Displacement activity while writing up great thoughts on aid, the media etc

So I turn my attention to really weighty matters instead....and imagine Mr Darcy at the cinema...

Now back to guerilla aid workers, parachute journalists and Susan D Moeller.

Is nothing sacred?

Fantastic story here on Media Guardian about the latest Blue Peter woes here. The BBC denies it. What I want to know is what the inappropriate name for the cat is....

Today and celebrity

Interesting programme this morning. How far should Today get involved with celebrities? Inamidst all the Northern Wreck stuff there was an interview with supermodel Naomi Campbell (who incidentally has a voice made for radio) who showed how she has stayed at the top by effortlessly dismissing any discussion over size zero etc and even managed to get James Naughtie to discuss push up bras (at which point I have to admit I was hiding under the table whimpering 'no no no I do NOT want to hear Naughtie musing about such things)
But that was followed by an excellent interview with Graeme Le Saux and the last taboo in football - being gay. Le Saux said he wasn't but had endured years of barracking because he was seen as an outsider and because he read the Guardian.
Nothing new in homophobia in football but it did make me think that if you substituted sexual orientation with race, how utterly unacceptable the kind of stuff Le Saux has put up with is. (Football has made an effort with the kick out racism campaign). And saddest of all was when Le Saux, asked what he would advise a young player who was gay....and he said that he would advise him to keep quiet.
The interview however ended with one of the best liners I've heard on the programme for some time, but it was indicative of the pressure that Le Saux felt under. Caroline Quinn asked Le Saux if he thought he had chosen the wrong career. Le Saux laughed and said "Maybe I just chose the wrong newspaper."

Floods in South Asia

AlertNet's view

Live Earth


It's such a tough life being a journalist. I had to spend the whole of Saturday at Wembley watching the Live Earth concert for the Washington Post.
Pop gods: Madonna, Foo Fighters, Kasabian
Childhood dream: Duran Duran (but blimey, a testament to what too much of a rock'n'roll lifestyle can do for you)
Worth hearing: Beastie Boys, Keane
Genius like moment: Spinal Tap
Hugely inappropriate: Que sera sera by Rice and Gray; Geri Halliwell thinking recycling is plugging the Spice Girls in her intro
Wallpaper: James Blunt, Corinne Bailey Rae, Bloc Party
Lapdancer lookalikes: Pussycat Dolls

This is the piece,.. The Mac irritatingly has gone back to not letting me link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/07/AR2007070701201.html

Online marches on

Roy Greenslade on a new study that shows how seriously newspapers are now taking online operations.