On the internet, content is king. You can the prettiest website out there, but unless the content is good it won’t matter and no-one will visit [maybe I need to write better, then? - Ed.]. But we are used to our online content being free: free news, opinion, access to videos, and everything else the internet offers.
Rupert Murdoch believes that this will change and that he can persuade people to pay to read his newspapers online. Erm, sorry Rupes, ain’t gonna happen. We expect online content to be free. People …

The papers claim “yes“:

Supermarkets have been accused of encouraging binge drinking by continuing to sell alcohol more cheaply than bottled water.
Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s are among those selling beer at just over 5p per 100ml. This contrasts with a typical price of about 8p for 100ml of brand-name mineral water. (The Times)

But the truth, however, is rather different:

The ‘lager’ to which they are referring is the Basics range gunk, a brew so weak and inspidid that it’s nigh on water anyway. The equivalent, obviously enough, is the Sainsburys Basics …

Huh? How does that make sense? Well, I don’t know whether this idiocy is coming from the Telegraph or John Denham, but this is a headline today:

How can racism amongst white supremacists be “getting worse”? Surely if you’re a white supremacist, being racist is pretty much a foregone conclusion?
Racism amongst white supremacists can’t be rising; to be a whoite supremacist, you must also be racist. The number of white supremacists may be rising, and hence an increase in the number of racists, but racism can’t really “get worse” in a …

The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.
Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.
The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for …

Why does the Daily Mirror think that it is such an issue that David Cameron has been “caught” drinking a glass of champagne at what is, after all, a party? Their headline and story try desperately to contrast Cameron drinking a glass of £140-a-bottle champagne with “millions fac[ing] a thirsty future with frozen pay, job and pension cuts.”
Of course they also get a rent-a-quote Union boss to say:

It is sickening. This is the real face of the Tories. Champagne for Cameron and his crew, as though the recession never happened.

Ignoring …

The media, it would appear, are using the internet as a resource for endless numbers of stories about “online crazes” or “internet hits”. Like this latest one:

A new blog matching pictures of drunk people with yoga positions has become a huge internet hit.
The blog has become a huge hit since it started, attracting thousands of visitors.
The blog shows a series of photographs of people taken while asleep and drunk in various different positions – sprawled across a bench, bending backwards over a chair and kneeling face down under a bus-stop …

The Chief Medical Officer needs to know when to keep his gob shut. To say something that can be trailed even by the BBC as

It is too early to assume the swine flu outbreak is a mild infection just because no-one in the UK has died, England’s chief medical officer says.
Sir Liam Donaldson warned against complacency because flu viruses could change character “very rapidly”.

It’s just playing into the hands of the fearmongering tabloid journalists. These few comments, which are actually relatively bland if you read the actual comments, were always …

I love the media response to swine flu – it’s hilarious. First they tell us that we’re all gonna die, then they tell us off for pulling a sickie if have flu-like symptoms. But one newspaper, in a feat of supreme doublespeak, manages to doi both at the same time! Go on, guess which one!

Of course it was the Daily Fail. Who else could manage to incite fear in the same headline as berating anyone who took time off work because of that fear? Only a Daily Mail hack.
This graph …

Never. They don’t and they won’t. So why was Peter Mandelson stupid enough to say that the matter “has been resolved” when there are still questions to be answered about the conduct of Labour general secretary Ray Collins?
The public want this to be resolved, they want to know who knew about McBride’s smears and why they didn’t stop him if they found it as revolting as they claim they do. Until the remaining questions have been answered properly, the story won’t be over.
Mandelson should never have uttered the words

That is …