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All students who have not as yet achieved 60wpm shorthand by certified examination should attend the mock taking place on Wednesday, 22 September at 10.00 in G4-11.  Students who fail the mock will not be permitted to repeat the year 1 shorthand class or to progress to the year 2 shorthand class but will have to build up the speed by private study and practice and then contact their shorthand teacher when they feel ready to be assessed.  Stage 3 students who have not yet achieved 60wpm should also attend the mock.

 The documentary that I worked on for the majority of my time at Sky News this summer is airing tonight. 'A Town Like Merthyr' is on Sky News (and Sky News HD so you can see the Chernobyl-like bleakness of Merthyr Tydfil in glorious High Definition)  at 7.30 tonight. It's a half hour documentary looking at the population of the town of Merthyr Tydfil and how its dependence on incapacity benefits may come under threat due to the proposed budget cuts.

That's the verdict of the Guardian's Hadley Freeman on Daybreak, ITV1's new breakfast programme.

What a strange thing Daybreak is looking set to be," she writes.

The Today Programme's Jim Naughtie has been on the road in the USA with his Edirol (or perhaps a Marantz or a Sony) and a producer. His mission is to examine the culture war between God-fearing,  Sarah Palin adoring fans of the conservative insurgency known as the Tea Party movement, and Liberal supporters of President Barack Obama. His features depicting and exploring the antipathy  that now divides Americans between two incompatible visons of their own national dream make fantastic radio. In the first piece he talked to Tea Party activists in Kentucky and found them spitting blood, fire and brimstone about the grim obscenity of 'big government' and the imminent threat of SOCIALISM...In the second Jim reported from cosmopolitan, multicultural New York and met Obama supporting trade union activists preparing for their Labour Day parade..Of course you have already heard and discussed these pieces, because every student and future student in the Centre for Journalism knows that listening to Today is an absolute duty as well as a joy, but just on the off chance that anyone was in the shower at 07.30 on Monday and Tuesday morning... 

The first part of  Rory Caroll, Guardian south America Correspondent's, three-part investigation from the Juarez valley, rotten heartland of Mexican drug cartel violence, is an important story made gripping by truly superb writing. His introductory paragraph is sublime, among the most compelling I have read in recent months. This is serious, public-service journalism at its most powerful.  Caroll appears to have taken substantial risks to complete his investigation. The results tell us things that informed citizens need to know while conjuring images that transport us to the scene. Now, isn't that  what good journalism is for?  

The BBC's denial of Mark Thompson meeting with Downing Street ministers to discuss spending cuts and the 'compromising' of its independence is an interesting one.

According to the BBC News website Mr Thompson was seen 'walking into Downing Street holding a memo from BBC's head of news, describing its new season of programmes about the government's spending review.'

Mr Thompson's spokesman said the director general 'discussed the possible participation of ministers in programmes about the spending review.'

William Hague's newly appointed special adviser Christopher Myers was forced to resign today after a whispering campaign over whether he was Hague's lover.

The allegations were started by blogger Guido Fawkes. William Hague has had to release a statement denying everything and listing very personal information about his relationship with his wife.

Guido's story is essentially this.

This post details Hague's statement.

What I am wondering is what would happen if he worked for a national newspaper or broadcaster.

In a delightful piece for Slate magazine, Jack Shafer delves into the history of that enduring description of journalism as 'the first draft of history'. Perhaps surprisingly, his search only takes him as far back as the 1940s, to an editorial in the Washington Post - and even later for the inclusion of the the word 'rough'. He also wonders why the phrase has such power. 'What makes "first rough draft of history" so tuneful, at least to the ears of journalists? Well, it flatters them.

Here's three records which have been released this month and are worthy of adding to your ipod this month while it's still here.

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

Already described by some as the band's masterpiece, Montreal's Arcade Fire have moved away from claustrophobic remnants of Joy Division-esque isolation and closer to Coldplay and MGMT's mainstream territory on 2010's The Suburbs.

Before the work starts and you're left to wonder what a lie-in is, we suggest you go mad in freshers' week. 

Click on the Facebook link in the navigation bar above, or try this  to find a link to pre-pre drinks for the freshers' dinner.

In my house alcoholism is a necessity, along with shorthand practice. ;D

Oldies: you know where I live.

New students: I'll come say hi in freshers' week and give you directions, if you want to come.