Are honest comments always the best policy?
Well, they can be pretty much fatal, career-wise, in politics.
Which seems to be why no one from Westminster says anything
worth paying attention to any more.
And the media is complicit. 'Ask, don't tell' seems to be the way to
conduct the merry-go-round these days.
Shame it's no way to run an effective country.
Showing posts with label MED. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MED. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Quality of Debate
It's not just what you say, or how you say it. It's also between whom: Talk about Newsnight
I just watched the piece on my PC, and sit amazed at the docile and polite Mr. Paxman I saw.
What troubles me slightly is that I am still not clear as to whether what was written was as presented in English as stated. Mr. P said it was; and the headteacher said it was not, albeit in a less than coherent or convincing manner. Mind you, that seems to have served our current crop of politicians pretty well lately. Deny, deny deny. And eventually they'll give up asking and move on.
'
If it is the case that this text was/is as claimed, I can only wonder if such things remain permitted by selective access to and teaching from 'certain chapters' to be acceptable, as, grudgingly, claimed. I can see our more liberal leadership finding that one may be a slight dilemma. Imagine George G or our Ken popping over a copy of 'John & Jim Go Down On The Farm' from our primary kids' sexual equality indoctrination courses, to the British Councils in the Middle East.
I'm also curious as to the choice of 'balancing guest' to such an issue. Sure she seems to be some kind of Govt. foot-in-mouthpiece, but might I suspect her faith may have made her attractive to spice things up?
Surely a less contentious representative could have been located, especially to answer key
Times
I just watched the piece on my PC, and sit amazed at the docile and polite Mr. Paxman I saw.
What troubles me slightly is that I am still not clear as to whether what was written was as presented in English as stated. Mr. P said it was; and the headteacher said it was not, albeit in a less than coherent or convincing manner. Mind you, that seems to have served our current crop of politicians pretty well lately. Deny, deny deny. And eventually they'll give up asking and move on.
'
If it is the case that this text was/is as claimed, I can only wonder if such things remain permitted by selective access to and teaching from 'certain chapters' to be acceptable, as, grudgingly, claimed. I can see our more liberal leadership finding that one may be a slight dilemma. Imagine George G or our Ken popping over a copy of 'John & Jim Go Down On The Farm' from our primary kids' sexual equality indoctrination courses, to the British Councils in the Middle East.
I'm also curious as to the choice of 'balancing guest' to such an issue. Sure she seems to be some kind of Govt. foot-in-mouthpiece, but might I suspect her faith may have made her attractive to spice things up?
Surely a less contentious representative could have been located, especially to answer key
Times
Monday, February 05, 2007
A right.. wrong 4th estate of affairs
I've often wondered about journalistic qualifications. What exactly do they teach you for a few years, and then demand to get a professional qualification and membership of some guild or club or whatever? The right way to hold a notepad when asking how a bereaved parent felt when told of their kid's demise?
It seems I should know, because Junkk and, as its principal scribe, me are heading more and more from am to pro-am status as journos.
And in some masochistic manner, the more I do, the more I am getting to truly loathe pretty much all about it as a profession and its 'professional' protagonists and their employers. With very few exceptions.
And reading this it is small wonder: A law unto themselves
What is still necessary, but has passed as a noble calling, has pretty much ceased to have any moral authority or value anymore.
No one trusts what they see, hear or read any more, so why would anyone bother to try and ensure what gets fed to the media is in any way accurate if it is not convenient to be so? Allegedly.
It seems I should know, because Junkk and, as its principal scribe, me are heading more and more from am to pro-am status as journos.
And in some masochistic manner, the more I do, the more I am getting to truly loathe pretty much all about it as a profession and its 'professional' protagonists and their employers. With very few exceptions.
And reading this it is small wonder: A law unto themselves
What is still necessary, but has passed as a noble calling, has pretty much ceased to have any moral authority or value anymore.
No one trusts what they see, hear or read any more, so why would anyone bother to try and ensure what gets fed to the media is in any way accurate if it is not convenient to be so? Allegedly.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
10 years and the human race is screwed. But first, Kylie has been dumped!
OK. Here's Saturday (that I could track in terms of influential major media information and commentary):
BBC - How Green is my Auntie?
