I think I a mixing a saying with the death of a famous Greek, but hey.
Our national broadcaster's commitment to news.. and global warming: Slow news day
Slow.... Tell me about it!
I tuned into BBC Breakfast about 10 times this morning over 90 minutes, and every single time all I ended up with was some BBC brunette airflown in to flounce around the post-Oscar bashes.
It was obviously getting desperate as they they couldn't find any frocks on anyone remotely relevant to talk about, so they decided on talking about hers.... again... and again.
Licence fee issues, what licence fee issues? Climate change? What climate change?
I'm surprised they didn't do the turtle thing (missing irony is pretty common with the BBC when it comes to 'global warming'), but given their commitment to serious journalism I am sure they could have got one on a skateboard eventually.
Showing posts with label SlowNewD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SlowNewD. Show all posts
Monday, February 25, 2008
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Green Rush The Growers... Oh
I'm not sure, but the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and Dubya must be allowing themselves a small sherry and a snicker about now.
This is what it looks like online: Organic move to cut food flights
I don't know if it was/is a SlowNewD, but what I saw on the TV screen seemed a tad less calm. In fact more knickers seemed to be getting twisted than a tornado passing through the Ladies' Unmentionables Department at your local M&S.
And, as always, I think the consumer, closely associated by the planet, looks to be coming out of this dazed, confused and a lot worse off. But at least the ratings are going to be healthy, so there are some winners.
So far I have seen a succession of green interest groups, with a few others from the pro-Bono end of feeding the world/poor lobbed/ing in for good measure, pretty much knocking spots off each other as to who is more worthy, and why their cause is better than someone else's. All on a nice salary and pension no doubt. I never knew there were so many spokespersons for things 'I'm not quite sure what they actually do' around.
I just hope that out of all this furore in a Fairtrade coffee cup there may be a result that has a good enviROI. Just because it has come from another country doesn't mean it has cost the planet as much, as force rearing artificially here can be worse. And the packaging may mean it gets consumed rather than consumer-unacceptable quality material simply gets ditched.
Of course, what I don't seem to have heard to much is the odd notion of us not expecting to have it all, all the time, on demand. And though I am usually pretty pro-choice and pro-consumer, for a retail spokesperson to say they have to do it to meet consumer demand is a tad disingenuous.
Times - Green masterplans make Sainsbury’s boss see red
Indy - Organic movement faces split over air-freighted food
Indy - Dominic Lawson: A lesson in how to dig yourself into a hole
Thank you for this piece. Most thought-provoking.
I have a saying, which I have used so long I may have actually nicked it and forgotten I had: 'Nothing that is green can be viewed only in black and white'.
Sadly we seem to be moving into a ever more complex eco-areas, but those who can and should know a lot better (including some in the media) are in my view making matters (In assessing eco-value I tend to apply my own measure on most things: the enviROI, or return on investment to the environment, which I admit is in itself is simplistic by being more concerned with immediate climate change impacts than social costs) a lot worse by applying some very hasty, poorly-considered cookie-cutter initiatives for more than dubious reasons.
I am in particular vexed by what I see these days in the arena of all things 're', with meeting targets and paying out bonuses as a consequence often taking precedence over actually doing any good.
I would like to think we could afford a few brief moments to take a breath and think through some hugely expensive, often woefully negatively impactful and almost inevitably uncancelable endeavors before leaping into them. And asking what exactly we, and the plant are actually get for the vast sums that seem to be paid to those who would claim to be qualified to manage this on our behalves, often with almost no real accountability.
Telegraph - Organic vegetables face air freight ban
This is what it looks like online: Organic move to cut food flights
I don't know if it was/is a SlowNewD, but what I saw on the TV screen seemed a tad less calm. In fact more knickers seemed to be getting twisted than a tornado passing through the Ladies' Unmentionables Department at your local M&S.
And, as always, I think the consumer, closely associated by the planet, looks to be coming out of this dazed, confused and a lot worse off. But at least the ratings are going to be healthy, so there are some winners.
So far I have seen a succession of green interest groups, with a few others from the pro-Bono end of feeding the world/poor lobbed/ing in for good measure, pretty much knocking spots off each other as to who is more worthy, and why their cause is better than someone else's. All on a nice salary and pension no doubt. I never knew there were so many spokespersons for things 'I'm not quite sure what they actually do' around.
I just hope that out of all this furore in a Fairtrade coffee cup there may be a result that has a good enviROI. Just because it has come from another country doesn't mean it has cost the planet as much, as force rearing artificially here can be worse. And the packaging may mean it gets consumed rather than consumer-unacceptable quality material simply gets ditched.
Of course, what I don't seem to have heard to much is the odd notion of us not expecting to have it all, all the time, on demand. And though I am usually pretty pro-choice and pro-consumer, for a retail spokesperson to say they have to do it to meet consumer demand is a tad disingenuous.
