Snow in Dubai

Posted on February 26, 2007 by bobpiper

Read this article carefully. The headline says…. “Labour may face Blair by-election”. Now read it again. Anyone see anything at all, even the tiniest morsel, which evidences the bold assertion that there is even the slightest prospect of a by-election in Sedgfield?
No… because there is absolutely no evidence at all. Of course, it is not untrue. There may be a blizzard in Dubai later this afternoon too… but how much longer do we have to put up with this sort of lazy-arsed journalism where reporters stuck in an office somewhere in London decide that their job is not to report the news, but to make up the news by writing this sort of nonsense? Iain Dale and other blogging gossip-mongers can get away with this type of crap speculation, but journalists on so-called serious newspapers should not be allowed to.

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3 Responses to Snow in Dubai

  1. jailhouselawyer says:
    February 26, 2007 at 10:57 am

    All I get is Firefox can’t find server, but the url is Indy. Perhaps they pulled it in response to your criticism?

    Reply
  2. Underpaid hack says:
    February 26, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    It’s a vicious cycle Bob.
    Falling circulation means papers are more and more desperate for a big headline to pull in the casual buyer, rather than the loyal subscriber.
    But as you point out the story looks lazy and half-cocked, therefore regular readers are likely to be turned off from it.
    And if in order to help a paper out of this decline (the Indy is the poorest selling ‘quality’ paper) someone makes a subscription in the hope that extra funding will mean better investment, then sadly it leaves the powers that be thinking they can get away with publishing this sort of thing and people will still pay for it.
    Journalists on the Indy are, I believe, among the worst paid of the former broadsheets.
    If you’re stuck in the office you don’t get to go out, meet contacts and get the interesting stories.
    Incidentally these comments should not be taken out of context. I’m on about this story in the Indy and make no comparison with my own employers whatsoever.

    Reply
  3. Bob Piper says:
    February 26, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    John… no, just my cock-up in making the link. Thanks for the tip… it’s working now.

    Reply