Times - New fears on climate raise heat on leaders
Times - Damning report seeks to end debate over global warming
Times - Bush takes his place on the bandwagon
BBC Newsnight (which seems to have closed already as they didn't add my comment) - How green should we be?
Telegraph - Scientists: Only man can stop climate disaster
Telegraph - The changing face of the planet
Guardian (nice to see a power co. will stick a tree in for you) - Worse than we thought
Guardian CiF - A call to arms on climate change
Guardian CiF - An unforgivable truth
Indy - Global warming: the final warning
BBC - Miliband in climate 'action' call
BBC - Humans blamed for climate change
BBC Newsnight - See if they add my comment
And here's today:
Telegraph (wonder if they'll post my comment)- Carbon omissions
Telegraph - IPCC puts it bluntly on global warming
Telegraph - The next few years are critical in the fight for the climate
Times - The greening of business
Indy (this is so sweet) - Green: They are. Are you?
Indy - Chirac leads calls for new UN body to save the environment
Indy (always worth repeating, so make that a final, final..) - Global warming: the final warning
Observer - We cannot let the Kyoto debacle happen again
No tabloids that I can see. I doubt Richard and Judy got too excited (esp. with Kylie 'n all). BBC Breakfast has moved on. Andrew Marr didn't mention it in his preamble earlier (though I have yet to watch). It certainly has moved off the front pages.
Politically, it seems saving personal skins (more immediately, missing the point that all skins could be at risk pretty soon) may be higher on most agendas, though it looks like one Minister was called upon to say something. Which he did. I believe the 'word' is 'action'. Moving quickly on...
Oh, and case you're really worried, here's Kylie.
Didn't take the few who did pay attention long to lose interest, did it?
I think I'll just get back to Junkk.com duties now.
However, looking at Supermarkets discover shoppers hate excess packaging as waste campaign gathers force whilst I still can't get a peep out of said supermarkets, relevant government bodies or much support from the media for our free, non taxpayer-funded, reuse website still rankles.
BBC - How Green is my Auntie?
Times - New fears on climate raise heat on leaders
Times - Damning report seeks to end debate over global warming
Times - Bush takes his place on the bandwagon
BBC Newsnight (which seems to have closed already as they didn't add my comment) - How green should we be?
Telegraph - Scientists: Only man can stop climate disaster
Telegraph - The changing face of the planet
Guardian (nice to see a power co. will stick a tree in for you) - Worse than we thought
Guardian CiF - A call to arms on climate change
Guardian CiF - An unforgivable truth
Indy - Global warming: the final warning
BBC - Miliband in climate 'action' call
BBC - Humans blamed for climate change
BBC Newsnight - See if they add my comment
And here's today:
Telegraph (wonder if they'll post my comment)- Carbon omissions
Telegraph - IPCC puts it bluntly on global warming
Telegraph - The next few years are critical in the fight for the climate
Times - The greening of business
Indy (this is so sweet) - Green: They are. Are you?
Indy - Chirac leads calls for new UN body to save the environment
Indy (always worth repeating, so make that a final, final..) - Global warming: the final warning
Observer - We cannot let the Kyoto debacle happen again
No tabloids that I can see. I doubt Richard and Judy got too excited (esp. with Kylie 'n all). BBC Breakfast has moved on. Andrew Marr didn't mention it in his preamble earlier (though I have yet to watch). It certainly has moved off the front pages.
Politically, it seems saving personal skins (more immediately, missing the point that all skins could be at risk pretty soon) may be higher on most agendas, though it looks like one Minister was called upon to say something. Which he did. I believe the 'word' is 'action'. Moving quickly on...
Oh, and case you're really worried, here's Kylie.
Didn't take the few who did pay attention long to lose interest, did it?
I think I'll just get back to Junkk.com duties now.
However, looking at Supermarkets discover shoppers hate excess packaging as waste campaign gathers force whilst I still can't get a peep out of said supermarkets, relevant government bodies or much support from the media for our free, non taxpayer-funded, reuse website still rankles.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Navel Re:view
And so it rumbles on: How green should we be?
"I always have trouble with these blogs because there are the questions asked in the headline. Then those asked in the body. And then those answered and asked in post replies that can be arriving in a moderated scenario out of sequence, if at all (system permitting)
So on the day of the ICCP report, in answer to the headline at the top, I’d say ‘as green as you can be, realistically!’.
