There will be lots of movement over in the Parliamentary Press Gallery in the next few weeks.
The Express’s Christian Calgie (formerly of these pixels) is off to the Mail as Senior Political Editor-at-Large, working mainly on the daily paper and occasionally moonlighting for the Mail on Sunday.
Ex-CCHQ press officer Aaron Newbury, who joined the Express as a full-time reporter in January, has been promoted to the paper’s Lobby team as Political Correspondent.
The Spectator has also gone on a hiring spree, picking up The Sun’s Noa Hoffman as its new Political Correspondent and ConservativeHome’s Tali Fraser as a Writer-at-Large. There is also speculation that a vacancy may appear at a certain broadsheet’s political editor rank soon…
Times journalist Gabrielle Sivia Weiniger tweeted the below image purporting to show Israeli president Isaac Herzog hobnobbing with convicted paeodophile Jeffrey Epstein:
The post remained online for a few hours before Weiniger realised the blindingly obvious, which is the photo is AI-generated. She has since deleted it and apologised for her “grave error in judgement for reposting the photo, and to the president for any harm this has caused“. A bad week for the Times, especially after that Mandelson cover…
Under the editorship of former Guardian bigwig Alan Rusbridger, Prospect magazine has gone from an interesting and even occasionally balanced intellectual journal to an eyeball-crushingly dull and worthy parish newsletter for the liberal establishment. Sad times…
Guido hears from multiple newsroom sources – who have revealed their internal correspondence – that the magazine has hit tough times, with Rusbridger recently issuing an edict that its external commissions must be pared back. “We’ve gone from commissioning whatever we like to a max of a few bits a week“, said one disgruntled scribbler. Repeated, rehashed attacks on the Murdoch media have failed to garner the magazine the revival it had sought…
“We’re becoming super parochial”, said another. The ‘Prospect’ of job losses abounds…
It’s shoulder to the wheel time for BBC Verify’s more than 60 staff on another busy Monday: their first effort to ‘debunk’ disinformation today confirms a picture of a scantily-clad dancer at Donald Trump’s Halloween party is indeed real. The fact-checking ‘specialists’ over at Broadcasting House have, using their advanced verification techniques, “debunked” claims the photo was taken two years ago at Dua Lipa’s bash. Thanks for that…
“The Halloween bash was attended by the US president and several top administration officials, receiving extensive media coverage. We’ve managed to identify where in Mar-A-Lago the image was taken and verified a different video of the dancer at the party.
The Guardian’s ‘Today in Focus’ podcast has been in full pearl-clutching mode this week over the rise of new media. Yesterday host Helen Pidd invited Dr. Robert Topinka from Birkbeck University to moan about how online influencers are shaping the news agenda more effectively than the legacy press. Shock…
Pointing to X account Max Tempers for coining the term ‘Boriswave’, they said mass slogans now spread “from X in places like 4chan” until “slightly more legitimate publications can then pick it up.” They lamented:
“The right seem to be so much better at social media… [there are] extremely online people who spend their days posting and engaging in info wars… trying to get reactions out of their enemies… to own the libs, to mock the mainstream.”
The hand-wringing ended with the declaration that phrases or information arising online must have “the context explained and critiqued,” otherwise that information “will continue to see mainstream conversation.” Should have kept that X account…
Young Britons are breaking up with the mainstream media. A new Grayling Media/More in Common poll finds young Britons now trust AI, influencers and podcasters more than newspapers or the BBC. The new generation for new media…
Nearly half of Gen Z say they trust on online creators, YouTubers and podcasters more than legacy media outlets, while 48% say they use AI tools to get their news, more than double the number who read newspapers (22%). Only 40% of the public overall trust journalists at major outlets….
Luke Tryl, Executive Director of More in Common, said:
“Britons are searching for truth in very different places. For many older people, that means local radio and television news, while younger generations are drawn to social media, AI chatbots and podcasters. Young people’s instinct to look outside the mainstream for information helps explain not just their media habits, but their politics too, as young people turn away from established parties and towards new movements, from independent candidates to Jeremy Corbyn’s new party.”
Old media can’t outpace the rise of the new. Sign up here to join it…
Heather Blundell, Grayling’s UK CEO, said:
“The democratisation of media has made everyone a journalist, including those who spread outright falsehoods, which means anyone can now find their chosen version of the ‘truth’. If you want to believe that a company or brand is evil, you will find a news source to confirm it.”
The report also finds most Britons (56%) believe that there is no single truth about events in the world, rising to 66% for Green Party voters. No surprise there…
Only 35% believe there’s such a thing as objective facts. AI tools (48%) more than twice as often as newspapers (22%). Daily AI usage for information now matches newspaper usage nationwide (11% vs 12%). The reign of the dead tree press is over…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”
