News Shopper, Homophobia & Criticism
I’ve been following Darryl of 853’s blogging for years now under his various guises, and once in a while, he comes out with some absolute corkers. This has been one of those weeks.
Yesterday he posted a great dissection of the, uh, [questionable choice that the News Shopper, the south east London paper, made for its letter of the week](http://853blog.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/news-shopper-rewards-anti-gay-rant-with-a-prize/):
> Yes, that’ll be the one that calls gays “perverted”. That’s worth a prize, isn’t it? I wonder what Webster’s Pen Shop thinks about its products being used to reward such an unpleasant little rant?
>
> It’s someone else’s opinion, but it’s the News Shopper’s choice to reward that opinion with a prize.
But what makes this even more entertaining is the response of whomever is behind the @newsshopper Twitter account, [as detailed in his latest post](http://853blog.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/news-shopper-sponsor-distances-itself-from-anti-gay-rant/):
@[darryl1974](http://twitter.com/darryl1974) You are so way off with so many of the things in your blog entry, particularly regarding our website, it’s impossible to begin.
Hint: that’s not the way to handle criticism.
**Update**: I think [this post hits the nail on the head](http://rachelholdsworth.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/news-shopper-rewards-anti-gay-letter-27-8-2010/) about what journos on the News Shopper probably think is going on – and why they’re wrong. Stirring up controversy like this is *not *good journalism.
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Some Good Reading About The Future of News Paid Members Public
Good stuff I’ve read recently, haven’t linked to yet, but don’t have much to add to right now: * The Nichepaper Manifesto [http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/07/the_nichepaper_manifesto.html] – an articulate and well argued guide to how niche publishing might looks going forwards. * Media