Russell Merryman

Journalist, editor (ex-BBC/Al Jazeera), academic, future media geek, Yorkshireman, hardline realist, former gravedigger #swfc BlueSky: @merryarty

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

So... this aged well...

[Cathy Newman @cathynewman]

Jon you are and always have been a legend. Your decision to share your last big story will do so much to help people afflicted with Alzheimer’s. Sending you and your family love and sharing this picture of the last ever @Channel4News I presented with you in December 2021. ♥️

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

The real two-tier scandal in the UK is the relentless double standard approach of a media which lets one party leader get away with financial dodgery that would drive them into a frenzy if it involved someone their billionaire owners didn’t want in power because they believed in things like fairness and equality

[Peter Jukes @peterjukes]

How Musks incitements, payment systems and embracing of bots and paid foreign influencers distorts any trend you’ll ever see on this site

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

@Feargal_Sharkey @EnvAgency It seems they mainly put up signs.

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

I missed the first five minutes of the second day at Lord's. How many wickets did I miss? #ENGvNZ

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

@MichaelCGlasper It's one of those days where the editors really earn their money, and every time they do a fantastic job. Like the folks who produce the highlight/reminder reels for live voting, such as Strictly & Eurovision, that need to include the last performance that ended seconds earlier.

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

@WG_RumblePants As usual, the ICC whine, but they never suggest a plan for the real losers (ticket holders & the venue's shops) if the match finishes early. The players are contracted (and prepared) to play for 5 days, so what about a second game? Maybe add a third innings? Or a couple of ODIs?

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

@HonestFrank High enough to qualify for three monthly payments?

[David Yelland @davidyelland]

Elon Musk has clearly been a threat to democracy in the UK for some time, his algorithm is like a virus at the heart of our body politik, so the PM’s criticism of him is well merited.

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

A video which appears to show a huge protest and a man giving an interview criticising the cost of living isn’t real—it’s been created with artificial intelligence (AI).

The clip has gathered over three thousand reactions and hundreds of shares on Facebook, and has the caption “Not a politician. Not a journalist. Just a real man from the crowd saying what every working family in this country feels every single day”.

It features an aerial shot of streets filled with people, many holding banners and flags, and the noise of a crowd chanting something indecipherable. The video then cuts to an interview with a man, apparently standing in front of protesters holding signs, who says: “Honestly, bills are through the roof. Energy, food, everything. And meanwhile, the immigration system is just too open. People are genuinely frustrated; this government has let us down.”

While some people ARE genuinely frustrated, many are extremely frustrated that billionaire-owned platforms constantly allow users to post fake content, which is often increasingly hard to identify as fake.

Follow @FullFact

https://t.co/tAA4xbWqnW

[Andrew Orlowski @AndrewOrlowski]

Executives don’t know what’s going on in their own firms and demand more AI which doesn’t work. The media and political class don’t know any either, get their cues from VCs and hustlers, and demand more AI too. And there’s no AI arms “race”, China having decided to let us burn a generation’s worth of capital on a dud.

So it isn’t “historic leadership” we need so much as a functioning media, and public intellectuals (sic) with a mental age above 7.

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

@KallumPickering @TeleBusiness Why would anyone in their right mind chain the future of British industry to the corpse of fossil fuels?

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

I didn't stop listening to @BBCr4today to avoid the news; I stopped listening to avoid the lack of impartiality, the overuse of false balance, and the failure to observe the basics of public service journalism by only holding some power to account rather than all of it.

[Don '@maisongladys.bsky.social' Coyote @MaisonGladys]

#r4today

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

And of course, the response from the usual suspects was more confected outrage.
I've never thought they "make it up", but they do deliberately choose to focus on it more than other political stories that would give a more balanced view of UK politics.
https://t.co/7RvSJPQVLI

[Nick Reeves #RejoinEU #NAFO #FBPE @nickreeves9876]

High quality journalism is one of the most important connections linking society, and democracy to reality. A society largely disconnected from reality is an idiocracy. The cost of such a disconnect is incalculable. Information is the most valuable commodity in the modern age. The erosion of quality journalism constitutes the destruction of value on an epic scale. Unfortunately this destruction is not included in GDP figures, so politicians pay little attention to the unfolding disaster

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

AI companies wouldn't enslave engineers, or steal chips from Nvidia, or illegally tap a power line. So why, asks @AGSNYT, do they feel entitled to "a brazen theft of intellectual property" from news organizations? Excellent speech: https://t.co/VIQkW4vcot

[Russell Merryman @merryarty]

@carolecadwalla @Boogoid Her silence spoke volumes — about Meta.

[NewsThump @newsthump]

Nothing screams 'free speech enthusiast' quite like threatening to shut down an entire organisation because a couple of comedians made a joke about you. 🤷

[Spiros Margaris @SpirosMargaris]

A book about the future of truth using AI-generated or misattributed quotes is almost too perfect.

It shows the core risk of AI in knowledge work, fluent output can quietly replace verified reality.

The future of truth will depend less on sounding credible and more on proving what is real.

https://t.co/QPqtT8tNLU @wired @Knibbs

[Vic Vaiana @vicvaiana]

All this in just 4 years.

Remember when they insisted it was impossible to build green infrastructure quickly enough