Press clippings
I've have a bit of success writing to newspapers and getting my letters to the editor published. It seems I have the knack of the pithy soundbite (in writing... a write-bite?), and that's what the paper's like. Here are some collected clipping of letter that I have had published.
During the Leveson Inquiry (the public inquiry into the practices and ethics of the British press), Bob Crow (the General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, a hateful human being who regularly holds London to ransom in the name of trade union 'negotiations') complained that he was harrassed by the British Press.
Thursday, 26 January 2012, Evening Standard, London
Tuesday, 7 July 2009, the london paper, London
I do think this, emphatically.
In July 2007 the ban on smoking indoors finally came into effect in England (months and years after other countries, and even other regions of the UK).
Tuesday, 3 July 2007, Metro, London
Sometime around 2005 or 2006 there was gay issue in the press which I wrote to the Evening Standard about and had published. It was only a shorter side-bar letter, and I do not have a copy.
They rang me about it as well, for further comment. And have since rang me a couple more times when gay issues appear in the paper (I'm becoming a sort of gay spokesman). The most recent was concerning the head of BP, Lord Somebody-or-other, being outed. He quit because of it, and I was rang for comment. The reporter then asked if I had any further comment, and when I got home I e-mailed him and the next day...
Friday, 4 May 2007, Evening Standard, London
Monday, 3 July 2000, Metro, London
Do I believe this? At the time I was more having a go at journalists. I think all the issues that I've had letters published about are more complex than a couple of sentences.
Around this time I had another letter printed in the Metro. It was the boxed featured letter of the day, but I don't remember what it was about, or have a copy of it.
I have also had two letters printed in the Adelaide Advertiser. The first was in 1993, reacting to a story about the STA (the State Transport Authority, the body then responsible for public transport in Adelaide), and their immature response towards grafitti 'artists'. It was the boxed featured letter of the day, and I had signed it Editor of The Core (which I don't think I was anymore at that time). The STA took my comments so seriously that they replied in the letter's page. I no longer have a copy of this paper. Maybe I will track it down again one day.
I have had another letter published in The Advertiser, but I don't remember what it was about, or have a copy of that either.