CANCUN HORROR...
>> SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2010
So, an agreement has been reached by the 20,000 fanatics at Cancun. Billions of pounds are to be wasted in battling the biggest non-existent problem ever imagined, and millions of people worldwide are going to be condemned to needlessly intensfying fuel poverty; meanwhile the UN bureaucrats will get fatter and more powerful as they dream up endless Gormenghast laws. The BBC, of course, is crowing about how marvellous this is and still giving airtime only to those who think this criminal straitjacket on development is not enough. And providing ludicrous, lying graphics supposedly outlining the scale of the problem. Get ready for an outpouring of triumphalism...
The Important Stuff
>> FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2010
I just heard Eddie Mair on PM conducting an admiring - to put it politely - interview with the agency photographer who was following a gang of 'student protesters' who were 'trashing everything that wasn't nailed down' (as the photographer put it), when the mob came upon Prince Charles and Camilla. Our hero was able to get off five 'good' shots of the attack on their car. I paraphrase :
Mair : "And not only that, at many public events there are many photographers - you were the only one to get these exclusive pictures"
Photographer : "Well, yes, they've gone all around the world"
Mair : "And how do you feel about that - it must be really special, a once in a lifetime scoop"
Photographer : "Would you please remove your tongue from my lower digestive tract ?"
(I may not have heard that last bit correctly).
You'd think, even were the couple in question not the heir to the throne and his consort, that the middle-aged couple who were victims of a mob attack might be the centre of the story. But no. It's all about us. Media people reporting on what they really find interesting - media people.
UPDATE - Julia from Ambush Predator comments :
"Well, good grief! The BBC News just ran an interview with Charlie Gilmour (public school and Cambridge protester, stepson of Pink Floyd's Dave, likesswinging from the flag on the Cenotaph - LT), made on the day, before they knew who he was, or what he'd done, and it's pretty clear he's either functionally retarded, or was drunk or stoned at the time. If you can catch it on iPlayer, I suggest you watch, and marvel at what passes for a Cambridge-educated student these days. "
Anyone seen this interview and got a copy or a link ?
OPEN THREAD
A new open thread, and a different image just for a change. This one comes from Paul Mason's dreams last night (he dreams in rather poor photoshop, I'm afraid):
AMERICANA GUEST HOST - RICHARD WOLFFE
This week's edition of Americana on Radio 4 will be presented by regular MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe. His political leanings are so obvious that earlier this week Craig Ferguson mocked him on his talk show (viaNewsbusters) :
CRAIG FERGUSON: You're a Democrat, aren't you?A Democratic Party supporter and a journalist - well, they're certainly one and the same thing at BBC America.
RICHARD WOLFFE: I am a journalist.
FERGUSON: A journalist? Much the same thing, isn’t it?
Just yesterday Wolffe was on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthewsattacking Sarah Palin. He even once had a spell as leftie nutjob Keith Olbermann's stand-in (until conflict of interest issues arose). And now he's a guest host for the BBC. An effortless transition from one left-leaning news organisation to another. (You can be damn sure nobody at the Beeb ever considered asking a right-wing contributor from Fox News to present Americana.)
As if the choice of Wolffe isn't bad enough, his main interviewee is foil-hatted fruitcake Gore Vidal. Ooh, I wonder if he'll say something outrageous and controversial. Yawn.
The War You Wish You Didn't Have to See
Oh the irony. John Pilger getting a spot on Today to promote his new filmabout distorted reporting. Justin venturing the suggestion that Pilger himself wasn’t exactly known for impartiality, Pilger retorting “I was waiting for that”, then citing, with a flourish, former £172,800 p.a. (+ £6,907 expenses) BBC news gatherer Fran Unsworth who “admits, for the first time”, the pressure put on the BBC by Israel. That would be the terrifying Israel lobby that controls the media, causing that sinister, abrupt ending to the interview.
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