Newsnig8t

A balance sheet of the blog

1. A blog is born: We did not so much break the BBC rules when setting up the blog but shimmied through them like Tana Umaga. Having been assigned to cover the protests around Gleneagles I decided to do a "proof of concept" blog and show it to the editor. He liked it, our web editor got it signed off and that was it. Apparently the BBC bosses had just had a big awayday where they decided to stop being clipboard merchants and prioritise innovation, so no-one felt like nixing it. And yet there was nothing that said it should be allowed. As one person put it: "this is outside the BBC universe" - and I thought: that puts it rather well...

Media critics get to work

Thanks to Yesbutnobut for these links to a Mediamatters, a blog which has followed Fox News coverage of the question: how would the London bombs impact the G8 summit. Link 1. Link 2. Link 3. It's worth pointing out that Mediamatters is dedicated to being on the case of Fox journalists, just as BiasedBBC is there to point out the inadequacies of the organisation I work for. There are 95 comments on that site's story on 7/7, which form a kind rolling commentary on Newsnight on the night of the bombings.

The communique, the responses, the row

The G8 Communique has been published (PDF) and Make Poverty History has issued its response: critical but supportive. The World Development Movement response is considerably angrier. Friends of the Earth described it as "talk no action". Paragraph 31 is being welcomed as a move away from aid conditionality. Free healthcare (paragraph 17) is also being seen as a concession by the USA...

Blogging the bombs

Now something strange has happened. The blogosphere and mobile phone mpegs are reporting the bombing, and capturing the zeitgeist in its complex reality, in a different way than the broadcast media - which are all being excellent, by the way. The Guardian Media journos have just rung me to talk about this and we agree it is a phenomenon: seeing mpegs on the BBC 10 O'clock News was just the tip of the iceberg.

Jump straight into the following: a survivor of the Edgware Road bomb recounts the full horror; Letter to the Terrorists picks up the zeitgeist of beer and stoicism; Perfect (one of this blog's regular trackbackers) is on the case, while Yesbutnobut seems to be aggregating bomb blogs. Europhobia picks up a common theme of refusing to be deflected from the G8 agenda, posting pictures of starving African kids, saying:

"23:20 - Nearly time for bed. All I ask is that we don't forget the others who have died today, from whom those ******* terrorists managed to distract our attention."

Sitting at Edinburgh airport yesterday I decided to suspend the blog: while blogging was proving a good way of creating a little ecosphere around my broadcast reports this was something different. But as it turns out the blogosphere has sprung to life around the bombing in a way it really did not around the G8...

The world changes...

In view of the events in London, the blog is temporarily suspended. I will try to do a summary of current G8 material, and yesterday, once the situation is clearer. Instinct says carry on and do justice to the G8 story: Blair says he is planning to fly back to Gleneagles. But I may get deployed elsewhere. Apologies for all the typos yesterday - hard to txt in a riot.
Regards to all. >>Filed from my P910i

See my report on today's demonstrations at 11pm BBC2.

Viewers in Scotland will have to switch to digital or view it on the web. >>Filed from my P910i

4pm - The march moves slowly past the Summit fence

>>Filed from my P910i

The march begins

>>Filed from my P910i

Auchtearder rocks to infernal noise

The current line is that the march in Auchterarder is delayed. There are many coaches being held back accirding to my contacts, on the road here. Along the A9 straggling groups of clowns being shepherded by police. The ocialist youth of the ISR livened things up by having a quick 100m march of their ow. It is fairly orderly and peaceful. Paradoxically, the Dissent people who didn't want to be here have ended up here - while a lot of the socialists who are involved in organsing it are not. That could cause problems later I think. The clowns have just held a press conference: "We want the whole bakery: another cake is possible!" Welcome to what US neocons call the reality based community! >>Filed from my P910i

What's H in Russian?

The Dissent group from last night are now in sight of the fence. As a chopper overflies them they lie in the grass and make an H. But it seems to be a Hind - the Rusian chopper with a lot of rotor blades. They shout: "Hello Putin" >>Filed from my P910i