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# Journalism right in your lughole
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2026/02/journalism-right-in-your-lughole/
- Published: 2026-02-11T10:43:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-02-12T19:03:54.000Z
- Description: Three fabulous podcast episodes that are well worth your time.
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: Journalism, community management, comments, Ben Whitelaw, Mike Masnick, alan rusbridger, lionel barber, cory doctorow

The last week has been an abundant one in my podcast listening. In particular, three episodes of some of my regular listens are abolustely worth you devoting some time to this week, because they all give really useful insights into the factor reshaping online media and journalism right now.

And, as I have a hellaciously busy day at City St George's today, please enjoy these episodes in lieu of insights from me…

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## Some comments on comments

The ever-excellent *Ctrl Alt Speech* podcast, hosted by friend-of-the-blog [Ben Whitelaw](https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwhitelaw/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) and *Techdirt*'s [Mike Masnick](https://bsky.app/profile/masnick.com?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) strays into familiar territory, with Ben's thoughts on newspaper comments sections. He's something of an expert, having once run them at *The Times*, and taught community management with me at City, as it was back then.

Well worth a listen:

Here are the pieces referred to:

[💬🗞️ Why newsrooms are taking comments seriously againThree lessons from running comments at The Times of London![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/36/d8/36d823b7-59a1-4c8b-91bd-a54c64552596/content/images/icon/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2F0741a63b-eb43-4553-b724-104f2c389c5f-2Fapple-touch-icon-180x180.png)New\_ PublicBen Whitelaw![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/36/d8/36d823b7-59a1-4c8b-91bd-a54c64552596/content/images/thumbnail/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2Fa35da669-fc98-4fe3-ba86-1274e58dd666_1456x1048.png)](https://newpublic.substack.com/p/why-newsrooms-are-taking-comments)

[Whoops, Websites Realize That Killing Their Comment Sections Was A MistakeSo for years we pointed out how the trend of news websites killing off their comment section (usually because they were too cheap or lazy to creatively manage them) was counterproductive.…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/36/d8/36d823b7-59a1-4c8b-91bd-a54c64552596/content/images/icon/cropped-techdirt-square-512x512-1-1.png)TechdirtKarl Bode![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/36/d8/36d823b7-59a1-4c8b-91bd-a54c64552596/content/images/thumbnail/td-rect-logo-white-1.png)](https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/03/whoops-websites-realize-that-killing-their-comment-sections-was-a-mistake/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)

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## Open source investigations in 2026

The latest addition to my media podcast diet is *Prospect*'s [*Media Confidential*](https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/podcasts/media-confidential?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), hosted by Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber, two ex-newspaper editors of note. This episode, though, is an interview with [Eliot Higgins](https://www.bellingcat.com/author/eliothiggins/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) of [*Bellingcat*](https://www.bellingcat.com/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), one of the leading open source investigations organisations. 

A fascinating look into this critical 21st century journalism skill…

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## The internet: what went wrong

Lastly, Ezra Klein interviews [Cory Doctorow](https://pluralistic.net/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), the coiner of the word “enshittification” and [Tim Wu](https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/timothy-wu?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), another of many essential books, including [*The Age of Extraction*](https://amzn.to/4tFte9B?ref=onemanandhisblog.com) talk about the web we lost to the big tech companies, what went wrong, and how we take it back. 

Essential.