Political Journalism

[Written 20/01/2020] I read this New Statesman piece with interest and disappointment. Possibly not for the intended reasons — That the left suffered a catastrophic defeat in 2019’s end of year election is obvious. That the left dissolved into factions (again) in order to endlessly debate why this happened is disappointing. That no one has yet to come up with a comprehensive answer is bloody infuriating.

The adage goes that if the BBC is accused of bias by both the right and the left at roughly equal amounts, then they are doing their jobs about right, and the BMG poll would seem to suggest exactly that. Why then have we seen them shift to the right for years? — A 2018 poll by BMG Research showed 22% of those surveyed believed the BBC had some degree of left-wing bias; 18% said they have a right-wing bias, and 37% per cent believed they were impartial. According to the BBC, this is what they want. …

November 2, 2020 — After a busy week of European travels and quarantine dealings, it’s time to write about a few of my favorite readings again. Or shall I say viewings? For a bit of a shake-up, What I’m Reading brings you visual pieces, from nerdy journalism discussions to work and lives that inspire. Journalism & Ethics …

Each year, Atlantic Media hires around 40 recent graduates for its fellowship program. Fellows are placed in editorial or business positions across Atlantic Media’s four brands: The Atlantic, National Journal, Government Executive, and Quartz. — Tell us about your fellowship. I am one of two politics fellows at TheAtlantic.com. I help write The Politics & Policy Daily newsletter, I coordinate with all of the freelancers that pitch the politics desk, I do the social media for the politics desk, I curate the politics landing page…

January 14th, 2018 — by Dante Vitagliano With just over a year until voters cast Presidential Primary ballots, the horse-race is well underway. We can expect to see a steady increase in journalistic handicapping as the field takes shape and candidates jockey for position. As Politico columnist Jack Shafer points…

How US journalists are getting played — “Neutrality in the teeth of asymmetric propaganda ==> complicity” — Yochai Benkler A massive analysis of over two million stories related to the 2016 election from 70,000 media sources documented what many of us suspected: Journalists were manipulated by relatively small number of right-wing media actors into producing coverage that…

By Marc Reeves, editor-in-chief, Reach Midlands I loved the recent piece by my colleague and counterpart Ali Machray in which he celebrated the promotion of one of his Liverpool team to the position of Political Editor. His joy was two-fold, I think. First, the ability to promote talent at a…

A year after a general election which left many local journalists feeling pushed aside by political spin doctors, it appears things could be getting every worse for regional news organisations. WalesOnline chief reporter Martin Shipton recounts a worrying encounter with Theresa May this week… Speed-dating used to be confined to…