Alex Massie (journalist)

Last updated

Alex Massie (born 1 July 1974) is a British journalist based in Edinburgh. He is served as the Scotland editor for The Spectator , and writes political columns for The Times and The Sunday Times . [1] Massie is also a regular contributor to ITV Border, BBC Television and BBC Radio.

Contents

Early life

The son of the journalist Allan Massie, Massie was educated at St. Mary's School, Melrose, Glenalmond College in Perthshire and at Trinity College Dublin, where he edited T.C.D. Miscellany . He was also an active member of the University Philosophical Society, one of the college's main debating societies. Massie applied to Cambridge University twice and was rejected both times. [2]

In 1997, he won the John Smith Memorial Mace debating competition, speaking with Matthew Magee and representing the University Philosophical Society. Formerly The Observer Mace, the competition was renamed in 1995 and is run by the English-Speaking Union.

Career

Massie is Scotland editor of The Spectator, a columnist for the Scottish edition of The Times , and a regular contributor to Border Television as well as BBC Television and Radio.[ citation needed ] Prior to this, he edited a political blog, The Debatable Land. [3]

He was previously Washington correspondent for The Scotsman and assistant editor of Scotland on Sunday . He has also written for The Washington Post , Politico , The Daily Telegraph , The New Republic , Foreign Policy , The Sunday Times , The Daily Beast , [4] the Los Angeles Times , the Scottish Daily Mail , National Review Online , The Sunday Telegraph , The New York Times , [5] The American Conservative , Time , Bloomberg Businessweek , The Observer , the New Statesman , The Big Issue , Slate , CapX , the Irish Independent , Newsweek and The Sunday Business Post . Since January 2009 [6] he has written a blog [7] that is published by The Spectator. [8] In 2012 he was short-listed in the blog section for the Orwell Prize for political writing. [9]

On 18 January 2014, Massie appeared in a BBC Referendum debate as an 'undecided voter'. [10] On 27 August 2015, Massie wrote an article for The Times titled 'BBC 'bias' against independence was essential'. [11]

In November 2018, Massie wrote an article for The Spectator suggesting that France should reasonably honour Philippe Pétain for his service in World War I separating his legacy of service from his later career as the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944, during World War II. [12] He wrote the book reviews for the 2020 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack . [1]

In a January 2021 opinion piece titled "Self-ID is a fantasy that hurts trans people", Massie claimed: "We pretend that women can — and do — commit rape… In England and Wales 436 male-bodied sex offenders were classified as women from 2012 to 2018." The article was later ruled to be inaccurate by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), following which The Times published a correction. [13]

Personal life

Massie plays for Selkirk Cricket Club and supports Scottish football side Heart of Midlothian. [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Observer</i> British weekly newspaper

The Observer is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to The Guardian and The Guardian Weekly, having been acquired by their parent company, Guardian Media Group Limited, in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Gilligan</span> British journalist and radio presenter (born 1968)

Andrew Paul Gilligan is a British policy adviser, and former transport adviser to Boris Johnson both as Mayor of London and as Prime Minister. Until July 2019, he was senior correspondent of The Sunday Times and had also served as head of the Capital City Foundation at Policy Exchange. Between 2013 and 2016 he also worked as the Mayor's cycling commissioner for London, and in 2020 he was an appointee of Central Government to TfL's Board. He is best known for a 2003 report on BBC Radio 4's Today programme in which he described a British government briefing paper on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction as having been "transformed in the week before it was published to make it sexier". This change became widely known, in the words of newspaper headlines about the story, as being "sexed up".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Hitchens</span> English journalist and author (born 1951)

Peter Jonathan Hitchens is an English conservative author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator. He writes for The Mail on Sunday and was a foreign correspondent reporting from both Moscow and Washington, D.C. Peter Hitchens has contributed to The Spectator, The American Conservative, The Guardian, First Things, Prospect, and the New Statesman. His books include The Abolition of Britain, The Rage Against God, The War We Never Fought and The Phoney Victory.

Rod Liddle is an English journalist, and an associate editor of The Spectator. He was an editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. His published works include Too Beautiful for You (2003), Love Will Destroy Everything (2007), The Best of Liddle Britain and the semi-autobiographical Selfish Whining Monkeys (2014). He has presented television programmes, including The New Fundamentalists, The Trouble with Atheism, and Immigration Is A Time Bomb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Aaronovitch</span> English journalist, television presenter and author

David Morris Aaronovitch is an English journalist, television presenter and author. He is a regular columnist for The Times and the author of Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country (2000), Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History (2009) and Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists (2016). He won the Orwell Prize for political journalism in 2001, and the What the Papers Say "Columnist of the Year" award for 2003. He previously wrote for The Independent and The Guardian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Robinson (journalist)</span> British political journalist (born 1963)

Nicholas Anthony Robinson is a British journalist, currently a presenter on the BBC's Today programme. Prior to this he spent ten years as political editor for the BBC and has had many other roles with the broadcaster.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) took its present form on 1 January 1927 when John Reith became its first Director-General. Reith stated that impartiality and objectivity were the essence of professionalism in its broadcasting. Allegations that the corporation lacks impartial and objective journalism are regularly made by observers on both the left and the right of the political spectrum. Another key area of criticism is the mandatory licence fee, as commercial competitors argue that means of financing to be unfair and to result in limiting their ability to compete with the BBC. Additionally, accusations of waste or over-staffing occasionally prompt comments from politicians and the other media.