Times - Green masterplans make Sainsbury’s boss see red
Indy - Organic movement faces split over air-freighted food
Indy - Dominic Lawson: A lesson in how to dig yourself into a hole
Thank you for this piece. Most thought-provoking.
I have a saying, which I have used so long I may have actually nicked it and forgotten I had: 'Nothing that is green can be viewed only in black and white'.
Sadly we seem to be moving into a ever more complex eco-areas, but those who can and should know a lot better (including some in the media) are in my view making matters (In assessing eco-value I tend to apply my own measure on most things: the enviROI, or return on investment to the environment, which I admit is in itself is simplistic by being more concerned with immediate climate change impacts than social costs) a lot worse by applying some very hasty, poorly-considered cookie-cutter initiatives for more than dubious reasons.
I am in particular vexed by what I see these days in the arena of all things 're', with meeting targets and paying out bonuses as a consequence often taking precedence over actually doing any good.
I would like to think we could afford a few brief moments to take a breath and think through some hugely expensive, often woefully negatively impactful and almost inevitably uncancelable endeavors before leaping into them. And asking what exactly we, and the plant are actually get for the vast sums that seem to be paid to those who would claim to be qualified to manage this on our behalves, often with almost no real accountability.
Telegraph - Organic vegetables face air freight ban
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
News, new, slow news day
I don't really have much to lose with most parts (a few nice, notable, exceptions, who are the only ones likely to be reading this) of the BBC these days, so what the hey.
Turned on at 5.30am to get straight into day whatever of the Maddyfest. Concerned journalists and anchors here and there swapping war stories about how the beastly Portuguese coppers don't give press conferences BECAUSE THEY ... ER... 'WE' NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON!!!! No irony at all when they interview a Brit policeman who mutters that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing here to be allowed to get on with their jobs rather than having to tell the bad guys (I didn't mean the media, but...) every ten seconds what they may or may not be doing to satisfy the demands of the media.
And now, having got that off my chest, here is the rest of the news.
Seems a highly-funded bunch of academics has announced a study that pumping out endless 'We're all toast' climate change doom 'n gloom stories to a willing and eager ratings machine such as our media... isn't helping much. Check back a few years to see why I can only ponder, with some rueful shaking of head, that I wish I'd said that. Oh, I did. Along with a few (not many) others. And I told a few media outlets, such as the BBC, but maybe offering a word of caution on the responsibility of outrageous reporting wasn't quite in keeping with their journalistic standards of... 'WE'RE ALL DOOMED! - say eco-activists with book tours', vs. 'NO, WE'RE NOT! - say big-oil funded deniers'. Which ever way, the ratings flames are fanned to good effect by those less interested in the truth, accuracy and a better future tomorrow, than a good headline today.
And so we come to Declan, 'discussing' (if that is what his slot can be called) train travel today, looking as cute and cuddly as ever in his Thomas the Tank outfit on the footplate of a steam train. Now, remind me, how do these things work? Oh, yes, they burn vast amounts of of coal, and not very efficiently belch it out of their smokestack. Ah, well, a little artistic licence in the name of good TV, eh? But one wonders when he'll be off to the Arctic to 'study' global warming.
Anyway, a point was made. The eco-family tested out a train and the car. Train = fun. Car = chore. No contest. But... Train = loadsamunny, plus lots more per person. Oops. There's also the small matter of where you are setting off from and going to. Plus flexibility. And convenience. And...
I am leaving soon for the first day of the Total Packaging Show at the NEC. I need to get there, do the biz and get back. Money, time and convenience. On a good day in the car outside of rush-hour I can get there in about an hour, and back to get in more work, for about a tenner in petrol. In that time I may just about have got a bus to Gloucester to the station, if one runs at the right time and there is a train. And I have a family to feed by every minute of my day being used to try and make my business work. Because the demands of those in power require that.
Sorry, no contest. So I am not sure what point was served by the piece, as it merely served to confirm my situation. As far as I was aware, not one jot of 'discussion' about how to improve matters was attempted. Plus ca change...
But I think they are flying more reporters to the Iberian Peninsula. The weather is lovely there at this time of year, I gather.
Indy - Wild theories and a warped sense of priorities - at least they didn't also put the latest 'scoop' on the front page.
Indy - Reporting The Hunt For Madeleine: Media and police collide on the Algarve - Has a nice sense of irony and moral outrage, though you do suspect they are also not averse to feeding off it all. One thing that does come across, to me at least, is how sidelined the actual finding of the little girl has become to the process of reporting upon the cirrus surrounding it.
Turned on at 5.30am to get straight into day whatever of the Maddyfest. Concerned journalists and anchors here and there swapping war stories about how the beastly Portuguese coppers don't give press conferences BECAUSE THEY ... ER... 'WE' NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON!!!! No irony at all when they interview a Brit policeman who mutters that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing here to be allowed to get on with their jobs rather than having to tell the bad guys (I didn't mean the media, but...) every ten seconds what they may or may not be doing to satisfy the demands of the media.
