Media Confidential

This week, Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber are joined by Gavin Esler and Michael Crick as they get stuck into GB News, broadcaster bias—and what it’s like to watch and appear on the channel.   Previously, Alan had tasked Gavin with watching GB News’s output for a month. The outcome? Tory MPs interviewing Tory MPs, “shallow” reporting, and a lack of balance not just about politics but about...

In any war, counting the number of people killed is challenging. So, too, is understanding how they died. In Gaza, where the still-rising death toll already includes 13,450 children, these figures can be obscured by biases, allegations—and the realities on the ground. In this week’s episode, Lionel Barber and Alan Rusbridger are joined by leading statistician David Spiegelhalter to discuss how to...

Journalists are often taught that “when a dog bites a man, that is not news; when a man bites a dog, that is news.” But, according to former Guardian journalist and professor of sociology at Manchester university Gary Younge, sometimes events are newsworthy because they happen often—journalists just need to get curious about the reasons why. For example, after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in...

Alan and Lionel sit down with AG Sulzberger, chair and publisher of the New York Times . AG took over as publisher of the New York Times six years ago after many years as a hack. His term coincided with that of Donald J Trump, for whom the Time s was public enemy number one. AG stood his ground, telling the president to his face that his anti-press rhetoric was “not just divisive but increasi...

Vice  and  BuzzFeed  were once at the forefront of the digital media revolution— Vice  alone was once valued at nearly double the  New York Times ! But now, both firms have shut their news operations,  Vice  has closed its flagship site, and further cuts to staff numbers are expected.   BuzzFeed ’s former UK editor Janine Gibson, now weekend e...

An investigation by Hope Not Hate reported this week that Paul Marshall, owner of GB News and UnHerd and frontrunner in the race to buy the Telegraph, had repeatedly liked and re-tweeted racist and Islamophobic content. In this special bonus episode, Alan and Lionel discuss who decides whether someone is fit to own a major UK newspaper, what Ofcom can do to uphold standards—and what could happen t...

Does the word “PRESS” on a flak jacket keep a journalist safe or make them a target? In this week’s Media Confidential, we focus on the sobering death toll of reporters covering the war in Gaza, as highlighted by the annual report of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Alan and Lionel hear from the CPJ’s chief executive Jodie Ginsberg and speak to AFP’s Global News Director Phil Chetwynd,...

What motivates the media world behind the clickbait? What drives broadcast, print and digital media producers and journalists? In this episode, Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber answer listeners’ questions on media bias in an election year, the impact of 24-hour news on mental health, and whether President Biden should be active on TikTok. Plus—do Lionel and Alan think Taylor Swift could swing the...

Amid great concern over the provision of local news in the UK and beyond, could organisations such as the  Manchester Mill  and the  Bristol Cable  challenge famous old papers in some of Britain’s biggest cities and calm long-term fears of areas becoming “news deserts”?   Alan and Lionel hear from Joshi Herrmann and Sophie Atkinson from  Manchester Mill  about wh...

Can Rishi Sunak still rely on what has often been called the “Conservative media”, or are news organisations on the political right becoming increasingly hostile to the prime minister?   Journalist David Aaronovitch helps Alan and Lionel analyse who and what is driving significant cultural and political shifts in some of the UK’s newsrooms and media boardrooms. Could the  Telegraph &nbsp...

Alan’s investigation into “Gibb-gate” continues. In a major article for  Prospect , he sets out the influence and connections of a tight-knit and largely unaccountable clique which is undermining the political independence and regulation of public service broadcasting. At the centre of that group is Robbie Gibb, Theresa May’s director of communications when she was prime minister.   Alan...

Is Donald Trump now unstoppable in his quest to secure the Republican presidential nomination, after kicking off caucus season with a decisive win in Iowa? As Trump shapes up for another shot at the White House, Alan and Lionel ask how US media can pitch their coverage and analysis to ensure scrutiny of such an unreliable and divisive figure, without ignoring the election issues that matter to his...

