarian belief in individual liberty, personal responsibility, and freedom from government as long as one doesnât initiate force or fraud against the life, liberty, or property, of others.
Iâve attached a photo, itâs rather large but having written for magazines, I know you appreciate highish resolution pics. Hope thatâs OK.
I have a business and home land line but am always busy and out and about, so best number for contact is 07947-********* (Ed. number deleted by AR)
If youâd like anything else, of course Iâd be very happy to help so please donât hesitate to get in contact.
All the above information was totally ignored by Julia Kennard, the reporter who had contacted him âwith the notable, and damning, exception of the photograph.
You might think that the journalist had retreated into satire and sarcasm only when describing the candidates of the smaller parties, but straight after Martin Cullipâs entry was the one for Phillipa Stroud, Conservative, David Pickles UKIP, and Brian Hammond, Jury Team â and in each case Ms Kennard had returned to her previously fair and balanced mixture of information gleaned from the candidate and her own research.
So Martin Cullip is a sizeable local employer, in a highly specialised and laudable enterprise, happily married with children. Why would the local paper not want their readers to know that? And where did they get the extraordinary quote regarding the 15 denier stockings.
A little more digging and I discovered that the quote came from an obviously satirical piece written some eight years ago, and reproduced without permission from a copyrighted web site.
The owner of that web site was amongst the many people distressed by this attempt to ridicule a local business man who had paid his own deposit to stand in the election. The web site owner had complained to the newspaper editor:
I was bitterly disappointed yesterday to find that material from my web site has been used, in my view, to completely discredit an election candidate for the parliamentary seat for Sutton and Cheam.
At first I thought there may have been an honest mistake, as the article was on our web site listed as âAbout Meâ. I have been running the web site for a year now, and I had quite forgotten that it was still there. However, after re-reading the entire page it is absolutely clear to anyone over the age of ten that it is nothing more than tongue-in-cheek. This leads me on to believe that you have published material that is inaccurate and distorted which, in the run-up to a general election, is both shameful and a breach of the PCC Code of Practice.
Local newspapers across the country are having a hard time financially; many are in danger of folding altogether. Roy Greenslade has said that âtwo assumptions needed to be made: that journalism is good for society and democracy, and that newspapers are worth preservingâ
He has commented before on the way in which newspapers taunt Bloggers.
âNo army of bloggers, no TV or radio station, no non-profit journalism collective, no foundation-supported task force of political and government reporters will ever do the job so well.â
It is the common refrain of the newspaper industry â society needs them, they are the professionals and the systematic fact checkers, unlike the army of citizen Bloggers.
It seemed only fair to give Ms Kennardâs editor the chance to comment, I told him that I was writing an article on his coverage of the electoral candidates.
Mathew Knowles, Editor of the Surrey and Cheam Guardian, committed professional journalist and fact checker came out of his bunker and down the telephone line like a Panzer tank with the accelerator jammed on. Not at his best first thing on a Monday morning, obviously. Hopefully. Maybe that is his best. Sadly.
âAre you saying that what was printed wasnât trueâ?
âYes. I amâ. I went on to ask what he intended to do about it.
âAre you accusing me of having an agenda?â
I very pointedly said that far from accusing him of having an agenda, I hadnât so much as guessed at his possible motives, I was merely interested in what he intended to do to redress the balance.
Yes, you are youâre accusing me of having an agenda â âIt doesnât have to be in purdahâ quoth he.
âIn purdahâ, saith I? âI donât understand the sense in which you are saying purdahâ.
âYou know what Purdah meansâ. We donât have to do âbalanced reportingâ.
Beg pardon? You donât think you are under any obligation to show balance in your reporting? I was near speechless by now.
I asked the Local Newspaper Association:
Anna,
In response to your query this morning, statutory impartiality requirements apply only to broadcasters.
Best wishes, Paul
I turned to Roy Greenslade, the Ex-Editor of the Daily Mirror and current Professor of Journalism and Blogger extraordinaire at the Guardian.
