I am a self-confessed media junkie and I have a confession to make: I have stopped buying British newspapers and magazines. And no, I won’t be bothering wit their online versions either. I’m done. I’ve had enough. From now on, I’ll just watch the news on CNN and read the New York Times.
I’ve had enough of the appalling lack of diversity, the lack of originality and innovation in British papers and magazines. After twenty years, Baz Bamigoye is still the most high profile columnist of colour on a paper. And he works for The Daily Mail.
I’m tired of male columnists who continually refer to their partner as “the wife”. Really? Is it 1972? If you can’t come up with a more interesting moniker than that, then you should not be writing a weekly column. And, yes, I know becoming a parent for the first time is very exciting, but unless you have something new and original to say, stow it!
Beauty editors, try featuring women of colour as a matter of course, not just around the time of Black History Month, or whenever Halle Berry appears in a movie. There are any number of marketing studies that show that women of colour buy more make-up more often, and are more likely to buy premium brands (as cheaper lines seldom cater for darker skins). Who knows? You may pick up more advertisers as a result. And a few thousand more readers. Fancy.
Fashion people, there are many, many stylish women in the public eye in Britain than Sienna Miller and Alexa Chung. Why don’t you feature one of them? Please?
Liz Jones, stop writing about your cats already. Take some time off and get professional help. Lucy Mangan? No one cares. Charlie Brooker’s angry, middle-aged, white guy schtick? I’m so over that. And Jeremy Clarkson is an anachronism not worth bothering with.
None of these are a patch on the American writers I’ve discovered, who seem to find something truly interesting to write about week in, week out. Why could that be, I wonder? Could it be because they actually make an effort?