Bernard Ponsonby is a Scottish broadcast journalist for regional news and current affairs programming for STV. He joined the station in 1990 and was appointed political editor in 2000, following the retirement of longstanding political editor Fiona Ross. Since 2019, Ponsonby has been Special Correspondent for STV News.

Allan Johnstone Massie is a Scottish journalist, columnist, sports writer and novelist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for the last 25 years, and now lives in Selkirk.

Toby Harnden is an Anglo-American author and journalist who was awarded the Orwell Prize for Books in 2012. He is the author of First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11, published by Little, Brown in September, 2021. He spent almost 25 years working for British newspapers, mainly as a foreign correspondent. From 2013 until 2018, he was Washington bureau chief of The Sunday Times. He previously spent 17 years at The Daily Telegraph, based in London, Belfast, Washington, Jerusalem and Baghdad, finishing as US Editor from 2006 to 2011. The book's title is a reference to paramilitary officer Johnny Micheal Spann, a member of the CIA's Team Alpha, whose eight members became the first Americans behind enemy lines in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks of 2001. He is the author of two previous books: Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh (1999) and Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan (2011). He was reporter and presenter of the BBC Panorama Special programme Broken by Battle about suicide and PTSD among British soldiers, broadcast in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Hari</span> British-Swiss journalist

Johann Eduard Hari is a British-Swiss writer and journalist who wrote for The Independent and The Huffington Post. In 2011, Hari was suspended from The Independent and later resigned, after admitting to plagiarism and fabrications dating back to 2001 and making malicious edits to the Wikipedia pages of journalists who had criticised his conduct. He has since written books on the topics of depression, the war on drugs, and the effect of technology on attention spans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Salmond</span> First minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond is a Scottish politician, economist and television host, who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure in the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as Leader of the Alba Party since 2021. Salmond was leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014. He served as the party's depute leader from 1987 to 1990. Salmond hosted The Alex Salmond Show (2017–2022) on RT UK. He currently hosts Scotland Speaks with Alex Salmond (2023–present).

Timothy Colin Harvey Luckhurst is a British journalist and academic, currently principal of South College of Durham University and an associate pro-vice-chancellor. Between 2007 and 2019 he was professor of Journalism at the University of Kent, and the founding head of the university's Centre for Journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan McAlpine</span> Scottish journalist and politician (born 1962)

Joan McAlpine is a former Scottish journalist and former Scottish National Party politician. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region from 2011 to 2021. McAlpine is known for her opposition to reforming the Gender Recognition Act and for her views on sex and gender.

Lawrence Booth is a British sports journalist, author and a cricket writer for the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, and editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack since 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurie Penny</span> English journalist, columnist and author

Laurie Penny is a British journalist and writer. Penny has written articles for publications including The Guardian,The New York Times and Salon. Penny is a contributing editor at the New Statesman and the author of several books on feminism, and they have also written for American television shows including The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Nevers.

This is a list of events in Scottish television from 2014.

<i>The National</i> (Scotland) Daily Scottish newspaper

The National is a Scottish daily newspaper owned by Newsquest. It began publication on 24 November 2014, and was the first daily newspaper in Scotland to support Scottish independence. Launched as a response to calls from Newsquest's readership for a pro-independence paper in the wake of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, it is a sister paper of The Herald, and is edited by Laura Webster. Initially published on weekdays, a Saturday edition was added in May 2015. The National is printed in tabloid format, and is also available via online subscription.

Ian Bell was a Scottish journalist and author who won the Orwell Prize for political journalism in 1997. Over a thirty-year career he wrote for and edited: The Scotsman, The Herald, The Sunday Herald, the Daily Record and The Times Literary Supplement. He was named Scotland's columnist of the year four times between 2000 and 2012. He completed three books- two volumes on Bob Dylan and a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson.

References

  1. 1 2 Alex Massie, "Cricket Books in 2019", Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2020, pp. 117–37.
  2. ↑ "The Unbearable Self-Pity of Britain's Rich and Privileged - Spectator Blogs". 26 January 2013.
  3. ↑ "The Debatable Land". The Debatable Land.
  4. ↑ "Alex Massie". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  5. ↑ Massie, Alex (11 May 2010). "Britain's Coalition of Pain". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ Administrator (27 January 2009). "Massie Blog Moving to Spectator". Allmediascotland.com. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  7. ↑ "Alex Massie joins Spectator.co.uk". The Spectator. 20 January 2009. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  8. ↑ Massie, Alex (26 November 2013). "Nine points behind — has Alex Salmond lost before he's begun?". The Week. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  9. ↑ "Orwell Prize 2012 Shortlists Announced". The Orwell Prize. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  10. ↑ "18 01 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum Debate Greenock". Youtube. 24 January 2016.
  11. ↑ Massie, Alex (27 August 2015). "BBC 'bias' against independence was essential". The Times.
  12. ↑ Massie, Alex (10 November 2018). "Should France honour Nazi collaborator Petain?". The Spectator.
  13. ↑ Wakefield, Lily (7 January 2022). "The Times forced to issue corrections after spreading 'anti-trans' misinformation". Pink News.
  14. ↑ Massie, Alex (31 August 2009). "Megrahi Release Explained: He's a Rangers Fan". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.