Is this true? I asked him, that a newspaper is under no obligation to employ balanced reporting when describing parliamentary candidates during a General election â indeed it is, the Electoral Commission say there is no obligation on newspapers (as distinct from broadcasters) to be fair and balanced in their election coverage! However, Mr Greenslade also had this to say:
âItâs a disgraceful piece of journalism to lampoon a serious general election candidate on the basis of an unverified source. Once again, it underlines the dangers of reporters working online and then failing to check the truth of the content, especially when the website material is controversial.
âRather than defend the obvious slur on the candidate, the editor should be asking himself some searching questions about the quality of his reporting team, his own editing skills and, in fairness, whether he has adequate staffing. Editorial budget cuts have reduced the amount of time reporters can spend on stories, encouraging sloppy journalism.â
Quite so Mr Greenslade, and thank-you for replying so promptly â when you wrote that neither you nor I knew the end of this saga â for this afternoon the web site was updated, and Mr Cullip received the following e-mail from Ms Kennard, fact checker and professional journalist, a follow-up to her earlier e-mail where she had claimed that she did not receive Mr Cullipâs biography in time â a blatant lie, for she had used the photograph which was attached to it, and was not available from anywhere else, remember?
From: Julia Kennard [mailto:jkennard@london.newsquest.co.uk]
Sent: 19 April 2010 12:57
To: Martin Cullip
Subject: Re: WebsiteDear Martin,
Thank you for your email. Let me reassure you that this was a genuine mistake and does re-emphasise the danger of trusting web content. My group editor is aware of the situation and my deputy editor has already discussed this with the Libertarian Party and we will be running a correction and a piece on your real achievements in this weekâs paper.
Best wishes
Julia Kennard
Now that I have finished laughing at this admission that professional journalists rely on the blogosphere for their information â and my sides are still aching, I can continue writing.
Dear Ms Kennard, this doesnât re-emphasise the danger of trusting web content at all. It emphasises the danger of relying on your local newspaper for factual and informed news â if you want to read satirical nonsense written eight years ago, you can do so for free on the web. There you will see it in context and understand it for what was â a satirical piece.
Why spend money on âsloppy journalismâ? Now that we know that your paper defends itself on the basis that it does not âhave toâ employ balanced reporting â unless you have a canary cage that needs re-lining, I can think of no good reason to invest in a copy of the Sutton and Cheam Guardian.
My good wishes to Mr Cullip â I hope he does well in the election. He deserves to.
UPDATE: Oh Dear, oh dear, I do hope the reporter concerned wasnât this Julia Kennard –
http://www.facebook.com/julia.kennard
– supporter and cheer leader for Brian Hammond, the independant candidate standing for Sutton and Cheam under the Jury Team banner.
Tell me it isnât so? Whoops!
UPDATE TWO: Looks like the same person who claims to be a Sutton Guardian reporter to me. H/t OH.
http://twitter.com/JuliaKennard
April 29, 2010 at 16:06
-
This blog in my opinion is written by a journalist (thatâs you Anna) who
has far too much time on her hands. a completely one sided view and also is
encouraging a online bullying by posting the facebook profile! It is a very
serious matter called victimisation.
April 29, 2010 at 13:21
-
Fantastic Journalism Anna, makes up for the atrocious work you so
diligently set about correcting. The universe is back at peace.
April
23, 2010 at 19:25
-
And I thought American journalism was bad.
Almost embarrassed to admit I
went to J-School. (in advertising â donât shoot me.)
April 22, 2010 at 17:06
-
Anon:
âI have been running the web site for a year now, and I had quite forgotten
that it was still thereâ
If even the owner of the site had forgotten about it, is it any wonder?
Besides, who would truly believe that someone can be abhorrent enough to
purposely twist a satirical article to imply sexual deviancy?
