24 Hour Trash T.V. and the Election in General

While the last few days has been quite exciting, finally we might actually get policies and plans rather than the news channels all vying for the best angle from which to view the tops of cars, a bunch of bored looking staff texting, or the roof of Buckingham Palace.

The rather predictable 24 hours news coverage ticked most of the boxes of ‘why live news is crap’ (see Brooker et al). One Sky commentator / presenter gave us a fantastic description of ‘corgis looking at David Cameron’ to provide an endless stream of verbal diarrhoea while nothing happened, apart from a helicopter shot of Buck House for what seemed like an age, presumably to assure us it was still standing.

Occasionally live news did come up with the goods, rare nuggets of gold in a river of dross. Adam 'Raging Boul'ton (play on words courtesy of Grauniad subs) losing it against Alistair Campbell was a highlight.

Cameron the ex PR man made it to number 10. Probably the right end to a campaign which Simon Cowell (made millions on exploiting lots of talentless eejits and further millions exploiting a select few very talented people – one of whom appeared to be mentally unstable) gave his ‘humble’ opinion on who people should vote for from the front page of The Sun.

Surely this was the nadir of the press coverage of the campaign - or was it the ‘Obamarisation’ of Cameron the next day (view / read here), brilliantly juxtaposing the first black president of the U.S.A, elected on the promise of fundamentally changing the healthcare of millions of poor citizens with an Eton educated Tory promising cuts.

Meanwhile, left wing press were in disarray, and not just because big hitters from the Murdoch group seemed willing to come over for some argy-bargy. A brave man would take on Rebekah Brooks (nee Wade).

Unsure what to make of the Clegg effect, which turned out to be just that - Clegg has done well, but the party less so - The Guardian’s pull out ‘tactical voting’ poster was a joke (the in depth guide is here), and the oft repeated list of ‘seats not to vote Tory in’ with which the Mirror led with had no discernable effect, certainly not in Kent which went blue through and through.

In general, the press seemed to have the reasoned argument of a Shepway political flyer.

Could this be the proof that papers follow opinion and don’t lead it? Not really. Personally, as with most of these things, it's probably a mix.

Fair play and good luck to the coalition. Perhaps the ‘extremes’ of UK mainstream politics might temper the most odious aspects of each party, although this is like saying MacDonald’s represents the cutting edge of dining.

In their pact with the devil in the deep blue sea (back of the net*) surely there is a cast-iron guarantee of a referendum on electoral reform with a ‘guarantee’ of support to push it through the Lords if the referendum returns a ‘yes’. That might be worth selling a Lib Dem soul for, but I haven’t checked the details yet and perhaps it isn’t. If not, surely the Lib Dems have sold themselves down the river, ripe for a crushing defeat at the next election which, despite the rhetoric and apparent guarantee date, might well come in the next few months.

Perhaps this really will usher in a new politics of compromise, discussion and decency - let's hope so.

I’m not holding my breath.

*apologies for the AP reference

News, News, News...

What is going on at Yahoo News? Ok, I appreciate it isn’t the world’s greatest news service, but in addition to reporting that a new type of human had been identified from DNA extracted from a ‘pinky finger bone’, a story about those pesky Russkies flying bombers around the North Sea appears to be confused as to whether they entered British airspace or not;
“After being tailed for four hours, the Russians eventually left British airspace.

The Ministry of Defence stressed that there was no indication that the planes intended to enter British airspace.”

Eh?

Truly some of the oddest phrasing since the Herald a fortnight ago which referred to Lynne Beaumont’s ‘real life opponent Damian Collins.’

Blinded by the Sun / News in Briefs

I was as upset as anyone at the terrible misfortune to befall David Beckham. I struggled for the words to encapsulate my thoughts when I chanced upon a copy of the Sun on the train.

On Page 3 Rosie, from Middlesex, said; “Like Achilles, son of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, Becks is a dashing warrior.”

Quite!

These wise words reminded me of the wisdom of the ancients used closer to home.

In four full pages of Remembrance Sunday coverage last year, the Folkestone Herald managed to include quotes from Plato (“Only the dead have seen the end of war”) and Mother Teresa (“If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”), yet none from servicemen taking part in the ceremony.

Surely their reporters would have gone to the event rather than cribbing quotes from Wikipedia?

Still, the KM’s amazing attempt at giving the Leas Lift a brush with ancient glories lives on here.

