Contrasting Stories
Posted: Tue 4 May, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »Looking at BBC News this morning, I saw this :
Contrasting Stories on the BBC
So toddlers watching TV causes them long-term harm, but more people are watching TV because they’ve no money.
Awesome.
New York
Posted: Sun 2 May, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, Media, Thoughts Leave a comment »As always, I have a bit of an issue with the entire New York car bomb ‘plot’. Like the one in London, it’s a supposed car-bomb which fails to do anything.
What it does do though – if we’re to believe the entire over-arching terrorism theme of the last decade – is bring it all right back into the limelight (again) but with no casualties, no body count, no negative press, just front and centre in the media and stories where terrorism (yet again) paralyses a city.
I wrote a piece many many many moons ago (way before D4D was even an idea) about terrorism and PR which made the same kind of points, that if terrorism is about keeping one’s cause in the media, then the ‘best’ way is to do so without causing damage or loss of life. That way it’s all about how people are reacting to the threat of terrorism, not to the reality of terrorism. There’s a world of difference between the two.
After all, if you can “design” a device/event that can be the lead story in world-wide media for a week, and paralyse a city (even if only for a few hours) and do no damage whatsoever, that’s quite an achievement.
Even better, when people then go on TV to make big press/media announcement about how their country and their people won’t bow down to terrorism and it’s in response to something like this then I’m sorry, but terrorism’s won. You’ve already bowed to it, made people aware of those causes, and kept it in the mind.
Motherf…..
Posted: Sat 1 May, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, People, Sweary Leave a comment »I love Tim Minchin – not all the time, but when he hits a target he really hits it.
Do NOT play the video if you’re offended by “Fuck”, or have serious positive views/beliefs about Catholicism, the Pope, and the entire Paedophile Priests thing.
Tim Minchin’s Pope Song
If not though, go for your life. You’ll need speakers on, but man is it worth it.
Craven
Posted: Fri 30 April, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, Offensive Repetition, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Much as I was disappointed by Frankie Boyle when he played the Cambridge Corn Exchange (and wouldn’t bother going to see him again anywhere) I do still like a lot of the things he says, does, and jokes about. (We’ll also get past that thing about the Down’s Syndrome jokes, which were stupid and based on attitudes from about twenty years ago)
I’ve also been impressed with his statement here about the apology issued “on his behalf” (and apparently without his knowledge) by the BBC in regard to jokes he made on a radio programme two years ago…
In case you missed it, the jokes in question are: ‘I’ve been studying Israeli Army Martial Arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back. People think that the Middle East is very complex but I have an analogy that sums it up quite well. If you imagine that Palestine is a big cake, well…that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.’
I think the problem here is that the show’s producers will have thought that Israel, an aggressive, terrorist state with a nuclear arsenal was an appropriate target for satire. The Trust’s ruling is essentially a note from their line managers. It says that if you imagine that a state busily going about the destruction of an entire people is fair game, you are mistaken. Israel is out of bounds.
The BBC refused to broadcast a humanitarian appeal in 2009 to help residents of Gaza rebuild their homes. It’s tragic for such a great institution but it is now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well drilled lobbying.
The full statement (as per the above link) is available here
SNP and Equality
Posted: Thu 29 April, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Politics, Thoughts Leave a comment »Yesterday the Scottish National Party were told that they won’t get a plinth in the final televised election debate. And quite right too.
The debates are for the national parties, the three with a chance of national rule. The SNP (and Plaid Cymru) haven’t got a chance of that. They’re not running a national campaign – so why should they have a national mouthpiece ?
I’m just a posh boy
Posted: Thu 22 April, 2010 Filed under: Advertising, Creativity, Cynicism, Politics Leave a comment »Saw this today and loved it. Now if only we could get the Conservatives to use it…
The kind of thing Photoshop was meant to be used for (Click to embiggenify)
Electioneering
Posted: Fri 16 April, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Politics, Thoughts 2 Comments »So it’s the run-up to another General Election – don’t tell me you’d missed it!
This time round I wonder who people will vote for. It’s hard to tell the difference between the two main parties, they seem to be Siamese Twins (sorry, conjoined twins) rather than polar opposites. In both cases their policies (or lack thereof) seem only to differ in punctuation and tiny things to argue about while the main points lumber through regardless. The options seem to be a dour Scottish tosser that we know is a scumbag or a perma-tanned PR weasel who’s slicker than greased owl-shit, and who we simply are pretty certain is a scumbag. More a case of “whichever devil you know”.
All of which makes me think that perhaps this election is the Liberal Democrat‘s best chance ever.
I wonder how many other people are thinking “Well both Brown and Cameron are cunts I wouldn’t trust to run a bath, let alone a country. Maybe I’ll go for the Libdems, see what they’ve got“. (Or at least words to that effect)
All Nick Clegg has to do really is look like less of a fuckwitted u-turning scumwad than the other two and (in my opinion) he’s got a real chance at being the next PM.
Maybe it’s time for that third way.