Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Politics: Media Select committee's meeting with Nick Davies

Yesterday, I sat in on the Media Select Committee's meeting with Nick Davies, author of Flat Earth News, and Roy Greenslade, a Guardian media commentator, having learned about it from Ben Goldacre's Twitterings (@bengoldacre). The meeting has been covered by a Guardian reporter here, but I thought I would put some of the more interesting quotes here.

Paul Dacre is going before the committee tomorrow, and barring unforeseen circumstances, I intend to be there, and should post the results here forthwith.

NB: Very few (if any) of these quotes will be verbatim what the people said, since I can't write in shorthand, but they do represent the general gist of what they were saying.

On libel laws:
Libel law in England and Wales is a means for one to seek redress if a statement has been published which seriously damages the reputation of the victim, without justification (ie it's not true). Obviously this relates to the press since they often print untruths (intentionally or otherwise), and people's reputations or businesses may be irreparably wrecked. However, increasingly, the libel laws in England have been increasingly been used (abused?) by powerful figures to prevent journalists publishing damaging material, which could be considered to be in the public interest, and the heavily punative damages awarded if the figure wins means that newspapers have been reluctant to run with stories for fear of falling foul of a libel writ.
The courts have tried to balance this dilemma over the years, with varying results. The current situation is that journalists can claim the "Reynold's Defence" - basically if they show that they acted responsibly and gave the offended party a right of a reply in a story that is in the public interest, they can be exempt from liability. It is named after the former Irish Prime Minister, Albert Reynolds, in his case against the Times (Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd and Others [1999] UKHL 45).
Mike Hall MP asked the specific question as to whether libel laws were still relevant, to which Nick Davies' view was an unequivocal no. His reasoning was that libel writs don't write wrongs as much as they could, and access to justice is still too expensive for the lay person (a term used frequently during the proceedings to describe a person who is not a member of the press, and would not be considered a 'public figure'). Roy Greenslade wasn't so entrenched, although he did say that the libel laws in England and Wales need serious reform.

Nick Davies: 'The Reynolds defence gives licence to print malicious falsehoods, as long as the article prints a denial by the other side.' Davies went to recount a story about how after he published his book, a journalist contacted him about a story they were running concerning the sexual conduct of his wife. The journalist was aware that the story was untrue, but were running with it anyway, with an inclusion of his denial. It was only after Davies made it clear he would go public with this behaviour that the journalist dropped the story. Davies has never been married.

Roy Greenslade: 'I am constantly under threat from publishers and editors of libel action. Journalists are the prime users of the law that they rail against.'

RG: 'Prior notification [to the other side] gives spin doctors the opportunity to sabotage the story, by giving a press conference softening the impact of the story, and denying the journalist their scoop.' The example given here was when ITN had uncovered evidence of the extent of Charles Kennedy's drinking issues. His PRs set up a press conference at around 4pm (two hours before ITN's main evening news broadcast) to change the story from 'I've got a drinking problem,' to 'I'm on top of a drinking problem'. Both Davies and Greenslade commented that prior notification can also be used to blackmail or bribe the subject of the report when the story needs more substance. For example, they can get an exclusive interview from the subject of the story, if they leave out more lurid elements of the story. Frank Bough's name was mentioned as an example of how this was done to the detriment of the subject.

RG: 'When the Guardian was investigating Tesco's overseas tax structures, they tried to do the responsible thing and give Tesco a right of reply. Tesco responded by suing the Guardian for malicious falsehood for getting the exact details of a complex case wrong.' This case was criticised as 'bullying' by the panel, especially since Private Eye was able to provide evidence that tax evasion was taking place, just not in the way the Guardian had alleged. Greenslade said that 'corporations should not be allowed to sue for libel.'

ND: 'The newspapers lawayers, who vet the stories, often play it safe, and advise not running stories - this is the real chilling effect [on free speech].' ... 'Even in a paper such as the Guardian, the lawyers will ask, 'does this person have money,' because if he does, he will sue.'

Conditional Fee Arrangements (CFAs) are a device in law to provide greater access to justice to those who can't afford it. They are commonly known as 'no win, no fee' agreements, whereby the lawyer will not accept payment if they don't win any compensation for the client. To offset this rick (beyond the practice of not taking on risky cases), is that they increase their legal fees, usually by about 100%, which is recoverable from the losing side.

RG: 'Anecdotally, CFAs have been used by rich clients to rachet up the legal fees for the newspapers,' Often, if legal fees increase too rapidly, one side will settle in order to cut their losses, this is often the result in libel cases in journalism.

