Well folks, it is just over a week since the new site went “live” and I have to say that I am very pleased with it so far. There is always a stress that accompanies such change and of course one expects teething problems. Traffic levels are great, I am finding this much easier to navigate that on the old blogger site. Hope you also like it.
There are two quick points that I want to make; Firstly, I notice some new names commenting which is great and a big hello and warm welcome to you. A few older names don’t seem to have made it here yet but I do hope they will migrate. Second, can I ask fellow writers to please send their brief bio to ASE so we have a comprehensive authors page?
And apart from that, the floor is yours….! I declare this open thread…OPEN! Enjoy.
Quick question on the ‘think tank’ IPPR, who seem across the airwaves this morning.
Given the message being pumped out that ‘things do not look good for a recovery’, do they have any political slant?
In other news…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/9193069/BBC-stars-should-join-ministers-in-publishing-tax-returns.html
Ok, maybe not.
Some questions asked; some… less so.
Just so long as no licence fee money used on legals fighting the unique differences in public sector sayings vs. doings.
Nick Robinson tweeting in ‘great quotes’ from school hols:
@bbcnickrobinson via Twitter
Great quote too – “I only seem liberal because I believe hurricanes are caused by high barometric pressure, not gay marriage”
Now, what was it Al Gore said about hurricanes.
Anyway, the West Wing creator’s next is about a news room. Maybe an homage to FOX? Or more Drop the Dead Donkey meets PBS?
Interesting quote:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17534932
“That’s why documentaries have become so important,” he told the BBC. “They are probably a better form of truth.”
I was unaware that ‘truth’ came in different forms.
Nah, kidding… I was.
There’s ‘enhanced narrative’ truth, ‘event interpreted’ truth, ‘reflect the orthodoxy’ truth, ‘fair representation of events’ truth, and (not used by a BBC employee, though responded to) ‘helping with emerging truths’.
I wonder if reading this (“I came in when journalism had reached an apex of morality and professionalism, and I was very lucky,” ), and given his new project (being brought to London) about chasing ice, he had anything to say on the dubious ethics of US media around Titanic time, at least according to the BBC.
Actually worth listening to the piece. About as daft as it gets, actually claiming pols only got venal after Bush was elected?
At least Mr. Redford reckons journalism now is pants, as evidenced by a puff piece that allows political views to be posed without any question.
‘Many would say’, but less likely to get the chance on the BBC if not ‘on message’.
I find Jeremy Vine’s tweets fun, if only when he sort of gets, but also misses the point(lessness) of today’s ‘journalism’:
@theJeremyVineIt’s a day where there is Very Little News. In these circs journos should try to cover the stuff we usually miss, eg the war in Congo
What a war? As opposed to current BBC home page greats such as…
Discover the secrets of willpower this Easter
Listen: Desire and how to resist it
Chocolate ‘may help’ keep you slim
Recipes for cooking with chocolate
Hmn, chocolate.
Every now and again, when I feel the need for some old school unintentional humour, I tune into Radio 4.
I must say James Naughtie is the star. He is beginning to remind me of Dad’s Army’s Captain Mainwaring. The pomposity and bluster are certainly there, although Arthur Lowe made his character’s clownishness lovable with a endearing naive patriotism and bravery that I think are lacking in the self-interested tribally New Labourist, Naughtie.
For situation unintentional comedy my favourite port of call is Feedback. Oh to spend a while lost in the whimsical world of BBC complaints.
You know the technique. Take one rather technical issue about BBC services (something involving the digital regional Welsh language i-player podcast analogue interface, that should just about fit the bill) and follow the complaint through to a happy solution – job done.
Then take a ludicrous example of a complaint – say a 40 page screed from a retired Lieutenant Colonel who served in the Royal Tunbridge Wells concerning Evan Davies’s use of grammar. Have a little chuckle and conclude ‘So you see, we can’t please all the people all the time’.
You soon notice that the answer to most public complaints is along the lines of ‘We are right, you are wrong, because we say so’.
Seriously though, I noticed, slipped out in this show were the figures that the Beeb received 240,000 complaints last year and that only 110 made it to the level of the Trust.
Apparently the Trust are now consulting on streamlining the complaints procedure.
I’m one of those people who reckon that the Beeb must receive far more complaints about left wing biases – and they know it.
I may be teaching people here to suck eggs but I link to the Trust complaints appeals page….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/complaints_appeals/
There is also a consultations page.
‘240,000 complaints last year and that only 110 made it to the level of the Trust.’
Which I have had served up by the BBC, about a complaint in the BBC system, as an excuse.
I have to wonder if the internal PR system of any other monolith outside the KGB served up a % stat like that, the MSM would figure that was indeed a sure sign they were ‘getting it about right’, other than getting it about kicked into the long grass 99.9% of the time?