The news

[womanofdulwich]

The 10pm news last night was full of child killers and abusers for about 20 minutes.

It looks like we are in for a long season of people coming forward reporting historical incidents.

I really don't think I can watch the news any longer. It is so depressing. Is it just me?

[Ant]

No, I was thinking exactly the same thing. I feel as though the news used to be better, though to be honest I can't think now of any concrete examples! Still, all this ghoulish sensationalism doesn't actually serve any purpose or make our lives better in any measurable way, so I find myself watching less and less these days. I don't feel I'm any less informed when it comes to important stuff. There are plenty of other ways for real news to reach me.

[*Bob*]

News stories like these tend to come in self-perpetuating cycles and then wear themselves down.

It's also an overcompensation for 'not reporting' stuff like this (eg Savile) in years gone by.

[Saffron]

I've taken the site survey on the BBC news website twice over the past couple of years. Whenever they ask how the site could be improved, I always say that it could be improved by reporting more good news AND reporting it in more detail, particularly in the field of medical advances. Yes, it's important to know when mistakes have been made, but people need to hear about successes too. I've been looking for a news website that doesn't dwell in detail on sensationally bad events, but reports the details of lots of good things too... have yet to find one. Don't even bother with major US news sites, they're even worse.

[the-e-dealer]

Surely its good news that the Women got out and the perps caught?

[El Pibe]

We said the same thing last night, and when, 25 minutes in we got to eddie wossisname's abuse we just muted it until the weather.

In fairness, like Ant I find myself using other sources to pursue the sort of news Saffron is talking about, and I have plenty of analysis type sites for the important global stuff. Murders, kidnappings and rapes are news for sure, but I don't like to dwell on it like an open sore, the main reason why I'd not touch a tabloid or 'human interest' paper like the mail or express.

[woodrot]

the saVILE stuff was always there, as was the whole light entertainers stuff from the last century- its just 1) people have the confidence to report historical stuff 2) The accepted slap n tickle, saucy schoolgirl, rape shenanigans of yore is being viewed in a different light.

Its good telly/paper sales to show bad people doing bad things to kids- its just higher profile at the minute - most of what you see is still pretty much a statistical abberation, and an abberation that seems to be less prevalent as time goes by, despite the headlines and grisly media tugfest at present.Most Child abuse isnt done by ageing golfing Tory party supporting Slebs with a quasi racist jokebook, but within families, by family members - and this doesnt garner the headlines we have been taught to crave I spose.

At best, we see perps of historical deeds being done ( see also the 93 yr old ex concentration camp guard arrest this week), as worst, we are being draqgged into another peedo horror outrage vigilante payback time hang em high partially orchestrated scrummage.

[womanofdulwich]

Saffron, let me know if you find anything then.

I might just switch on at 10.30 for the weather :)

[the-e-dealer]

Eddie who?

[woodrot]

shah

[the-e-dealer]

Blimey - never liked him.

[Ole]

I think the problem is that they (and by they I mean most news outlets not just the BBC) rely too much on press releases - if it ain't got a press release it ain't going to be reported. Hardly surprising, the media has been stripped to bare bones with just enough staff to man the phones and pick up the press releases from the press release churning machine, so hardly surprising that there are no real 'news' in the traditional sense. We live in the era where PR and corporate communications rule. Real journalism is dead. (and I am not a journalist by the way, although I do work in media)

[El Pibe]

yesterday we seemed to have the full spectrum, in news presentation order.

kidnappings and systematic abuse by strangers hiding in plain sight.

old celeb nabbed for past assault on young boy

trial of family member who raped and killed young girl

trial of stranger who lured, raped and killed young girl

old businessman nabbed for paying for systematic abuse of young girl

At least today we can be dominated by the serious news of man who tells other men how to kick a pigs bladder at a net stops telling men how to kick a pigs bladder at a net, phew!!!

[the-e-dealer]

And Buy to Let landlords are going to do the job of the UKBA.