That last word immediately sets up a whole can of worms. What is realistically? You are a public broadcaster. How do you best serve the public. With information and facts? But whose? Offer both sides and if you err on a view then you can be accused of bias.
And then there is the sheer volume of fact AND opinion, multiplied by blogs. I have almost given up trying to cope with all just on the Newsnight one alone about this issue, much less the BBC and then on to the major media. My blog (accessed via my site above) has tried to list all the competing majors, with more to be added.
And it can all get sidelined by trivia.. if with
some validity. Jeremy makes a pretty gutsy stand, with fair points, and then we have by way of response that he may have not switched his monitor off, so who’s he to talk? Helpful?
I’d agree with the poster who is a tad surprised that you don’t feel its your job to save the planet you are standing on.
Just make sure that if you do it, you do it for the right reasons and in the right ways..
That’s an even bigger can of worms I’m debating with some sincere, smart cookies on my site now.
I hope I’ve offered enough to fulfill your needs here for now."
"I always have trouble with these blogs because there are the questions asked in the headline. Then those asked in the body. And then those answered and asked in post replies that can be arriving in a moderated scenario out of sequence, if at all (system permitting)
So on the day of the ICCP report, in answer to the headline at the top, I’d say ‘as green as you can be, realistically!’.
That last word immediately sets up a whole can of worms. What is realistically? You are a public broadcaster. How do you best serve the public. With information and facts? But whose? Offer both sides and if you err on a view then you can be accused of bias.
And then there is the sheer volume of fact AND opinion, multiplied by blogs. I have almost given up trying to cope with all just on the Newsnight one alone about this issue, much less the BBC and then on to the major media. My blog (accessed via my site above) has tried to list all the competing majors, with more to be added.
And it can all get sidelined by trivia.. if with
some validity. Jeremy makes a pretty gutsy stand, with fair points, and then we have by way of response that he may have not switched his monitor off, so who’s he to talk? Helpful?
I’d agree with the poster who is a tad surprised that you don’t feel its your job to save the planet you are standing on.
Just make sure that if you do it, you do it for the right reasons and in the right ways..
That’s an even bigger can of worms I’m debating with some sincere, smart cookies on my site now.
I hope I’ve offered enough to fulfill your needs here for now."
So little rare. So little well done.
Another reply to another featured link: Science forward, Bush backward
"I can comment little on the ICCP report, etc
Maybe tomorrow we'll avert it. Today we'll get parents heated up about kids getting heated up about heating up. If there is more debate tomorrow I shall return perhaps better informed but I doubt with some forming views much altered about the issue, and how the various protagonists (gov, med, interest/activist groups and biz) have, are and will treat it. Even in blogs. Who knows what lobbyist, PR or press officer lurks behind a "Clarkson for PM' or 'Green of Bristol moniker'.
...etc.
"I can comment little on the ICCP report, etc
Maybe tomorrow we'll avert it. Today we'll get parents heated up about kids getting heated up about heating up. If there is more debate tomorrow I shall return perhaps better informed but I doubt with some forming views much altered about the issue, and how the various protagonists (gov, med, interest/activist groups and biz) have, are and will treat it. Even in blogs. Who knows what lobbyist, PR or press officer lurks behind a "Clarkson for PM' or 'Green of Bristol moniker'.
...etc.
At least the trains will run on time. If there are any.
One climate post was this: What the world needs now is a green fascist
I had to write:
"Dear Mr. Carr,
I have been meaning to write before, most recently on a good commentary you passed on joined up government, and the media’s role in reporting it – The rising tide of generalisation.
This one has at last moved me to get finger to keyboard in good order.
I do hope what you meant was a 'good authoritarian'. While he skirted pretty close, having lived in Singapore for several years Lee Kwan Yew 'got things done' under that mantle, and got away with few applying the fascist accusation either internally of externally. Indeed the PAP seems to sail along, fairly democratically, under his watchful eye still.
Which is more than I sense happening here (as in this country): http://junkk.blogspot.com/2007/02/this-is-very-likely-one-of-more.html
As you arch an eyebrow at Ms. May's suggestion, so I have, do and will ask how much will be consumed (if not wasted) throwing good money into the globally warming inferno, and to what effect.
