UPDATE! Stop voting! Charles Clarke "won".
This is your last chance to vote in the on which of Tony Blair's troubled ministers should resign or be sacked. Click here. I should point out that the latest intel suggests Labour MPs are rallying round Charles Clarke. Also - the internet poll only allows you to choose one!
John Busby, who runs a website with the grand title took issue with comments by my colleague Stephanie Flanders on Tuesday's programme. Her thesis was that high oil price will delay the so-called "peak" of production by dragging previously expensive resources like tar sands into the market. He's sent us a detailed contribution on this and, as "peak oil" is a very interesting debate I am pasting his guest contribution below...
Continue reading "Guestblog: Will high oil prices delay peak production?"
A about how journalists can go about evading justice when the state comes after your notes. I particularly liked this suggestion...
Continue reading "A device needed to wipe journalistic brains..."
A sharp eared viewer last night took offence to my description of Iran and Venezuela as "America's enemies". But I did not exactly say that. Here's what I said (in a piece giving the political backplot to the $75 oil price). You can also watch it online at www.bbc.co.uk/newsnight:
"What鈥檚 really spooked the market is global politics, not economics鈥I went on to quote Ahmadinejad's speech on oil prices being too low. I continued...] And America鈥檚 other big critic, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, threatened that if US attacks Iran oil could reach 100 a barrel. But is the market right to react so violently to the threat of conflict between America and its enemies?"
Here's what Ed Murray wrote to me in response, posted on ...
Continue reading "Orwellian propaganda on Iran and Venezuela?"
My editor is involved in a flame war with the guys at , that very helpfully critical watchdog of media bias. They have been invited to come on Newsnight tonight to talk about the allegation that the mainstream media is stoking up the conditions for an attack on Iran. But they won't come on! To read their reasons vist their . There is a heated debate on this at the Medialens and Idle Scraw cordially invites you to hit the comment button below and join in the debate here as well. Personally I think the way out of the impasse is for the Medialens spokespeople to lay down certain conditions for coming on: all sorts of other people do it and sometimes get away with it! Just a thought....
It looks like the rest is going to be about technology and user generated content - and I now have to go off and do my day job. Therefore a quick summary of what the 大象传媒 bosses have said this morning... (I will follow it from here on in on the media website)
Entertainment: bigger, fewer dramas. More emotion. More brave commissioning. "Critical role of talent" is emphasised.
Youth: 12-16 age group to get a new teen brand. Diversity to be taken more seriously. Core TV programming to be pushed towards the youth audience (without of course losing the grandads).
Little Britain man being sick
Katherine Tate going am I bothered.
Doctor Who being attacked by a wolf
The Apprentice
The Manchester Passion
Madonna
Last Night of the Proms
A shark eating a seal...
1. Martini media - anytime, anyplace anywhere (and hopefully not as they say in the drinks trade "twopence a bucket". Reinvent 大象传媒 website 大象传媒 Web 2.0 is the name of the project.
- 大象传媒 News to grow beyond its 250m audience. Sounds like a big investment in sport and sports journalism.
- "Mission to educate" - going to be bigger. More Planet Earths.
- Music - one pan-platform music strategy for 大象传媒. Create your own virtual music channel.
- Audiences want more than information and knowledge.
Now Alan Yentob is going to talk about Entertainment...
They are going to make fewer but better programmes and they are going to try and engage "low approver audiences" - ie people who dont go ski-ing on a regular basis.
Content strategy is moving to "on-demand". He is the fourth person on stage so far and none of them has worn a tie. Now they are showing a film with "Roger X" who runs a free content website. Now George Entwistle is on - he used to edit Newsnight and now runs Current Affairs. He is explaining "on demand". Now a radio guy is saying something interesting - on demand will mean live radio is going to decline. Now Emily Bell is on - Guardian Unlimited supremo - saying if the 大象传媒 gets this wrong it will disappear.
Heck we are now hearing about metadata! Emily Bell is explaining why archiving is the new accountancy - ie not boring. Entwistle is talking about cross-platform 360 degree commissioning. Roly Keating, my boss's boss, is questioning the 30 and 60 minute slot. A man with very trendy glasses is inveighing against tunnel vision.
Entwistle spells out the new philosophy: for higher impact programmes with the same or fewer resources - make less.
Young man: I watch 大象传媒3 for "Three pints of lager"
Young woman: I've got Sky so I only watch normal TV to watch Eastenders
Young clubber type: The interactive's quite cool... on Sky Digital
(Sound of traditional 大象传媒 types leaping from balconies into Wood Lane)
"A rapid move to digital" - most organisations have a revenue challenge, but the 大象传媒 faces a relevance challenge. Big social changes across the UK. 1/10 from ethnic backgrounds. Only 21% of homes are from traditional families. Some figures:
1/3 of people feel that the 大象传媒 does not make programmes for them.
60% of 16-24 don't watch 3 hours of TV a week.
1/4 of 16-24 DO NOT WATCH ANY 大象传媒 CONTENT!
He is wearing a yellow open necked shirt. Technologies revolutionising everything we do. Big shifts in programme strategy. Not just authority from the 大象传媒 is needed - but relevance. We haven't grappled with the creative challenge of digital. (The audience is full of the 大象传媒 great and good and the camera keeps cutting to Alan Yentob).
You might be interested to know that the 大象传媒 bosses are making a big set of announcements about what you'll see on your TV set, computer, iPod and mobile phone in future. They've managed to spin it so that the story about Grandstand being axed is the top line but expect a lot more far reaching stuff than that. I don't usually blog about internal stuff but you lot are paying for this - and it might be the last strategic revamp the 大象传媒 goes through before digital communications kill the old idea of "broadcasting" - ie one source of information going to many people at the same time...
