I was talking to a late employee of the PA news factory at Howden recently and he told me any attempt to write witty headlines was unappreciated and they were quickly changed for the banal.
On the other hand, what do you expect when you pay peanuts? It's been a source of concern to the NUJ for years.
Among those doing time there in recent months are youngsters on the Sun's subbing course. Fortunately they also get parole on provincial papers which shows them there is life after death.
OK. Bill Deedes died aged 94. He worked on the Telegraph for about 70-odd years, a some time editor, and died half way through a piece for the paper on Darfur. He was a former cabinet minister and a military hero and acquired a following through Private Eye's fictively satirical Dear Bill column in which Mrs Thatcher's Denis wrote to his old pal Bill about golf, politics, snifters and all sorts of other things - it was quite funny. Evelyn Waugh based his character William Boot in Scoop on Bill - the naive writer sent to a war in an African country.
Because Bill slurred his speech, the Eye took the mick by imitating his queries as editor - "Shome mishtake, shurely" - used now generally to indicate that something doesn't sound quite right.
5 comments:
Uh?
Sad.
I was talking to a late employee of the PA news factory at Howden recently and he told me any attempt to write witty headlines was unappreciated and they were quickly changed for the banal.
On the other hand, what do you expect when you pay peanuts? It's been a source of concern to the NUJ for years.
Among those doing time there in recent months are youngsters on the Sun's subbing course. Fortunately they also get parole on provincial papers which shows them there is life after death.
I'd like to understand...
OK. Bill Deedes died aged 94. He worked on the Telegraph for about 70-odd years, a some time editor, and died half way through a piece for the paper on Darfur. He was a former cabinet minister and a military hero and acquired a following through Private Eye's fictively satirical Dear Bill column in which Mrs Thatcher's Denis wrote to his old pal Bill about golf, politics, snifters and all sorts of other things - it was quite funny. Evelyn Waugh based his character William Boot in Scoop on Bill - the naive writer sent to a war in an African country.
Because Bill slurred his speech, the Eye took the mick by imitating his queries as editor - "Shome mishtake, shurely" - used now generally to indicate that something doesn't sound quite right.
So, you see how daft the headline was.
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