April 22, 2010 at 12:03
-
Whether or not the journalist is right, shouldnât a person who is standing
as a parliamentary candidate be a little more careful about what is published
about them on the internet? As soon as you put yourself in the ring you can
expect greater public scrutiny and as such any skeletons in the closet (or
easily misinterpreted satrirical pieces on motorway running in tights) should
be swiftly hidden from view. Not great work from the paper maybe, but
carelessness from the candidate and betraying a lack of forethought and
knowledge of how to play the politics game.
April 22, 2010 at 10:18
-
And, error or not, the âcorrectionâ really should be a prominent grovelling
apology.
April 22, 2010 at 10:16
-
âSubbing errorâ? If, as Anna says, the M25 sentence comes from an obviously
non-serious article, itâs misrepresentation. What âgreat journalistâ could
possibly defend using such a thing in a serious election article?
April 22, 2010 at 08:48
-
It seems that you have taken a, albeit very unfortunate, subbing error and
turned it into some kind of loony conspiracy, naming and shaming a journalist
and trying to out her as some kind of monster.
I am a journalist, I know the local press and I know the pressure
sub-editing operations are under.
Matthew Knowles is a great journalist and I think you probably caught him
at a bad moment. The paper has said it will publish a correction so whatâs the
problem here?
Judging by the length and details of your blog post Anna, I would politely
suggest you have a bit too much freetime on her hands.
April 22, 2010 at 08:06
-
How ironic. I would have thought that the Libertarian position would be
that a newspaper is free to print what it wants.
April 22, 2010 at 00:01
-
Regardless of whether she is a fan of the Jury Party or not. The article
was written in such a way to riducle a candidate.
I hope the advertisers in the local area distance themselves from such a
rag. The journalist is a fault but the editor carries the can for the
publication.
Utterly disgracefull. If the Libertarian Party candidate was from a
minority he would be able to sue for all sorts of reasons. If he is just an
ordinary working man he will have to just make do.
April 21, 2010 at 23:28
-
You can join Martin Cullipâs Facebook page here. Donât forget to invite
lots of people.
April 21, 2010 at 19:29
-
Anna, I completely agree that this is shocking, and lazy and all those
things.
But in the interests of fairness (as posted over at OJB) Iâd like to say
that Julia Kennard is (probably) only a fan of Brian Hammond on Facebook
because she needed to leave him this message: (click Just Others on his page
and youâll see it)
Dear Brian,
Would you please contact me this morning regarding election
coverage. I need some more details urgently and am struggling to make contact
with you via telephone.
My number is 0208 330 9541
Julia Kennard, Sutton
Guardian newspaper.
That doesnât sound like someone whoâs a supporter or who knows him well,
does it?
And as he doesnât appear to have a Facebook profile, only a fan page â and
as if youâre not a fan, you canât leave a message on his wall â she couldnât
have left him that message without becoming a fan.
Iâm a journalist and Iâve âfannedâ people on Facebook that I donât agree
with at all specifically to leave them messages. So donât jump to conclusions.
It may be lazy and sloppy and inexcusable but I doubt it was maliciously
motivated.
April 20, 2010 at 20:06
-
Brilliant piece of real journalism. Well done for naming , shaming and
investigating, maybe some will learn⦠But I wonât hold my breath.
April 20, 2010 at 19:50
-
I am gobsmacked. And I marvel at your self control, Anna.
April 20, 2010 at 18:00
-
Just listened Radio 4â²s âbalancedâ report from Sutton & Cheam,
apparently only a Conservative and Liberal Democrat are standing in this seat
!
April 20, 2010 at 17:05
-
The same comment here as I put on Al Johomâs report of the story: The power
of the Media is very scary, able to reduce a candidate that they don
April 20, 2010 at 15:42
-
Truly outstanding piece of work, we are bound to see more of this sort of
junk in the next two weeks! â It should be broadcast nationally by the BBC
.
