Roger Alton has resigned the Observer editorship - click here for details. My thanks to contributors who brought this to my attention this morning.
No crocodile tears from me - regular Arcati readers will know I campaigned for his removal because of his support for the Iraq War: the Observer was not the right paper to be backing the government on this issue. We can now look forward to the dismissal of columnist Jasper Gerard and other right-wing cuckoos who can be gainfully employed elsewhere - perhaps the Sunday Express will help out. Left to me and I would call the Observer the Guardian on Sunday - that way, it might be freed from its curse of morally dubious editors and might develop a coherent politics true to its left-of-centre nature.
On the matter of Observer news editor Kamal Ahmed and his alleged role in sexing up the Iraq dossier with Alastair Campbell - I shall be reading Flat Earth News with great interest, particularly in the light of Roy Greenslade's ridiculous piece in the Standard yesterday in which he disingenuously claimed there was no feud between the Guardian and Observer and that the the allegation against Ahmed was just inaccurate spin from a single paragraph in the book. We shall see. But why does the Standard employ a mouthpiece for the Guardian in Greenslade? Put another way, how likely was it that Greenslade would admit there was a feud between the Scott Trust sister papers? Not likely.
An Arcati source hinted at Alton's likely demise a little while ago - click here.
14 comments:
Hooray! The worst editor in Observer history is no more. Begun you Tory wet and take Jasper the moron with you. The Observer has become an embarrassing celebrity magazine and its news section is now pitiful. It lacks decent columnists and its support of the war - while all the while pandering to its readership ('Your Cut Out and Keep Guide the March Against Invading Iraq') was sickening. Here's hoping this is the start of better days for a once decent rag.
I wonder where Jasper should go now?
Oh David, do pipe down. Just because the Observer has a sense of humour doesn't mean it's shallow. And Roger Alton is one of the few ever fleet street editors to inspire love and loyalty from his staff. And that even despite things like the line on Iraq. That should tell you something.
To hell in a handbasket? Become the editor of Pseuds Corner? Back to The Times with his tail between his legs? Or perhaps he could join the peerless (sic.) Zoe Williams at Now magazine? The possibilities are literally finite.
p.s. Just discovered your blog for the first time (I know, where have I been?). Impressive stuff, bravo.
Hopefully they'll take Polly Vernon too....
You are a most welcome guest David.
Oh my God, another asslicker. Don't stay too long, sweetheart, you might be bitterly disappointed.
Dear David, I do apologise for Daughter-of-a-Bitch. Hers is a sad tale, so let me fill you in.
In the beginning she was a fanatical follower of the Arcati cult. Every day she would fall to her knees, always allowing her tongue to get a little too close to my nether regions I felt, but I thought nothing of it.
I felt she wanted to get close to the luminous nucleus of Arcati, to merge with it, and lose her sad self in its enormity, if not infinity. But also I sensed that like most devotees she was just a glorified stalker, so I rebuffed her tongue, and other protrusions.
Since then she has waged her war against Arcati, desperately leafing through her Christmas Book of Insults to put Madame now, in vain. She is like the cow's lowing over a mist-draped field, a sad m-ooooooo-a-n-y sound.
We must show our compassion but keep her in her proper place - outside.
Arcati, you're the empress of disinformation! :-)
Am I? But Alton has resigned, darlink. Do try to keep up.
I was talking about the patently distorted account you gave of your relationship with DoaB. Don't pretend you didn't get me.
No fear, I take things as I find them, not as others tell me. That could also apply The Observer. Alton may have been an All-Round-Nice-Guy, but my response is as a reader. He has ushered in some of the most facile journalism the paper's ever seen. Sense of humour? Don't make me (not) laugh. Ever laughed at Barbara Ellen? Lucy Siegle raises a cackle, does she? Jasper has you rolling in the aisles? Nick Cohen creases you up, does he? Do you howl with joy at a women's magazine that has rolled by the notion of feminism by 30 years? Really?
Such a dreary, grinding lack of ambition and scope. Such a tiny demographic it purports to speak on behalf. Somewhere along the way it forgot to be honest and just became aspirational. And what pathetic aspirations ('10 Things to Look for in a Nanny' '20 reasons to be seen at the Ivy'. 'How you can save the planet AND wear a mini skirt in this not at all fatuous guide' 'Is plastic surgery the new football?'). It is a DIRE newspaper and as the standard bearer for liberal journalism on a Sunday, it is a perennial crushing disappointment. Alton might have been nice to his staff but he was clearly intellectually barren.
Here's the true history of the epic "love story" betwwen Arcati and me:
http://madamearcati.blogspot.com/2007/03/molly-parkin-goddess-writes.html
I was the then unfamous Anonymous who called her blog a "retirement home". Madame's reply was a poorly inspired, humourless "son of a bitch", and here's how I decided to give up anonymity and adopt my prestigious nickname:
http://madamearcati.blogspot.com/2007/03/jasper-gerard-simply-and-utterly.html
Post a Comment