So trainee Aslam has been shown the door. You may remember Aslam from my post here. It’s probably not worth dwelling on for long since it has already been picked up, rolled over, and munched here, here, and here. But I would still like to emphasize the Guardian’s stupidity in its reporting of its own story.

Announcing the departure of Aslam under the headline Aslam Targeted by Bloggers an anonymous staff writer writes:

Rightwing bloggers from the US, where the Guardian has a large online following, were behind the targeting last week of a trainee Guardian journalist who wrote a comment piece which they did not care for about the London bombings.

The story is a demonstration of the way the ‘blogosphere’ can be used to mount obsessively personalised attacks at high speed.

Number 1. That article was offensive to bloggers from the left, the right, the center, and the moon.
Number 2. What’s all this about a large online following in the US? Is that a plug for the paper in the intro? I fail to see the relevance.
Number 3. “A comment piece which they did not care for about the London bombings.”—That’s a great way to describe an insensitive article written a few days after a terrorist attack by a supporter of a radical Islamic group.
4. The blogosphere is not “used to mount obsessively personalised attacks at high speed”. That implies some kind of guiding force and is about as absurd as saying the media is used to mount obsessively personal attacks. The blogosphere is a collection of individuals writing about whatever they see fit. If they honed in on Aslam it was for a reason. And if it was not a good reason then why has the Guardian let him go?
5. What would have happened if this article had been published before the blogosphere had found its feet? Would it be better if we all wrote letters to the editor?

The article was hopelessly wide of the mark on its assessment of the blogosphere with its foolish reference to bloggers who spend time indoors posting repeated attacks on the Guardian—as though their location has anything to do with it. My god, these guys work from home!

But it was also surprisingly poorly written with weak or clumsy turns of phrase like “trainee Guardian journalist who wrote a comment piece which they did not care for about the London bombings”, or “The episode was a striking illustration of the way that blogs and bloggers can heat up the temperature and seek to settle scores”, which made me wonder which other trainee journalist they had assigned to write this piece? And why didn’t they get a proper reporter to write a more intelligent account of the whole affair? It looks to me like they are fighting fire with lighter fluid.

PS Also interesting to note how the Independent on Sunday is claiming it was first to reveal a story that was broken in the blogosphere. Excellent. Well done chaps. Exclusive to a newspaper near you…

Warrington Wolves 22 46 Leeds Rhinos

Last week I said that playing at Warrington, Leeds would have to really concentrate for the full 80 minutes. Well that is what they did at last. Warrington were third in the league and had not been defeated at home for three months. The Rhinos were clearly ready for the test and put on a marvellous display, probably their best of the season. They ran at the Wolves in defence and in attack they flung the ball wide, forcing the Wolves to run across the field and waste energy.

Every player was on top form but outstanding was Rob Burrow. It is hard to realise that he is only 22 as he has been playing for the first team since he was 17, but he is now showing real maturity. Yet he has probably another two or three years in which to add experience and perhaps a little more weight. If this happens then it is frightening to think what he can achieve. Not only did he continually change the direction of attack, tackle well and score one of the tries of the match but he also kicked 7 goals, some from the touch-line. Read More→

Feast your eyes! Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!

Last night we went to see the 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera (starring Lon Chaney) on a big screen in the park near here. It was absolutely fantastic.

A live orchestra played the soundtrack. But the highlight came when the phantom made his first big appearance, putting a curse on the theater production and bringing down a huge chandelier on the audience. About the same time as the lights in the opera house started dimming and the music rose, one of the projectors in the park caught fire and the film cut out!

The remainder of the film was shown using one projector which meant that each time the reel ended we had to wait for the next one to be added and restarted. Apparently just how the audience in 1925 would have watched the film.

Orwell dragged me to see this the other week. One of the funniest sketches I have ever seen. (It takes a while to load but I promise it is worth it.)

My introduction to vox pops was in the winter of 2000, when I was sent onto the streets of Bradford by the local paper, the Telegraph and Argus. Bill Bryson was returning to the town for the first time since five years previously when he had come to the amusing conclusion that:

Bradford’s role in life is to make every place else in the world look better by comparison

My mission that cold, wet, November day was to find (and photograph) ten people who disagreed with Bill. It was no easy task. In fact, wandering Bradford’s desolate city center I began to wonder whether it was mission impossible. Quite a few people agreed with Bill. Some even said they were thinking of moving down the road to Leeds. Needless to say, only the quotes of people who disagreed made it into the paper.

I mention this because I had an idea last week that perhaps a lot of voices were not making it into the media. Since I—like three of the bombers—come from Leeds and since I also spent a good deal of time living in London, I wondered what people I knew were thinking and whether they would like to contribute those thoughts to this blog. Some of them did… Read More→