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Archive for the ‘The Media’ Category

My politics are right of centre which makes me a Tory I suppose. I detested Blair and New Labour for what they did to this Country and it’s economy through wilful stupidity. If I had been a Labour supporter, I would detest both Blair and Brown for their childish fratricidal ‘hollowing out’ of the Party so that today there is not one plausible candidate standing for the Party Leadership, just a bunch of talentless Muppets.

But all that said, let us not be curmudgeonly concerning Blair’s donation to the British Legion. You may speculate all you like as to his motivations but one must be fair to the man because he is effectively, if the figures are to be believed, giving away between a quarter to a third of his potential wealth.

One also has to realise that the “Blair Brand” is a depreciating asset so that it will become ever harder for him to earn money in the future as he has done since leaving Office. The further a person gets away from their time in power, not only are they quickly forgotten abroad as their co-stars of the period also leave the stage but once his memoirs are published, that is likely the end of Blair’s gravy train too and I am sure that both he and his wife are aware of this.

The current ‘big story’ is the leaking of some 90,000 US documents on the Wikileaks website concerning the Afghan War between 2004 and 2009 and revealing many, previously unreported incidents which amount to ‘collateral damage’ or, the killing of innocent civilians by ISAF Forces whilst conducting military operations. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10758578

For all the ‘noises’ made by all concerned, I do not think that this material will make one iota of difference because there is absolutely no ‘amazing revelations’ of say a “My Lai Massacre ”. Though many no doubt will seek, incorrectly to say the killing of people at a wedding party by bombs or missiles is the same which clearly it is not. Poor or bad intelligence does not equate to an Officer losing control of his men and they, then going on a deliberate killing rampage of the people in front of them.

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Andrew Marr writing on the BBC web site made some very good points concerning “new media” and whilst I would agree that “News Content” should be paid for, the real problem is that the current Media Barons haven’t sorted out the answer to the basic question which is, HOW ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10745720

To my mind the reason for this is that no one is sufficiently daring enough to really “think outside of the box”. The focus seems not to have switched off from the past business model of a cover price + advertising revenue for the physical delivery of a paper product. The fixation on pay walls for access assumes that all you do is get the customer to switch from paying for a paper copy to paying for computer/mobile access and that is wrong.

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I suspect that the “Media Honeymoon” over the Coalition Government will soon come to an end as the reporting over these past few days seems to signal. Though not, I might add because serious questions are being raised by Government policies, it is not the way the British Media works.

The problem for media people is that they are reactive to events not proactive. “No news”, or even worse, “Good news” is bad for business, there is just no ‘story’ to chase so in the end these “media children” will… Well we all know what the Devil does in making work for idle hands… so, the media will get restless and like children on a journey, keep asking“Are we there yet ?”

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There was really no surprise in England’s ejection from the World Cup with a thumping 4-1 defeat by a far better German side. True there was the stupidly disallowed Frank Lampard goal which would have bought a 2-2 scoreline at half time, on such decisions games can turn. It is also true that under such circumstances the Team playing “catch up” by attacking will inevitably leave themselves open to counter attacks so that in the end, the score line may flatter a bit but that is about all one can say in mitigation.

The reality is that it was not just this game, England at no time during this Tournament looked like World Beaters, more like a bunch of Donkeys though, that may be insulting to Donkeys, they are at least useful, this bunch of over paid, over hyped losers are not. In fact, so poor was their performance, that even if they beat Germany by some miracle, they would never beat Argentina. Capello’s news conference was a somewhat painful one and to be frank, ‘looking’ at the England Manager and replacing him, yet again, hardly seems the answer because we have been here far too many times before. If we want to avoid this again in the future or at least change the way we do things in the future because clearly this is just not working, it is not sacking the Manager that needs to be done, we need really radical change.

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Following on from my earlier blog about whether or not Newspapers are dead, some further thoughts as to a way forward. To start with, it must be patently obvious that the existing ‘news/media owners’ have got it totally wrong, they have seen “The Web” as just a change to electronic paper, their business remains the same – WRONG !

The above can hardly be contentious because it is self-evident through their failure to manage a ‘smooth and seamless transition’ that leaves them with a profit and instead, them ‘battling’ to impose a solution on their “Readership” that seeks to extract cash by force rather than persuasion. The purpose of the following is to try and prise apart the key elements to a web experience that is similar though not the same to ‘reading a newspaper’ whilst taking advantage of what the web has to offer.

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Whilst we all know that newspapers have been struggling for quite a time financially as their old business model of getting an income from sales of actual newspapers plus advertising revenue which combined to give them a profitable existence, has now virtually died. There is the current drive under way by Murdoch’s Newspapers to charge for web access but frankly, it is almost bound to fail.

The argument that there is no earthly reason why newspapers should give their content away for free is fair enough, the labourer is worthy of his or her hire but that said, one cannot help but wonder just why and given the financial resources available to companies like News Corporation, they have not yet evolved a new “business model” and my gut feeling is that they simply have failed to grasp the opportunity and have their feet still firmly planted in the past, could there be a better way ?

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The Independent apparently has an “Eeyore” writing Editorials for them and today in greeting the Conservative and Liberal Democratic Coalition Government, it was something like a Funeral dirge

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-an-unlikely-partnership-that-could-mark-the-start-of-a-treacherous-era-1971193.html

I don’t know who writes these Editorials but whoever it is, really ought to grow up rather than writing this childish, begrudging type of stuff, it is truly pathetic. It would seem that the LibDems having a foothold in Government is fine but not that it is with the Conservatives, total nuts

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Now the truth is out and the reason for the appalling bad Editorials in the Independent this past week because today they have come out to encourage people to vote negatively and tactically to “Keep Cameron Out”. What a nasty bunch of shits the Independent on Sunday, Editorial Staff clearly are. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-vote-for-change-real-change-1960288.html

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Whoever is currently writing the Independents Editorials is behaving like a stubborn, spoilt brat because they insist on turning out juvenile crap everyday. Here in these last few days of the Election, the ‘Guardian has declared for Clegg, the Times for Cameron and all the Indy can do, is moan about the Tories, what a bunch of total Muppets !

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-quick-opinion-polls-do-not-reflect-the-real-debate-in-this-crucial-election-1959640.html

Of course there is perhaps a bit of arrogance here on my part and most regular contributors in the sense that one expects the Editorial staff to read the feedback they get to their articles over the Web and the likelihood is that they never even look at the scribblings of us “civilians” when they have toenail and face painting to do this weekend.

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