It's All Total Rubbish

If you are pissed off with the news and have half a brain, try these:

Some excellent local news roundups on http://www.verypoor.co.uk/

Some excellent national news roundups - Newswipe on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwWXnXrY-XY

Monbiot launches into local rags

An interesting piece from George Monbiot today over on the Guardian website (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/09/local-newspapers-democracy). Needless to say, this is fairly close to my own thoughts on the matter, stated in numerous past posts.

Monbiot’s example from his own home town, of the ‘battle raging over Tesco’s attempts to build a superstore on the edge of town’ sounds similar to the situation in Hythe with the proposed new Sainsbury’s on the Smiths Medical site. The Herald has at least presented two views on the matter. On November 6, they carried a letter from a local resident protesting about a full page article which appeared in the previous edition, penned by Sezen Zeki of the Channel Chamber of Commerce, extolling the virtues of the supermarket for the high street citing figures compiled by…Sainsbury’s.

At the risk of prompting the Herald into a real story, I note that several Hythe High Street retailers are members of the chamber of commerce. Perhaps they could get their thoughts on the Chamber’s views?

One local bright spot identified by Monbiot (using Roy Greenslade’s efforts as his source) is the Kentish Express, getting a nod as the ‘one instance of real journalism: a report on 'the inflated costs of upgrading a local road,’ presumably referring to Paul Francis’ work with the FoI act and Ashford’s shared space idea, also mentioned in posts past on this blog.

A scathing article followed by equally scathing comments.

While I’m at it one last post on the Herald November 6 edition.

Following from the rather odd article supporting Able Securities boss Dougie Mooring penned by Mike Sims in the October 22 edition (see post of October 28 below), Mr. Mooring again finds himself in the spotlight over allegations of unfair clamping. Miss Sonja Cufley collapsed in a dentists, was given oxygen and was then taken to hospital in Ashford by ambulance, thereby overstaying her ticket.

Mr. Mooring refused to not issue the fine and even charged her £20 for the trouble of appealing the decision. This story is covered by ... Mike Sims.
Mr Mooring is only following the letter of the law, but is Mike Sims taking revenge after being made to write the previous piece of non-news offering somewhat qualified support for Mr Mooring following his clamping the car of a man with no legs?

Tabloid Hell 2

The Kentish Express has ‘broken’ the news that national papers are reporting that a teacher has been suspended for appearing naked on a gay porn website (http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentish_express/news/2009/september/25/teacher_suspended.aspx). Strangely the Herald have yet to put this up, although they have past form of ripping news from the nationals (see Howard posts below) so it can’t be long.

No names are mentioned, but a quick interweb search shows the Telegraph is carrying the story, and at least credits the Sun with the scoop. The Sun doesn’t appear to have a problem giving the teacher’s name, hometown and even a smattering of the pics in question (with modesty covering black boxes, probably not present on page 3) (http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentish_express/news/2009/september/25/teacher_suspended.aspx). If you want the name follow the link.

The school have given a bland comment to the Express. There is a plea “Do you know any more? Give our newsroom a call on 01233 623232” at the end of the article, which is no great surprise as these ‘Give us a story’ messages have been appearing more frequently as the KM Group guts its editorial teams. One might wonder if the Sun hack made it down to speak to pupils and get the quotes for his article, and in doing so whether he broke parts of section 6 of the PCC Code of Conduct:

6. Children:

i) Young people should be free to complete their time at school without unnecessary intrusion.
iii) Pupils must not be approached or photographed at school without the permission of the school authorities.

The Sun headline screams “Gay Pics”, yet apparently the profile on the website gives the name as ‘Mike’ and the sexual orientation as ‘straight’. Later the article refers to “the site - which also features hardcore gay porn”. Does this mean in addition to softcore gay porn, or in addition to a straight porn section? If it is the latter, might the headline be more than a touch sensationalist? Regardless of the orientation of the teacher or the site, is it not possible that the guy is a just bit of an exhibitionist and a few snaps have been put up on his behalf?

The teacher has been sent home and suspended. While his position may now be untenable I am waiting for the calls for him to be sacked, which is a step too far. If someone can convince me what he has done is wrong, harmful or morally objectionable then I will change my mind. The sack would represent a meddling in private lives. Although posting pics on the internet is never the most private of things to do, it is not in school hours and is not connected with his work in the school in any way. This follows recent reports similarly questioning what teachers are allowed to do out of work hours, and whether teachers should be allowed to get drunk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/sep/02/teachers-slam-code-of-conduct).

