“A weak, feeble, gutless, pathetic, spineless, leaderless, lazy, stupid, pointless institution who, by their inactivity, are doing huge damage to British broadcasting, and to any remaining unity and harmony in this country.”

Michael Crick (ex Newsnight/Channel 4) gives both barrels to Ofcom as pressure grows on the regulator to sharpen its teeth & bring GB News into line.

READ MORE

Good morning, it’s Monday 2nd October.

The week ahead…

Conservative Party Conference:

Chancellor (Mon), Home Secretary (Tues), PM (Wed) 

Nobel Prizes: Physics (Tues), Literature (Thurs) Peace (Fri) 

Monday: NHS junior doctors and consultants begin three-day joint strike

Wednesday: Wednesday: Google launches new Pixel phone

Thursday: Rutherglen and Hamilton-West by-election 

Cricket World Cup begins

Saturday: 15 years ago: RBS collapsed

The Today programme launches a weekly podcast. (What took them so long?) 

BBC blurb says hosts Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson will “give their take on the biggest stories and a behind-the-scenes insight into how the programme is made.”

Can a saturated market stomach yet another podcast hosted by two media-establishment-men of a certain age?

As Times Radio’s Aasmah Mir points out:

“If you’re starting a news/politics podcast and hiring all male hosts in 2023, have a wee word with yourself.” 

The Today podcast launches on Thursday.

READ MORE

In a similar vein, following last week’s Murdoch coverage in the Briefing, a reader emailed to ask…

“Were you aware that all your Rupert Murdoch quotes were white men of a certain age and genre (media/politicos)? Was that the point?”

I wish I could say it was the point. (And I suppose in a way it is). But ultimately it was a poorly chosen set of quotes. Thanks for pulling us up on it.

Another reader writes:

“I listened with interest to the PMs interview on HS2 and it sounded like he had taken his media training a bit too far. Did a press officer really say “if she asks about trains, and levelling up, just keeping bringing it back to potholes”.

It certainly sounds it.

LISTEN HERE 

We’ll return to Sunak’s interviewing style next month.

On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

S is for Slick:

Don’t be – even if your presenter is a bit of a smoothie. Under pressure, we can sometimes adopt the characteristics of the person with whom we’re trying to engage. It’s that chameleon quality that can lead us into trouble. Let’s face it, smoothness is often part of a veneer that can easily segue into phoney. Instead allow the natural bumps of your character to show. A deliberateness if you tend to ponder – an excitement if you’re prone to enthusiasm. Audiences warm to the real. That’s especially important with your language. Remember report speak can sound mellifluous but it’s often a bit of a switch off – and can mean very little.

And Wolf Blitzer and CNN win big at the News and Documentary Emmys…

READ MORE

Footnotes:

Neil Kinnock became the new leader of the Labour party, with Roy Hattersley joining him as deputy on this day in 1983.

Highs of degrees in 17 today in Brighton and 21 in the Hague.

And lovely timing from Mail Online, not that they’ll care that much I suspect…

Finally the obligatory dog-pic photo….

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge

Good morning, it’s Monday 25th September.

The week ahead…

Monday: UCU university staff begin five-day strike action.

Tuesday: The International Energy Agency’s updated roadmap on Net Zero emissions is published. 

Ed Davey addresses Lib Dems conference.

Wednesday: The parents of a six-month-old girl take their battle to extend her life to the High Court. 

Second Republican primary debate.

Thursday: First US House committee hearing in Biden impeachment inquiry.

Friday: Ryder Cup begins.

Saturday: ASLEF train drivers strike.  

“For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles.”

Rupert Murdoch, announcing he is stepping down as chairman of News Corp.

“Murdoch dragged journalism and politics into the gutter where truth and basic journalistic standards were rendered irrelevant. He debased the quality of political discourse in this country.”

John McDonnell

“Rupert Murdoch is the most talented and influential world business figure Australia has produced.”

John Howard

“There was a fairly strong maxim of government which was ‘don’t upset Rupert’. Upsetting Rupert was definitely a no-go area.” 

Lord Mandelson

“Rupert Murdoch has been a bold, brilliant, visionary leader whose audacity & tenacity built a magnificently successful global media empire.”

Piers Morgan

“Rupert Murdoch, who reportedly dislikes Britain and despises America, has transformed both countries- not for the better.”

John Simpson

Your take on Murdoch’s legacy?

We’d love to include some quotes from readers in next week’s newsletter.

On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

R is for Regular:

The regular army – the words don’t carry the same brio as special forces do they? Regular is average, medium. Middle of the road can be a little dull. We emphatically don’t want you to overdramatise in a bid to appear a little different. But when talking about the familiar do try and think of interesting trends or what the exceptions to the familiar rule tell us. Shed light on less unremarked aspects to bring a certain newness to the subject.

On the future of BBC Local Radio…

“Their strategy is naive, their implementation egregiously bad. This most distinctive of services, filling a gap where commercial radio struggles to afford to exist – and one which is most popular outside London – is to be sacrificed.”

Respected radio lifer David Lloyd doesn’t hold back in his savage criticism of BBC Management. It’s hard to argue with much of what he says…

READ MORE

Much love directed from you to Melvyn Bragg after we reported on In Our Time reaching a mighty 1,000 episodes.

Here is he reflecting on that run with Mishal Husain on Today… 

LISTEN HERE

Footnotes:

Keri, who cheerfully proofs this newsletter every weekend was born on this day 50 years ago. (Happy birthday Keri!)

Highs of degrees in 17 today in Aberdeen and 19 degrees in Brighton.

And confusion at BBC News Online…

Finally the obligatory dog-pic photo….

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge

As Quentin Letts returns to the Mail following a short-lived stay at News International, this assessment from The Times’ World Affairs Editor…

Good morning, it’s Monday 18th September.

