Last week a number of people were in shock about the news that James Delingpole had his last column at the Telegraph. It was all rather abrupt. As to why, I have the inside scoop.
I asked James directly, and in a nutshell it was three things.
1. They paid him poorly, ’nuff said.
2. They never seemed to appreciate the kind of traffic and exposure he’d brought. Remember, Delingpole was the first MSM columnist to break Climategate, and I’m pleased to say he got the scoop from WUWT. But, they didn’t really recognize the asset, even though he won an award for his Climategate coverage. When Delingpole’s column won the Bloggie award for “Best Weblog About Politics“, they didn’t even mention it in the print edition or in the online main page. Usually when a columnist or writer wins such an award, the paper crows about it.
3. Often, they didn’t like the content. As we know, James skewers the left and in particular greens. He reports he was getting increasing pressure over his environmental essays.
Usually when people are the most angry at someone for something they’ve said or written, it’s because what they’ve said or written has some truth in it. While Delingpole pulled no punches when it came to describing (with great flourish) the defective nature of some aspects of the environmental movement, some ‘proper’ folks found it hard to stomach.
Of course, then we have this, which I find even harder to stomach:
Andrew Montford cited this as an example of Delingpole’s prescience.
So, now, the Telegraph’s loss is Breitbart’s gain, and just three days later, James has come out swinging:
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/02/16/Lefty-Lies-UK-Floods
All in all, quite an exit mirrored by a grand entrance.
Finally, all this leads me to something I’ve been remiss at doing simply because the day to day business of running WUWT often gets in the way, and that’s to recommend James most recent book. He kindly sent me a copy, and while the title admittedly made me cringe, once I started reading it, I found it lighthearted and hilarious. It reads a bit like a dictionary, except every definition has a punch line. Highly recommended, click the cover to have a look.
Also, be sure to add Breitbart London to your bookmarks. Delingpole’s latest is: Whose Life Is More Important? Yours, Or A Shark’s?
Oh, and what essay on Delingpole by yours truly would be complete without this photo courtesy of our friends at “Skeptical Science”?
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polski says:
February 19, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Stalin was planning to attack HItler in 1942, but the Germans beat him to the draw. Soviet forces were placed far too close to the border as a result of the Red Army’s offensive positions, & easily overrun & surrounded.
Not only did Stalin divide up Poland with his new best temporary buddy Adolf, but he murdered 22,000 Polish officers & intelligentsia at Katyn & other slaughter sites. Then when the Red Army fought its way back to the Vistula, he stopped it in September 1944 to let the Germans destroy the Polish Home Army in Warsaw by Oct 2.
richardscourtney says:
said, “Can anybody explain to me the relevance to this thread of WW1, WW2, H1tler, and right left-wing misrepresentations of history and of politics?”
Rhys Jaggar says:
“Delingpole is a typical American joining a 20th century world war. Late to the party but demanding all the credit.”
Because of Jaggar anti-American statement?
I would suggest reading it first. The statement about right-wing shows you didn’t read the thread.
Which also means you will read my post either. What is the point?
And then the Communists in FDR’s administration sold Poland down the river at Yalta.
History not irrelevant to the Ukraine today.
Richard,
My earlier comment, thanking you for your reply, seems not to have been published.
John
Delingpole is a typical American joining a 20th century world war. Late to the party but demanding all the credit.
Personally I think it is past time that the Europeans quit suck at the teat of American prosperity and fund their own health care systems including drugs and their own security.
Next time it would be wise if the USA stayed on the sidelines.
Putin is your next best friend anyway.
And why did Patton get fired?
richardscourtney says:
said, “Can anybody explain to me the relevance to this thread of WW1, WW2, H1tler, and right left-wing misrepresentations of history and of politics?”
Given that Delingpole writing ahs been described thus, are you surprised at the WW2 refs?
Coward at the Bridge
Dick Coward Series, Book 2
Series:
Dick Coward
Creators:
James Delingpole
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster UK
Description:
Trapped in a cupboard with a nubile blonde nymphomaniac; crossing the Waal under a hail of fire with the US paratroops of 82nd airborne; rattling in a jeep through the Dutch countryside with the men of 1st Airborne Recce Squadron; trying to take out a self-propelled gun with a ruddy useless PIAT. It’s all in a day’s work for Lt Dick Coward and Sgt Tom Price on their second published adventure.
After the horrors of D-Day, they find themselves plunged into even greater chaos and mayhem as they land in the deceptively tranquil countryside around Arnhem, Holland, as part of Operation Market Garden. What should be a pushover – the ingenious scheme that everyone thinks will end the war by Christmas – turns into Britain’s biggest military disaster of the Second World War. But if it’s a cock-up, by golly is it a glorious one. Rarely if ever have Allied soldiers acquitted themselves better than the British, Americans and Poles, as they fought against the might of the SS, in their bid to capture ‘The Bridge Too Far.”
As usual Coward and Price are in the thick of it. They have to be. If Coward doesn’t get a VC this time, he’ll be booted off the family estate for good, and stand no chance of winning the heart of the fickle, dangerously beguiling Gina.
Will he get the medal? Will he get the girl? Will Price be driven so mad by his master’s Bertie Wooster-like stupidity that he ends up throttling him first?”
Oops – meant to say –
quit sucking …
From the hints about his research, it’ll be “Coward in the Bulge” – get on with it, JD!!!
You guys dream of being that ripped 🙂
Ox AO:
Your entire post at February 19, 2014 at 1:08 pm says
I did read the thread and I answered some daft ultra-right wing distortions which shows you didn’t read the thread.
