The Sun is about to announce it has axed its under fire diary column, The Whip, I understand from sources close to Wapping. As regular readers will know, I was not exactly a fan of a column which persistently filched stories from blogs and elsewhere, sometimes word for word, with no attribution. Things had improved markedly over the last six months in that respect, but The Whip was never really one thing or the other. It was an uncomfortable mix of political and showbiz gossip which never really quite worked.
The Whip's two staff, who included editor Katherine Bergen, left the paper at the end of last week and are not being replaced according to my source.
21 comments:
Bloody good riddance. Load of pinched rubbish.
The column had it coming then.
Hi Iain, you should take a look in the Times Diary - two pieces lifted from your blog yesterday.
Is this the start of a leftie clearout? Bet it is! Old Rupe is sniffing the coffee.
Squiffy - assuming Iain didn't place the Times stories himself (for cash), or that they weren't from a common source, or that they weren't just out there, once published they're published. Diaries actually don't do hat tips that much. And Iain is not the most generous hat tipper of all time himself.
From my point of view the loss of any outlet for stringers to sell story tips is not something to be triumphal about.
The Whip had some good stories as well as dross and filler. And some credit/blame for the mix would have to go to the editorial direction which was 90% A List orientated. Household names or at least references to well known stories.
It's The Sun for goodness sake!
Katherine has never deserved the inexplicable Dale vendetta IMO. Perhaps he could now explain how that first arose?
Presumably I've no chance of recouping the unpaid story tips now ...!
PS More important. What's happened to Pendennis in the Observer? Any reason the current lack of that wasn't covered?
Chris Paul breaks the record for the number of factual inaccuracies or misjudgements in a blogpost.
1. I don't sell stories to diaries.
2. I don't offer stories to diaries.
3. Reputable diaries do source stuff usually.
4. I always hattip, and if I omit to do so in error, always add one if it is pointed out.
5. I was not being triumphal. I wrote a straight piece.
6. There was no vendetta. I pointed out when I thought they had got it wrong or failed to hattip.
Apart from that, spot on!
No loss - nothing to see here - move along please...
REPORT JACQUI FOR FRAUD You know you want to....
The Sun has recently started to change its support for labour, they are gearing up for the election. Maybe this clear out is part of the change of approach
Why does Chris Paul have to be so miserable?
Oh he's a lefty. Of course ....
The axe wielding Sun...
Now that is a story equivalent to man bites dog!
Murdoch has announced he intends to charge for access to online newspapers. People will go to blogs for news for free!
I don't know The Whip but the People column in the Times always carries stories filched from the blogs. There are 2 today - one acknowledged and one not. They should change the name to Yesterday's Old Gossip.
This story was in the standard media section last night.
It may not disappear as a column -
chris buckland used to write a lot of stuff presumably he is still there. editor's use column's like this as a nuclear threat ie if another paper writes anything about their proprieter or staff then they can use this column to retaliate.
so it was never about content. and they have laid off people before - eg Tara Hamilton Miller.
perhaps you have more details Iain ???
My information is that it is being axed completely.
I really wouldn't try to upset the Murdoch press if I were you, Iain. If you annoy him enough, you won't be allowed to do your newspaper reviews on Sky News whilst drooling over Anna Booting anymore. ;-)
"Chris Paul breaks the record for the number of factual inaccuracies or misjudgements in a blogpost."So no change there, then.
The whip was a piss-poor column largely made up of stuff nicked from elsewhere....ie; you, Guido et al
I can't understand how it survived as long as it did.
The Newspaper proprietors must know that the writing is one the wall by now.
It may be a bit premature yet but the day will come when, "It Wozn't The Sun Wot wun it." but Guido, Iian and co
Chris Paul : "assuming Iain didn't place the Times stories himself (for cash), or that they weren't from a common source, or that they weren't just out there, once published they're published."
Cobblers. The text remains the intellectual property of the originator, whether published or not. If that were not the case, there would not be a book nor a piece of music on earth, protected from plagiarism.
Why do you think that so many vids are removed from YouTube? According to you, once a vid is published, anyone can use it, so none would ever be removed. Those vids were removed because the owner of the IP rights complained that his copyright was being infringed - and he was correct (which is why they were removed).
Mr Dale,
I just love "Apart from that,spot on!"
Cruel!
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