Award-winning actor Toby Jones, who plays Alan Bates in ITV’s  Mr Bates vs the Post Office , reflects on the drama’s huge public and political impact, alongside its producer Patrick Spence.    Alan and Lionel ask why this screen version has cut through in a way that news reporting of the Post Office Horizon scandal did not, with insights from Professor Rasmus Nielsen, Director...

2024 is a crucial year for liberal democracies around the world, with over 50 nations voting in general elections and up to 4.2bn people casting their votes. In this episode, Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber discuss why media election coverage will be more important than ever, as key campaigns spill over from conventional, legacy formats such as print, television and radio and onto a wide range o...

Sky News’s Political Editor Beth Rigby joins Alan and Lionel to reflect on 2023’s key events and to launch the inaugural Media Confidential “awards”, nominating people, stories and news organisations for recognition in these categories:   Most important story of the year Most under-reported story of the year Turkey of the year Political scoop of the year News organisation of the year Journali...

One of the world’s leading photojournalists discusses her career in conflict zones and tells the story of how she captured a famous, horrific image while under fire in Ukraine.     Lynsey Addario analyses the challenges of war photography in an era when journalists are increasingly likely to be targets and false images on social media make it difficult to assess what is real. She al...

Alan and Lionel hear Israeli and Palestinian perspectives on how the war in Gaza is being covered and on the continuing fight to control the media narrative.   Palestinian-British writer Samir El-Youssef discusses how the conflict and Hamas are reported on by Arabic-language news channels while Esther Solomon, editor-in-chief of  Haaretz English,  talks about trying to balance oppos...

Award-winning journalist Nick Davies broke the story of phone hacking by UK newspapers back in 2009 and now lays out the startling implications of News Group Newspapers’ major settlement with former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne, which adds a significant extra dimension to the affair. Plus, Alan and Lionel discuss the issue of BBC funding with the former BBC executive Pat Younge, as the government...

A remarkable interview with arguably Britain’s greatest living photographer, Sir Don McCullin. He opens up about his career in-and-out of war zones, saying he's been “damaged” by some of the things he saw in Vietnam, Biafra and elsewhere, and that he was “poisoned” by his profession. McCullin talks about some of his most dramatic photos and about feeling like he was “stealing” images of suffering....

Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist and artist Mona Chalabi, a contributor to the  New York Times,  discusses her eye-catching work, her criticism of the paper’s coverage of Israel-Palestine and the current conflict in Gaza, and making a stand about that issue at the recent Pulitzer Prize ceremony.   Alan and Lionel also discuss the Silicon Valley boardroom drama which saw OpenAI...

Alan and Lionel speak to LBC broadcaster and author James O’Brien, who takes aim at Daily Mail chief Paul Dacre, news mogul Rupert Murdoch and journalist, broadcaster and editor Andrew Neil—three media figures he includes in his book about the people he thinks “broke Britain”. O’Brien also reflects on David Cameron’s return to frontline politics and discusses his own version of opinionated politic...

With former prime minister Boris Johnson soon joining Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson and Nigel Farage as a presenter on GB News, there appears to be little attempt by the channel to provide balance to its roster of right-wing voices and even current Conservative politicians. Should the media regulator insist that it provides that balance, or should broadcasters be allowed to present just one side o...

One of the key figures in global media talks to Alan and Lionel about how artificial intelligence will transform the industry.  Mathias Döpfner is the CEO of the international media group Axel Springer and he’s a big thinker about how AI will impact news organisations and beyond.   He also talks about public trust in media, his friend Elon Musk at Twitter/X, and how post-Cold W...

The BBC has come under fire for the way it has reported on the war between Israel and Hamas—but is it the only organisation to have made mistakes?    Lionel Barber and Alan Rusbridger analyse the way that the massacre of 7th October and subsequent war have been covered, including explosion at Al-Ahli hospital, which some media outlets initially blamed on Israeli strikes. Jake Wallis...

As the Israel-Gaza war boosts concerns about disinformation and misinformation on X, Alan and Lionel speak to Joanna Geary, who used to be Twitter’s Senior Director of Curation. What important checks and filters did Elon Musk strip away when he took over? Plus, author Jane Martinson discusses her new book about the Barclay brothers, two of the most significant UK media owners of recent decade...