[Ole]

Also, programmes can buy 'news packages' with the news already typed out and the images/videos etc, all the station has to do is tweak it to its house style and get a presenter to read it, so you are seeing practically the same thing over and over again in the different channels. I prefer channel 4 news because at least they offer a bit of analysis which means they must employ at least one extra member of staff who deals with the guest bookings (who have been briefed to death by their PR people on what and what not to say so the whole thing is usually rather bland, but at least they are making a teeny bit of extra effort). Disclaimer: I don't work for channel 4, but if you are interested in the real what is really going on (politically), I'd suggest a Private Eye subscription (I don't work for Private Eye either).

[woodrot]

Ole Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I think the problem is that they (and by they I

> mean most news outlets not just the BBC) rely too

> much on press releases - if it ain't got a press

> release it ain't going to be reported. Hardly

> surprising, the media has been stripped to bare

> bones with just enough staff to man the phones and

> pick up the press releases from the press release

> churning machine, so hardly surprising that there

> are no real 'news' in the traditional sense. We

> live in the era where PR and corporate

> communications rule. Real journalism is dead. (and

> I am not a journalist by the way, although I do

> work in media)

The Beeb seems to source all of its vox pops from the arndale centre in manchester, npow that they have decamped to the provinces to spread the love. Gurning, hatched faced nasally northerers with comedy teeth and a penchant for crack, boddingtons & chips n gravy is hardly a representative sample of anyfing. Note to BBC - Manchester was supposedly "cool" in the 80s/early 90s - but in reality, it was always a drizzle sodden, violent shithole of post industrial wasteland, mired the hangdog legacy of fortune built on colonial exploitation- that makes Huxleys neo futurist/ vorticist tainted impression of the future of mankind being Middlesboro as a preferred option.Engels studied the working classes in manchester as part of his 1840s work - and if anything, its got worse since then- even the fucking manchester footballers live in Wales*

/ends

* Sub- can you edit this to flow a bit better . Cheers

[woodrot]

the-e-dealer Wrote:

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> And Buy to Let landlords are going to do the job

> of the UKBA.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10399350.Workers_from_AA_have_new_powers_from_Sussex_Police/

[the-e-dealer]

Blimey Police doing the AA's job? No the other way round Crazy. I am glad I left the AA Gone are the days when they warned you of a speed trap. Why should we pay for our Police Twice by paying the AA?

THIS HAS REALLY P**SSED ME OFF What next Ice Cream Vans being allowed to pursue speeding Vehicles? Window Cleaners given the power to Search our homes? Or Pub landlords arresting us for being drunk and disorderly. Oh And MPS allowed to arrest each other for expense fiddling. That would be a laugh! And pick pockets allowed to arrest for possession. ARGGGGHHHH ! 'm going for a lie down.

[Annette Curtain]

I've given up watching the news for that very reason, but I do read the weekend papers and give news night a look in.

Trouble is, every time I see/hear a politician I go straight into

"Shut up you lying cun*" mode.

Can't help it.

[womanofdulwich]

Last night was particularly bad then. Maybe it was a quiet day in Syria.

[maxxi]

woodrot Wrote:

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> The Beeb seems to source all of its vox pops from

> the arndale centre in manchester, npow that they

> have decamped to the provinces to spread the love.

> Gurning, hatched faced nasally northerers with

> comedy teeth and a penchant for crack, boddingtons

> & chips n gravy is hardly a representative sample

> of anyfing.

ditto ITV and the pink elephant's lard-faced southerners etc...

[El Pibe]

womanofdulwich Wrote:

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> Last night was particularly bad then. Maybe it was

> a quiet day in Syria.

Well 16 killed by terrorists in Pakistan, little more than a daily occurence, barely makes the news there anymore to be fair.

[womanofdulwich]

Whoops I had forgotten about that- and Imran Khan :(

[Saffron]

womanofdulwich Wrote:

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> Saffron, let me know if you find anything then.

> I might just switch on at 10.30 for the weather :)

Hmm, well, sometimes I like to read The News of the Weird just for perspective/guilty pleasure.

http://www.newsoftheweird.com/

http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html

[stacey-lyn]

Why is it that whenever newsreaders report on Nigeria's Islamic sect 'Boko Haram' (eg last night, 55 killed, horrific), I hear 'Procol Harum'?