Entertainment

Breaking news EXPLAINED

Say no more… found via Frontline blogger Mike Hills who is in Beirut and blogs with us here.

End Times at The New York Times

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c End Times thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview   The Daily Show take a tour of the offices of the New York Times. If you want to know what’s black and white and red all over… watch the […]

Meanwhile… in other shoes

Al Zeidi, the now infamous journalist who threw his shoes at outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush, is honoured in artistic fibreglass and copper in Tikrit this week. Artist Laith al Amari has created a giant shoe in honour of Al Zeidi and the Iraqi people. The sculpture is inscribed with a poem paying tribute […]

The ultimate frontline camera

You’ve got until February 3rd to bid for the above on eBay. The ‘Paillard Bolex H8 Military Gun outfit’ is possibly the most bizarre camera you’re ever likely to come across. The blurb on the online auction site says it’s a “Very interesting and Rare military Gun outfit delivered for Vietnam War reporter” Was it […]

CNN vs. Joe the War Correspondent

I said I wouldn’t say anything more about Joe the War Correspondent. And I won’t. But, CNN’s Rick Sanchez does have something to say to the war correspondent who thinks “media should be abolished from reporting”.

Media should be abolished from reporting

I really do not know what to say about this guy… Why don’t we all just give up and go home? Joe the plumber/war correspondent/all round idiot says War is no place for journalists. You’ve got to admit, this is probably the first, the last and the only time you’ll ever hear a “war correspondent” […]

How many countries can you name?

In seasonal quiz news for foreign correspondents… How many countries can you name? I had three attempts, the best result I managed was my first attempt – a pretty pathetic 74 out of a possible 195. Happy new year one and all. If you’re finding the time limit’s a wee bit tight on this game, […]

Cool down in Kabul

In Kabul, blazing hot, need to cool down, head to the local ice cream parlour and order yourself a Shir Yakh. No idea if it tastes any good, but SBS reporter Yalda Hakim got to try one as she returns to her birthplace, Kabul and blogs in words, pictures and video what she finds there, […]

Grim outlook for BBC says John Simpson

BBC World Affairs Editor and Frontline Club regular, John Simpson, was talking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival when he turned on his paymaster of the last 42 years, “The future? Well, I don’t think that it’s going to look very good for the BBC. I think the BBC we have known, for good or worse, […]

Welcome to Khartoum

[video:youtube:uA3FOuo8iDo] The reassuring voice of air traffic control as you land in Khartoum International Airport courtesy of Blake Evans-Pritchard, “I must apologise for the time it took for us to taxi across the runway,” announced the pilot once we had touched down in Khartoum’s airport – already, his voice was dripping with sarcasm. “There were […]

It’s split

[video:youtube:KTkqosRiyYo] Roy Greenslade points us to a FOX News election straw poll taken in what looks like your average American diner in Northeastern Pennsylvania. “It’s split,” says the journalist. Really?

How does Sarah Palin form her world view? Easy, she doesn’t

[video:youtube:wBttm2hOhhY] I’m not sure this blog can take another dose of Sarah Palin, but here goes. Click the above clip forward on the video above to the 3 minute mark to discover exactly how the Republican Vice Presidential candidate in one of the most important US elections ever forms her world view. If you can’t […]

Our next door neighbours are foreign countries

[video:youtube:nokTjEdaUGg] I didn’t want to post this here… but I have to. If there’s one thing that impacts the work of foreign correspondents and war reporters more than any other it is US foreign policy. Should the Republican party win the US election in November Sarah Palin will become Vice President. She got her first […]

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker, a film about a US bomb disposal team, premieres in Venice this coming week. War correspondent Mark Boal wrote the script having been embedded with a bomb disposal team in Iraq in 2004. He talked to The Independent about the film, “These men do this every day. The demands of the job […]

