My tour of the London media continued with a talk at the the Sadler's Wells Theatre as part of the Guardian's Future of Journalism series. It was a conversation with Alan Rusbridger, the paper's long-serving editor, who has overseen the transformation of the Guardian into a major presence in online journalism. Its group blog, Comment is Free, launched in March 2006, with Georgina Henry as its editor. You can hear part of the conversation here.
Here is Guardian stalwart Michael White's take on the evening. And here is one from Guardian new media blogger Jemima Kiss.
After the interview, there was a small and lively dinner hosted by Alan with Guardian writers and editors, along with BuzzMachine's Jeff Jarvis who also writes a column for the Guardian. Georgina and I talked a lot about HuffPost and the Guardian sharing more of our content with each other, and we came up with some crossposting ideas we'll be implementing soon.
Today has been my BBC day. The Beeb's HQ -- aka BBC Television Centre -- is a sprawling campus with coffee shops and food stands around every corner. My mother, who was convinced something terrible would happen to you if you went 20 minutes without eating, would have been in heaven.
The BBC's reach is massive. Its international news alone reaches 230 million viewers and listeners around the globe. You get the sense here that the British Empire has relocated to the BBC.
I started with a talk at the BBC's College of Journalism for BBC staffers. Click here and here for the takes of two of the BBC bloggers.
Next up was a radio interview with Lyse Doucet, a presenter and foreign correspondent for BBC World Service Radio. This was followed by a TV interview on HARDtalk, with host Stephen Sackur. The show certainly lived up to its name. I don't want to spoil the fun of watching us cross swords on, among many topics, the ethics of journalism, online vs print, etc by giving too many details -- but we'll link to the video as soon as it's posted.
And I've just finished an inspiring afternoon at Deutsche Bank's seventh annual Women in European Business Conference. Two thousand businesswomen -- and a handful of businessmen -- gathered at The Barbican for the conference, which was opened by Cheri Blair and hosted by Kirsty Wark, a Newsnight anchor. I delivered the closing address, focusing on the theme of the conference: "Finding Your Voice."
At the reception that followed, I think I recruited some great Business and Living bloggers. So be on the lookout for those blogging with a British accent.
Previously:
HuffPostcard from London: Bush, Brown, Nannygate, and The Youthful Government in Waiting
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
Didn't Reagan get Margaret Thatcher to pass a bill that would allow the Health Care Industry to begin dismantling the National Health Care System?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/age_of_terror/default.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/
Check out the 4th one, War on the West. It deals with the embassy bombings and what all went wrong when the staff tried to alert the State department to their vunerability. Pretty amazing. Too bad we don't have news like this here.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/age_of_terror/default.stm
The BBC at least tells the story.
You should tour all of the nations of the world, Arianna, and give us your verdict on the responsiveness of each nation's press/media and government to the will of that nation's people.
It might be a best seller, given the increasing number of Americans who are becoming frustrated with the ongoing perversion of our once-noble system of government into a tool whose use is restricted by the wealthy to the wealthy solely for the benefit of the wealthy.
It is nice to be able to make an informed decision should you decide to throw up your hands and bail.
It's because it can produce stories like this one.
My sister, who has had a journalist in her family for the last 16 years, never really gave a crap about what was going on in the news. She never read the papers (unless it was one of my stories, and that's only because I'm her little sister) or watched the news if she could help it.
That is, until BBC America came to her cable system.
She told me that she watches BBC News regularly, and has learned much more about America, the American political system, and what's going on in the world through it than she has ever picked up through the American media. She now better understands what I try to do as a journalist: gather the news and impart it without filters.
Since she told me that on my birthday, I considered it the ultimate present.
That's one of the reasons why my ultimate goal as a journalist is to someday work for the BBC, even if it's just as a freelancer.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
They always have a unique perspective, different stories and unbiased point of view – and they taking on issues that others avoid.
Did I also mention that the BBC introduced me to blogging? I first discovered the joys of online commentary when I started contributing to the "have your say" section on the bbc news website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/
and click on the world service link. Also worth checking out the UK domestic station BBC Radio 4. You can listen live or select the programmes you want.
I hope the radio service doesn't feature Matt Frey, who can barely disguise his love of Bush on the BBC News available on my local PBS station.