On the PCC:
The Press Complaints Commission was widely condemned on all quarters, with Greenslade decided that it was useful to have editors on its panel, whereas Davies said there shouldn't be.

ND: 'Having editors on the PCC is akin to having a jury of twelve people, where five of them share commercial and common interests with the accused.'...'The PCC is not sufficiently independent enough to be functional, it is not on the side of readers, it has repeatedly shown its function to be the defence of bad journalistic practice.'

RG: 'The PCC is not proactive enough. The feeding frenzy of the McCanns, and Robert Murat was due to the fact that the PCC was not proactive enough.'

ND: 'The PCC is so weak, it damages the notion of self-regulation.' Davies did go on to say that under its new leadership, the PCC should be given another chance, if only to prevent constant court proceedings for press wrongdoing.

Other Miscellaneous quotes:

ND: 'Journalists told me that they knew that the story of their being bones hidden under a foster home in Jersey was not true, but ran with the crowd anyway, or else they would eventually be marginalised within their newsrooms.'

RG: 'If one paper runs with something, such as revealing where Elizabeth Fritzl was now residing, the others feel that they must catch, or get new details, creating a vicious cycle. The Independent used the defence that the information was already in the public domain, so they published it, rather than criticising the peper for revealing it in the first place.'
Committee member: 'The Austrians called the British press, "Satan's reporters."

RG: 'There is virtue in the probing style of UK journalism, but the fearlessness that drives it should not be turned into recklessness.'

ND: The university courses are more concerned with getting their graduate jobs, so they teach their students how to recreate press releases, as the papers want them to be. There are only about four or five good journalism courses in the UK.

ND: The Courts have a history of being hostile to good journalism. We are suspicious of them.

ND: Paul Dacre has lobbied Gordon Brown to not have prison sentences for breaches of the Data Protection Act, because he wants to plunder people's medical records. However, if he was in hospital with a heart condition, a message would go around Fleet Street to not report it.

RG: Competition should be a good thing, but the bad result of competition in the UK press has resulted in increasingly bad behaviour.
(Permalink) Wednesday, April 22, 2009 0 comments

Monday, March 30, 2009

Modest Mouse at Royal Albert Hall - 23 May 2007

The Egodeity had assumed he had mirrored this from his Last.fm site at the time, but it appears not, so here is a belated review of a Modest Mouse gig from the Albert Hall in 2007. (original post and comments here). All incidents with italicised square brackets are comments added in this post, with the full benefit of sober hindsight.

I didn't turn up to the venue until 20:30, so I missed the support act, who I had kind of wanted to see because I was trying to figure out why his name was so vaguely familiar. (I have subsequently discovered it was probably because he was the most notable figure in Tracey Emin's tent).

Any way, it did mean I was free to worm my way into a decent spot on the floor - right in front of Johnny Marr, as it turned out. And the band fashionably kept the crowd waiting for about fifteen minutes before storming with Paper Thin Walls as the opener.



A lot has been made of the sound quality -or lack thereof for a rock band to be playing in the RAH. I assumed the vocals were inaudible to me because of the fact I was right underneath Johnny Marr's speakers [monitors], but even when Isaac spoke between songs I could barely make out a word he said. Again, I assumed that's because he was too close to the mic, but surely someone of his experience doesn't make a schoolboy like that. The few things I did hear was him asking the guys at the top at the back (where, incidentally, a couple of my friends were sitting) if they could see/hear (?), and a rebuttal of the thought of playing Freebird (I take it that's becoming a running gag now). The crowd around me were shouting to have the vocals turned up, and they would have been within earshot of the band, and I think they did try to address it onstage, but there's only a limit with what you can do with amp levels.

The venue itself was pretty grandiose, but even as we were walking from the Tube station, we were thinking that alternative bands wouldn't exactly be queuing for a spot at that venue. There were posters for Simply Red's comeback. The sandwich bar had been converted into a criminally overpriced bar - £2.90 for a 285ml bottle of Carling, which was the cheapest drink by a long way. Then you weren't allowed to take them into any of the seating areas.

The first thing that struck me when I got to the floor was the fact that the security was barley visible (I actually didn't even know there was any until near the end). The crowd were really well-behaved as far as crowds go, with only one major incident during the encore. I couldn't see what happened, but Isaac stepped in [to confront the security], and he was still visibly angry when he was leaving the stage [slash being ushered backstage by the rest of the band]. My friends from the back said they thought he was trying to help a fan who was being manhandled by security.

