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AE on Telly News (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Mick Harper
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Great (Channel 4)

I've read dozens (possibly hundreds) of books about Catherine the Great and they all follow a pattern. A page covers her childhood, another page covers the period up till the death of Tsar Peter, then they get down to why she is called 'the Great'. It has been refreshing watching this series in which -- I have not yet watched this week's penultimate episode -- it's all about Pete and Cath.

But one thing: I fast-forward any time Catherine is on screen without Peter. Bor-ing.
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Mick Harper
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A mighty clash of the titans between my two daily CNN progs. Andersen Cooper lashes Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York for his serial inappropriatenesses with women, then the Governor's brother, Chris, comes on for his hour of lashing people not called Cuomo.
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Mick Harper
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I accept that after a year of COVID the telly is having to scrape a few barrels but Australian Junior Masterchef? I am watching under protest.
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Mick Harper
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White House Farm (Netflix)

This is the British TV series of a year or two ago and which we have already discussed. Its appearance on Netflix coincides with Jeremy Bamber's latest appeal. What shocked me was the news that he had been inside for thirty-five years. This is far longer than this kind of multiple-but-one-off homicide, without aggravating circumstances, normally gets.

Presumably it is because he keeps getting knocked back by the Parole Board who always insist parolees express a degree of penitence. If so, it does rather point to his innocence. The AE point is the rarity of such a multiple homicide when there is even the possibility of someone else doing it being present (his nutty sister). This applies even if the homicide is committed because there is such a person.

But an even more interesting question is, "Would you confess to a crime you didn't do if it meant actually getting out of prison?" Come on, Jeremy, you've only got one life. And I say that even if you are guilty, which on balance I don't think you are.
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Grant



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I read Carol Ann Lee’s book, which was the source of the TV show. Even though she is strongly against Jazza much of the evidence she presents doesn’t support her cause.
I don’t know if Bamber was guilty or not, but he was only found guilty because he looked like a total cad. The jury thought, “Was it the looney sister who had obviously murdered her children after telling her psychiatrist she feared she would kill them; or was it the good-looking brother, who had already started spending the money, was a bit gay, and generally a bad egg.
Even then it was only a majority verdict.
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Mick Harper
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It is obvious that the length of the sentence should at least have a small tariff to reflect the may-be-innocent factor. Say, five years off if there's a five per cent doubt. Ironically you would probably get more than that off for 'good behaviour' and, as you say, Bamber got convicted partly for bad behaviour. At the moment it's the other way about. If you are 100% innocent you will actually serve longer because of the Parole Board factor.

Only the Americans truly understand that juries convict on the basis of whether they like you or not which is why the real trial is conducted at the jury-picking stage. We British are proud to believe "If he's in the dock he must be guilty, stands to reason, no smoke without fire, etc etc" so it doesn't matter which twelve of us are asked to say so.
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Mick Harper
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For the second day in a row my two-hour CNN fix is hijacked by the Colorado shooting. For Chrissake! It's a mass shooting. In America. Big deal. What news story got bumped for it, 'Joe Biden has bowel movement'? Why can't there be a dedicated cable channel for people who like this kind of thing and the rest of us can get on with laughing at America.

Actually there was five minutes at the end of the two-hours. The voting machine computer nerds are suing all the people who accused them of rigging the election with their software. One of the chief poltroons, Trump's defence counsel (can't remember what for), just filed her defence: "What we were saying was so ridiculous no reasonable person believed us anyway so the plaintiffs suffered no harm." It's a good point. In fact most people would pay good money to have people like Ishmael batting for the other side.
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Ishmael


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Mick Harper wrote:
"What we were saying was so ridiculous no reasonable person believed us anyway so the plaintiffs suffered no harm." It's a good point. In fact most people would pay good money to have people like Ishmael batting for the other side.


This is a complete mischaracterization of Powel's statement. CNN reports absolutely nothing that threatens the comfort of its viewers. I wish you would keep this stuff off the board. Why don't you find a CNN fan-boy group somewhere?
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Mick Harper
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Sorry to remind you of the rules but it's not really enough to say I've got it wrong, yah boo sucks.

I am presumably as aware of CNN's political bias as you are and I am presumably as capable of taking this into account at least as well as you are, so if I got it wrong on this occasion here's your chance to help me out. Your telling me I got it wrong is useful but not very helpful.
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Ishmael


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My mental health is of greater worth to me.

I do not believe you sincerely interested in the opposing point of view. More interested in having a volunteer punching bag.
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Mick Harper
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Once more, we shall never know.
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Grant



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We don’t live in a universe in which Trump could increase his lead in Florida (65% white) but then lose Wisconsin (81% white). It doesn’t matter what the lawyers and the statisticians say in the face of the Florida win, which happened just before the vote was stopped in various states for spurious reasons.
Be honest Mick, what did you think after the Florida result ?
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Mick Harper
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I live in a universe where inexplicable things happen and local life-forms always explain these inexplicable things as manifestations of their 'god'. This is a kind of catch-all device which is not, as one might have thought, primarily for explaining the unexplainable but a force that gives meaning and order to the life-forms' lives.

In most societies it is necessary that all life-forms have the same 'god' but in advanced cultures individuals exercise a choice of god from those on offer. Only extremely advanced life forms are able to be, as it were, their own god.
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Mick Harper
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We can now apply these principles to the news. We have to get our knowledge of the world from the mass media which means ‘choosing a god’. Life’s too short to take on more than one, too short for print, so it’s telly news that is liberal or conservative (if you’re lucky). In Britain, it’s a case of three liberal: BBC, ITN, Sky (Ishmael will be interested to learn that Murdoch is liberal over here) though that is due to change soon with two promised conservative ones (one being a Murdoch version of Fox). In America it means lots of liberal ones and one (Murdoch) conservative.

Observation one: liberal and conservative are not equivalents. Since liberal has been the default for so long, it is more trustworthy than conservative which is obliged to be reactive and shrill. On the other hand, and for the same reason, liberal is more insidious.
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Mick Harper
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So we can take an example of how it works for AE-ists. I have found over the years that only two outfits, CNN and Al-Jazeera, have the resources -- maybe the intent -- to provide a decent service overall. Both are nauseatingly liberal. So when, for instance, the Sidney Powell story (see above) broke -- on CNN, not on Al-Jazeera who presumably thought it too parochial -- you could be sure it actually happened but you could not be sure it was important and you had to judge it meant what they said it meant. Their coverage persuaded me they had it roughly right. Indeed, I couldn't see how they could get it wrong, the facts being fairly basic, including her own filmed remarks.

As an AE-ist I thought it significant because it showed two realities inside this hot-shot lawyer's head. On the one hand she sincerely believed that the election had been rigged by this Venezuelan software firm because she is a Trump groupie, on the other hand her lawyer's brain was telling her the evidence wouldn't stack up if it came to a defamation trial. Going down the Swannee can concentrate the mind but mostly even that doesn't. Prospectively being burnt at the stake often doesn't.

On her substantive claim she is completely correct, nothing she or Trumpists say has the least effect on non-Trumpists because most of what they say is both silly and discounted, a rigged election is one of the sillier ones and has been completely discounted. Ishmael thinks I've got it wrong and he certainly knows more about the matter than I do but he's not a reliable witness when it comes to anything to do with politics. Though on this occasion not any kind of witness.
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