Feral Beast: Daily Star not so shining. Reporter complains of anti-Muslim propaganda and lies

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Daily Star not so shining. Reporter complains of anti-Muslim propaganda and lies

"Scrabbling to pump out a national newspaper with fewer staff hacks than it takes to man a yacht" is folly, according to ex-tabloid hack Richard Peppiatt, in his letter of resignation to the proprietor of the Daily Star. His screed was excerpted in the Guardian, alongside a statement from the red top paper that denied any negative stance towards Islam (despite all appearances). The plucky tabloid reporter used to be a quick-change artist in pursuit of scoops, and in his excoriating letter, he admits to making up headline grabbing incidents or quotes involving prominent celebrities. But apparently he now feels remorse:

"The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved-in down an alley in Bradford. If you can't see that words matter, you should go back to running porn magazines," he wrote to his erstwhile boss Richard Desmond.

Full story here.
Hat tip to Irris Makler for this gem. But did anyone actually take the stories running in the Daily Star seriously?

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Feral Beast? Try Lemming

If the press were an animal, what kind of animal would it be? I’ve got my answer. A legion of lemmings, furry and well-intentioned, but ultimately condemned by their nature to follow each other mindlessly off a tall cliff, over the Paris Hilton peak or into the Invade Iraq crevasse. The words “feral beast” certainly wouldn’t come to mind. It’s not particularly accurate or particularly evocative. But that is how the departing British prime minister, Tony Blair, sees journalists: as malicious tormentors who have tried to tear him limb from limb.

--Gal Beckerman of the Columbia Journalism Review

“Journalism is a form of cartography,” write Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach of Pew. “It creates a map for citizens to navigate society. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map.”

"Journalism is good at solving small problems or taking small bites of a big problem. It’s not good at solving big problems." Adapted from David Simon, creator of The Wire.

Retrospective : five decades of journalism as reported by CJR

Fake AP Stylebook reminds us: Unless you're doing a story on the Muppets, you are not a gonzo journalist.

"The once idealized information superhighway has become a parking lot of error, misinformation, rumor and junk." Poynter Institute, advocating a broader definition of who is a journalist.