I am currently writing to Mr. Miliband and his many other co-green ministers to ask why one of his vastly funded enviro-quangos a) never helped me when it could and should, and b) now seems to be competing with me, using my business plan and taking 'sponsorship' (ie: ad money) to do so, when they originally said they couldn't help me because I was commercial (whilst being free to all, at the same time as funding Tesco and Heinz, when the last time I looked a tin of beans wasn't).
This is one social entrepreneur who is fearing for his sanity, along with his kids' and their kids' chances."
I had to write:
"Dear Mr. Carr,
I have been meaning to write before, most recently on a good commentary you passed on joined up government, and the media’s role in reporting it – The rising tide of generalisation.
This one has at last moved me to get finger to keyboard in good order.
I do hope what you meant was a 'good authoritarian'. While he skirted pretty close, having lived in Singapore for several years Lee Kwan Yew 'got things done' under that mantle, and got away with few applying the fascist accusation either internally of externally. Indeed the PAP seems to sail along, fairly democratically, under his watchful eye still.
Which is more than I sense happening here (as in this country): http://junkk.blogspot.com/2007/02/this-is-very-likely-one-of-more.html
As you arch an eyebrow at Ms. May's suggestion, so I have, do and will ask how much will be consumed (if not wasted) throwing good money into the globally warming inferno, and to what effect.
I am currently writing to Mr. Miliband and his many other co-green ministers to ask why one of his vastly funded enviro-quangos a) never helped me when it could and should, and b) now seems to be competing with me, using my business plan and taking 'sponsorship' (ie: ad money) to do so, when they originally said they couldn't help me because I was commercial (whilst being free to all, at the same time as funding Tesco and Heinz, when the last time I looked a tin of beans wasn't).
This is one social entrepreneur who is fearing for his sanity, along with his kids' and their kids' chances."
This is very likely one of the more important posts you can read here...
..to date.
For a start, I am going to say little, because not only have I not read the ICC report yet (if ever, at least in its entirety), I have not thoroughly read all these reviews. So maybe an even more important post is yet to come.
For now... enjoy (or not, as the case may be - I'm certainly not looking forward to all I have to wade through this weekend):
BBC - Humans blamed for climate change
Guardian CiF - Science forward, Bush backward
Guardian - Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study
Indy - What the World needs now is a green fascist
Indy - Alan Johnson: Children must think differently
Indy - Ten years left to avert catastrophe
Indy - All pupils to be given lessons in climate change
Reuters - U.N. panel says global warming man-made
New Scientist - Blame for global warming placed firmly on humankind
DEFRA - Debate on climate change science is over - international political agreement now urgently needed/Climate change film distributed to all secondary schools
Telegraph - Man's guilt for global warming clear
I have chosen as the visual today's Indy cover (I would have liked to have used for its awesome irony the pop-up ad I got of a Land Rover on top the world, but didn't hit page capture before it disappeared). I do so because I note no other has taken this as the lead, and indeed nor has the Indy, which is odd when we have a headline on offer that reads Ten years left to avert catastrophe
Maybe tomorrow we'll avert it. Today we'll get parents heated up about kids getting heated up about heating up.
I have to say that if I was a minister of indeed sub-editor, as a parent as well I'd be more inclined to go the route of 'We must help kids get informed and inspired in the best ways to engage with the challenges of CC/GW'. As it reads what I see smacks of nanny and big brother or, god forbid, another total waste of funds on a 'campaign' by target-hitters whose only knowledge of pushing kids' buttons is by fining 12 year olds for putting the wrong type of paper in the bin.
I'd go for fun, education and re:ward, with such as Junkk.com. What are the chances of that? Or there is support from well-known kids' reads such as broadsheets like the Indy, who still can't bring themselves to mention us (much less get in touch in reply to our outreach) in their campaign on packaging.
You get the picture and [fill in dis-organisational gov, media and biz entities here] ... you deserve.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Oh, the irony..
No sooner do I note the piece in the last blog, inspired by a piece in the Times, look what I came across a bit further on...
Praise for bubblewrap could get you into space
I'll pass for now the issue of consistency on the Times' part (though they will argue they are only here to pass on the news), but.... bubblewrap!!! There are a lot of other much better ways to pack things that don't use plastic, guys!
Praise for bubblewrap could get you into space
I'll pass for now the issue of consistency on the Times' part (though they will argue they are only here to pass on the news), but.... bubblewrap!!! There are a lot of other much better ways to pack things that don't use plastic, guys!
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