This cartoon struck a chord. BBC News is really getting on my nerves these days. Channel 4 News covers issues much more in-depth without resorting to the descent into ‘That’s Life’ (remember that?) style street interviews. Look East is a big culprit in that respect – go into a local town and ask random passers by what they think, ideally showing their complete ignorance of the subject. We KNOW what we think. Hearing what selected other people think or don’t know isn’t going to change our views. We just want to see a report about the issue and know something’s being done about it (or not, as the case may be).

Another thing… Why do we have to vote on TV programs and phone into everything? I know they make money out of our calls, but I thought we paid these guys to make our entertainment for us – they’re supposed to be good at it and shouldn’t be getting ignoramuses (ignorami ?)  like me to contribute to their output.

Oh yeh… Breakfast on the BBC. Why has it become a vehicle for overrated pop stars, actors and authors to peddle their latest outpourings? Why, also, does it insist on promoting other TV programs all the time?

More and more lazy journalism. I dislike it intensely. Bring back news and abolish ‘infotainment’. It’s making people dumber (with apologies to all people who dislike the increasing use of the antithetical Americanism ‘smarter’, meaning more intelligent).

Rant over… for now

Ofcom enlists 4-year-olds to boost dodgy DAB stats • The Register

Do you listen to the radio? Do you use a DAB digital radio? Are you concerned about a digital switchover for radio which will mean that FM radio will be phased out?

Ofcom have produced the latest in a series of reports on which the future of radio broadcasting in the UK will be based. It seems to skew the data it uses on purpose to indicate that the use of analog radio is waning and that DAB uptake is a success.

For example, Ofcom claims five digital-only stations are reaching over one million listeners a week. However, the ‘listeners’ it cites are aged 4+ instead of the industry-standard benchmark of 15+.  Other ‘statistical shenanigans’ are also pointed out in this article at The Register.

It’s designed to convince us that DAB is a good idea and a complete success which we should all rush out to support by buying DAB radios and junking our perfectly-serviceable (and superior quality) FM sets.

There’s also a more in-depth blog about it by a chap called Grant Goddard, an independent media analyst, here – http://grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/lies-damned-lies-and-ofcoms-first.html

We’re being fed false information again. Somebody have a word before we’re sold a digital pup.

Oh look. The BBC news website has had a makeover. More white space. More images. Larger text. More sample items in each section. Looks OK.

I use it all the time, so if anything I spot puts me into ‘grumpy old man wearing trousers up to his chin’ mode, I’ll let you know!

You see, I used to like it, back when Christopher Eccleston reintroduced the character with Billie Piper as his sidekick. It was a bit edgy, fresh and intriguing, with clever twisting plot patterns being woven in the background.

Since then, it has decended into a typical ‘BBC-fest’ of  special guest stars & self-congratulation and has become a back-patting excercise for the Beeb and the writers and producers who are involved. The first series’ success became the actual focus, much to the detriment of the subsequent programme content.

When I went to see Miss Jenkins in an outdoor concert a couple of years back (see – I don’t just like rock music), she seemed to concentrate on her name-dropping and dress-changing rather than the actual content of her repertoire. It was all a big PR excercise rather than for the sake of the music. Style over content. No wonder she’s been signed up for this…

 BBC News – Katherine Jenkins to star in Christmas Doctor Who.

Oh, and did I mention the music in Doctor Who is still way too loud?

BBC News – Google admits wi-fi data collection blunder.

The Google Street View cars have been snooping into open WiFi connections as they drove round taking photos. Google said during a review that it found it had “been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open networks”.

What I think they mean is that after a German Data Protection Agency requested a data audit and found them out, they decided to come clean, but to say they didn’t mean to do it.

As if.

There’s a tendency these days for organized groups to try to get things banned which they don’t like or agree with - Britain’s enviable past reputation for tolerance has taking a severe battering. Often, the reasons given for the need for a ban are spurious and illogical.  Bonnets have their bees duly installed, with the result being an over-the-top call for the outlawing of certain practices, items or ideas.

Example: Today’s BBC News story about smoking in cars. “Ban smoking in all vehicles, doctors demand“.  It’s The Royal College of Physicians who are promoting this one and they cite the risks to young people travelling in cars with smokers. Trouble is, they want to ban it in cars without youngsters too. It’s an illogical argument and an attack on individual liberty (I don’t smoke, by the way).

Also, how the Sam Hill do they expect a law like this to be policed? People already flout seatbelt laws and use mobile phones whilst driving. Totally dumb. There are some people you’d expect better from.

If, like me, you use the BBC news website to catch up on what’s happening in the world, you may have seen evidence of the presentation of news items being skewed by external influences. I just saw something on the site today which leads me to believe it’s still happening, despite them being aware of the problem.

There’s a screenshot below of a section of their site which displays the most popular and most shared text news items and the most viewed video stories. There’s one story shown in the most read section, “Beer with 32% strength launched” about a Scottish craft  Brewery called Brewdog who have created a beer which has a very high alcohol content. Trouble is, the story was from November – why is it suddenly appearing as a ‘most-read’ story in the middle of February?

I have a suspicion that this story could be an example of one being bumped up the list artificially. It may be no coincidence that the brewery concerned are skillful in the art of viral marketing (as well as making excellent beer) and they have a share-ownership scheme which is coming to a close and has been widely promoted over the past few days.

OK, so if you like Brewdog (and you think their viral marketing methods are doing this), you may think they’re clever in the way that they’re getting national news coverage for free. However, if nothing else it should make everybody think twice about the way our news is presented and the fact that we’re constantly manipulated by all kinds of marketing and political / religious / commercial  lobbying ploys.

Having watched BBC’s iPlayer coverage of yesterday’s Lord Mayor’s Show in London, I thought it might be fun to post some video captures of PMC’s pea harvester in the procession – just to prove they were there! I’m sure lots of Fakenham people who work there (and previously at FMC) would be interested.

With today’s news that Tranmere Rovers have sacked their manager John Barnes and assistant Jason McAteer, putting the team physio in temporary charge, the following fan known as ‘ByeJohn’ posted this to the BBC’s 606 sports forum. It’s a classic…

“As a lifelong Rovers fan I thought I would translate the clubs press release;

The Tranmere Rovers board have concluded that for Monday’s crucial home game against fellow Championship 1 strugglers Stockport, the team will be in better hands under the guidance of the club masseuse than under John Barnes (he was honestly that bad), and the current manager will now be geeing the players up as well as giving them a good rub down.

With the weight of John and Jason’s ineptitude lifted from the club we look forward to the inevitable and ultimately futile relegation dog fight, but I would like to reassure the fans that the board is fully committed to aimlessly wandering around the board room for the remainder of the season, occasionally bumping into things, and wondering how on earth they have managed to turn a perfectly respectable local club into the biggest joke in football since Thomas Brolin’s waistline.”

Now that would have been a great press release!