A strange row has broken out over Rupert Murdoch’s comments about what Tony Blair (apparently) thinks about the BBC. The issue is reported in MediaGuardian: Speaking on Friday night at a seminar hosted by former US president Bill Clinton, Mr Murdoch said: “Tony Blair – perhaps I shouldn’t repeat this conversation – told me yesterday [...]

I was taken aback by the UN official photo published today (available for a short time at the Guardian Digital Edition) — world leaders are all smiling, and all with such comfortable ease. The photographer, I thought, must have told them a really funny joke. In, er, 60 languages simultaneously. Then I examined it more [...]

Nicole seems to copy edit at home, as well as at work. She points, meanwhile, to this terrific little list of copy-editing gems: There is no such thing as a miracle. We do not refer to soldiers as “peacekeepers.” We do not show stories to anyone outside the newspaper before publication. Newspapers published in English [...]

While listening to the Today programme this morning I was perturbed to hear this at the start of the regular Digby Jones‘s Thought for the Day slot — sorry, I mean the business news: Presenter: With me to analyse the news today I have Bob Blah from Barings Asset Management. Now, I notice the Guardian [...]

Lloyd points to an ingenious scheme to turn anti-abortion/anti-choice protestors away from a clinic in the US. It is, as Lloyd says, genius: Every time protesters gather outside of our Locust Street health center, our patients face verbal attacks from them. [...] Staff and volunteers are also seen as targets. We are all called murderers, [...]

I was a little sorry to see Doonesbury go from G2, but the supplement has changed so much for the better overall, and you can’t get stuck in the past. However, my sang froid was not shared by many other readers. It seems to have provoked a lot of comment on the Guardian’s feedback lines. [...]

News columns are fully justified, while comment is ragged-right. So news and comment are objectively distinct. How cool is that? Tags: guardian, berliner

New format, new blog. There’s a new blog over at GU, “where senior Guardian staff write about the decisions they make, and the reasons behind them”. Vic Keegan has done all the posting to date, including lots of photos and links to a couple of early opinions on the new design. Tags: theguardian, newspapers, berliner

Because I have absolutely nothing better to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon, here are some stills from the new Guardian TV ad. The full 51 second video can be downloaded from the website, and is quite thrilling. Tags: newspapers, theguardian, media, advert, berliner

You’ll probably have seen this, but just in case… Tags: television, bush