RDN’s media outings.

I told Radio 5's breakfast show that Lord Carter's proposal of a shift of a small, marginal BBC budget toward the ITV regional news operation at least had the merit of breaking the principle of BBC monopoly on state funding. Otherwise, it's not all that clever. Locals should pay for local journalism, and probably use cheaper dissemination than TV. Read more...

Patrick Hosking in The Times and John Gapper in the Financial Times both say interesting things about Davos Man. But they leave the impression that Mr Schwab's elite festival was about boosting the egos of corporate giants. The real Davos Mistake was quite other. Read more...

A Radio 4 show is interviewing me about modern protest, not least because the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights is nearing the end of its inquiry into policing and protest. Read more...

It seems tasteless to look at the misery inflicted on two young girls from the point of view of the media coverage given to them. And yet these cases may be linked by the media attention they achieved. That is tasteless. Read more...

BBC Radio 4's iPM show asked me comment on their finding that people might be prepared to pay (an average of) £143 for BBC services. I replied that with a National Trust of the Airwaves they might pay less and get more. Read more...

Do the media set a perverse agenda - or do they faithfully record events with a serious sense of priorities? Read more...

This is the obituary of Jack Zwirn, one of London's most extraordinary furriers. Written by RDN, the Independent ran it soon after Jack's death in 2004. Read more...