It's not what you know. It's how the media sk... screws it

I maintain a watching brief on the Sky Big Idea website. There are still some who use it, and they are on the whole a nice, talented, well-informed bunch. They also have little love for TV reality shows, and Dragon's Den in particular.

So let's see if and where this goes...

I just watched BBC Breakfast TV where, for the first time in the history, all the Dragons in the BBC show's Den had unanimously backed... a standby plug.

I was just wondering how this differed from Karl's show winner back in November?

They had the lady Dragon on to show how serious and professional they were, but when the subject of patent protection came up it seemed to veer from vague to simply not answering the key question of whether this idea was protected, and to what level, if at all.

I also noted that the inventors have signed over 50% of their concept to a collection of ego-driven, competitive money-folk. An interesting recipe.

How this one pans out I will await with interest.

But in wishing these guys and the planet well, why to I get the feeling the only real winners, if any, will be the TV show ratings and its 'stars' profiles.

ADDENDUM: The inventor, Karl, has replied, I'd say in remarkably placid terms. I felt less conciliatory process.

Miffed?! I'd be livid!

The TV stations, from 'entertainment' shows like DD & TBI, but also news, must bear some responsibility for the state of genuine invention and product development here.

For the sake of their own odd agendas in the case of the former, and the cause of co-promotion (in the case of the BBC with the latter), pure bad practice and sloppy reporting is letting genuine stories about potentially significant developments get sidelined (or worse, in your case, barred for no better reason than it has been 'seen' before).

This not only does not serve the interests of contributors like you, but is also not helping viewers gain access to the best information to the options out there.

Thanks to the Sunday Times I am looking at 'the next big thing' in this arena - the Bye Bye Plug - which is apparently going to help me go green and save money.

Maybe it will... I don't know. But I have bought all that I have seen advertised and am/will be testing them to try and produce an objective report. Let me know when yours is ready.

I'm fed up with editors and PR people controlling the access to objective information that I need to lead a greener lifestyle, as opposed to genuine, fact-based investigative reporting.

This is a country in the thrall of 'talk' hype and spin, when more than ever we need to reward 'walking the walk' substance.