Continue reading "The 大象传媒's "creative future" - live on this blog"
Petrol is already 拢1 a litre on some British forecourts and the average price could soon (today?) pass 拢1. Coming out of OPEC right now are various statements from oil ministers that they are not going to raise the 28 million barrels per day ceiling on production. They argue that it is not short supply but demand driven by political instability - notably America's refusal to take off the table the possibility of nuking Iran, Condoleeza Rice's statement that "self defence does not require a UN resolution" in this regard, and Iran's veiled warning that it will take the price a lot higher if sanctions are imposed...
Continue reading "拢1 a litre - how much of that is political?"
I have just done a telephone interview with the lady who was evicted from the White House after heckling Hu Jin Tao, president of the People's Republic of China....
Continue reading "An uninvited guest on the White House lawn"
Here at Newsnight the afternoon has sprung to life as a series of wires with yellow lightning flashes in the heading indicates that George W Bush has begun a reshuffle in the White House. Karl Rove is to "lose his policy role", while press secretary Scott McClellan has resigned. The is already alive with paranoia and schadenfreude. Follow it all on 大象传媒News24, and have your say by hitting the comment button below.
When I idly scrawled about the V&A's exhibition of Modernist Design I bumped into a bigger debate sparked by , who has taken umbrage against tower blocks. I decided to steer clear of that furore and took refuge in the library on my week off. But you can never escape... while researching something totally different I came across the following: In Germany in 1929 a sociologist called carried out research into social attitudes among manual and white collar workers....
Continue reading "Who really bought those modernist fitted kitchens?"
There's only one big talking point today: Sy Hersh's story on the alleged consideration of a . Elsewhere on the web Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University has produced of how/ why it might happen - or not happen. Meanwhile if you want to follow the Iranian response from the horse's mouth, it is worth checking every so often.
* From now until after Easter this blog will become more blog-like and less of a DIY newspaper about Bolivia. I am back, my long-form Bolivia stuff goes out on 大象传媒 World/N24 on Saturday morning (in that slot I call "hangover TV") and I am on leave for more than a week. I will mostly be round and about the British Library, a prospect which makes me emit that . I will keep blogging, but it will be wierd because I might blog about something but someone else will be reporting it on the telly. For example:
Most of the reporting of BAE Systems decision to sell its stake in Airbus to EADS has focused on the jobs issue. This has already elicited strong affirmations that the jobs are safe for the people who make the wings of the A380. But there are bigger things at stake: the future of BAE and the future of British military-industrial strategy (if there is one)....
Continue reading "BAE-Airbus issues go much deeper than jobs"
Those of you who have been watching our Latin American season on Newsnight will be pleased to know that world-famous Cuban ballet dancer will dance on the Newsnight set. Tune in at 2230.
As of today there are two iconic exhibitions to be seen in London that define our relationship with 鈥渕odernism鈥 in design. One opened this morning at the ; the other has been running for some time at a place called
Hey everyone outside the UK. A short version of my report will be on 大象传媒 WORLD at 12.30 GMT, and I will be live on set shortly afterwards. Tune in if you are awake! Send me questions quick if you want them answered!
An exclusive interview with Bolivian president Evo Morales. Watch tonight on 大象传媒2, 2230 GMT.
Shortly before 5am the military police huddled in the doorways of the Plaza Murillo begin to stir beneath their capes. The door of the presidential palace creaks open and the guards, in scarlet tunics and white webbing, begin a rigmarole of shuffling, stamping and saluting that is the changing of the guard. The police are muscular white guys in camo; the guards are willowy young indigenous kids 鈥 the regiment has always recruited from the 鈥榠ndios鈥 for ethnic novelty value. Now, as the MPs strut away, the guards smile nervously at each other from beneath their kepis: then they giggle. It鈥檚 still surreal to be guarding one of their own..
鈥淟ook,鈥 Evo tells me, after striding into the palace shortly after, 鈥渟ixty years ago, our grandparents didn鈥檛 even have the right to walk into the main square 鈥 not even in the gutter. And then we got into parliament 鈥 and now we鈥檙e here.鈥
A brilliant article today on , by ex-CNN journalist Michael Kinsley. Noting the transformation of US telly journo Lou Dobbs from someone who does mild interviews with business chief execs into the American equivalent of Richard Littlejohn, Kinsley part laments and part explains why opinion journalism is taking over cable TV in the USA...
With tying the knot today, in just the latest of the mega-takeovers there are a lot of people here in the world of cuff-links and Crystal (business I mean, not Newsnight) musing about how much good takeovers actually do. Quite a lot, says Scott Moeller, and he should know.
First, though a duffer's guide: a merger is where two companies merge; an acquisition is where one buys the other. Together they are known as "M&A" and there are whole swathes of city people who specialise in making money from the transaction. Here's where the scepticism comes in...
Continue reading "Mergers (and regulation) create value shock!"
Here's the script of my FOOC. If you have been following this blog you will have read bits of this before. If you want to listen online . There's interesting stuff about the Chinese and Lula too, plus Charles Taylor's extradition from Nigeria and mobile phones in the Phillippines. And don't forget to make a date with Newsnight tomorrow to see if our live broadcast from Lima comes off, and see my colleague Greg Palast's interview with Hugo Chavez.
***
I had come to El Alto to meet, well, I had better call him Carlos since that is the alias he gave me.
Carlos is an Aymara, one of the indigenous ethnic groups that make up 65% of the population in Bolivia.
And he is a revolutionary - one of the people who ripped up paving stones and threw dynamite to overthrow two presidents in two years....
The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Talk about Newsnight is a blog from the 大象传媒's flagship news and current affairs programme. Please join in - read our guide to posting comments, or .
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 |
The above links are four recent video reports from Newsnight.
Click for more.
