X MARKS SPOT AS RIVAL REPEATS ELECTION ERROR
Eyebrows were raised at the Belfast-based Irish News when rival
Daily Ireland failed to carry the full list of Westminster election
results from the previous day in its edition of Saturday 7 May. The
complete figures for the Northern Ireland constituencies were carried
in the Irish News that day, but did not appear in Daily Ireland until
Monday 9 May.
So considerable attention was paid to coverage of the Northern
Ireland district council poll, which took place on Thursday 5 May
(general election day), but was not counted until the following Monday.
The
Irish News again ran the full list of available results, compiled by
staff journalists, on Tuesday 10 May but, mysteriously, a format in
strikingly similar house style was not used in Daily Ireland for a
further 24 hours.
Related
All became clear when it emerged that an
unfortunate typographical error had crept into the Irish News
statistics of 10 May with one successful Belfast candidate, Paul Maskey
of Sinn Fein, also wrongly included in the entirely separate entry for
Moyle district council.
When Daily Ireland produced its version
of the council results a day later, the ubiquitous Mr Maskey popped up
– you’ve guessed it – in both Belfast and Moyle.
Irish News
editor Noel Doran said: “I’d like to thank Daily Ireland for the trust
it has displayed in the outstanding election service provided by the
Irish News. The bill is in the post…”
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Bob’s the job for budding actors
Former Mirror news editor Tom Hendry, former Mail on Sunday crime
reporter (and recently Harrod’s press officer) Chester Stern and former
European sports editor Andrew Warshaw are keen on acting in Terry
Pattinson’s full-length black comedy next year about the life of
pensions fraudster and MGN publisher Robert Maxwell, who died in 1991.
Since Dog’s story about Pattinson’s project, he has been sent many
anecdotes from readers and former Fleet Street staffers about ‘Cap’n
Bob’. He said: “I will try to weave the funniest material into the
script. I do not want to leave anything out, he said.
“Maxwell
was a monster and everybody who met him has a story to tell. The play
is finished but there is always scope for lastminute re-writes… just
like in the newsroom.
Auditions and a reading will be held early
next year. Chester and Andrew appear to have a lot of acting experience
behind them while Tom Hendry says he has been an actor all his life.”
Pattinson
will be looking for somebody to play… former NUJ father-of-the-chapel
Terry Pattinson… because he will be taking the part of former miners’
leader Arthur Scargill.
IT’S A GREAT DISPLAY FROM THE WEE FELLA UP FRONT
The Lynn News and Advertiser is just the latest regional paper to
fall foul of footballing “humour” after an extra member found its way
into a team picture on the sports pages.
But its cock-up came to light in a rather public way, after an
enlargement of the offending picture was put on display in the window
of the paper’s offices in King’s Lynn, and an outraged passerby
complained.
Caught by the net
Is The Times running out of ideas for its diary column, wonders BBC
Wales Parliamentary correspondent David Cornock. Its item headlined
“Get In There” from 17 May certainly does bear a striking
resemblance to his weblog four days earlier. “You’d think it’d be able
to change the odd phrase or insert an original joke of its own!”
IBM BOSS HAS CHIP ON HIS SHOULDER
Mark Turner, the editor of Service Management magazine, was recently
invited to the European Conference on Customer Management. He was
particularly interested in seeing a talk by Lou Gerstner, the former
head of IBM.
Unfortunately Lou had other ideas and had no intention of being heard by – let alone speaking to – any journalists.
Before
accepting an invite to attend as a journalist Turner was required by
the conference public relations office to make a formal declaration.
“Re:
Lou Gerstner, if you can just email back saying ‘I confirm that I will
not be attending the session held by Lou Gerstner'(!) that would be great :o),” said the email.
A
puzzled Turner said: “Who would have thought that the former head of
one of the world’s biggest information companies would be so sensitive
– bless.”
Have the subs at the Bucks
Examiner been on some sort of uplifting motivational course? Their
favourite word appeared in three headlines in the 12 May edition.
Inspirational.
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