Of course there must be limits, laws and the means to police and enforce these limits. In some criminal cases the loss of job and position is to be expected for some professions, teachers included. However, posting a few nude pics on the web hardly warrants the loss of a job and the wrecking of reputations siezed upon by the press. Social norms will usually make living bad enough.

Joined up Press

Good to see the Guardian flying the flag for all that is right and proper again. Today Hadley Freeman berates tabloids, the Daily Mail and even the Times for their ‘sweaty palmed’ coverage of the Jaycee Dugard story http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/02/hadley-freeman-jayceee-lee-dugard.

It is clearly not for the Guardian to engage or connect with such rubbish, although just across the page from Freeman’s piece are the stories ‘Previous Garrido victim speaks out’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/02/phillip-garrido-katie-hall-jaycee and ‘Bone found near home of Dugard kidnap suspect’ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/01/jaycee-dugard-bone-fragment). Both come complete with a description of Garrido’s first abduction. Curious readers are able to follow a link to the CNN story http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/31/garrido.victim.lkl/index.html, which opens with a summary of the story of a previous Garrido abduction and rape under the title ‘Story Highlights’.
A search of ‘Dugard’ on the Guardian website shows 21 entries in the last 7 days, including ‘Jaycee Dugard suspect fantasised about sex with young girls’ (September 1) ‘ A world of nightmare; Jaycee Dugard’s story’ (The Observer August 30) and a gallery of images from Garrido’s backyard.

Strangely none of which are mentioned by Freeman!

The Guardian of Moral Standards?

On June 2, after Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle’s spectacular slump (apologies!) to defeat in BGT, and subsequent frontpage based MELTDOWN, The Guardian showed its moral superiority to just about every media outlet on the planet. Informing us ‘ITV in the spotlight after ‘exhausted’ Susan Boyle checks into private clinic’ The Guardian was critical of the fact that Boyle had not been ‘psychologically tested’ by Talkback Thames, the production company.

On the same day in an article titled ‘Who’s to blame for Boyle’s distress?’, The Guardian pontificated (via Linda Blair) ‘it’s easy to pick on the media or the shows’ producers, but in my opinion a large part of the responsibility lies with us, the general public.’ Don’t shoot the messenger eh?

Nowhere in either article on Boyle’s breakdown is it mentioned that a search of ‘Susan Boyle’ on The Guardian website brings up 84 articles in the last 30 days, including:

· May 29, ‘Susan Boyle ‘under pressure’ before Britain’s Got Talent final’
· May 29, ‘Susan Boyle dreamed a dream, now TV stress has become her nightmare’
· June 1, ‘The Susan Boyle freakshow’
· June 1, ‘The media can’t diagnose Susan Boyle – and we shouldn’t try’
· June 3, ‘Britain’s Got Talent: fewer than 20 complaints over Susan Boyle’ (so that’s ok then)
· June 3, ‘Susan Boyle: press warned to back of Britain’s Got Talent star’

Continuing this theme, The Guardian showed its questionable moral fibre in its reporting the death of David Carradine. Intrusion into grief or shock (or the avoidance of) is part of the press code and surely the desire of any decent, human reporter, http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/day/code/codeindex.shtml




so how leaving it till line 5 before the how, where and when of his death was at best horribly insensitive – you can read the details easily yourselves. The story was posted at 15:14 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/04/david-carradine.

Not content with running the story next to a fun hangman game running on a loop (this is a constantly changing advert space, so keep refreshing), a comment section rapidly filled with shocking off colour remarks. On unmoderated forums, anything goes, but The Guardian?!? Some took over 30 mins to take down, or were requoted later in the threads. Despite the ever increasing number of awful comments, readers were told by moderators at 4:24pm that it was good to have some sort of tribute forum, presumably leaving the readers to wonder what forum the moderators were referring to. At 4:36 the moderators closed the comments.

At 18:58 the story was reposted here without a comments section, just a more respectful web address http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jun/04/david-carradine-kungfu-dead.

Update 1 - On June 4 Polly Toynbee, in writing about James Purnell's resignation, used the opening metaphor 'Another engine breaks away from Gordon Brown's fuselage, and the damage done looks set to bring him crashing out of the sky.'