Editing the Globe

May 10, 2010 11:53 AM

Bono and Bob Geldof worked in The Globe and Mail newsroom on Saturday to guest-edit a special edition of the paper on the future of Africa for today... Monday, May 10, in advance of the G8/G20 summit in Huntsville, Ontario, from June 25-27, 2010.
posted by netbros (38 comments total)

Today is also Bono's birthday.
posted by hippybear at 11:58 AM on May 10, 2010

Will there be snow in Africa this Christmastime? Inquiring climate change skeptics want to know.
posted by Madamina at 12:02 PM on May 10, 2010 [4 favorites]

Every bit of exposure helps, I'm sure, but it probably doesn't help much when wealthy people like Bono and Geldof evade taxation in their home countries, while expecting their fellow taxpayers to commit billions in aid.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:04 PM on May 10, 2010 [6 favorites]

What a beautiful and inspiring vision, these two men coming together to improve the lives of desperate millions and make the world a better place.

I mean, as long as they're editing some newspaper, they can't be in the studio recording more music, right?
posted by koeselitz at 12:07 PM on May 10, 2010 [5 favorites]

Slight threadjack, but still this should be clarified: the G20 summit has been moved from Huntsville to Toronto due to concerns over a lack of facilities and security control in Huntsville. Then again, Torontonians aren't exactly thrilled with the move, either.

Carry on.
posted by spoobnooble at 12:07 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Bono is running late to catch a flight. John Stackhouse and the editorial staff present the guest editors with a few gifts. The pair thank the newsroom for the opportunity.

For some reason, I think that the opportunity for two celebrity multi-millionaires to guest edit a paper should lead to them giving the gifts, but that's just me. Then again, having Bono and Geldof edit your paper would probably lead to a brief circulation bump for that issue, so who knows, maybe they were doing the paper a favour.

Also, I'm somewhat conflicted. I feel that every time I see Bono campaigning on Africa, my self-righteous indignation at the state of a continent is overshadowed by my self-righteous indignation about his ridiculous sunglasses affectation.
posted by djgh at 12:08 PM on May 10, 2010

and that's why an article on the African economy has young boys playing football as an accompanying illustration, something you won't find in the FT or WSJ
posted by infini at 12:09 PM on May 10, 2010

lord... I know this is a good cause and the better part of me is glad they are doing it, but Cromallmighty, Geldof has always come over as a pretentious prick to me. A few weeks ago I was going though all the Secret Policeman's Ball videos and Geldof shows up on one of the later ones, signing. Laughter (not of the good kind) followed by derision and shuddering.
posted by edgeways at 12:14 PM on May 10, 2010

Also, whilst we're singing the praises of Africa, Amadou & Mariam make some pretty awesome music.
posted by djgh at 12:15 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

djgh: yeah! I liked the album they made with Manu Chao quite a lot.
posted by edgeways at 12:20 PM on May 10, 2010

Moved to Toronto? God damnit. I'm not happy about it, but maybe now I should bother to go protest if it's going to be this close.
posted by Evstar at 12:25 PM on May 10, 2010

I would contribute to a fundraiser in which Bono and Whoopi swap perma-glasses for twenty-four hours.
posted by everichon at 12:33 PM on May 10, 2010

I've been flipping through this, and there's a lot of good stuff. Ignore the rock stars if it bothers you, and read some of the many interesting interviews with various natives from all over Africa.
posted by Alex404 at 12:33 PM on May 10, 2010

As a daily Globe reader, the whole exercise seemed like a good idea with a bad result. Today's issue seems so self-congratulatory and fawning that real, important celebrities took over the paper. There's a full page of the thinner than usual first section which shows a variety of front pages the G&M produced for B&B to pick from, along with a quote from B&B about what a great job the G&M did. A lot of self-congratulatory wankers, IMHO.
posted by Paid In Full at 12:34 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Considering what has come out recently about where the LiveAid money went, it seems a bit of a poor choice.

Western governments were slow to respond to this humanitarian crisis, but a global charity campaign led by the rock singer Bob Geldof’s Band Aid concerts and albums raised more than $100 million for relief organizations like Christian Aid and Oxfam. Because Tigray was under assault, these organizations established bases in neighboring Sudan. They handed food shipments over to the TPLF, which was supposed to deliver them to starving peasants in Tigray. However, it now appears that the TPLF may also have been using some of the aid to feed its soldiers and purchase weapons. In a March 2010 BBC report, a former TPLF fighter described masquerading as a Sudanese merchant and selling bags of “grain”—many containing only sand—to the aid workers, who then passed the sacks on to other TPLF cadres, who returned them to the “Sudanese traders,” who resold them to the aid workers, and so on. In this way, bags of grain/sand circulated back and forth across the border, as money poured into TPLF coffers. The CIA apparently knew about the scam.

Then again, who better to talk about Africa than a couple of white, middle-aged (though that can't really be held against them) Irish multi-millionaires, no?
posted by jokeefe at 12:35 PM on May 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

(addendum: let's not derail the thread with commentary on Bodof)
posted by Alex404 at 12:35 PM on May 10, 2010

Amazingly enough, someone with a camera was on hand to record this historic event.
posted by Copronymus at 12:42 PM on May 10, 2010

It's funny, though. I was just telling someone that I generally really like the Globe and Mail – it's not a bad paper, honestly – but that somehow this week, after reading through the current issue, I came to the conclusion that I don't like Monday's.
posted by koeselitz at 12:44 PM on May 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

I misread 'Bono and Bob' as Bonobo and thought that a story about a chimp in a newsroom would be a good read. I was disappointed.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 12:44 PM on May 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

Moved to Toronto? God damnit. I'm not happy about it, but maybe now I should bother to go protest if it's going to be this close.

