Let us celebrate the news! This is a GREAT DAY for those of us that regard the UK news media with suspicion, scorn and derision.
1) NEWS OF THE WORLD - Will you miss The News Of The World or do you say good riddance to it? : A member of the Dead Tree Press Preservation Society is about to die and disappear forever. Good riddance to the newspaper, its reputation (ha!) and all of its staff.
1) NEWS OF THE WORLD - Will you miss The News Of The World or do you say good riddance to it? : A member of the Dead Tree Press Preservation Society is about to die and disappear forever. Good riddance to the newspaper, its reputation (ha!) and all of its staff.
I have no sympathy at all for anybody who works in the seedy and shady world of Professional Journalism (surely an oxymoron?) and I am sure that the soon-to-be-unemployed NOTW staff will soon learn how to deal with the public in their new careers by using such phrases as:
- Do you want fries with that?
- Which pump was it mate?
- Baked beans? Aisle three, right-hand side.
- Big Issue!
Honestly, it could not have happened to a nicer bunch of people. Let us hope that more journalists lose their jobs and prosecutions follow. I won't miss them. My only suspicion is that a large number of NOTW staff will be re-hired or transferred to a Sunday Sun, or whatever they decide to call it. But then I guess that there really are people out there who need to know what Cheryl Cole did this week....!
- Do you want fries with that?
- Which pump was it mate?
- Baked beans? Aisle three, right-hand side.
- Big Issue!
Honestly, it could not have happened to a nicer bunch of people. Let us hope that more journalists lose their jobs and prosecutions follow. I won't miss them. My only suspicion is that a large number of NOTW staff will be re-hired or transferred to a Sunday Sun, or whatever they decide to call it. But then I guess that there really are people out there who need to know what Cheryl Cole did this week....!
The investigation in to payments made to the Metropolitan Police will be interesting, especially if it is found that other peddlars of news have also paid for information. I'm not a religious man but I will be praying that the three letters B B C are found somewhere in the Met's paperwork. Now, wouldn't that make a great news story?
I heard Ed Miliband mumble something unintelligible about all this on the Radio 2 news this morning. Really, you should find a better sound man and microphone system so that we can all make sense of his wisdom and insight. And interesting to see that his Step Dad has decided to make a reappearance with yet another story of how he could have continued to save the world had things been different (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/wintour-and-watt/2011/jul/08/gordon-brown-davidcameron). Still, he is being paid an MP's salary but not doing an MP's job, so he has plenty of time to look out from his home over the Firth of Forth and wonder "What would have happened if....?".
It comes as no surprise at all that the BBC continues with its hysterical coverage of events. How horrific it is to see a media bully in the shape of the BBC use the News International debacle to further its own objectives. It simply views NI and Sky as major competitors and is doing nothing more than reinforcing its monopoly on the UK public, who have little or no choice but to support it through the TV Licence Fee Tax. Is the BBC impartial? I don't think so. Honestly, do you?
It comes as no surprise at all that the BBC continues with its hysterical coverage of events. How horrific it is to see a media bully in the shape of the BBC use the News International debacle to further its own objectives. It simply views NI and Sky as major competitors and is doing nothing more than reinforcing its monopoly on the UK public, who have little or no choice but to support it through the TV Licence Fee Tax. Is the BBC impartial? I don't think so. Honestly, do you?
You just said on Ken's show "Closing a newspaper - it never happens". Hmmm.... Never happens? Not that I take any interest but I can remember the closures of the Daily Sketch (1971), the London Evening News (1980) and Today (1995) and there have been a myriad of local newspaper closures (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/feb/19/local-newspapers-newspapers). That doesn't sound like "never happens" to me. It should happen more. Death to The Dead Tree Press! If nothing else because it is THE MOST environmentally unfriendly way of disseminating the words described as "news". I sincerely hope that newspapers are no more in my lifetime.
Next...
2) SMOKING BAN - Should the smoking ban be tightened or relaxed? We talk to a councillor in Milton Keynes who wants to ban people smoking in the street and an MP who says it should be allowed in pubs : I don't smoke, I don't live in Milton Keynes and I rarely go in pubs, so I'm struggling - as usual - to determine how this discussion can have any relevance to me. Next...
2) SMOKING BAN - Should the smoking ban be tightened or relaxed? We talk to a councillor in Milton Keynes who wants to ban people smoking in the street and an MP who says it should be allowed in pubs : I don't smoke, I don't live in Milton Keynes and I rarely go in pubs, so I'm struggling - as usual - to determine how this discussion can have any relevance to me. Next...
3) SECOND-HAND CARS - In Your Money and Your Life - how to buy a second hand car : Will you be using your BBC Sound Effects record for this one? I have no plans to buy a second hand car at the moment, and I'm confident I know what to do anyway, so this is of no interest to me. This could be the first of a series, to be followed by "How to buy a newspaper without being ripped-off" and "How to re-tune your radio away from Radio 2". Next...
4) PLANT THEFT - Have you been the victim of a plant theft? Find out more in this Midweek Herald article : At first I thought that this was going to be a serious discussion about the theft of plant (i.e. excavators, dump trucks, concrete mixers, etc.) from construction sites and which costs the construction industry millions of pounds every year. However, my interest was soon killed when I realised that you have successfully managed to find some non-news trivia with which to end this week's programmes and you want to discuss theft of bedding plants and shrubs. In that case the answer to your question has to be "No".
This weekend I would like you to think about what you have done this week.
3 comments:
I must say i DO feel sorry for the little people at NOW. Tho they will prob get jobs at suninsunday. I also woukd hate to see the end of the press. Except those free ones providing rat fodder! I do think that the police/met will get away with it. Theg are just as corrupt. We cant close them down, regretably
Will I miss the News of the World? well hardly, I have not bought a newspaper of any kind since the eighties and have never bought the News of the World ever. Next...
I caught a bit of the Graham Norton show today on the car radio. a guy comes on to do a run down on the various sporting activities that are occuring over the weekend. Along with the motor racing, womens football and ODI cricket we have to have the trivial item which this week is pea shooter championships. On being informed that dried peas are no longer used but some other kind of seed that is more aerodynamic, GN opines "Ooh you could have someone's eye out and then Jeremy Vine will be doing a phone in about it on Monday."
It would appear that JV's co-workers at Radio 2 are very much aware of the intellectual level of his usual subject matter. Have you ever been injured in a pea shooter accident and what effect did this have on your relationship with your pea shooting colleagues?
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