Liverpool parade car incident

[The Crofted Crest]

So they end-up with. endless repetition, sometimes attempting to hide it by getting different reporters on different street corners to say the same thing.

What they often start with, and middle with and end with is journalist interviewing journalist.

 

[Psamathe]

I genuinely think the world would be a better place without TV news and no punditry generally. My general POV is if I am unable to do anything in response to news, they I don't need to know it. And I certainly don't need it pumped into my brain 24 hours a day.

I think it's variable but the better broadcasters are important. If we expect the electorate to vote in any sensible m,anner they need information and balance background and analysis and significant %age of the population won't seek out reliable sources online.

24/7 news channels I've never watched so no idea. But I think the early evening news broadcasts are important. Without them we'd be more vulnerable as people rely on sources like their Twitter feeds that are designed to keep them on-site by feeding them whatever the site thinks they want to hear often extreme lies from rubbish sources (just look at CRX Randy's posts on this site).

Ian

 

[matticus]

But how best to get the essential info is a can of worms... 24-hour TV news is possibly the worst way to get it though. Or Facebook. Or Twitter.

Maybe a once-a-month summary would be ample. Most of the rest of the news is just gory-&-gloom 'entertainment', which was punctured so brilliantly by The Day Today.

Hard to disagree!
(The Day Today was 1994?!? Good lord! Who can remember a similar more recent show that had the rolling stockprice/headline ticker - that was always entertaining. A CH4 thing?)

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

This. It's an addiction, fostered by the people who need your views/clicks. A soap opera of misery.

That's like my Dad. He spent most of his career driving, so listened to the radio every day.

Now in retirement, everything has to stop when the news is on and sod what you are doing or watching.
He gets himself into such a mess over things and he believes all the doom and gloom - He even cancelled a holiday when Russia invaded Ukraine for example.

No amount of reasoning will alter his views, he's just addicted and I think it's partly a buzz with him thinking that he knows more than everyone else, except that he doesn't, because he only ever watches/listens to the BBC, so his 'feed' is quite narrow as a result. 🤦‍♂️

Admittedly, that isn't 24 hour news, but going anywhere with him is still a nightmare!

 

[matticus]

Oh dear. There's always one. FAFO:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq69zdpr0r5o

 

[Beebo]

Oh dear. There's always one. FAFO:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq69zdpr0r5o

Andrew Lawrence often pops up on Facebook and YouTube. He is a not very bright, right wing comedian.

If you book him for an event then this is what you can expect. It’s no surprise to me.

A bit like if you book Kneecap to play a concert, don’t be surprised if they say something controversial.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Oh dear. There's always one. FAFO:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq69zdpr0r5o

What a fud!

 

[BoldonLad]

<going back a few steps, sorry!> My main point on this:

If we agree that voting is important, then I think you maximise the effectiveness of your vote by being aware of current affairs. As far as possible.

[Yes, it's often quite dull - even depressing - and I mostly prioritise other time sinks in my life, but at the same time i do think it's important!]

I don’t disagree with that. It wasn’t me suggesting curtailing consumption of news coverage

 

[Pross]

The driver was very lucky not to be dragged out of the car and given a kicking. Police did a good job in the situation (less so in allowing the car to get through the closure even if it was following the road closure). The overhead footage reminded me of when those two soldiers ended up driving into an IRA funeral.

 

[briantrumpet]

Hard to disagree!
(The Day Today was 1994?!? Good lord! Who can remember a similar more recent show that had the rolling stockprice/headline ticker - that was always entertaining. A CH4 thing?)

It genuinely cured me of watching TV news... the satire was just so brilliant and so surgical in its dissection of how news is packaged to turn it into entertainment no matter how vapid the content, but also how they manufacture conflict where there really isn't any, so are actually agents in creating conflict and misery.

 

[Pblakeney]

If you want pure speculation without any evidence then it may be as simple as an impatient self-entitled driver in the first instance.

That said, you need to have a general idea of competence, general honesty (outside of the election guff), which you'll only know if you've at least had some awareness of past history (e.g. Corbyn/Starmer, Farage, Tories from Johnson onwards). Part of the problem with Trump is from mahoosive ignorance on those fronts.

Not sure if I too used to be naive, or if politicians and news reporting is simply going down the plughole but I've pretty much given up.

I suspect the latter but the end result is the same.

 

[briantrumpet]

Not sure if I too used to be naive, or if politicians and news reporting is simply going down the plughole but I've pretty much given up.

I suspect the latter but the end result is the same.

It's worth going back and watching interviews from the 70s-90s with people like Brian Walden and Robin Day interviewing... not only are their questions often intellectually probing (not often going for the quotable 'gotcha' moments), but the responses tend to be more open... which is why Walden's interview of Thatcher was so memorable, as her rather smarmy attempts to deflect came across as just that, not what had been more normal up till then.

Just a couple of reminders:

 

[briantrumpet]

FWIW, that Gerry Adams interview shows why he's been such a formidable figure - you get the feeling that Walden doesn't necessarily agree with his politics, but Adams, especially in retrospect, argues his POV very persuasively. Both seem to be well prepared and able to respond directly and intelligently to each other.