My union is part of the coalition organising the People's Summit the week before and the People First Rally on June 26th if you are interested.
posted by saucysault at 12:48 PM on May 10, 2010

Today is also Bono's birthday.

Mine too...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 12:52 PM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

A lot of self-congratulatory wankers, IMHO.

They brought Rebecca Eckler back too???
posted by GuyZero at 1:01 PM on May 10, 2010

I misread 'Bono and Bob' as Bonobo and thought that a story about a chimp in a newsroom would be a good read. I was disappointed.

Why, because it was about two chimps in a newsroom?
posted by MajorDundee at 1:02 PM on May 10, 2010

I misread 'Bono and Bob' as Bonobo...I was disappointed.

You must not have reached the part where they engaged in conflict resolution by standing back to back rubbing their scrotal sacs together.
posted by Beardman at 1:04 PM on May 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

You must not have reached the part where they engaged in conflict resolution by standing back to back rubbing their scrotal sacs together
Ah, thank you for explaining why Bono sounds like he does on his records....do you think the band take in turns to rub scrotal sacs, or is it "Big Bollocks" Bob's sole territory??
posted by MajorDundee at 1:12 PM on May 10, 2010

Also, Bob & Bono both edit the Sun tomorrow by going in to work for 5 minutes and then decamping to Betty's across the street for a few dozen pints like the rest of the Sun staff.
posted by GuyZero at 1:17 PM on May 10, 2010

Such predictable hipster dismissiveness about people that are actually trying to make a difference and trying something new - guest editorship of a major paper - to push towards that. But snark on, you coolhunters.
posted by Rumple at 2:33 PM on May 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'll save you the snark: I have it in my hands, and it's mostly unreadable.
posted by mek at 2:36 PM on May 10, 2010

I have it in my hands, and it's mostly unreadable.

That's what the chimp said.
posted by Elmore at 3:23 PM on May 10, 2010

If I had to pick between a talking chimp and Bono...
posted by mek at 3:42 PM on May 10, 2010

Bono and Saint Bob are the worlds' two biggest tossers. I believe that they are well meaning, but they are also narcissistic and self promoting in a stomach churning way.
Much of the Live Aid money enabled the Ethiopian government to relocate hundreds of thousands of its citizens away from the famine / combat areas - a forced march on which more Ethiopians starved or died of exhaustion than had originally been in peril.
posted by Monkeymoo at 4:30 PM on May 10, 2010

Geldof has always come over as a pretentious prick to me.

Same here.

Considering what has come out recently about where the LiveAid money went.

And how 'bout Geldof's reaction? "Nah nah nah nah nah I am not listening! Give more money to huge unwieldy bureaucracy-laden charities!"

Such predictable hipster dismissiveness about people that are actually trying to make a difference

The road to hell...
posted by uncanny hengeman at 4:40 PM on May 10, 2010

Ah, The Glorb.

For a while I had been toying with the idea of starting a website, named The Grebe & Mule, which would consist of a running commentary on The Glob's odd editorial style, which can be a most bracing blend of intelligent insight and total crap, depending upon the columnist. I do understand that people say dumb things sometimes, but sometimes I really cannot fathom what the regular editors of the Glub are thinking when they decide to print this or that on any particular day.

Anyway, this particular fantasy of mine had gone past zenith when BonoBob appear on the news-floor. Words cannot express my depths of feelings of: Urk! Argh! Acck! What?

Uh, that said, The Globe usually does have reasonably good coverage of foreign affairs, and does devote quite a bit of space to developing nations. Stephanie Nolen is really an excellent journalist, as is Doug Saunders.

Now if they only had excellent journalists, do you think they would sell as many papers?
posted by ovvl at 7:14 PM on May 10, 2010

A few years ago I had weekend subscriptions to both The New York Times and The Globe and Mail. The Globe's 'Books' Section kicked the NYT Books Review ass continually, with a solidly superior level of criticism. Now the Globe's Books Section is folded into the Focus section, and it's not bad, but it's just not the 'best' anymore. I usually don't look at the NYT these days.
posted by ovvl at 7:34 PM on May 10, 2010

Such predictable hipster dismissiveness about people that are actually trying to make a difference

yay I'm a hipster now! I fell so... twee, 30+ years out of date.

You know you can be both an insufferable prick and make a (positive) difference.
posted by edgeways at 8:09 PM on May 10, 2010

Come, now. After all, the Irish are the blacks of Europe...
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:23 PM on May 10, 2010

god i hate these two.

"Every bit of exposure helps, I'm sure, but it probably doesn't help much when wealthy people like Bono and Geldof evade taxation in their home countries, while expecting their fellow taxpayers to commit billions in aid.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:04 PM on May 10 "

well said. just like live8, who benefitted most? the artists and record companies. did we see them offer 10% of the sale of their next album to charity? did we fuck. they just sat around drinking trebles and watching the cash roll in. meanwhile, the poor were goaded into handing over their money. just makes me sick. if they want to do something, how about they stump up several million quid each.
posted by marienbad at 9:12 AM on May 11, 2010

Oddly, this timely article on how over 25 000 of annual maternal deaths in Africa are attributed to complications from illegal abortions was delayed for publication until today, despite its extreme importance in light of the Harper government's failure to include abortion services in its G8 maternal health initiative.

Instead, Bono edition had this editorial saying we should just ignore the problem. We should "abandon posturing over providing abortion services," despite 1/7th of all maternal deaths annually being directly caused by lack of access to safe abortion services.
posted by mek at 11:41 AM on May 11, 2010 [2 favorites]