Back in the home of the Downing St Memo: Fleet Street, once the legendary home of the British press, is no more: Reuters is leaving. AP reports on a place I knew well when I studied in London in the sixties:

“A London tradition spanning three centuries is ending as Reuters abandons Fleet Street the longtime home of Britain’s scribes capping a transformation that has seen the entire industry move to cheaper, less-fabled quarters.

“The move by Reuters, the last major British news company to call Fleet Street home, closes an era when the booze-fueled reporters of a male-dominated industry would sidle up to local bars with sources, colleagues, and competitors alike. “If you wrote rubbish you were shouted out of the pub the following day,” reminisces one.

“Fleet Street as a geographical home of the press is now a deserted village, full of memories everywhere,” Canon David Meara said at Wednesday’s ceremony to mark the departure in St. Bride’s, the traditional journalist’s church.”

NONSENSE ON NONSENSE

Also in Blimy, Archbishop Hits Out at Web-Based Media ‘Nonsense’

“The Archbishop of Canterbury is criticizing Web-based media for “self-indulgent nonsense” and describes the Web’s atmosphere as a free-for-all “close to that of unpoliced conversation.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1656135,00.html

TV NATION

And for those of you who think that Britons are so much better informed than Americans, there’s this:

”People in Britain watch more television and read fewer books than in any other European country, a study reveals. A poll of 30,000 people found that the typical Briton spends 18 hours slumped in front of the television set every week. He or she spends only 5.3 hours reading books, magazines or newspapers. The French watch just over 17 hours of television but read for nearly seven hours a week, while Swedes watch for 12 hours and read for 6.9 hours. The Spanish watch 15.9 hours of television, the Germans 15.2 hours and Italians 14.9 hours, according to the survey of 30 countries by the research company NOP World.

Source: http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/16/ntv16.xml - News.telegraph

We should note that British Television, especially BBC programming is often much more informative that US TV “news.”

BATTLING FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

Reuters reports: “the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill on 16 June that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by $82 million, or 25 per cent, starting in October. Ralph Regula, an Ohio Republican who crafted the legislation, said 49 federal programs were being eliminated and other funding reduced because of tight spending limits. Regula’s original bill would have eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2008, but a Democratic amendment earmarked $330 million so that public broadcasting could use the money in the future.”

The Center for Digital Democracy reports:

“Next Monday (June 20) the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) plans to select the agency’s new president. It is likely that they will anoint CPB Chair Kenneth Y. Tomlinson’s personal favorite–GOP fundraiser and Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Patricia Harrison. But the board’s role in developing a legitimate “search” process for the position deserves both public scrutiny and protest. “

WHEN NEWS-PLOITATION IS NOT ENOUGH

The Hollywood Reporter reports:

“Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks made a deal with a company that is pitching a movie about her life to networks — annoying officials who spent thousands of dollars searching for her.

“ReganMedia, (a Murdoch owned) New York multimedia company, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a story in Thursday’s papers it has acquired all media rights to the “life stories” of Wilbanks and her fiance, John Mason.

“The company did not say whether any money had changed hands.

“I am looking forward to developing the scripted project with Wilbanks and Mason,” company president Judith Regan said in a statement. “Theirs is an unexpected and compelling story of love and forgiveness that has certainly taught me a thing or two.”

”

Less you think I am picking on Rupert: remember it was his Sunday Times in London which first exposed the Downing St Memo. What does that say about the rest of the media?