Sunday, July 19, 2009

Painful

This ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGy9jT5VhDM ) is just excruciating – does anyone tune into to this radio show on a regular basis? Why?

Quite apart from the 10% mantra being reeled off on a loop, the presenter is also an infuriating little prick. The IDR (not in Reading West anyway) and any other local abbreviations or traffic landmarks are hardly likely to be key to being the next local MP. I thought the R in IDR stood was Route, and have lived here almost a decade without being corrected, and most people seemed to think it stood for Ring. Clearly saying IDR settles the matter for most of us, as thrilling as it all is, and no-one actually gives a shit apart from a wannabe shock jock.

So yes – a terrible candidate giving a risible performance, but let’s not forget the terrible radio presenter on a typical crappy local station too. The smug little giggler cannot do his own job properly, so why criticise others?

Naz should have been allowed to fade quietly away into third or fourth place by himself, but am I alone in thinking this interview may lead some people to feel sorry for the clueless little fart weasel?

Friday, July 10, 2009

Curious Silence

It has all gone very quiet in the media with regards to the trial of Tilehurst terror attack planner suspect and racist Neil Lewington, arrested and found to have been en route, with explosive devices, to meet a woman who he had been told had had a relationship with an Asian man - and whose young daughter was expecting a baby by an Asian man.

The coverage was not exactly deafening two weeks ago (see the recent New Statesman article for a frustratingly plausible suggestion why), but I doubt nothing of any further interest has occurred in the last fortnight. TV news coverage has obviously passed us all by completely. The national printed press seems to have forgotten the case. Obviously, the local press have more important matters to report on - help Miss Berkshire win Miss England, someone else has been clamped in the Lidl car park, etc. I am not belittling all their articles (except the clamping - something that gets reported on so often we can assume reporters gather at the McDonalds drive thru next door to it to keep themselves employed), but the priorities are a little misplaced. Still, the national press have had little or nothing to say on the matter either.

Why so little media attention?

Did my viewing of Africa Addio (see my other blog, if you are bored today) totally throw out my perspective on such matters, or is a white man accused of planning such attacks of less public interest than someone of another ethnicity doing so?

How is he denying eight charges related to terrorism or explosives in the face of such overwhelming evidence?

Why did so many people suspect he was planning these activities yet remain quiet on the matter until he was arrested (for drinking and smoking on a train then urinating in public – at which point his bag was searched and the rest of his activities came to the attention of the police)?

How did he continue living at his parent’s home for ten years without speaking to his father?

Basically, a little discussion about the media approach to this, the circumstances surrounding the case, or even some bitchy gossip would be welcome around this subject. Anything but this weird silence. A decade on from David Copeland (Mr Lewington is a something of a fan of his, and Timothy McVeigh, by all accounts), it seems white people accused of building bombs to kill and maim those living in the UK is of no interest. Still, nice to see so many photos of Michael Jackson’s family again today...

(Note – Mr Lewington met some women via the internet, including a chatroom called Hot Or Not. I’m guessing, from what little we know of the man and his “publicity” photo, the answer is Not. Again, feel free to discuss).

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Michael Jackson RIP. That means Rest In Peace. So shut it.

It is still a subject of interest in the media. I know dozens of people who didn’t give a toss about his death when they first heard about it, and a couple who got a bit upset for a few hours and then moved on with their lives. I know many, many more people who helpfully circulated the tasteless jokes that show just how little most living people thought of the man, sadly.

All that in mind, can anyone reading this who is convinced people gave a crap about the whiny fella please – PLEASE – stop watching the documentaries about his life, and put a temporary halt on buying MP3 tracks from his horrendously extensive back catalogue. This may ensure your survival in when out in public. Hopefully this will help send a message to the media that some of us are near breaking point and may need to create some quite disgraceful public displays of shouting and excrement throwing until we go back to discussing matters which will hold some importance to how we all live our lives.

Someone I had not seen in almost 15 years has been thanking former school friends for leaving messages of support for her on facebook, following the death of her husband. She will be bringing up their children, facing a future without the love of her life by their side. I am sure she feels great to have the media insist she should be thinking of the Jackson family at this time (we all are – at least, that is what we are being told).

NOTE – I have not quite recovered from the news of the death of Mollie Sugden yet, several days on. If anyone shares this rather daft pain, feel free to let me know. We can discuss this without inflicting the topic on the millions of people who shouldn’t give a flying f*ck. Thanks.

A Failure To Communicate – Destroy The Presses

Just a few short weeks ago, Reading had a familiar daily roll of tat -The Reading Evening Post.

Everyone in the UK has a largely pointless, frequently laughable local paper – it’s what makes us who we are, etc etc. I thought, at the time, few would mourn when it ceased to be printed.

Alas, the replacement service is two weekly papers (why bother with the news from a few days ago and why have them two days apart instead of three or four?) and the associated Get Reading website has become progressively more demented with every passing day - which is amusing, yes, but also rather terrifying as it has now become the main news source of the local area.

I have started to post less frequently on the comments boards, as I am slightly concerned that a few people who used to use the service to leave a few useful comments have now joined in with the mental chaos of the site. It is now easier to post random comments and create a fantasy world through the site than to treat it as a genuine, reality based mouthpiece for the community.

A large reason for this is, I suspect, that despite the website having been hyped up by the owners as being of more consequence for the local populace after the end of the daily EP, the number of news stories posted on the website has obviously decreased. The quality and value of many stories (small fire at house - saucepan slightly damaged and nobody hurt - being one of my favoured examples) has failed to improve.

Of particular note this week was a piece written by someone in very basic draft form, and then seemingly slipped onto the website by accident. The content was seemingly without purpose and the writer a failed GCSE English student - notably, “police arrived and moved him and his mates on” then referring to football as “footie.” Passable in conversation (some would say – I appreciate others would argue this), but also barely literate, obviously not submitted via a decent editor and of little value to any readers. . The subject – “tiny” pre-teen ignored a police dispersal order, the reason for which went unreported – means absolutely nothing to anyone not already in possession of the facts (and for whom the report would seemingly be pointless).

How much are people being paid to churn out such poorly written pieces about so very little of consequence? Without spending time to get some genuine insight into the stories, the majority of articles contain no depth, perspective, few facts, little value...

Whilst some of the writers are clearly professional journalists, many of them churn out the same sort of ill-conceived rubbish I can do here – on a blog, which does not pretend to offer an unbiased public service.

It would appear that an average current local newspaper offers significantly more value than the way forward for local news reporting.

NOTE – If you have the surname Makepeace, do not allow the media to print your surname. It will result in hysterical laughter in offices across Reading.