It's the end of the 'World as we know it...

...and i feel fine

blimey, that was a buzz in the newsroom this afternoon!

but really, how much will change? and how much was change already coming that got stepped up - after all, you don't just decide to scrap your paper and totally redesign/rethink in a week... and the times/st has already gone for the seven-day operation to cut costs, so the sun going the same way isn't really earth-shattering.

things should clean up for a while, but unless senior (red)heads roll and there's a genuine change of ethos and attitude - ethics beforehand, instead of apologies when the pcc forces you - how much will really change? after all, who remembers all the tabloids, the mail, the express solemnly vow never to use paparazzi photos again after the death of diana?

had a bit of rem going through my head the last few hours...

and i know it doesn't need saying really, as blippers are sensible grown-ups, but actually not all journalists behave like those from national tabloids desperate to get a story at any cost. some of us are in it to inform and educate and generally comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable (meaning those in power resting on their laurels), as the saying goes.

while the newsdesk was compiling spreads on NotW, news corp and murdoch, i was dealing with the foreign section front page - dispatches and heart-rending photos from the somali border about the thousands left starving after the region's worst drought in 60 years. i don't think i'll be buying the utterly hypocritical charity final edition of NotW on sunday, but i may be adding some pennies to the DEC appeal.

we can live without knowing about the sexual practices of politicians, but i don't think we ought to live without knowing that people are dying of starvation. unfortunately to have a press free enough to tell you all about the latter we get some of the former. life sucks like that sometimes.