The Indie goes Decent
Roger Alton, the former editor of the Observer who made it the mouthpiece of Decency, has now been appointed to edit the Independent. Of course the Indie's Iraq coverage has been rather good but completely inDecent, courtesy of Patrick Cockburn. (And then there's the small matter of the Indie's Lebanon-based Middle East correspondent.)
Those who make the money decisions at the Indie must think that catering to the "I used to be a Trot but now I'm a Blairite" demographic makes sound commercial sense.
Those who make the money decisions at the Indie must think that catering to the "I used to be a Trot but now I'm a Blairite" demographic makes sound commercial sense.
posted by Captain Cabernet at 4/10/2008 08:59:00 AM
9 Comments:
I doubt Roger Alton's Decentist leanings even entered in the decision to hire him or not.
Alton is pretty right wing (he used to go out with Maggie Thatcher's daughter), and so liked the decents from an "apolitical" toryish/rightwing labour point of view, but he is not committed to their politics or any politics. His main contribution to the Indie will be to do with adding more colour, more features etc. So its not totally bad news for politics, nor totally good news either: Its not quite like, say, having John Lloyd made editor.
Having seen the Observer slither down the celebrity ladder ("eco concerns of the famous") to become more like a right-centrist version of the Mail, I can hardly wait. I shout at it more than the tele now. I think I only read it for Keegan, Caulkin and Naughton in the Business Pages now.
Didn't Alton leave the Observer some time ago? Has it made any difference?
Didn't Alton leave the Observer some time ago? Has it made any difference?
None whatsoever. in fact the review has got a lot worse. I've stopped buying it.
o/t, I am shocked and disgusted by the lack of coverage of Islamo-fascist Awareness Week both on this blog and absolutely everywhere else. Hopefully, editor Roger Alton will be able to do a better publicity job for next year.
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/islamo-fascism-awareness-week/141/student-guide-to-islamo-fascism-awareness-week-ii/
Glad to see Simon Kelner will still be around. The laddish Alton will be kept in check - he won't be allowed to take the paper too far to the right.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23476115-details/Balls+is+firing+blanks+in+the+class+war+over+our+schools/article.do
Nick Cohen stands to the right of Ed Balls (!): Balls complaints about state schools demanding money from parents and interviews with mum & dad before admission were , according to Nick, bad for meritocracy (!?) - This is pure melaniephillips, and possibly a seal of Dacre
Word is that Johan Hari is also baout to be named New Statesman editor. The march of decency goes on!
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