Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Now We Are Six

Can it really be six years ago that the first Zelo Street blogpost saw the light of day? Yes it could, and what was begun as an occasional bit of writing has now become something followed by rather more people that I could have imagined back then.
That this blog is performing a useful service can be seen by the reactions of two groups of people - those who appreciate it, and those who would rather it shut up and went away. Well, Orwell did say that “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Anything else is public relations”.

Yet, as I said to Frances Perraudin of the Guardian recently, I do not regard myself as a journalist, and do not intend to do so in the future. That would be disrespectful to real journalists.

And that is where all too many people misunderstand Zelo Street: this blog is not anti-press, and certainly not anti-journalist. What it does stand against is the misuse and abuse of journalism by billionaire media proprietors, the substitution of PR for genuine investigative journalism, the perversion of news by those with an agenda to pursue, and the traducing of ordinary people on the altar of profit.

That last is why this blog is an unswerving supporter of the Hacked Off campaign. That so many in the press establishment portray their efforts as “anti-press”, when all that they seek is for press self-regulation to be made genuinely independent of proprietors, politicians and other interest groups, and for victims of press misbehaviour to be allowed the means to seek redress, tells you all you need to know about this particular game.

I think it was Richard Ingrams, in his days as editor of Private Eye, who said, more or less, that the ridiculous is there to be ridiculed. Those who this blog calls out usually fall into that category. That they often cannot see this is their problem, not mine.

Put simply, Zelo Street will carry on calling out the ridiculous, as well as attempting to shine some light upon places where others would rather it were not shone. It is another of those contradictions of modern life that many of those who do not want that light shining upon them are more than happy to back to the hilt the security service overreach that has been so successfully unearthed recently.

My sincere thanks go to all those who read this blog regularly; friends, contacts, campaigners, fellow bloggers, all the media professionals who have propelled Zelo Street into the public conscience, and especially my legal team. After all, when you become worth reading, you become worth threatening.

And so, without further ado, on with the blogging - and here’s to the next six years.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy 6th birthday Zelo Street from a long time reader. Long may you continue to show up those cynical, arrogant professional (and unprofessional) purveyors of bullshit opinion passed off as journalism. They know who they are!

David said...

I second that. Trebles all round.

rob said...

*Congratulations*

You say it's your birthday
A sixth anniversary, yeah
You say it's your birthday
We've really had a good time
Reading the blogs each day
Happy birthday to you

Yes we've really had a riveting read
Yes we've really had a riveting read
Yes we've really had a riveting read

We would like you to fillet (Guido)
Fake the cha-cha-cha-chancer (Shappers)
We would like you to fillet (Menschen)
Blog on, yeah yeah

AndyC said...

Happy Birthday. Only found you a year or so ago but Zelo Street is indispensible for me and a daily 'go to' for news on the usual suspects. Here's to another 6 years at least.

Anonymous said...

Well done on your excellent sustained work over the last six years, Tim. May your readership increase and your targets wither!

Michael

andy said...

Great missiion statement......here's
to the next 6 years!
Andy

Anonymous said...

You got me as a reader about 2 yrs ago. I call by most days to find out about what's really going on. My only complaint is that you alerted me to the presence of Fawkes; I wish I'd never clicked on the link.

Happy birthday.

Otto said...

I'm a recent arrival, as I didn't know the blog existed before the Graun article (don't moan too much, I live in Peru, kind of difficult to get granular on the UK blog scene from this far away).

Yours is a quality and necessary product, Tim. Very glad to have (finally) found you and I seem to click your titles on my RSS before just about anything else in the mornings now.

Keep sticking it to 'em, sir. We salute you

Carol said...

Congratulations and thank you - always appreciate your lively, thought-provoking analysis of our world :)