Daily Archives: April 27, 2010

The Sun is looking for disappointed NHS staff. I wonder why.

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A copy of an intriguing email just popped into my inbox:

From: [redacted]
Sent: 27 April 2010 11:15
To: [redacted]
Subject: request from Jenna Sloan, The Sun

If you have relevant information for the media professional concerned
please click this link to reply:
jenna.sloan@the-sun.co.uk

Request deadline: Thursday 29 April, 2010, 4:00 pm

Contact me by e-mail at jenna.sloan@the-sun.co.uk

My request: I’m looking for a teacher and a nurse to be case studies in The Sun next week.
This is for a political, election feature and both must be willing to say why they feel let down by the Labour Government, and why they are thinking about voting Conservative.

We’ll need to picture them, and also have a chat about their political opinions.
We can pay the case studies £100 for their time.

Please do let me know if you think you can help.

Is this genuine, I wonder? If so, interesting, ne c’est pas? First of all in terms of the implicit journalistic ‘standards’, but also in terms of chequebook journalism. It just shows you what they think of teachers and NHS Staff — assuming that they’d be willing to pimp themselves for £100. Max Clifford’s clients wouldn’t blow their noses for that.

DMCA abuse extends to Twitter posts

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Well, well. Looks as though nothing is beyond the reach of the DMCA.

Twitter can be a decent communications medium for some things, but let’s face it: there’s only so much one can say in 140 characters. It’s hard to believe that a user could infringe on someone’s copyright within such tight constraints, but someone apparently thinks it can. Twitter has removed an update posted by the music writer who runs JP’s blog, citing a DMCA takedown request from an unnamed sender. The situation once again highlights the potential for abuse through the DMCA’s takedown system, and raises questions about how much service providers should push back against abuses.

Quote of the Day

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“David Cameron will protect the BBC, he sees it as a very important part of his brand of modern conservatism. He loves the BBC programmes. He’s a huge fan of Top Gear.”

Tory Arts & Culture spokesman to David Hare, as
reported in the Guardian.

Roll on that hung Parliament

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Lovely, thoughtful piece by Alan Massie in the Spectator in which he dissects the Tory ‘arguments’ against a balanced Parliament.

Tory warnings of the dire consequences of a hung parliament are understandable but, I suspect, unfortunate. There is little evidence that the electorate believes that a hung parliament will be a disaster, far less than they can be cajoled into thinking that they’re letting Britain down if they don’t vote Conservative.

And that, my friends, is the underlying message sent by the Tories’ blitz against a hung parliament.

A hung election might not be ideal but it might also be a fitting end to this exhausted, depressing parliament. But it need not be the disaster the Tories claim. The PDF they released today – and the advert – is thin gruel. Essentially they argue that 1974 was a disaster and this proves that hung parliaments are and always must be a terrible thing. Secondly, they say that many city types worry about financial uncertainty if no party wins overall control. Thirdly, the Tories warn that anything that moves Britain down the road to proportional representation is a bad thing because it's a bad thing that always ends badly.

I particularly like the argument that we shouldn’t have a balanced Parliament because it might upset those nice chaps in the City.