Daily Beast is Time-Locked in 1937. And you thought US bloggers were in touch?

Cameron and his best friend George Osborne, who are toffs in the true English sense of the world, had attempted to portray themselves as fresh, modern, and not associated with the Conservatives’ sleazy past. They both went to Eton, Britain’s most elite public school, where Prince William and Prince Harry were educated. Yet here was Osborne, who has led an incredibly rich and privileged lifestyle, talking dodgy donations with a Russian oligarch. In a year’s time he could be custodian of the nation’s finances.

This appeared today in Tina Brown's Daily Beast and was written by Andrew Pierce.

Byline: And You Thought U.S. Conservatives Were Out of Touch!

The blog describes Pierce thus:

Pierce never went to university and cut his teeth on local papers.
Currently Assistant Editor of The Daily Telegraph, he also regularly appears on TV and radio.

So, let's get this straight: in the era of 24/7 news, the death of the deadline and Wikipedia - because it feels a bit like the reporting of Wallis Simpson & Edward the Foxe, or whoever he was - a two week old story that has trawled and spidered its way around the world and back, halted only briefly by the US election, is filed this morning on a brand new and much-hyped blog with no new news except that George Osborne went to school at Eton. Which of course he didn't. Now this doesn't matter much, except that maybe the editor has some idea about the difference between St. Pauls school and Eton? And news values?


Meanwhile, around the time Andrew Pierce was filing, Labour, of all parties, was winning a by-election in the UK.


You have to keep up, Tina. The world's got a bit quicker. And a lot more fact-checkerly: surely you remember working on the New Yorker?

Tina Brown & the Daily Beast

There will be a prize of half a crown for the longest essay, irrespective of any possible merit.

Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall
--

Tina Brown - the ex-queen of the newsstands - is back, this time on the Web.

Her new venture, Daily Beast, which sees itself as a must-read for hipsters in news, politics and pop culture, is set to debut today.

Says the Post.


--
Here it is.


--

The Beast stands for strong mutually antagonistic governments everywhere," he said. "Self-sufficiency at home, self-assertion abroad."

Evelyn Waugh, Scoop.
--

"I have been here before," I said.

Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited.
--

“If we can't stamp out literature in the country, we can at least stop its being brought in from outside.”

Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies
--

Life in what the Reader's Digest calls These United States has become a Good News/Bad News joke, only minus the Good News. There must be something, other than O.J.'s impending immuration. Isn't Donald Trump's casino operation tanking? That would be good news. And Kim Jong-Il, Dear Leader—God I love that man—didn't he just have a stroke? But before we start clog-dancing for joy, this just in: North Korea is facing another record disastrous harvest. What's more, high level voices caution that Kim Jong-Il may be followed by someone even worse. Worsethan Kim Jong-Il? Is that even scientifically possible?

What Fresh Hell Is This? By Christopher Buckley in today's Daily Beast.


This is a good question.
--

"You don't know how it killed me not to be up during the primaries," she said. "It may be a horrible economic time, but it's a wonderful journalistic time."

Tina Brown to the FT...


--
And the Washington Post explains everything, with Tina Brown.

The name: It's an inside joke for the lit set familiar with Evelyn Waugh's Scoop. Do people get it? Brown: "Some people get it and some people don't but that was the whole point. I realized when I chose it, it was a little bit of an in joke to the few members of the literary circle who would remember that novel ..,. but at the same time, it also has a lot of vigor and energy to it, which is what I liked,"

--

"I am sure it is not your fault & that you are being bothered by some boss in the United States. Take heart; he has forgotten about it already. I was once a journalist for seven weeks & I know about bosses. They are volatile creatures.

Evelyn Waugh letter to John Osborne of Life magazine, 1946.