Articles by Stephen Hopkins

Griffin complaint over BBC ‘mob’ It’s hard to feel much sympathy for Nick Griffin, the leader of the right-wing British National Party, whose controversial appearance on Question Time last night…

Parliament and free speech: The right to know The Minton report If ever anyone were still sanguine about the right of free speech in this country, the débâcle this week…

David Elstein: Murdoch “riled” by Ofcom According to David Elstein, formerly of, inter alia, the BBC, Thames and Channel 5, Ofcom’s “devastating” and “unanswerable” report of a couple of months…

Dear BBC: No, you can’t have my £142.50. Will I see you in court? There are really only two ways to view Mr Moore’s outburst of civil disobedience. It is…

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but the treatment of the weather bulletins on Today is getting increasingly shabby. This morning just before eight was breathtaking, even by…

BBC funding should be cut, report says We will restore science to its rightful place, roll back the spectre of a warming planet. We will harness the sun and the…

Sky Won’t Screen Gaza Aid Appeal So Sky News has joined the BBC in deciding not to screen the Gaza appeal. Given that ITV, Channel 4 and Five, which have…

Apologies, people of Gaza – the BBC is a bit jumpy lately It is sometimes said, rightly or wrongly, that the BBC and the Guardian newspaper are a good fit….

“Here comes counsel for the picaninny.” You wouldn’t get away with such language today. Not even a public servant – and even the most obnoxious guard of the cells below…

BBC News: Baby P official fired without pay So it’s happened again. A scandal, a press hullabaloo, the demanding of heads, the swish of the metaphorical axe and said heads…

BBC News: Clarkson joke cleared by watchdog Joking about truck… sorry, lorry drivers killing prostitutes was bound to offend some people. The murder by Steve Wright, a lorry driver, of…

Re-regulation mustn’t go too far

A past more interesting than the present

Mail editor accuses Mosley judge As other EMC writers will confirm, I sometimes get into trouble for championing (some) Daily Mail values and the rules of polite society in an…

Brand quits BBC over prank calls The resignation of Russell Brand from the BBC can hardly be good for the Corporation. He is – I’ll try not to choke on…

The main story occupying the attentions of the Westminster village, if not the wider public, this week was that of George Osborne, and his escapades on the yacht of a…

The Economist: Capitalism at bay Richard G Elen wrote recently on this blog about the financial crisis sweeping the world. The Thatcher/Reagan economic experiment was a disaster; it is time…

The premium rate phone scandal, continued

It’s not been a good few years for Talk Sport, the station that former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie fashioned in his old newspaper’s image after buying Talk Radio in 1998…

Here’s a question for you: What is Google best known for? Is it a) Web services b) Industrial manufacturing c) Food recipies If you think you know the answer (ha!)…

Selling off bits of Beeb

A top-sliced licence fee will trigger the BBC’s destruction Whether de-coupling the licence fee from the BBC is the way forward or not (and I personally have my doubts), I…

In-Programme Pointers are here to stay.

40% of adults pray, says survey “Britain is the most atheistic country on earth, thank God.” Thus Nick Cohen – capital “G” and all, quoted in “Pretty Straight Guys” some…

I know the MediaBlog usually concerns itself with the broadcast variety, but technically the media includes the press, so I’ll chance it. It was hilarious listening to Trevor Kavanagh on…

Radio 4: a personal history

Has the BBC lost its way?

Channel 4 accused of ‘distortion’ Not for the first time, we have a broadcaster using events out of sequence and out of context to create the impression it wanted. The…

BBC corrupted by Microsoft In its defence, it’s not exactly the BBC’s fault that a) it’s faced with a choice between DRM-protected downloads and no downloads at all, and b)…

BBC error ‘no reason to resign’ Oh no, not again. It’s not been a good few years for the BBC. WMD; “sexing up” claims; David Kelly; Hutton; resignations at the…

http://www.rsf.org Following on from the very welcome news that the BBC reporter Alan Johnston has been released, I think this would be a good time to reflect on the dangerous…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6763205.stm On the way home Friday evening, The Now Show, among its other targets, took a pot-shot at ITV. One of the comics spoke about a visit he’d made in…

Life and the media – then and now

Regular readers of EMC MediaBlog will recall that the BBC decided to spin off BBC Broadcast, its broadcast arm, as a self-contained company. Now called Red Bee Media, the former…

The end of the BBC as we know it?

Life on Mars Apart from the retro continuity, mucking about with Test Card F and other trivia of interest to us pres geeks, Life on Mars offers a fascinating look…

Joy at direct hit turns to horror Until The Sun published the DVD at the centre of the inquest into the death of Corporal Matty Hull, the Pentagon was still…

Anyone who, having just arrived back from a visit abroad, switched on Radio 4’s The World Tonight last Friday (19 January 2007) would have been forgiven for thinking that a…

Wave farewell to AM radio, say experts The Telegraph talks of “the higher quality of digital broadcasts”. Compared with? FM? Erm… potentially, yes; unfortunately, most stations on DAB are streamed…

Regional federalism was the foundation of ITV. Should we mourn its passing? Maybe not.

Reality television, talent shows and the reality of television talent

How the unions ruined Thames and destroyed themselves

Stephen Hopkins on the mess ITV has made for itself

The ruination of ITV, seen by Stephen Hopkins