Alan Rusbridger

The greatest

Early production still of the great Toby Jones playing yours truly in forthcoming ITV series. Completely unrealistic. My desk was NEVER that tidy 😂

Thank you. Oliver Spencer!

Why is a former Murdoch exec set to run government comms? Ex Sun editor David Dinsmore has been given the task of truth-teller in chief over the machinery of government. It feels like magical thinking

“For more than 50 years Rupert Murdoch has loomed like a media shaman over British politics. Installing one of his
executives to preside as truth-teller in chief over the machinery of government feels like magical thinking.” www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

Not quite the same. He hired andy Coulson, but as a spin doctor This is head of govt comms

Why is a former Murdoch exec set to run government comms? Ex Sun editor David Dinsmore has been given the task of truth-teller in chief over the machinery of government. It feels like magical thinking

Why Labour would pick this former Sun editor to be truth-teller-in-chief in charge of government communications is a mystery. While editor David Dinsmore did his best to destroy Labour — and much more www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

Tesla exposed: how a whistleblower lifted the lid on Elon Musk Alan and Lionel are joined by co-author of The Tesla Files, investigative journalist Sönke Iwersen

🎧: Investigative journalist Sönke Iwersen joins @arusbridger.bsky.social and @lionelbarber.bsky.social on Media Confidential to discuss his book The Tesla Files. When serious safety concerns were exposed, how did the richest man in the world react?
www.prospectmagazine...

Q&A: Can you express your own views as an editor? Alan and Lionel discuss listeners’ questions in another Q&A episode

🎧: In this week’s Q&A episode, @arusbridger.bsky.social and @lionelbarber.bsky.social discuss Mehdi Hasan’s viral debate against far right Republicans. Plus, how much do an editor’s personal opinions affect their outlet’s coverage?
www.prospectmagazine...

Matthew Goodwin, Reform and the politics of resentment The ‘heterodox intellectual’ turned populist is a morbid symptom of the digital age

Matthew Goodwin could - who knows? - be Home Secretary in a Reform Government. @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social looks into his journey from studying the far right to joining it. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/philos...

Richard Rusbridger obituary Other lives: Skilled psychoanalyst, supervisor and trainer in private practice for more than 40 years

Richard Rusbridger, a leading psychoanalyst and the best brother anyone could hope for, died earlier this month. Here's his obituary www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

The Cotswolds are perfect for JD Vance The US vice-president is coming to the British countryside for a summer break—taking the Chipping Norton set to new international heights. If he reall...

The US vice-president is coming to the British countryside for a summer break. If he wants to fit in, he should follow @arusbridger.bsky.social’s advice...
www.prospectmagazine...

Q&A: Can you express your own views as an editor? Alan and Lionel discuss listeners’ questions in another Q&A episode

🎧: In this week’s Q&A episode, @arusbridger.bsky.social and @lionelbarber.bsky.social discuss Mehdi Hasan’s viral debate against far right Republicans. Plus, how much do an editor’s personal opinions affect their outlet’s coverage?
www.prospectmagazine...

The Times serves up a headline straight from the 1920’s. And they say deference is dead

The Cotswolds are perfect for JD Vance The US vice-president is coming to the British countryside for a summer break—taking the Chipping Norton set to new international heights. If he reall...

JD Vance is coming to the British countryside for a summer break. It makes sense. After all, Jeremy Clarkson is his kinda guy: a petrolhead, anti-woke, salt of the earth multi-millionaire, writes @arusbridger.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine...

ha! this is wonderful...

The Cotswolds are perfect for JD Vance The US vice-president is coming to the British countryside for a summer break—taking the Chipping Norton set to new international heights. If he reall...

From Kaleb to the Chipping Norton Set: what JD Vance needs to understand about the Cotswolds www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/7070...

Media Confidential Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber dive into the hugely important world of media. What—and who—drives it? What do they get right... And what do they get wrong? Lionel, former editor of the Financi...

How long will @ofcom.bsky.social allow Nigel Farage to have his own show three nights a week? Plus the BBC’s succession problem. With Stewart Purvis and Lionel Barber mediaconfidential.lnk.to/podcastAh

And the same to you Eduardo!

So pleased that Helen Boaden will take over as Chair of @reutersinstitute.bsky.social steering committee. It’s been a privilege to see the institute grow and flourish over past 9 years - and I’m sure it will go on to even greater things with Helen and @mitalilive.bsky.social

I know how democracy dies in darkness The state’s instinct for secrecy is often dressed up as being in the national interest. It’s right to be furious about it

The state’s instinct for secrecy is often dressed up as being in the national interest—but democracy dies in darkness, writes @arusbridger.bsky.social. I, for instance, was once hit with a super-injunction...
www.prospectmagazine...

Tom McTague: ‘This country’s problems run deeper than Starmer thinks’ New Statesman editor Tom McTague opens up about his interview with the prime minister

🎧: @tommctague.bsky.social, the recently appointed editor-in-chief at the New Statesman, joins @arusbridger.bsky.social and @lionelbarber.bsky.social on Media Confidential... and spills the beans on his interview with Keir Starmer.
www.prospectmagazine...

Reasonable point. But that does imply that the ISC can’t be trusted

I know how democracy dies in darkness The state’s instinct for secrecy is often dressed up as being in the national interest. It’s right to be furious about it

The state’s instinct for secrecy is often dressed up as being in the national interest. It’s right to be furious about it, writes @arusbridger.bsky.social
www.prospectmagazine...

I know how democracy dies in darkness The state’s instinct for secrecy is often dressed up as in the national interest. It’s right to be furious about it

I was hit with a super-injunction once. What does it say that the MoD thought that even the parliamentarians who oversee the spy agencies couldn’t be trusted? www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

Memo to news editors. If, in stories about alleged BBC bias over Gaza, you only quote Danny Cohen and Ian Austin, then you are also biased. Newspapers are, of course, allowed to be biased. But let’s say it doesn’t strengthen your case

The summer double edition of Prospect hits the streets (and the internet) today. Led off by a magisterial read by @OliverBullough on why our water companies are in the miserable mess they’re in

🎧: In the age of TikTok, how can newsrooms earn attention?

On Media Confidential, @arusbridger.bsky.social and @lionelbarber.bsky.social are joined by ‪@sophiasgaler.bsky.social‬ to discuss vertical video as a form of journalism: www.prospectmagazine...

Difficult to think of a greater waste of police time

The House of Lords is another sign of broken Britain You read these never-ending debates over supposedly reforming the Upper House and wonder if anything will ever really change

Labour’s manifesto commitment to abolishing hereditary peerages couldn’t have been clearer. The twisting and turning to avoid this happening is worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/wes...