299 days ago
I start with Lucian’s 24 mile suffering while I did not suffer from walking but, once again, from being the pantomime villain of the village facebook site. In short, to the 92% of you yet to donate please give to Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks HERE. Then I move on to ASOS (ASC) and Eden Research (EDEN).
400 days ago
At least Cowie, one of Britain’s most senior personal finance journalists, is honest that he is a poltroon, admitting to buying shares in Versarien (VRS) at 177p. They closed Friday at just 3.5p although in his column today where he explains why he is hanging on for a bounce, Cowie says the shares are 5p. But the dishonesty of the journalism is epic.
421 days ago
Once a week the investment hookers at Proactive pen a small cap column for the Mail on Sunday. This week’s effort is flagged up below. Nowhere on the column is there any disclaimer to admit that Proactive is paid by companies to publish research. So, readers of the tabloid will assume that this is just good honest impartial journalism. Of course it is anything but. Take this week’s effort below…
464 days ago
Some crackpot school in London has renamed itself as it does not wish to be linked to Sir Francis Drake because he was an evil slave trader. Except that he was not. The BBC is keen to whip up more fake history and has joined in the battle as you can see below.
638 days ago
With a hat tip to James Melville consider the screenshots below from German TV five years apart discussing summer weather. Then pen a short essay on how the MSM conspires to fan the flames of the false climate emergency narrative, or if you want to pass Geography GCSE at St Greta’s academy, say what brilliant journalism the Krauts are serving up.
676 days ago
According to MSM, the crazy cat lady has won today’s court case. If defaming your victims is victory, then maybe. This is a dark day for responsible journalism – I explain why.
1159 days ago
This podcast is all about the Woodford scandal of today. The corruption of the Sunday Telegraph in trading a scoop for dishonest journalism and the scandal that the disgraced fund manager may be back after less than 20 months of not screwing around with other folks’ cash. Why must people like Lucy and Neil be stopped and who will stop Neil? Lucy, I fear, is destined for great things in the corrupt world of the deadwood press.
1159 days ago
Lucy Burton of the Sunday Telegraph will this morning be celebrating her scoop of the year. It may win her prizes such is the corruption of modern journalism. In a faustian deal she gets to break the news that disgraced and crooked fund manager Neil Woodford is planning a comeback. In return she publishes a blow off interview in which Woodford paints himself as the victim of what happened, tells blatent lies and those lies go unchallenged. This is not journalism it is revolting PR ands Ms Burton should be drummed out of the industry. She won’t. She will be praised and promoted. And the deadwood press wonders why it is ever less trusted and its reader numbers slide?
1276 days ago
Last month, Ramsha Khan tweeted that having graduated from City University’s journalism course she was “now a professional journalist”. That prompted me to write an article saying how after 30 years of writing for a living, getting lawyers’ letters, death threats, buckets of online trolling and harassment etc, I guess with no degree I was not by this definition a “professional journalist”. Nor was my late uncle Christopher Booker. His Cambridge degree was in history, mine something worthless from Oxford. Neither of us was taught how to be a journalist in a degree course. It seems Ramsha is upset and has sent a threatening email this morning which, naturally, I publish in full below:
1314 days ago
I bring you the tweet below from Ms Ramsha Khan, which fills me with utter despair for the vocation of journalism.
1359 days ago
It seems that some of Neill Ricketts’ biggest fans do not like my investigative probing into Versarien (VRS). This time they are not going after my heavily pregnant wife as they have in the past but after me.
1657 days ago
Almost but not yet. Pro tem I look at the ethics and tax affairs of soon to float AirNb and then at this week’s utterly dishonest journalism in the Sunday Times, Burford (BUR) and the issue of revenue recognition.
1753 days ago
A true giant of post war journalism died the night before last with his two sons at his bed side. Much will written elsewhere about his achievements: Co-founder of Private Eye, scriptwriter at TW3, Campaigning Journalist of the Year (opposing awful inner City redevelopment), Telegraph columnist for 60 years, the Godfather of Euroscepticism. The Guardian, if true to form, will have nasty words about that and about his exposing the global warming hoax.
1867 days ago
I start with the utterly shite journalism of Jeff Presstrip in the Mail on Sunday which disgraces our profession as I explain HERE. Then it is onto Neil Woodford and two issues. First why HL just cannot tell its dumb clients to sell and, secondly, why the yield on the flasgship EIF will plunge from 4.1% today to something starting with a 2 within a year, if the fund still exists. That is by no means a given. If you enjoyed this bearcast, follow Jim Mellon and support the Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks HERE.
1993 days ago
I start with a Wigan Athletic supporting homophobic yob tweeting abuse at me on behalf of Frontera Resources (FRR). What a silly man at every level. FFS the real insult is he thinks I wear an England Rugby shirt. Whatever... Then it is onto the blurred line between PR and journalism and the Sunday Times splash on M&S (MKS) which should be taken with a bucket load of salt. Finally a few words on Mike Ashley. He may be a lardbucket and a tosser but...
2126 days ago
On my 24 mile walk with Lucian - a bit of a disaster as the last five miles were unplanned and very painful as described here - we discussed Tesla, Tern and the stockmarket bubble. I ponder that and then discuss a total Blow Job splash for Neil Woodford in the Mail on Sunday, a disgraceful day for "journalism."
