chaplin

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The idiot box

BBC TV News about five minutes ago on the death of Sir John Harvey-Jones: "He seemed different from the usual pin-stripe brigade. He had long hair and wore colourful ties."
He looked different. Therefore he was.
Is this the British Broadcasting Corporation or is this the world as seen by a small child?

7 comments:

  1. Yes, and that's the audience they are aiming for these days. Wasn't there a statment from the Beeb that said viewers often found the news hard to understand, so they're doing their new 8pm news bulletin in broad strokes? Remember the days where if you didn't know something, you'd go and find out, not just say 'I don't get it' and switch over to Nuts TV. BBC News will end up being News For The Elderly as portrayed by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones at this rate.

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  2. I think Five Live told us that "the American President George Bush" was visiting Israel the other day.

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  3. And to be fair, he was different. I used to work for ICI, and met his successor. Christ he was dull. Broke the company too.

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  4. But he wasn't different because of the hair.

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  5. Anonymous6:13 pm

    The problem is the BBC News has signed all the big names but the names don't want to do very much and enjoy lenghty holidays so the production kids have to run the show and they have little knowledge. One eg i heard of being a child working on Anthony Van Dyke doc and the stills arrived for Dick..Needs a better man at the helm who kicks ass around.

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  6. It's pretty dismal and Radio 1 is the worst offender. I found a 15 year old recording of Out on Blue Six some months ago and was struck just how much more intelligent - yet populist- the bulletins were back then. Now it's not so much yoof, but an overseas MBA's interpretation of it, which is arguably much worse.

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  7. @ Rules - on this morning's BBC Breakfast, a picture of Scots cycist Graeme Obree was shown instead of Jason MacIntyre, who died yesterday. Awful mistake.

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