Media
Questioning coronavirus origins is not a conspiracy
The exact origins of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, remain unknown. We know only that it began in the Wuhan province…
Why was early coronavirus coverage so lazy? The media’s insatiable thirst for political correctness
When the media views its entire mission through a lens of meting out social justice while presenting itself as the…
A hostile media helps Donald Trump
The news media of the late 1700s and early 1800s consisted almost entirely of partisan political operations. Ron Chernow, the biographer…
Trump uses provocative terms because he wants to provoke
We should be bored by now — perhaps we are. Certainly, the anger against Donald Trump’s tweets isn’t quite as…
Trump has driven the American media mad
New York An old-fashioned party is a gathering of friends invited by the host or hostess, who foots the bill.…
Melania Trump elegantly rises above the media muck
I am not sure that Melania Trump had the introduction of Henry IV Part 2 in mind when she sat…
Getting the sack was a shock but not a surprise
It was a shock but not really a surprise. I came back from holiday at the beginning of August to…
Fury and excitement – how the journalists at the New York Times have coped with Trump
Back when his country was controlled by the USSR, the Czech writer Milan Kundera pointed out that ‘Union of Soviet…
50 years after Bobby Kennedy’s murder, the ‘deep state’ still reigns supreme
New York This week 50 years ago saw the assassination of Robert Kennedy, a man I met a couple…
Bacteria
It’s like whipping cream. All of a sudden it goes stiff and you can turn the bowl upside down without…
Media culpa
A thread runs through several of the stories that have defined this turbulent summer: reporters have been shocked by the…
Cock
On the Radio 4 news at 11 o’clock last Saturday morning there was a joky report about roosters in Brisbane. The…
From Hitler to girls in pearls
The remarkable life and times of Country Life
Are we ready for virtual-reality news?
John Humphrys staggering around in a piece of ‘virtual reality’ headgear that looked like binoculars and made him feel sick…
Sex acts
Should actors be speaking for trans people?
Diary
With four days to go until the result of Labour’s leadership election, a call from the Sunday Times. Would I…
The feminists who fell for a bleeding hoax
Did you know that tampons were just another brutal expression of the oppressive patriarchy? I must confess that I didn’t…
Do Nikkei and the FT really share the same journalistic values?
It’s nearly 30 years since I worked in Japan, but I still have a few words of the language and…
This is Leveson’s legacy: a great new way for bullies to muzzle the press
One of the fundamental principles of English common law is that you are innocent until proven guilty. And rightly so,…
Diary
Martin Williams, former head of the government’s air quality science unit, has declared that the reason we have a problem…
Washington Notebook
This week has been all about the election, the US presidential election that is. It is 18 months away but…
Russell Brand is the future, like it or not
I write at a difficult time. The balls are in the air, but we know not where they will land.…
Cameron must show he’s not too posh to push
At 5.45 a.m. Lynton Crosby holds the first meeting of the day at Conservative campaign HQ. The aim is to…
Diary
Last week I went to the exhilarating English National Opera production of Wagner’s The Mastersingers — five hours of wonderful…
Going large on Park Lane
The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, is a cake floating in space. All grand hotels create a parallel universe in which…
