12 Sep
1:08pm, 12 Sep 2024
46,088 posts
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SPR
I hadn't realised that the independent was owned by Alexander Lebedev a former KGB officer from 2010. en.m.wikipedia.org I'd also forgotten it became a tabloid in 2003 so the change was longer ago than I remembered. |
12 Sep
1:12pm, 12 Sep 2024
23,028 posts
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rf_fozzy
SPR wrote: I hadn't realised that the independent was owned by Alexander Lebedev a former KGB officer from 2010. en.m.wikipedia.org I'd also forgotten it became a tabloid in 2003 so the change was longer ago than I remembered. Yes and responsible for Amol Rajan getting into a senior media position at age 29 when he was appointed editor in 2013, having previously worked as Evgeny Lebedev's media advisor. |
12 Sep
1:14pm, 12 Sep 2024
25,569 posts
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larkim
Are you suggesting that Rajan is tainted by that? Or that Lebedev was lucky to have recruited someone good early in their career who would probably have worked for anyone that paid him, and who has subsequently gone on to a good and well deserved career with the BBC?
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12 Sep
1:23pm, 12 Sep 2024
23,029 posts
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rf_fozzy
I'm suggesting that patronage can get you a long way.
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12 Sep
1:29pm, 12 Sep 2024
25,570 posts
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larkim
He was working on the TV (ch Five) before working for Lebedev though. And on the Independent from August 2007. Not sure Lebedev is the patron with fundamental influence in his career that you are suspecting he could have been. I'm sure his time with Lebedev was important for his career progression, but journalists are "guns for hire" at many stages of their careers, so I really don't criticise any of them for taking a job (within reason) that facilitates career progress. en.wikipedia.org |
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12 Sep
1:31pm, 12 Sep 2024
23,030 posts
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rf_fozzy
Anyway, here's where politicians and unions get it wrong: BBC News - Grangemouth: Scotland's only oil refinery to close next year - BBC News bbc.co.uk Grangemouth - a plant soon to be obsolete in a post-FF world is uneconomical and also highly polluting. It's closure is a good thing for the UK in the long run Yet we get messaging about how terrible it is that it's happening from politicians (of all stripes) and unions. No. Read the writing on the wall and say that whilst this isn't good for those workers who will lose their jobs, they will instead work to help them find new highly skilled jobs in the area. We can't look backwards. We must look forward. The steel issue in port Talbot is a similar issue - they want to put in electric arc furnaces instead of coal ones - these will require fewer jobs but will greener - less co2 - so it *has* to happen. But the union fights it instead of trying to smooth a path to get all those who will lose their jobs alternatives. As a union member, we should fight injustices, unfair practises and poor pay and conditions, but we shouldn't be fighting battles over 20th industrial practices. |
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12 Sep
1:33pm, 12 Sep 2024
23,031 posts
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rf_fozzy
larkim wrote: He was working on the TV (ch Five) before working for Lebedev though. And on the Independent from August 2007. Not sure Lebedev is the patron with fundamental influence in his career that you are suspecting he could have been. I'm sure his time with Lebedev was important for his career progression, but journalists are "guns for hire" at many stages of their careers, so I really don't criticise any of them for taking a job (within reason) that facilitates career progress. en.wikipedia.org He was a researcher (bottom of the pile) at channel 5. Then he went to work for Evgeny Lebedev as his PR man. His reward was the bump up about 20 levels to editor of the independent. Which he then has been able to leverage for his lucrative BBC roles It's almost the definition of Patronage. |
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12 Sep
1:36pm, 12 Sep 2024
23,032 posts
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rf_fozzy
Put it another way: Do you think if he had still been a researcher position at channel 5 and applied in an open contest for editor of a major national UK newspaper against more experienced and senior journalists, he would have got the role? I suspect you know the answer to that one. |
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12 Sep
1:40pm, 12 Sep 2024
25,571 posts
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larkim
He worked for the Independent before he worked for Lebedev, joined in 2007. 3 years prior to Lebedev's take over there. Plenty of time to establish himself as a high performer.
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12 Sep
1:40pm, 12 Sep 2024
33,093 posts
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Johnny Blaze
Yes, it was Alan Hansen. I stand corrected, but nah, the Tories are holed beneath the waterline and they ain't coming back anytime soon. They have a war on two fronts and more baggage than Hearhrow Terminal 5. |
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