14 September 2008

Media Diet Week 37

Warning: this will be a very thin one.

Press: I have not read a paper for a whole week! There, I've said it. I left home last Sunday lunchtime and didn't return till very late on Tuesday night. Normally on a Sunday I'd be stuck into The Observer and the News of the World, but I had no time last week as I was packing to go away. Monday and Tuesday I had limited access to the net so my time online was limited to scanning my email for anything urgent. Wednesday I was back home, looking at a day filled with playing catch-up. I was vaguely aware that it was Big Bang Day but didn't have the energy to pay a lot of attention. Anyway, I don't seem to have been sucked into a black hole yet. Not that sort, anyway. By Thursday I was simply out of the habit of reading the news and although I planned to resume today, it hasn't happened. Living without the news is a bit weird at first, then you sort of stop caring. But no doubt I'll be back to normal tomorrow.

Blogs: likewise, I've been out of touch with the blogosphere. Not much seems to be happening, apart from Sally blocking a troll at Getting Ink, and rightly so. Oh, and the Guardian's blogs all moved house, sort of. Anyway, they're all in one spot now, which is handy.

TV/radio: being away meant missing half of EastEnders. I planned to catch up on the omnibus but life got in the way. The second half got interesting, though, with a couple of very juicy and lengthy storylines in the offing about revenge and paedophilia (not necessarily linked). I was tickled to learn from the BBC's press releases that Tom Archer is to be appointed Controller of Factual Production. Sadly, the real Tom Archer is still raising pigs in Ambridge. I've watched very little else but did tune into Radio 4 for the Torchwood drama on Big Bang Day. Excellent stuff.

Books: I'm still no further forward with Alistair Campbell's Blair Years diaries. I have a long train trip coming up next weekend so I plan to attempt another chunk. At this rate, I might finish them by Xmas. I did take yesterday off to finish Spider, which was quite good on tension but I was able to guess the plot all too easily. I'm now about 3 pages into Piers Morgan's Don't You Know Who I Am?. Review next week.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your choice of books leaves something to be desired. As a freelance journalist, are you unaware that some freelances were left severely out of pocket after the collapse of Piers Morgan's company, Press Gazette Limited? We don't want to read a review of his scribblings on this blog. Please put your book-purchasing cash into someone else's pocket.
Creditor

Unknown said...

As a freelance journalist, I reserve the right to read whichever books by other journalists I choose. I don't have to like them (or their books) or agree with them but it's not up to anyone else to dictate what I should or shouldn't read, whether that's Piers Morgan or some Mills and Boon romance author. I also reserve the right to blog about my reading choices on here - it's my blog, after all. You don't have to read my potted reviews if you don't wish to.

Of course I'm aware of what happened to Press Gazette - not just when Morgan was co-owner but also more recently (cf my posts on why I cancelled my subscription last month). As freelances, sadly, being left out of pocket is a risk all of us run every day with many publications. I'm sorry that happened to you with PG but please don't take your grievances out on me - your energy might be better spent pitching other publications to earn back the money you lost when Morgan's company went under.