Back for good

I've returned from the essential (ahem) research trip to Wengen full of good intentions, although I woke up feeling down this morning. I was in Oxford yesterday at the RISJ where I took in a seminar on the Canadian press 1890-1930 by Gene Allen. I was struck by one thing he said

"Newspapers do not tell you what to think; they tell you what to think about"

Now up to a point Lord Copper. The example Allen used was that papers tell you not whether Gordon Brown is a good PM or not, but the fact they write so many stories about him that he is someone you ought to be thinking about.

This may be true of the Canadian press in 1930 but I'm not sure that it still stands in the British press of 2008.

My favourite question of the day was from John Kelly (as always) who asked Prof Allen about the demise of the bus plunge story (see this reference to Slate.com)

Meanwhile, Matt (see above) as always provides the best commentary on l'affaire Derek Conway.....