Little green men

Channel 4 News chose a UFO nut to discuss the recent discovery of a planet with suitable conditions for life, rather than an actual, y'know, astronomer.

(Again, via Bad Science forums.)

Dumbing down

The BBC misrepresents scientific paper in order to produce lightweight frothy story about beer.

(via Bad Science forums.)

Yes but is it news?

#2 - The makers of Monopoly are planning a new edition that replaces the traditional London streets with places from around the country, John Humphreys informed Today programme listeners.

Wonderful idea, I'm sure it'll sell well at Christmas. But is it news? Erm, no.

Cui bono?

Kevin Marsh has been a bit of a waste of space at the BBC College of Journalism in general, but this is a pretty good explanation of the various facets of political leaking, for a lay audience.

Filler copy

You can tell it's a slow news day when the imbecilic filler copy starts to appear, in the form of 'news features', otherwise known as 'knock it out in five minutes then go for your tea break'.

Here's a great example:
'Why do people hate pigeons so much?' ponders the BBC News website.

"... for years pigeons were viewed as a huge asset to man, with lives depending on them during the wars. In ancient times they were revered as companions and they were extensively studied by Charles Darwin for his theory of evolution. In both world wars they were used to carry vital communications and have been credited with saving thousands of lives and honoured by the military."

All it's lacking is a Private Eye-esque 'Ed - will this do?' at the end.

Will someone buy the Times subs' desk a copy of 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves'?

Headline in the Sunday Times Review section, on an interview with some new equality quango bigwig - 'Time for a Dad's Revolution'.

Ah, the misuse of apostrophes - the English disease ...

Asinine interview questions

#1 - Justin Webb, Radio 4, to one of the survivors of the Virginia Tech shootings:

'Obviously this is a great shock, you're all in shock, and yet, can you really be surprised?'

Well Justin, yes, it IS quite unusual for a gunman to shoot 32 of your fellow students while you're puzzling over your engineering homework, actually. Even in America.

Is it news?

#1 - Throughout this week the Today programme is featuring the shortlisted candidates in Radio 4's national short story competition. Setting aside the clear cross-branding going on, one asks, 'Is this news?'
And the answer is quite clearly, 'No'.

how chequebook journalism works

Lesson 1.

What's a meta-analysis, mummy?

Yet more responsible science journalism from The Daily Mail.


(and here's what's wrong with it.)

'Mother - fighter - PAWN!!!!'

The dogs! Iran are cynically using our own homegrown British mothers to humiliate the British nation! The very homegrown mothers we sent there - shame on us! Shame on them! It's an orgy of shame! Mothers!! Holy, sanctified!!!

(Daily Mail journalism, Rule #1 - Mothers are saintly. Unless they're those traitorous types who insist on working of course).

Hands up if you hate maths

Someone at the Express didn't pay attention in science class.

Ethical Man

Newsnight's Justin Rowlatt agreed to live as ethical a lifestyle as possible for a whole year.
Why? You might well ask.
Apparently the aim was to deliver revelations to viewers about the importance of green issues. Stop me if I'm pushing the margin here, but I think that most people are aware that humans are maxing out their environmental credit card.

Now the year-long experiment has ended - how much of taxpayers' money has it cost, BBC? - so does Justin think the project has done the job it set out to do? Or is it just a vacuous stunt? What could Justin's time have been better spent on?

Newsnight has just lost the equivalent of 2 full-time reporters because of the BBC news cuts. If I was Peter Barron, I'd suspect the governors and senior management had been watching Justin's slots.

A new blog

Shiny and pristine - if only the same could be said of our news media.

This blog aims to critique the UK's news media. From Ethical Man to health prophets, this is about journalists who should know better.

If anyone has evidence of unsatisfactory journalistic practices, email campaignforrealnews at hotmail.co.uk.

And yes, before you whine, I DO understand just how hard it is to operate as a journalist. I am one.