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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I disagree entirely. The old stagers were fixated by gunfire and action generally. That is not the best place to report about what is going on. Ask any soldier what's going on and he won't know what war it is. Give me Channel 4 News' Secunder Kermani every time. Though I will give their older school Lindsey Hilsum a quick shout out. 'Incoming, Lindsey!'
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| As far as I can tell, the only Brits who are actively reporting from inside Gaza, Hamas areas, Yemen, etc are persona non grata in the MSM. |
The Israelis wouldn't let journalists in to Gaza so the MSM had to rely on whoever happened to be there at the time.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | Give me Channel 4 News' Secunder Kermani every time. Though I will give their older school Lindsey Hilsum a quick shout out. 'Incoming, Lindsey!' |
Ah. I fear I might need to upgrade our TV to receive these modern channels.
Does anyone know of a TV that still has visible push buttons on the TV itself? As M'Lady and remote controls seem to be locked into a perpetual war zone all of their own. Because it has been repaired so many times, the existing remote control is a bit like the Ship of Theseus or Trigger's Broom.
Bouncing it off the wall probably does it no good at all.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Channel 4 News has another first-rate reporter, Harry Fawcett. He seems to be independent but used to be with Al-Jazeera, a recommendation itself in view of A-J's generally sound reporting but also a pointer to Channel 4's left-leaning tendencies.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Hatty wrote: | | a pointer to Channel 4's left-leaning tendencies. |
Is this another pointer?
| Originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I've heard some mealy-mouthed excuses in my time but when the dude comes onto Newsnight and tells Katy Razzell the reason the BBC and other public broadcasters can't make high end programmes any more is that the streaming services have descended on Britain to make their high end programmes and put the cost of film crews et al up. It certainly is down to competition, old chap, but not because a sparks costs threepence ha'penny an hour more than he did last year.
And Katy bought it! Dearie me, the price of Newsnight presenters. Gawn fru the roof, they 'ave. We're having to make do with Radio 4 retreads. (This has nothing to do with Ms Razzell refusing to go ahead with my hatchet job on the British Museum.)
Dearie me, the price of AE-ists. They haven't changed. Still below bargain basement. In fact, half the time they'll pay you.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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Katy Razzell, as one of the remaining BBC employees, may have thought it was more than her jobsworth to mention another big reason the BBC can't make high end programmes any more.
Over many years, to reduce costs, they pursued a deliberate policy of outsourcing production to independent media firms.
What could possibly go wrong?
Wasn't the BBC their biggest customer, able to dictate to these independent media firms? It was 10 years ago, but then the interweb thing came along. With people willing to pay for subscription services, despite already paying the TV Licence tax.
Now the BBC is hoisted by its own petard.
The independent media firms are now getting a better price for their talents and services from subscription service providers, but the BBC doesn't have the talent to compete any more across a wide front. Just the occasional "flagship" production that is flogged for all its worth.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Might I point out to you, Ms Razzell and the man from the BBC that if there is a greater demand for film facilities and technicians in Britain from the television industry, we will have more facilities and technicians servicing the television industry in approximately three months.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| The Searchers will end nearly 70 years of touring with their debut at the Glastonbury Festival. The Merseybeat band, formed by Mike Pender and John McNally, have performed with different line-ups since its formation in 1957. |
Blimey, they're still alive?
| Known as the "longest-running band in pop history", the Liverpool band had three UK number ones, including with their version of The Drifters' hit Sweets For My Sweet. The Searchers' Final Farewell Tour will conclude at Glastonbury on 27 June, which the band said will be its "last ever show". |
A "last ever" debut seems like some kind of musical oxymoron.
| McNally said: "A Glastonbury debut at 83, can anyone top that? I don't think life gets any better, does it? | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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That reminds me, we ought to have a canon for pop groups over on the Canon thread. The Searchers are in the second (Brahms & Liszt) tier alongside the likes of the Hollies, but behind the top (Beethoven and Mozart) tier of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Also music festivals?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Al-Jazeera had a fascinating programme about Bangkok which, apparently, is sinking a centimetre a year, the fastest of any city in the world. This being coupled with being on a coast with the sea rising constantly because of global warming made for a compelling greenie debate about what to do about it all. I'd love to have joined in but the one thing they never got round to telling us was why Bangkok is sinking at a rate of knots.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Radio 4 had a fascinating programme about why we go to the pub. I don't go to pubs myself but it is a subject of consuming interest to me because pubs play such an important part in The Megalithic Empire and related works.
I was highly pleased therefore that they had got a palaeoanthropologist in to head the discussion because she launched on a historical, indeed a pre-historical, account of the part communal alcohol played in Man's development. Right up my alley.
But not, apparently, up everybody's alley because the producer had decided the expert's sonorous words had to be accompanied by loud repetitive gong sounds, presumably to evoke the strangeness of the past, lest anybody got bored... or something.
After a minute a so I was driven to such distraction I had to give up. So I never found out why we started going to pubs. Have a listen yourself and tell me it isn't just me https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00290dv
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | the one thing they never got round to telling us was why Bangkok is sinking at a rate of knots. |
Not just Bangkok.
| Bangkok, along with Venice and New Orleans, are three cities which are sinking 10 times faster than the rising sea level. According to some estimates, parts of Bangkok are sinking by two centimetres annually. |
Yes, but why?
| The city of Bangkok was developed on a marshy stretch of land in the Chao Phraya delta to accommodate a new capital after the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese Empire in the 18th century. It is built on highly compressible layers of soft clay. The sinking of the city is mostly driven by the sheer weight of the built-up urbanisation, as well as uncontrolled groundwater extraction. |
The land sinking is much more significant than actual sea level rises, which are measured in millimetres per century. That kind of rate of rise can easily be adapted to.
Trouble is, most people skimming the fear-porn stories in the MSM have no sense of proportion.
| In a case study on Bangkok assuming the scenario of a four-degree Celsius temperature increase, without adaptation measures, the city is predicted to experience severe flooding. Under these assumptions, the city is expected to experience around 40 percent inundation by an extreme rainfall event and 15 centimetres (cm) sea-level rise (SLR) by 2030. |
Most people don't even register the tell-tale words - "case study" and "predicted" - as these computer modelling exercises can "predict" anything you like.
I can produce a computer model that will predict Tottenham will win loads of trophies. Enough said?
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | Radio ..accompanied by loud repetitive gong sounds, ... tell me it isn't just me |
It isn't just you. I gave up after 30 secs. There must be some kind of obsession or policy that everything has to have some background music. Even when it's supposed to be a documentary.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | we will have more facilities and technicians servicing the television industry in approximately three months. |
Followed by a surplus of the available facilities and technicians. and then a price crash. But will that benefit the BBC?
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