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Archive for the ‘The Media’ Category

The following I write without any intention of intending  ‘sounding superior’ in anyway but as a statement of fact: I don’t read the Red Tops, Heat, OK magazine, watch TV Soaps or Big Brother and some may say that I am probably ‘missing out’ on things by not doing so. The truth is not whether I think them good or bad, it is just that they don’t interest me and the endless list of minor ‘celebrities’ they seem to generate is frankly confusing, I just don’t know who these people are or even “what they are for”.

Eventually though, what I suspect is the “meat and drink” of this trade, will percolate through even to someone like me and I refer of course to the case before the Courts concerning a lady called Carina Trimingham who is the “partner” of Chris Huhne, suing Associated Newspapers and if the outline that I’ve read is correct, I find the whole thing astonishing at pretty much every level…

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With headlines such as “Hollywood vs BT” (British Telecoms), because of a court case brought against BT as an Internet Service Provider, the High Court in London has ordered BT to block access to Newzbin2 at the behest of Hollywood film studios, who say it is a “notorious pirate website”.

In fact and as I understand it, the particular site only acts as a “pointer” to other web sites from which material can be downloaded although whether it actually stores the data or acts as a conduit for it must be considered a technicality, that it is knowingly enabling the theft of intellectual property, is the reality. But all that said, is this the right approach ?

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Inevitably and as is the way of all ill considered media stories “It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. ” starts to inevitably fade away, the newspapers and politicians who fancied that there was blood in the water and tried to be seen as “leading the charge”, have become strangely quiet. Rather like sulky children, try to change their emphasis without apologising for their previous stupidity. This Editorial from the Independent is a prime example:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-dangers-of-ranging-too-widely-2318297.html

To start with and instead of the “hacking” being a News International only phenomena, it appears that many other newspapers have “been at it too” which rather changes the game completely from the “Get Murdoch” and “Get Cameron” to the “Oh dear we have shot ourselves in the foot…” reality as if the symbiotic relationships between the Media, Politicians and Celebrities was ever newsworthy.

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I would not claim to be the greatest intellectual and “deep thinker” on this planet and therefore have no view that says that my opinions are inevitably correct because for sure, they won’t always be so. But that said, is it only me that sees that all the current hoopla over the “Phonegate Scandal” in the media as total tosh, what planet are these people on ?

That the “poorer parts” of the Media that are losing money which means everyone apart from News International and the BBC want to “Have a go at Murdoch” is obvious but what I find totally bemusing is why the constant attempts to entangle and mire David Cameron in a “story” and series of events that happened some years before he even entered Downing Street. I will start with a “The Story So Far…”

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Having been away from the UK for the best part of a month and although I did browse the news from “back home” over the web, I don’t think that I felt that much engaged any more than I did with the Tracy Anthony trial taking place in the US whilst I was there. However since my return a week ago, you soon get involved even though as with myself, I haven’t turned the TV on even.

Does this give me extra objectivity in looking at the News International/News of the World Scandal ? I don’t know but I do find it a curious spectacle that speaks all too loudly of “Tears before bedtime” all round…

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With the apparent defection of Moussa Koussa, the Libyan Foreign Minister to the UK and the news that representatives of Gaddafi have held talks in London and presumably about potential “exit routes”, the question then arises as to whether “Expedience trumps Justice”, should you let Gaddafi off the hook ?

There was an Editorial in the Independent that whilst acknowledging the ‘realpolitik’ in the situation, came down on the side of imposing justice in the shape of International Law. It is a view I do not agree with but you can read it for yourself: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-when-demands-of-justice-and-realpolitik-collide-2258668.html

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I am a regular reader of an IT magazine called PC Pro which is very good and one of their regular reviewers and contributors who specialises in ‘graphics related’ matters because he runs his own graphics design business up in Scotland, is called Tom Arah.

I have never met Tom though we did once have an exchange of emails on the subject of Wacom drawing tablets and although I ignored his advice at the time, experience will out and in due course, I came to appreciate the points that he was making. Although I don’t take everything he writes as Gospel, when it comes to computer graphics, an area of great interest to me, he is always worth listening to as I did recently on a rather excellent Photoshop plug-in.

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I have little time for “conspiracy theories”, in the UK Cock Up is far more the norm than any individual or group of individuals trying to manipulate ‘outcomes’ but there is one aspect of the Duke of York “story” that does interest me which an editorial in The Independent almost accidentally touched upon.

Namely that it (the story), has taken off since the Wikileaks mention of the reaction of an American diplomat to the Prince and his comments over the SFO investigation into the al-Yamamah arms deal with the Saudi Arabian government of 30 years ago, a contract the US always resented the UK wining.

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A rather ‘luke warm’ editorial in the Independent in the post Barnsley aftermath, according to them at least, was as follows: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-bad-but-not-terminal-in-barnsley-2232973.html

My response was simple: The result was foreknown, a racing certainty for Labour even on a very low turnout. What happened to the Coalition Parties is not very relevant and I suspect that if there were a General Election today, the national outcome would be pretty much the same as last year. The reality is that people are “waiting” on events, if things go well, the Coalition’s popularity will increase by the next General Election if not…

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It is quite funny how in life, change often creeps up on you and you just suddenly “notice it” although in all truth, only change is a constant in our lives. I always liken it to a spectrum made up of a gradation from black at one end to white at the other. At any moment in time, you are looking at the colour grey but suddenly you realise that this is a darker/lighter grey than the one you had in your mind.

Physical changes as you get older, just creep up on you, it is the way of things but the real difficulty really lies in your own mind because it needs to update the “self images” we hold of ourselves, to adjust to the change in our circumstances and to also appreciate that by being smart, we can create new opportunities for ourselves which accommodate our reduced physical abilities whilst enhancing our intellectual ones. By clinging to the past and ‘resenting’ that we can no longer do rather than looking forward, eagerly to a new and different future, is foolishness.

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