And now, having got that off my chest, here is the rest of the news.
Seems a highly-funded bunch of academics has announced a study that pumping out endless 'We're all toast' climate change doom 'n gloom stories to a willing and eager ratings machine such as our media... isn't helping much. Check back a few years to see why I can only ponder, with some rueful shaking of head, that I wish I'd said that. Oh, I did. Along with a few (not many) others. And I told a few media outlets, such as the BBC, but maybe offering a word of caution on the responsibility of outrageous reporting wasn't quite in keeping with their journalistic standards of... 'WE'RE ALL DOOMED! - say eco-activists with book tours', vs. 'NO, WE'RE NOT! - say big-oil funded deniers'. Which ever way, the ratings flames are fanned to good effect by those less interested in the truth, accuracy and a better future tomorrow, than a good headline today.
And so we come to Declan, 'discussing' (if that is what his slot can be called) train travel today, looking as cute and cuddly as ever in his Thomas the Tank outfit on the footplate of a steam train. Now, remind me, how do these things work? Oh, yes, they burn vast amounts of of coal, and not very efficiently belch it out of their smokestack. Ah, well, a little artistic licence in the name of good TV, eh? But one wonders when he'll be off to the Arctic to 'study' global warming.
Anyway, a point was made. The eco-family tested out a train and the car. Train = fun. Car = chore. No contest. But... Train = loadsamunny, plus lots more per person. Oops. There's also the small matter of where you are setting off from and going to. Plus flexibility. And convenience. And...
I am leaving soon for the first day of the Total Packaging Show at the NEC. I need to get there, do the biz and get back. Money, time and convenience. On a good day in the car outside of rush-hour I can get there in about an hour, and back to get in more work, for about a tenner in petrol. In that time I may just about have got a bus to Gloucester to the station, if one runs at the right time and there is a train. And I have a family to feed by every minute of my day being used to try and make my business work. Because the demands of those in power require that.
Sorry, no contest. So I am not sure what point was served by the piece, as it merely served to confirm my situation. As far as I was aware, not one jot of 'discussion' about how to improve matters was attempted. Plus ca change...
But I think they are flying more reporters to the Iberian Peninsula. The weather is lovely there at this time of year, I gather.
Indy - Wild theories and a warped sense of priorities - at least they didn't also put the latest 'scoop' on the front page.
Indy - Reporting The Hunt For Madeleine: Media and police collide on the Algarve - Has a nice sense of irony and moral outrage, though you do suspect they are also not averse to feeding off it all. One thing that does come across, to me at least, is how sidelined the actual finding of the little girl has become to the process of reporting upon the cirrus surrounding it.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
SlowNewD
Ok, with all that's going on, adding a new category to Blogger, and a non-enviro one at that, seems pretty typical of my tangential nature and knat-like attention span.
But I really have to get this one out of mine and into this system.
SlowNewD stands for Slow News Day, which I will invoke when the sorry collection of individuals that constitutes or media these days, from producers to editors to journalists to anchors, in whichever order of pondweed you choose to stack them, start excavating through the bottom of the barrel en route to China.
I was already poised at 7ish, having watched the latest Newswatch 'don't think so, don't know, don't care if it was' weekly dismissal of some truly egregious examples, when I went to Mum's place to take her lunch over. Sadly she is addicted to BBC News 24, and it is on all day.
Now there is a tragedy that has happened, and still unfurling. And, to an extent, it is news. But the blow by blow bullsh*t that is being served up by the story of this blonde Brit kidnapped kiddie in Portugal is beyond the pale. It was on first thing, and is still on now.
How many kids are abducted every day, all round the world AND in Britain, without so much as a mention?
Everything possible should be done to get her back, but I can't see what serves this process that I am seeing unravel here and now. The act is sickening, but the media coverage is proving more than a complement. Queue the copycats. But at least it will get a rating or two extra.
But I really have to get this one out of mine and into this system.
SlowNewD stands for Slow News Day, which I will invoke when the sorry collection of individuals that constitutes or media these days, from producers to editors to journalists to anchors, in whichever order of pondweed you choose to stack them, start excavating through the bottom of the barrel en route to China.
I was already poised at 7ish, having watched the latest Newswatch 'don't think so, don't know, don't care if it was' weekly dismissal of some truly egregious examples, when I went to Mum's place to take her lunch over. Sadly she is addicted to BBC News 24, and it is on all day.
Now there is a tragedy that has happened, and still unfurling. And, to an extent, it is news. But the blow by blow bullsh*t that is being served up by the story of this blonde Brit kidnapped kiddie in Portugal is beyond the pale. It was on first thing, and is still on now.
How many kids are abducted every day, all round the world AND in Britain, without so much as a mention?
Everything possible should be done to get her back, but I can't see what serves this process that I am seeing unravel here and now. The act is sickening, but the media coverage is proving more than a complement. Queue the copycats. But at least it will get a rating or two extra.
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