April 20, 2010 at 14:35
-
What Ms Kennard did defies belief, I am heartily glad that she has been
uncovered as a silly and unethical hack.
April 20, 2010 at 13:30
-
April 20, 2010 at 12:29
-
Good site, well done!
April 20, 2010 at 11:27
-
I take it someone has e-mailed Julia Kennard with this story? Perhaps sheâd
like to come clean.
April 20, 2010 at 10:55
-
If it is any comfort to Martin Cullip, heâs made 4Chan, which the resident
dude tells me makes him Cool-ish, and even they are annoyed, commenting:
recently the sutton gaurdian had this listed for their candidate taken
from some website, with nothing about the policies at all or any of the
information he gave them in an interview.
The bad news is that the original dismissive entry was syndicated across
the Newsquest papers, which has implications for LPUK as a search on Cullip
would not necessarily pull-up the corrected entry.
Newsquest is held by Gannet, a US operator. Cullip might consider taking
this up with Roger Green (ex-EMAP) who is Newsquestâs head of digital media,
to make sure that the corrected entry gets propagated across the Newsquest
Group.
http://www.newsquest.co.uk/people/
(Scroll down, Green is the last entry).
It is not so much about Cullip himself as the responsibility of a paper to
make sure it gets relevant information about a party out there, particularly
when it seems to have been affected by the personal agenda of the reporter. If
it wanted to run a silly old joke, it could have, but it ought to have
included the relevant material as well.
No wonder the editor was fretting. Heâs in line for a little talk with
Green about the mission statement of the NewsQuest group:
Newsquestâs objective is to have market-leading brands disseminating
local information in a number of different and simultaneous ways, which
reflect the views and aspirations of the communities they serve. Our
multi-media brands must be the authoritative source of information that
customers can trust; being willing to listen but not afraid to question.
Newsquest is market-led and technology-driven and with all its products â both
print and electronic â the companyâs aim is always to provide optimum
service to customers.
LPUK deserves the same as every other party; to be investigated and pulled
up when it is talking rubbish or behaving hypocritically. It doesnât deserve
to be ridiculed merely because the reporter is already bezzie mates with
another candidate.
April 20,
2010 at 10:51
-
I never read local papers now l have an extra reason not to. What a lowlife
bit of scummy work.
April 20, 2010 at 10:27
-
Juilaâs tweets have gone private too
But we have her email addressâ¦.
April 20, 2010 at 10:05
April 20, 2010 at 09:32
-
http://www.facebook.com/julia.kennard
âThe page you
requested was not found.â
Ho, the nutter is running scared, well done AR.
Writing as a journo
trained in the old school, said JK would have been on her bike in my day.
Its all part of Liebourâs âprizes for allâ ethos. Failure must be rewarded
and applauded.
April 20, 2010 at 09:25
-
Oh my! Perhaps her route through journalism will take her via Johnston
Press. She certainly has the qualifications. Then on, of course, to a nice
cushy spinning job with whoever else loves to tweet and tell the world about
herself but then protects her tweets.
Well done Anna and well done Iain Dale for giving this more Google
juice.
April 20, 2010 at 09:05
-
facebook link produced âpage not foundâ
April 20, 2010 at 07:56
-
April 20, 2010 at 07:04
-
AR says : âEventually I arrived at the Sutton and Cheam Guardian which is
part of the South London Guardian and Surry Comet group.â
So was that a typo for SurrEy, or sLurry ? I vote for slurry, based on
their quality of research.
Alan Douglas
April 20, 2010 at 06:56
-
XX Bill Sticker April 20, 2010 at 03:35
Good work. I occasionally wonder how some so called
April 20, 2010 at 06:54
-
âIâve been Raccooned. And it hurt!â
April 20, 2010 at 03:35
-
Good work. I occasionally wonder how some so called âreportersâ have the
nerve to cash their paychecks.
April 20, 2010 at 03:03
-
Well done Anna and my sympathies to the Cullips.
