Media
Getting the sack was a shock but not a surprise
It was a shock but not really a surprise. I came back from holiday at the beginning of August to…
Fury and excitement – how the journalists at the New York Times have coped with Trump
Back when his country was controlled by the USSR, the Czech writer Milan Kundera pointed out that ‘Union of Soviet…
50 years after Bobby Kennedy’s murder, the ‘deep state’ still reigns supreme
New York This week 50 years ago saw the assassination of Robert Kennedy, a man I met a couple…
Bacteria
It’s like whipping cream. All of a sudden it goes stiff and you can turn the bowl upside down without…
Media culpa
A thread runs through several of the stories that have defined this turbulent summer: reporters have been shocked by the…
Why won’t the media call a cock a cock?
On the Radio 4 news at 11 o’clock last Saturday morning there was a joky report about roosters in Brisbane. The…
Too grand for the Queen Mother: my strange life at Country Life
The remarkable life and times of Country Life
Virtual reality news is coming - and the implications are ominous
John Humphrys staggering around in a piece of ‘virtual reality’ headgear that looked like binoculars and made him feel sick…
Hold on, should we actors really be speaking for trans people?
Should actors be speaking for trans people?
Chris Mullin’s diary: Murdoch’s men couldn’t face even a fictional Corbyn victory
With four days to go until the result of Labour’s leadership election, a call from the Sunday Times. Would I…
‘Free bleeding’ and the stupidly clever feminists who fell for it
Did you know that tampons were just another brutal expression of the oppressive patriarchy? I must confess that I didn’t…
I remember Nikkei’s journalistic values – and I’m not sure they’re much like the FT’s
It’s nearly 30 years since I worked in Japan, but I still have a few words of the language and…
Ipso: a great new way for bullies to muzzle the press
One of the fundamental principles of English common law is that you are innocent until proven guilty. And rightly so,…
Matt Ridley’s diary: Why a Guardian contributor wants me beheaded
Martin Williams, former head of the government’s air quality science unit, has declared that the reason we have a problem…
How the other half of the press parties – a war correspondent’s letter from Washington
This week has been all about the election, the US presidential election that is. It is 18 months away but…
Russell Brand’s heart is in the right place – but it’s not the place he talks out of
I write at a difficult time. The balls are in the air, but we know not where they will land.…
The Tories have survived a near-death experience. But they’re not home yet
At 5.45 a.m. Lynton Crosby holds the first meeting of the day at Conservative campaign HQ. The aim is to…
Miriam Gross’s diary: Why use Freud and Kurt Weill to promote Wagner?
Last week I went to the exhilarating English National Opera production of Wagner’s The Mastersingers — five hours of wonderful…
Is the Dorchester the designated grand hotel for fat people? The portions at its new grill say so
The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, is a cake floating in space. All grand hotels create a parallel universe in which…
How long is it since anniversaries stopped being measured in years?
‘You must promise to be with us for our silver wedding D.V. which will be in four years,’ wrote Queen…
‘Robust’, busted
‘Heart of Oak are our ships, Jolly Tars are our men,’ shouted my husband unconvincingly. He has taken to doing…
How Alex Brooker made political interviews interesting again
The other night on Channel 4, I watched the best political interview I’ve seen all year. It was with Nick…
Stig Abell’s diary: My days in court with the Sun
Soon after I joined the Sun as managing editor (among other things, I used to review novels for The Spectator),…
The perils of being a posh boy on the telly
There’s nothing like getting your face on the telly to turn you into a narcissist overnight
Forget corporate social responsibility: just do a proper job
A theme of this autumn has been conversations about corporate reputation and how it is guarded or lost. To name…