Scooter ride too dangerous for war reporter

Lyse Doucet hits the headlines again today. The BBC, terrified the frontline war reporter would hurt herself, refused to allow her to ride a Vespa PX125 for a radio show on EU pollution policy. Simply too dangerous, “She’s been to the most dangerous war zones yet some twit with a clipboard tells her a scooter’s […]

Dancing more dangerous than war reporting

John Sergeant, the former political editor of ITN, says he has suffered more injuries preparing for the next series of the TV show Strictly Come Dancing than he ever did as a war correspondent for the BBC, “I’ve injured both my left and right foot – more injuries than I ever had when I was […]

In the 21st century…

Two great clips via Mohamed Nanabhay, Head of New Media at the AlJazeera Network. All about Georgia, Iraq, politics, the west and ‘stuff’… say no more. Just go over and take a peek.

Cullen comes up a thousand deutsche marks short

Kevin Cullen, columnist on the Boston Globe, remembers an incident in Montenegro with Dave Lynch, a reporter for USA Today, and how the BBC hoodwinked them out of a seat on the plane to Serbia, We found ourselves in a seedy bar in Podgorica, the gray capital of Montenegro, asking for a gangster named Momo. […]

Know your DBIEDs from your HBIEDs

Deborah Haynes, Baghdad Correspondent for The Times, navigates the world of military acronymns, As a journalist, I spend a fair amount of time asking someone to translate into real English (or at least real American English) what is being said when on an embed with soldiers. link Even so, Haynes does a fine job of […]

In a Perfect world…

I’m an avid user of Google News, but I’m not sure I’ll ever see a day when the front page looks like this. via cyberjournalist

Hostile environment training for student journalists

[video:youtube:FxinugZalOA] Student Steve Lestrange reports from a Hostile Environment training course undertaken by University College Falmouth MA International Journalism students. Doesn’t sound quite as hair-raising as the Reuters equivalent, but the weather looks worse.

I was your editor once

[video:youtube:3U06nqagtyc] Lessons in how not to be a reporter: Lesson 1 – I was your editor once.

Islamist insurgent warlords for dummies

Rob takes on a ride through the 21st century dictionary for confused journalists dumped into Middle eastern lexical hell. Don’t know your insurgents form your islamists? Your war lords from your al Qaeda operatives? You soon will with Rob’s handy tip sheet. And while we’re on the topic… Just when did the term insurgent become […]

Been in Afghanistan too long?

[video:youtube:Jev5YJWJv0o] Michael Tomberlin lists ten telltale warning signs you should watch out for if you think you’ve been in Afghanistan too long. The number one reason, he says, is when you find yourself doing something like the above video… But I quite liked reason number 9, You think a burqa is an appropriate anniversary gift. […]

Journalism is a dangerous business

Colin Farrell to play war photographer

Irish actor Colin Farrell headed to Bosnia at the weekend to get a taste for how it felt to be a war reporter during the war during the early 1990s. Farrell will play a war photographer in a new film called Triage. The film is directed by the Bosnian cinematographer Danis Tanovic who won an […]

The old crusty reporter is not appearing any more

[video:youtube:E7Zj_dNwOdk] Now, here’s a really tough assignment for a group of journalists. Go find some bars full of journalists and report on them… The Wall Street Journal goes coast to coast across the United States and over to Fleet Street in London to look at some famed journalist drinking dens and how things have changed […]

Kill the cliché

You can’t write for toffee? Your sub-editor’s out to lunch and your newspaper style guide’s as old as the hills? A new website called Kill the cliché aims to name, shame and hang, draw and quarter overuse of clichés in newspapers. Currently the world news sections of six major American newspapers get the search engine […]

A short guide to Iraq

In 1943 the American military issued a pamphlet to guide their soldiers in Iraq. The GI Pamphlet blog discovered a copy in an old trunk and has re-published it in full, We found this historical gem in an old trunk which was crammed with my mother’s World War II keepsakes. As a US Marine lieutenant, […]

Calling all angry journalists

Self explanatory… You’re a journalist… You need to vent… Now you have a place to do it. Anonymously.