Isnât it a shame, that the other prospective candidates, didnât feel the
need to complain to the editor and demand fair treatment for Martin.
Martin and the Libertarians, can take comfort in the fact that they have
had such a worrying effect on the incumbent encumberence. Long may they do
so.
April 19,
2010 at 23:28
-
Anna, how lucky you were not to be dealing with a Scottish paper. Doubt if
youâd manage further than the switchboard. Super sleuthing.
April 19, 2010 at 23:11
-
Just wanted to add some congratulations on an excellent, and important,
piece of work. In the name of fairness this would have been important whatever
the political affiliations of the candidate you went out to bat for, but as a
classical liberal-inclined member of the Conservative Party I have particular
sympathy for this gentlemanâs plight, as doubtless like you Iâm only too aware
of the entrenched biases faced by those of our bent, whichever political party
we call home.
April 19, 2010 at 22:40
-
Interesting that the editor calls purdah. He is quite right that newspapers
donât have to show balance in their publications but purdah?
Purdah is what civil servants call this time. Essentially all political
activities cease (meant to cease but thatâs my bias). All that is meant to
happen is just the day-to-day running of the country, ticking over so to
speak, until the next government comes in.
Usually, at least in Westminster, it means they are mostly in the Wessie
Arms, the Chairmen, Red Lion or Sanctuary from around 4pm!
April 19, 2010 at 22:33
-
I would guess that she wrote that piece as a joke and that this, instead of
the right version, was accidentally sent for publication.
Rather than putting their hands up to this stupidity they tried to defend
an indefensible position and made matter much worse for themselves.
Both the editor and the journalist are now damaged goods.
April 19, 2010 at 22:03
-
Simon Gibbs: I can see your approach here, a libertarian ideal would be
that rules should not be necessary, but itâs clear from this example that harm
has been caused to the family entirely because of irresponsible reporting.
Perhaps there shouldnât be rules, but the reporter is still guilty of
causing harm. Iâm wondering if the kids will suffer too now they are back at
school after holidays.
Quite unforgiveable for the sake of a journoâs joke. If it were me, Iâd be
tempted to lodge a PCC complaint irrespective of any retraction. The genie
canât be put back into the bottle in this instance.
April 19, 2010 at 21:50
-
Can I assume that although the law is bizarre you would be in favour of
dropping the requirement on broadcasters, or would you extend it to
newspapers?
April 19, 2010 at 21:22
-
Please donât make the mistake of believing that Newspapers write stories
for the benefit of the readers or for the good of the country or to âtell the
truthâ they write stories to sell Newspapers and NOTHING else. I bet the
retraction is small and hidden away on some inside page.
April 19, 2010 at 21:15
-
the Electoral Commission say there is no obligation on newspapers (as
distinct from broadcasters)
The Scottish disease has spread to England, except in Scotland broadcasters
do not obey the distinction
April 19, 2010 at 21:14
-
Good work! I never read my local paper as itâs boring, badly written, and
appears to be entirely dependent on local government (police, councils) for
its news stories. This last of course means it never fulfils any journalistic
function worthy of the name.
Even more than the national press, local papers are just a vehicle for
advertising. Itâs no use expecting anything from them.
April
19, 2010 at 20:47
-
Good job Anna!
April 19, 2010 at 20:44
-
You donât really believe in anything that a journalist can get a grip of.
These people are not caring intellectuals , they have ajob, âfind out what
this bloke is about, and write it down so readers can
understandâ.
Libertarian is just good people hanging together with a bunch
of latterday commandments, appealing to that small percentage of a small
percentage that would bother to find out what it means.
Thankyou and have a
good day.
April 19, 2010 at 20:25
-
Gloria said a pterodactyl perhaps?
It was the Chinese who first observed
âIt is the correct naming of things that marks the beginning of wisdomâ so we
can safely assume that our glorious Gloria is wise.
Ha, bet you all knew
that already!