2128 days ago
In today's podcast I cover in detail Telit (TCM) and also look at MySquar (MYSQ) partially in light of today's stunning news HERE. I look at Audioboom (BOOM), Frontera (FRR), Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), Prime People (PRP) and 88 Energy (88E). Tomorrow I will be bored to death by Lucian Miers, he will drone on about West Ham for 6 hours as we complete a 19 mile training walk from Bristol along the Avon to a few miles past Bath. I am building up to my 32 mile walk for Woodlarks with Brokerman Dan on 28 July. Think of my suffering tomorrow and please donate a small sum HERE.
2185 days ago
The 2018 World Press Freedom Index is just out and following Leveson, Section 40 and the Lords' attempts to introduce press regulation by the backdoor the UK ranking has now slipped to No 40 in the world, in between Trinidad & Tobago and Burkina Faso. But heck we are still ahead of Burkina Faso but, perhaps, not for long.
2445 days ago
If you do not follow my financial writings you will not be aware of the Telit PLC scandal which I broke yesterday. This is a big high profile stockmarket listed company and what I revealed HERE was just amazing. Jaw dropping. The shares have duly crashed.
2635 days ago
I am no fan of Channel 4, Most of its reporting is shocking. But the Dispatches programme today was superb journalism. It exposed Boohoo.com (BOO) and to a far lesser extent ASOS (ASC) for the way they treat management. Boohoo was truly shamed. Its management were shown to be shifty and deceitful in their responses to a film footage which showed quite sickening exploitation of workers and indeed law breaking. If I was a customer I'd shut my account down at once. There are legal and financial implications (bad ones) but the biggest will be reputational damage. How will the snowflake generation who are Boohoo customers react? Looker at #BoycottBoohoo on twitter and have a guess. All this is discussed in a bonus podcast.
2708 days ago
Life on Britain's campuses is meant to be all about protecting freedoms and as the proud home to one of the UK's finest journalism courses you would have thought that City University in London would stand full square behind a free press.
2863 days ago
I start with a look at how in stockmarket terms insanity begets insanity. No this is not how David Lenigas thinks of me and my mother but our case study here is Highland Natural Resources (HNR). I think explain why good journalism, that is to say breaking stories that are price sensitive, is not breaking the law. Finally as the polls move our way I ponder how you make money when team Brexit wins the EU referendum. One reason why I think we might win is how Labour voters are shifting and that is covered in a podcast on my own website HERE.
3122 days ago
On the Monday of last week two young journalism students wandered into Free Speech & Liberty pizza and came over for a chat. We talked of the ethics of journalism, the corruption of our profession, of libertarian idealism and later that night they came back and I discovered something appalling.
3274 days ago
There is an ugly lynch mob out there - led by Ben Turney - screaming "burn shorter burn". They think those who have opened a vast naked short in New World are evil City banksters & flippers who deserve to burn and who have deliberately wronged. The lynch mob is wrong. The "shorters" are just ordinary Joe Schmoes many of whom could be ruined by this. I ask the lunatic fringe to show compassion, to do what is best for the company but to go after the real villains of the peace. Show some humanity guys. Get real. And go for the real bad guys.
I have asked Ben to consider the potential human consequences of what he is calling for and I know that I could not live with myself for doing what he is doing. I am not in journalism to ruin little guys who have been daft but to go after the real bad guys, the real crony capitalists who deserve all that they get. I hope that he will take this on board. I shall not censor his copy but I beg him to think through the consequences of what he wishes for.
3631 days ago
I note that some people have started objecting to my language here. Fuck you. You are not paying to read me and no-one is forcing you to. But using naughty words does not stop this being journalism. And I note the objections only started recently…
Journalism evolves. In the seventies on the established press it was a male dominated club. Women were for shagging, expenses were for fiddling but rules on grammar were incredibly tight. Today, the sexism has gone, rules on expenses are rather tighter but on grammar rather less tight.
I have been a journalist on magazines, newspapers, TV and websites for 22 years. By journalist I mean someone who is paid to write. That is rather different from someone who posts on a blog or a chatroom his or her thoughts, but is not paid.
Until about two years ago
4022 days ago
Yes I know that all journalists are scumbags. I love my profession and feel that I fit in perfectly. But there are certain ethics. If a rival breaks a story you at least mention it before writing it yourself. You do nor write utter shit to obscure that fact. There are some ethics even in the gutter. But not it appears round at iii where some bird called Darshini Shah seems a little unfamiliar with this basic principle of our profession.
It is not often I break a bid story involving a £100 million capitalised company and, even better, get its shares suspended as a result. Allow me to savour my little triumph. But last night I broke the Range Resources bid story on Shareprophets.com – see HERE
And so this morning some person called Darshini Shah wrote on the iii “newspaper”
Shares in Range Resources (RRL) have been placed into a precautionary suspension, spurring investors' hopes that the company would be announcing a merger deal. In a statement released on Monday morning, Range Resources said shares would be suspended on AIM until the company could issue "a clarification announcement in respect of a potential significant transaction".
Range's shares have also been placed in a trading halt on the Australian Securities Exchange. Some users of the Interactive Investor discussion boards suggested African Petroleum could be the potential merger partner.
Ok enough of Darshini's fantasy. The facts are that I ran the story, named the merger partner and made sure that the right folks knew and thus the shares were suspended. But Darshini reckons they were suspended, apropos of nothing and then folks on the iii Bulletin Board broke the story sometime this morning.
Darshin, love: that might suit the ii narrative but it is not actually true is it? With your ethics and love of the truth maybe a switch to PR is in order?
PS If Darshini is a bloke not a bird I apologise.
