She's dumb and she's angry

Sky News hasn't covered itself in glory over the past few days. Infuriated by the British voters' reluctance to elect a Tory manifesto, they're displaying a total contempt for democracy. First up is Kay Burley telling her interviewee that he should 'go home' and 'watch Sky' rather than exercise his democratic rights, followed by a protestor's very sensible advice. After that: Sky's Adam Boulton, a toad in human form, actually making Alastair Campbell (former pornographer and fearsome Labour spin doctor) look calm and rational.

World turned upside down, folks!

Ron Atkinson changes code

Last one for the day, for all you sports fans. This is from the Irish Times yesterday and demonstrates that the spirit of a certain football commentator is alive and well in other sports too.

Dick Best, former England coach, was asked on Sky Sports News why Delon Armitage was chosen. His response: "You've always got to have a coloured boy in the team".

Never mind the 1950s paternalist racism of 'coloured' and 'boy' (and the ludicrous idea that there's some kind of sporting conspiracy to exclude white players from rugby) , it's Sky's apology that annoyed me.

Co-presenter Millie Clode later apologised, saying "[Best] made remarks he thought were off-camera. We would like to apologise for any offence this may have caused".

A masterpiece of non-apology. The remarks shouldn't have been made on-camera, but are implicitly fine off-camera. Nothing wrong with them. We apologise if you're upset - again implying that the words and sentiment are perfectly acceptable, but that offending people isn't so great. I especially like the 'may' - surely a lot of people are definitely offended? What's wrong with 'Dick Best is a racist. We didn't know, we apologise for his repulsive ravings, and we won't invite him on again'?

(24 days since I wrote to the director for marketing and communications - no reply yet. Perhaps he's tied up with an orange in his mouth like Stephen Milligan).

Dear Rupert

A couple of years ago, I was involved in a cybermetrics project which looked at blogging and news. The conclusion was that bloggers didn't really break stories, but followed them up - with some exceptions.

I notice that somebody at Sky.com has been reading my blog quite exhaustively. I have a few things to say:

1. Do some real journalism.

2. Nothing to see here, move along please.

3. You are evil (not personally - you're a worker vulnerable to the vicissitudes of capitalism). Don't even think of using anything I've written.

I don't have Sky, so if any of you see any of my best lines on screen, let me know.