April 19, 2010 at 19:57
-
My local rag canât even copy n paste and use a spell checker proplyâ¦.
Gannet Group AKA Newsquest â absolutely awful bunch of either NOTW or Guardian
wannabees.
They havenât got the hang of the web either â mind you, I tend to keep
score with stories deleted versus indentities deleted and Iâm 3-nil up.
Absolute bunch of arseholes â I have to say when you rub their noses in
their own shit they wriggle a bit.
Mond you â the one that takes the biscuit is AlBeeb whose local station
policy is that a story canât be aired unless all parties mentioned explicitly
sanction it. Editorial guidlines I was told.
April 19, 2010 at 19:40
-
a pterodactyl perhaps, Ancient.
April 19, 2010 at 19:32
-
Only those with an IQ beginning with a decimal point can possibly think our
media to be impartial and even-handed. It is increasingly surreal to live in
this overcrowded and dumbed down âdiversity experimentâ in what was once our
own country. But then, Iâm clearly a malcontent, and dinosaur to boot.
April 19, 2010 at 19:16
-
Excellent work. Worthy of an award. (Nick Davies). Remember him? This type
of behaviour does not just exist in the media it occurs throughout âBritish
industryâ.
April 19, 2010 at 19:11
-
Itâs nice to see that itâs not just BBC âCatholicâ
stories that are entirely fabricated.
Well, actually, itâs not nice, but you know what I mean
April 19, 2010 at 19:05
-
Great article, Anna, and top work. Sounds like missy got caught having a
bit of fun at someone elseâs expense and doesnât want to admit it.
April 19, 2010 at 19:03
-
Everything that Iâve just read and have previously been led to believe,
instructs me to think that whilst newspapers can get away with one sided
political bias toward a candidate of beliefs system of their own personal
choosing, the official State broadcaster of the BBC must remain entirely
neutral at all times, in the run up to a General electionâ¦..<a href=” â>REALLY?
April 19, 2010 at 18:57
-
Wow, absolutely fantastic. Spot on too â the danger is in trusting local
rags who do seem to enjoy taking the piss.
April 19, 2010 at 18:45
-
Just to say that the writ will be coming. And kindly ask OH to desist
before he gets a writ aswell.
See you all in court.
April 19, 2010 at 18:28
-
An impressive dayâs work Ms Raccoon. Thank goodness youâre âa non-fact
checking, non-professional journalistâ.
April 19, 2010 at 18:18
-
This story reflects something very sad about modern Britain :
the standard of education, yes, but more than anything else her near moral
bankruptcy.
All this has been achieved in little more than my own lifetime.
My good wishes also to Mr. Cullip.
~
April 19, 2010 at 18:02
-
Yep. Definitely at the âthen they ridicule youâ stage.
April 19, 2010 at 17:53
-
It only confirms my belief that the media today are just corrupt and
incompetent a culture that has been fostered by the most corrupt and
incompetent government of recent times. From one example of course that is not
a conclusion that should be jumped at. However my observations of institutions
like the BBC amongst many others have also lead me to this belief.
I remember an article written about me some time ago by the Observer and as
it happened one was also written about me by a trade magazine. In the trade
magazine one would have wondered if I was waiting to be canonized by the
Vatican however the Observer painted me as being the son of Satin. Not quite
the same thing I know but an object lesson all the same.
April 19,
2010 at 17:53
-
Brava!
How do you always know just the right person to talk to, to get these sorts
of errors sorted?
April 19, 2010 at 17:49
-
Donât forget that employers tend to google the name when they look into
prospective candidates for a job. So Julia Kennard basically has a marked card
now so if she starts looking for a new job she better explain herself fully.
Either that or the editor who hires here is just as corrupt and lax about his
journalistic skills.
April 19, 2010 at 17:41
-
And you did all that in less than a day!
April 19,
2010 at 17:20
-
Outstanding!
{ 71 comments }