None of your post has any relation to my question which it quotes unless the comparison by Rhys Jaggar touched a raw nerve. Whether or not that be true, the comparison only required a rebuttal as to the appropriateness of the comparison.
So, one is left to ponder of your post, What is the point?
Richard
John Mann:
re your post at February 19, 2014 at 1:11 pm
No problem. I have not seen it but your message says you sent it, and I appreciate that.
Richard
He’s got enough of the rebel hipster look that he’s actually a better fit at Breitbart. Not a legacy media guy.
RichardLH:
re your post to me at February 19, 2014 at 1:18 pm.
I fail to see any relevance to this thread at all.
Richard
====================================================================
The problem isn’t really Left-wing, Right-wing. The problem is Totalitarianism. One group wants to control for your own good and the other wants to control for the Nation’s good. No matter how noble the intent, both want to control and only the controllers end up profiting in this life.
Answers? In the secular realm The Declaration of Independence is a good start, Government formed to defend the individual rights of the governed.
I think we both know what the “non-secular” answer is. (For those to object to the implications of the “non-secular” answer, please refer to the secular answer. We should all be able to live with that in the here and now)
Yypo…er…Typo!
“(For those to object to the implications of the “non-secular” answer, please refer to the secular answer. We should all be able to live with that in the here and now)”
Should be:
“(For those who object to the implications of the “non-secular” answer, please refer to the secular answer. We should all be able to live with that in the here and now.)”
I rather like the fact that the greatest ever Brit in history was also half-American.
Saved our bacon when others wanted to come to a deal..
richardscourtney says:
February 19, 2014 at 1:34 pm
“I fail to see any relevance to this thread at all.”
Because Delinpole has written a lot of other stuff as well as his climate columns.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/James-Delingpole/e/B001OJV3ZC/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
I would suggest that you skip the review of Fin!
I am guilty as other of following the slightly off topic WW2 stuff but he HAS written two ‘novels’ about that as well.
Gunga Din:
Thankyou for your answer to me at February 19, 2014 at 1:35 pm (with addendum).
I completely agree. But that is not my major concern.
On this thread we have sincere people grabbing an opportunity to promote their political views while on another thread we have a troll attempting to be disruptive by promoting extremist religious views. In both cases the effect is the same; the thread loses all debate of its subject.
This thread is about Delingpole leaving a right-of-center MSM periodical to work for a right-wing periodical with smaller readership. There are a range of issues worthy of discussion which arise from this. They all pertain to journalism, readership, and dissemination of the views of Delingpole and others with similar views.
None of those issues has been seriously debated because – almost from the start – this thread lost contact with its subject. And that is what I have been complaining about.
Richard
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes describes the need for a strong central power to control the brutal impulses of the individual.
Right wing politics accepts as inevitable (and sometimes as good) that social strata will always exist.
The combination of the two concepts leads to a right-wing justification of authoritarian elites.
In 1930s Germany the social strata were defined on racial grounds. But they were accepted as inevitable and just and so they were still a right-wing totalitarian state.
Conversely, Karl Marx defined a left-wing vision where social strata are levelled out by the relentless progress of history.
Stalin used the inevitability of social levelling as justification for enforcing the “progress” through the states of government. Thus trade unions and private agriculture were suppressed – brutally.
1950s Russia was a left-wing totalitarian state.
Me, I am left-wing. But I am not authoritarian and I do not stand with Stalin.
Many here are right-wing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you are authoritarian and so stand with Hitler.
If you do, please let me know as I assume you don’t.
===================================================================
Delingpole seems skilled at skewering his opposition. Politics aside, he’s a welcome voice in his jabs at the CAGW promoters.
(Loved the description of Al Gore.)
PS “Yypo” was an actual typo. But I liked it so I kept it. (Bloopers are one of my favorite forms of humor even when I make them myself.)
@richardscourtney says:
Joseph Goebbels stated and written in the new york times on November, 28 1925. Quote: “The difference between communism and the Hitler faith was very slight.” Which he correct. Fascism started under Mussolini which was the editor of many Marxists news papers long before he became Prime Minister. The reasons they fight was because of their similarities. They only differ on their solutions to the ‘problem.’ I think of it like the Shiites and the Sunnies. Other wise they would be like two peas in a pod.
you shouldn’t buy into the Orwellian up side down world.
M Courtney
strong central power is the antithesis to what is now thought of as right wing.
If you want to understand what the Orwellian’s call right wing. I would suggest reading or watching some Milton Friedman. Lots of great youtube videos on him.
In the the real world we are actually the Classic liberals
Ox AO:
It seems you cannot desist from disrupting the thread from its subject.
As for your post at February 19, 2014 at 2:27 pm, the fact that you use the words of Joseph Goebbels as authoritative evidence of what you think to be truth speaks for itself.
Richard
Ox AO says at February 19, 2014 at 2:50 pm
I may have misused the paragraphs and confused the issues.
•Strong central power is the core of authoritarianism.
•Accepting as inevitable (and maybe as good) that society with be stratified is right-wing.
They are not the same issue.
And my concern is that authoritarianism is the seed of totalitarianism and the death of freedom. That is something I oppose most strongly. Most passionately. Death rather than acquiescence to that.
My left-wing views are just my judgement of what is best. I may be wrong. So I can be a part of the loyal opposition and debate with those I disagree with.
Confusing the two bullet points weakens political debate and the political culture that enables true democracy, in my opinion.