Mic Wright

Norwich

Contributor, Reporter and Podcaster at Freelance

Je suis Marxiste—tendance Groucho. I’m a reporter and have a newsletter👇🏻 “Do you know what the sad part is…? I’m a very good tailor.” Agent: @taffyagent

Articles

The newsroom's vanishing women: ITN, Channel 4 News and the long shadow of NDAs

1 month ago | brokenbottleboy.substack.com | Mic Wright

Previously: FeMail trouble“When former Channel 4 News editor Ben de Pear stepped down from his post at the start of 2022 — after nearly a decade at the helm — he was treated to a lavish leaving party at Tate Modern (a bash he shared with a PR for the programme, who was joining the Daily Mail). Some people were missing.
Cold day in The Sun

Jan 23, 2025 | brokenbottleboy.substack.com | Mic Wright

Previously: Trump StakesReviewing UK coverage of Donald Trump's second inauguration so you don't have to... July 19, 2011, was “the most humble day” of Rupert Murdoch’s life, or so he claimed to the parliamentary committee investigating phone hacking. But Murdoch was not humbled by that grilling or the pie in the face he received later in the same hearing.
Labour stands by VAT for private schools

Nov 13, 2024 | perspectivemedia.com | Mic Wright

Parents must cough up or check outParents must cough up or check outThe protests have been loud, long and increasingly personal – yet unsuccessful in diverting the government from its plans to impose 20% VAT on private school fees from January ’25. Around 7% of all school-age children and 18% of those over sixteen currently attend private schools.
Hold the blank page

Nov 12, 2024 | perspectivemedia.com | Mic Wright |Viv Groskop

As I sat down to write this column, a tundra of white space stretched out before me, empty but for the blinking cursor goading me to get on with it. A blank page provides a good example of how freedom can feel – in theory you can fill it however you please but in practice you are constrained in so many ways. I’m not free to write whatever I want here because this issue has a theme (freedom) and I’ve agreed with the editor on how I’ll approach that topic in these 900 words.
Isabel Oakeshott’s dirty mind

Oct 8, 2024 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Mic Wright

Last week, the political journalist Isabel Oakeshott set the cat among the social media pigeons by suggesting that the prime minister has a secret. “There have long been rumours about Keir Starmer’s private life,” she said, speaking on TalkTV, where she holds the rather grand title of international editor. “They certainly aren’t to do with any doubts around his sexuality, if I can put it delicately.
‘A chump’s idea of a clever man’

Oct 1, 2024 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Mic Wright

No less an expert in editorial malpractice than former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie greeted Michael Gove’s appointment as the new man in charge at the Spectator by writing on X: “[He] has three qualities which I feel will make him an inspired choice as Editor.
Bonfire of the hotdog suits

Aug 6, 2024 | brokenbottleboy.substack.com | Mic Wright

Previously: The 'Talent'Huw Edwards' conviction leaves the BBC with another set of serious questions to answer and allows The Sun to cry vindication. This morning The Times published a “rogues’ gallery” of those it says are responsible for “fanning the flames of violence”. It includes Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), Andrew Tate, Nigel Farage and Lawrence Fox. All of them deserve their share of the blame but others are conspicuous in their absence.
The 'Talent'

Aug 1, 2024 | brokenbottleboy.substack.com | Mic Wright

Previously: The NoteI was deeply critical of The Sun’s story about Huw Edwards last year. I was wrong. While that case was not the one that ended up with the BBC’s former top news presenter pleading guilty to possessing vile images of child sexual abuse, the actions described — paying a much younger person for intimate photos — were a clue to a pattern of behaviour. That Edwards was not found to have committed a crime then did not mean that there was no abuse of power and position.
A general election on easy mode

Jun 12, 2024 | brokenbottleboy.substack.com | Mic Wright

This is the 900th edition of this newsletter. Thanks for sticking with it and with me. Previously: The Rosetta Stone of British ConspiraciesI have to stop you there — this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous! You said in an interview earlier this year that you were bloody loyal to the North East. What happened to that?
High society | Perspective Media

Jun 1, 2024 | perspectivemedia.com | Mic Wright

In 1989, Richard Hoggart wrote in his introduction to George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier that “each decade we shiftily declare that we have buried class; each decade the coffin stays empty.” Eight years later, in 1997, John Prescott, the former ship’s steward and trade union man turned Jaguar fan, tried to nail down the lid by declaring “we’re all middle class now”.