Torin Douglas
is the BBC's media correspondent. Twitter: @BBCTorinD
Blog posts in total 13
Posts
What the press coverage of Prince Harry tells us
The UK press has declined to print pictures of Prince Harry naked in a Las Vegas hotel room. What does this say about British media in the midst of the Leveson Inquiry?
After the Olympic highs, has normal media service been resumed?
After 17 days of Olympic-induced euphoria and goodwill, the afterglow has almost faded.
24-hour news or 'never wrong for long'?
'Never wrong for long' has added impetus in the age of Twitter as some of the media become more desperate to be first with the news.
BBC local radio: don't cut the programmes, cut 'the suits'
John Myers, an independent media consultant and Chief Executive of the Radio Academy, talked to me about his recent report on BBC Local Radio. He was asked to investigate the potential for efficiency savings following the recommendation of budget cuts in the BBC's own Delivering Quality First ex...
24-hour news or 'never wrong for long'?
'Never wrong for long' has added impetus in the age of Twitter as some of the media become more desperate to be first with the news.
'Look away now' - BAFTAs, spoilers and Twitter
As I sat down to watch the BAFTAs on BBC1, I got an anguished email from a TV drama producer (and former member of the BAFTA council). "This is ridiculous! I am about to settle down to watch the BAFTA Film Awards, on the edge of my seat, and the BBC has the results on the News website which,...
How the papers over-egged BBC cuts reports
Devil and Detail 3: An occasional series highlighting stories that are not all they seem. With all due respect to MediaGuardian, I don't think it added to the sum of human understanding with its coverage of the latest BBC cuts announcements. Its first story was headed "BBC Trust chair: we ma...
Vince Cable, media business and journalistic ethics
Vince Cable's "wild remarks" - as the Sun calls them - raise all sorts of media issues. Some are quite clear-cut. He was rightly removed from his quasi-judicial role in deciding whether News Corporation's bid for BSkyB should be allowed to go ahead. That job has been given to the Culture ...
When is a paywall not a paywall? When it's ajar
The news that the Daily Telegraph is likely to charge online readers for some of its content was revealed by FT.com, which itself charges its readers. This meant that many people could not read the full story - an irony not lost on those frantically tweeting the news. This was a pity because o...
Devil and Detail 2
If you read this morning's papers (Mail, Telegraph, Independent), you may think that the BBC unions have called a strike for 6 October, the day that David Cameron is expected to give his speech at the Conservative Party conference. This is not actually the case - they have threatened one, not ca...
Comedian's plea: cut the jokiness from politics reporting
Is political reporting trivialising politics? Chris Addison, the stand-up comedian who plays Ollie Reeder in The Thick of It, claims it's not satire that has degraded politics but politicians and the news media. Writing in this week's New Statesman, he says journalists and politicians should "...
The original Goldsmith masterclass
Simon Ford said Zac Goldsmith's dramatic interview with Jon Snow on Channel 4 News was described as a 'masterclass'. But the real masterclass took place more than 30 years ago when Zac's father, Sir James Goldsmith, appeared on the Money Programme. Goldsmith pere was a controversial businessm...
Devil and details
"Far be it for me to downplay any threat to the licence fee - particularly given yesterday's outbreak of support on Twitter, at #proudoftheBBC - but how many people have actually read Jeremy Hunt's interview with the Daily Telegraph? Did he really say: "The broadcaster has been responsible...
