Peter Preston and the Meaning of the Media

January 11, 2010

Blade feels that Peter Preston doth protest too much. Click here to find him raging against the way in which the media has allegedly sensationalised the effect of the country-wide snow and ice. If newspapers are still being delivered, says Preston, how can there be a crisis? If not one BBC radio station went off air, how can there be a crisis? If TV broadcasts continued as they normally do, sans interruption, how can there be a crisis? Crisis? What crisis?! It’s all a media invention!

If, like Blade, you have been housebound for the past four days because the roads next to your house have become an ice rink, you might feel inclined to disagree  with the former editor of the Guardian. If you then recall that not a single letter has made it to your house for the past four days, nor been collected from nearby post-boxes, you may find yourself feeling even more contrary. And then, when you reflect that said circumstances apply not merely to you but to many who live outside the media metropolis of London, you might be tempted to conclude that far from criticising media sensationalism, as he intended, Preston merely illustrates the degree to which some people think that the media is the only meaningful barometer of whether life is being lived ordinarily.

 

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Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.

Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.

London Goes AWOL

January 31, 2012
CNN

STOP PRESS:

Fed up with being stuck on the Thames in south-east England, London yesterday decided to move. In a dramatic gesture which augurs ill for the Olympics, the city upped sticks and relocated to East Anglia.

Lawyers were not consulted about the move, and the city’s precise motivation remains unclear. However, financiers fear that London’s decision is a sign that it wishes to downsize. Moreover, a source from London said: “We no longer want to be Britain’s seat of power. If the Scots can deregulate, why can’t we? East Anglia is a nice place where nothing happens. It’s time for a quiet life. Please respect our right to privacy.”

Elsewhere, Birmingham did not do anything, but Manchester was seen to be packing its bags. “There’s an opportunity for us,” said Manchester. “We can become London.”

East Anglia said: “We don’t mind. It’ll be refreshing to be associated with something other than fens and flatness.”

A cartologist at CNN, which broke the extraordinary news, was later fired.