The week ahead…

Tuesday: Court of Session: Scottish government makes its case against the Government’s decision to block Holyrood’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

The final report in the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre inquiry is published.

UN General Assembly.

Wednesday: Junior doctors and consultants hold an historic joint strike. 

King Charles and Queen Camilla begin a three-day State Visit to France.

Thursday: Watch for a possible Bank Of England interest rate rise.

British Social Attitudes Survey.

Friday:  England v Scotland in Women’s Nations League.

Sunday:  NASA mission returns asteroid sample collection to Earth.

Worth picking out a few quotes from John Ryley’s Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture. The well-liked former boss of Sky News criticised the lack of media scrutiny over the royal family, and gave this insight into TV coverage of King Charles’s coronation: 

“The royal spin doctors had the opportunity to censor any pictures from the coronation before they could be replayed on the day … And the royal spin doctors dictated which clips of the footage could be shown in future broadcasts in what they called with an Orwellian phrase: ‘a perpetuity edit’.”

Apparently WhatsApp group would allow royal courtiers to tell senior editors at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News in real time if the royal family wanted specific pieces of footage removed from circulation. 

Broadcasters are now, he said, “too supine … too incurious … too compliant…Topics such as why King Charles didn’t pay any inheritance tax on the fortune he inherited from his mother or the fact the Duchy of Cornwall doesn’t pay capital gains tax should be examined properly. The reporting needs to be far more rigorous.”

READ MORE

“He delights in scheduling disparate subjects on consecutive weeks. You can almost hear the glee in his voice when at the end of an episode on the siege of Paris, he announces: “Next week, we’ll be discussing solar wind.”

An extraordinary run. In Our Time reaches 1,000 episodes this week. 

READ MORE 

It’s reported Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon and investor in GB News has hired an investment bank to advise him on a bid for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph ahead of a looming auction of the titles that could fetch in the region of £600m.

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Long-time BBC correspondent Chris Morris becomes the new CEO of Full Fact

READ MORE

On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

Q is for Quest:

Audiences can enjoy detective work as long as the investigation has distinctiveness and some nifty twists and turns. Uncovering a forgotten manuscript, gleaning a design from a formation of birds both offer fascinating colour. Avoid posing questions though. Both presenters and the people watching are looking for answers or at the very least interesting observations on the direction of travel.

READ MORE

Footnotes:

Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix died after collapsing at a party in London on this day in 1970.

Highs of 15 degrees in today in Edinburgh and 18 degrees in Northampton.

Finally the obligatory dog-pic photo….

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge

Good morning, it’s Monday 11th September.

The week ahead…

Monday: General Secretary Paul Nowak addresses TUC Congress.

Biden visits Alaska for 9/11 memorial. 

Tuesday: UK employment and earnings data published.

Wilko store closure programme begins. 

Putin scheduled to speak at the Eastern Economic Forum.

Wednesday: Commons motion to proscribe Wagner Group as terrorist organisation.

Ursula von der Leyen delivers State of the European Union address. 

Thursday:Theresa May’s The Abuse Of Power released. 

Vogue World (aka London’s Met Gala).

Friday: London Fashion Week begins. 

Saturday: Strictly starts. 

Sunday: 20mph speed limit introduced in Wales. 

It’s a Politician Special!!! Hang on, don’t unsubscribe… 

1) As you’ll no doubt have seen, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan provided timely and expletive-ridden evidence for one of the most basic of media training lessons – assume every microphone and camera is on.

This is outtake-Thick-Of-It-level incompetence…

2) Rory Stewart had a moan about a Janice Turner profile of him in The Times on his Rest Is Politics podcast;

“I think the lesson I’ve taken from it sadly is that you can’t be naive and that you have to accept that these are artificial, structured things. You’re doing it for a reason and you’ve got to approach it quite cautiously, and not think that you can completely lay back and just chat in the way that you can to a friend. It’s a stupid thing to say, but the public should be aware of this…”

Rory, that isn’t a stupid thing to say. It’s an incredibly stupid and blindingly obvious thing to say. 

I’m going to return to this saga another time as the headline (see below) was a classic example of naively accepting the premise of a very leading question, but we’ll leave that for another week. 

READ THE PROFILE

Who will replace Huw Edwards as anchor of the BBC’s Election Night coverage? Laura Kuenssberg is the favourite according to latest reports, though it isn’t a done deal.

READ MORE

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GB News break the news of the re-arrest of Daniel Khalife with a calm, collected authority and poise…

WATCH CLIP (via Twitter/X)

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According to Apple’s podcast chart, 4 of the 10 most popular shows in the country come from Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger production company. (The Rest is Politics/History/Football/Money)

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And for those following Tucker Carlson’s rapid descent to the deepest sewers of journalism, Arwa Mahdawi’s article is well worth a read

READ MORE

On the Inside Edge website – Tony’s A-Z of media training: 

P is for Prologue:

You haven’t got time for this classical device in an interview. “Where this all began” may sound a grand opening and is a favourite for some organisations who want to show the road taken. But broadcast audiences are a tough bunch. Rather than rely on past glories what are you achieving now? How relevant are you to making life better in the 2020s and beyond? Answer these questions and you will be more persuasive – and more concise.

READ MORE

Footnotes:

Georgi Markov died of blood poisoning, four days after he was stabbed with an umbrella at a London bus stop on this day in 1978.

Highs of 20 degrees in today in Aarhus, Denmark (from where I’m writing this newsletter) and 22 degrees in Abergavenny.

Finally the obligatory dog-pic photo….

Be part of the MMB. Thoughts on this week’s content, or interviews you’ve seen, heard, or (best of all) done. We’re @insideedgemedia or just reply to this email. 

Have a brilliant week.

All at Inside Edge