Alan Rusbridger's Blog

My brother, Richard Rusbridger, who has died aged 75 from brain cancer, was a leading British psychoanalyst in the tradition of Melanie Klein. He taught, wrote and lectured, in the UK and abroad, as well as training many future analysts. But it was his clinical work over the course of 40 years or more that gave him the greatest satisfaction.

Richard started formal training as what was sometimes called a “post-Kleinian” in the late 1980s. His training analyst was Elizabeth Spillius, who had also been an anthropologist and who was herself one of the foremost Klein scholars. (Richard was later to co-edit her papers.)

Continue reading...

The abuses the Guardian helped him bring to worldwide attention go on: the authorities have merely made it harder to expose them

Alan Rusbridger was editor of the Guardian from 1995-2015

Even amid the cacophony of social media, most journalism is met with a shrug or a murmur. But ​one story the Guardian published 10 years ago today exploded with the force of an earthquake.

The article revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. In case anyone doubted the veracity of the claims, we were able to publish the top secret court order handed down by the foreign intelligence surveillance court (Fisa), which granted the US government the right to hold and scrutinise the metadata of millions of phone calls by American citizens.

Alan Rusbridger was editor of the Guardian from 1995-2015. He now edits Prospect Magazine.

Continue reading...

Award-winning photographer and picture editor with a unique way of seeing and framing the world

Eamonn McCabe, who has died suddenly aged 74, was a photographer, photo editor, educator and broadcaster, and served as the Guardian’s picture editor for 13 years. And when he wasn’t shooting, editing or talking about images, he was collecting awards for doing so. His work won him picture editor of the year an unprecedented six times and sports photographer of the year four times, creating groundbreaking photographs for the Observer. From his early pictures, such as one of a table tennis player with a very high throw, or an image of Björn Borg’s gimlet eyes on a tennis ball, it was recognised that Eamonn, like Borg, had his own way of perceiving the world. He was bringing something different to sports photography and his trophy cupboard started to fill.

In 1985 he won news photographer of the year for his photographs of the Heysel stadium disaster in Brussels. He was there to cover a football match, but sport was forgotten when the tragic events unfolded. He said that witnessing this horror had a lasting effect on him and perhaps hastened his departure from sports photography. “I went as a sports photographer, thrilled to be covering Juventus against Liverpool, and ended up a news photographer, as the whole thing turned into a terrifying disaster in which 39 supporters were killed … I never processed the films from the game itself. They didn’t seem to be very important.”

Continue reading...

Lord Dyson was rightly scathing of the Martin Bashir saga, but those calling for the corporation’s reform should first check their own ethics

There is no such thing as a flawless newsroom. Ask the late great Ben Bradlee, hero of Watergate, whose Washington Post had to hand back its Pulitzer after a reporter, Janet Cooke, was found to have invented an award-winning story. Ask former BBC director general Greg Dyke about Andrew Gilligan, whose early-morning imprecisions toppled both the DG and the chair.

Ask Howell Raines, whose brief spell as executive editor of the New York Times came to an abrupt end after an internal investigation found that a reporter, Jayson Blair, had been plagiarising and making stuff up. Ask the Independent, whose editorial halo was dented by Johann Hari, another plagiarist.

The story has been leapt on with some glee by people who do not wish the BBC well

Related: The Observer view on Lord Dyson’s report on the BBC’s Princess of Wales interview

Continue reading...

Former editor Alan Rusbridger looks back on the dawning realisation that news was about to change forever

A crystal ball was – at least at the outset – not required.

A trip to the US in 1993 to “see the internet” left me in no doubt: the days of the daily printed newspaper were numbered. Once people learned about this thing they were calling the “world wide web”, there would be no going back. It might take 10 years, it might take 50, but it was clear that the future was digital.

Continue reading...

I am a member of Facebook’s oversight board. Here’s why we decided to continue his suspension from Facebook

As so often is the case, Donald Trump gets to the heart of the problem. On 6 January, he was the president of the United States: probably the most powerful man in the world. He should be free to speak his mind, and voters should be free to listen. But he was also a habitual liar who, by the end of his term, had edged into repudiating the very democracy that had elevated him.

And then came his inflammatory words on that day, uttered even as rioters were breaking their way into the heart of US democracy. His words had a veneer of restraint – “We have to have peace, so go home.” But his statements were laced with lies, along with praise for the mob who terrorised lawmakers as they sought to confirm Biden as Trump’s successor – “We love you, you’re very special … great patriots … remember this day for ever.”

Related: Facebook fudge potentially lets Trump live to lie another day

But this 38-page text is, I hope, a serious contribution to thinking about free speech in an age of chaos

Related: Facebook ruling on Donald Trump ban: five key takeaways

Alan Rusbridger was editor of the Guardian from 1995 to 2015

Continue reading...

This newspaper’s former media commentator should have been transparent about his sympathies

Alan Rusbridger was editor of the Guardian from 1995 to 2015

One of the strangest encounters of my life took place in the basement of an anonymous office block just behind Buckingham Palace in London. There was a big state dinner that evening and the area was stiff with security. Did any of the police notice two well-known terror leaders slip through a doorway?

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, both key figures in the Irish republican moment, had been bidden to the meeting by a former MI6 officer. Let’s call him James. James had been closely involved in the development of the peace process in Northern Ireland and had established a relationship of trust with McGuinness.

Alan Rusbridger was editor of the Guardian from 1995 to 2015

Continue reading...

The high court has ruled in no uncertain terms that a public interest defence isn’t about the public being interested

Do you remember that tabloid staple, the shagging footballer? The love rat who played away, scoring with a casually met blonde who duly capitalised on her encounter with a spot of what used to be fondly known as kiss’n’tell?

We don’t read so much about such beasts these days. I’m guessing this is not because young footballers have become more chaste or God-fearing. It’s because newspapers have become unable to persuade judges that it is in the public interest for the striker’s marital misdemeanours to be splattered all over their front page.

Editors may hope that, now we are a sovereign nation again, an Englishman's right to read a juicy shagging story will be restored

In general it is inevitable – and no bad thing – that the public interest purpose of journalism is put under scrutiny

Alan Rusbridger, a former editor of the Guardian, is principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and author of News and How to Use it

Continue reading...

Amid the information chaos of Covid, the national broadcaster is more vital than ever

Just imagine if The Crown had been made by the BBC. Think about the howls of rage; the acres of foam-flecked newspaper editorials; the questions in parliament; the demands for the director general’s head.

The usual suspects would be mouthing the usual things. How this arrogant, out-of-touch, elite organisation needs to be defunded/cut down to size/abolished. Yet more evidence that, in the 21st century, there is no rationale for a “state broadcaster”. The BBC’s time has passed, now that the free market delivers such high-quality content that is so much more responsive to ordinary people’s tastes. Etcetera.

Continue reading...

In an era where polarised views can trump news, the legendary editor’s death is a reminder that facts and evidence matter

• Alan Rusbridger is a former editor of the Guardian

He could do it all. Write like a dream; design with impact; edit with flair; dash off the perfect headline; crop a picture; see off a writ. There was no one who knew more about the craft of journalism, nor anyone to match his passion for communicating that craft – documented in numerous textbooks that were, in turn, studied by generations of would-be journalists.

Related: Sir Harold Evans, trail-blazing newspaper editor, dies aged 92

Continue reading...