Bad Idea: The anthology, ed Jack Roberts and Daniel Stacey

Tom Boncza-Tomaszewski
Sunday 15 June 2008 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Addressing a class at Berkley's Graduate School, Clay Felker, the owner of The Village Voice and co-founder of New York magazine, suggested to the future editors of Bad Idea magazine that the internet age was promoting an interest in "the obscure, in the trivial and private". He complained that people didn't understand what a magazine was any more: "A magazine has to stand for values that a lot of people care about, and take an interest in. It has to be about a Big Idea."

After a little reflection, those editors, Roberts and Stacey, decided to ditch their "obscurantist personal obsessions" and involve themselves in "real" journalism. Nurtured by mentors such as Roger Law, of Spitting Image fame, and Lou McLeod, then a publisher at News International, they ignored the bitter loons who run modern publishing and launched Bad Idea.

From Patrick Neate's thoughts on why cricket is such a great source of metaphor to Daniel Stacey's investigative piece on sex and the internet, or Laura Barton's notes on the murky operations of a coroner's court, this is a great selection of work.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in