Most of the set list was made up of We Were Dead..., and Good News... songs, but they did hold up the earlier stuff as well (just happened that it wasn't the songs I was hoping for, but they aren't my trained monkeys, so I'll live).

The band were so tight, especially the two drummers. At some points they were even sharing the same drumkit.
Johnny was made the star of the show by the photogs in front of the barrier. For about ten minutes at the start there was about five fixed solely on him, and none even on Isaac. Isaac went crazy during Doin the Cockroach, and started screaming into his guitar's pickup - which must have worked because I could hear him almost as well as with his mic [I subsequently learned that it was Tiny Cities Made of Ashes that inspired him to scream into his pickup].

The floor beneath me was trembling under the weight of synchronised jumping during Float On, and the crowd was in good spirits throughout. Before the band came on, the seated crowd managed to get a Mexican Wave going.

The band played a good hour and a half set, and you could see they up for the event, but the sound quality did ruin it for a lot of people (some even left early, according to their reviews. For me, it was the first time I had seen the Mouse, and was prejudiced to enjoy it no matter what and that served me well. Good Show.
(Permalink) Monday, March 30, 2009 0 comments

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse giving shit right back to a wanker in the crowd

The Egodeity's favourite band is Modest Mouse (if one considers his Last.fm page, which is probably a decent indicator). He has been frotihng at the bit at the thought of new material, and signed up to follow their photographer, Pat Graham, on his blog (RSS link) and twitter, and he diligently pointed out this delightful video of Isaac Brock, the lead singer, chastising one of those loudmouth cunts who go to a concert expecting it to not fulfil their snobby standards (in fact, probably on some level, conscious or otherwise, willing it not to meet those standards) and feel the need to share their displeasure with everyone, including the band.



Brock completely ripped him shreds, pointing out that the song they had played before was "old stuff", and speculated that the song he played was older than the heckling spore. Great Stuff. New material is promised later this year, so one waits.
(Permalink) Sunday, March 29, 2009 1 comments

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Grauniad's 1000 songs You must Hear

Every so often the Graun runs a week long list of 100 such and such things you must read/hear/choke on, with a conscience absence of the "before you die" suffix, presumably to absolve themselves from liability for condemning some poor hure to purgatory for not getting around to getting round to buying that obscure Icelandic band's fourth album that only came out on vinyl.

Anyhoo, last week, they did songs, and the accompanying website had a nifty Javascript thing that allowed you record your progress, so in a characteristic swathe of self-aggrandeur, the Egodeity presents the tracks he has heard, thus far:

1000 songs everyone must hear

Love: part one of 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 55 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 139

Love: part one of 1000 songs everyone must hear





1000 songs everyone must hear

Heartbreak: part two of 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 46 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 145

Heartbreak: part two of 1000 songs everyone must hear





1000 songs everyone must hear

People and places: part three of 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 33 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 145

People and places: part three of 1000 songs everyone must hear





1000 songs everyone must hear

Sex: part four of 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 43 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 131

Sex: part four of 1000 songs everyone must hear





1000 songs everyone must hear

Politics and protest: part five of 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 50 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 141

Politics and protest: part five of 1000 songs everyone must hear





1000 songs everyone must hear

Life and death: 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 35 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 131

Life and death: 1000 songs everyone must hear





1000 songs everyone must hear

Party songs: part seven of 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 58 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 162

Party songs: part seven of 1000 songs everyone must hear

(Permalink) Tuesday, March 24, 2009 0 comments

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bobby McGee's promote Channel 4

The Bobby McGee's are another perrenial favourite of the Egodeity, and he rejoices at any indication that they are getting more exposure. Today is one such day. You know Channel 4, the channel who once was the bain of middle England because of the risque nature of its output, but has sinced mellowed so that it is now considered mainstream, yet still tries to convince people that its edgy and and uses racists on Big Brother to try to prove it? Well, they have produced a trailer for their film channel, Film4, and guess whose music provides the background?



Now it is up to you, the legions of Egodeists to pester Radio 1 and other such outlets of popular music with emails and texts asking, "what's that song in the new Film 4 ad?" You are free to ask other questions related to this subject, such as, "What film is Steve Martin in?" "Why does Steve Martic still insist on pursuing a career?" "Is there any form of appropriate retribution for Cheaper by the Dozen, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, or The Pink Panther? Public hanging seems to tame."
(Permalink) Wednesday, February 11, 2009 0 comments
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