Researched stories or not, I don't trust them to provide a balanced view on any issues on which NewsCorp or Murduch may have an interest in.
Meh, there's not much great choice in the UK. The BBC are just a quasi-left wing version of the Murdoch press (oh wait, I mean they are 100% independent... honest...), the Independent is anything but, and the rest don't offer much choice. All media is biased, including the crappy BBC. Hence whilst I don't read newspapers much anymore, I'll still prefer the Times over other sources in the UK.
The BBC doesn't (shouldn't) have any overriding financial or political interests. Have you got any reasons that suggest the opposite?
You've clearly never refreshed their website three times in a day. They'll change their stories ever so slightly every now and again...
It looks like Murdoch's full acquisition of BSkyB will go ahead, and his next target is the BBC whose "free news website undermines the competition's ability to charge for news" or somesuch rubbish. Oh, and it seems he would quite like the clause prohibiting local monopolies removed from current media legislation. [sauce] Why don't we just give him the whole bleeding country and be done with it?
Probably not. And we'll have to pay for a sky package and/or watch a shedload of ads on top of it. Out of interest, how different is a media monopoly to censorship? Sure, it may not be the government doing it, but all of a sudden you have a single organisation (with its own agenda) controlling 80%+ of people's information provision.
I don't pay for a sky package now. I'll be honest I don't watch television enough to give a crap, if I pick up a show I really like, I'll kind of watch it online then I'll buy the boxset (has all the Stargates, Futurama, Family Guy, Star Trek boxsets at home). Umm, I can't remember but they go against this somehow and my brain has gone dead... anti-competative legislation is somewhere, remember Micro$uck getting fined a few years back?
Personally, I don't like the BBC much these days, I find them very biased in quite a few stories. Few examples: Tuition fees - they gave a lot more time to showing the opinions of the Government over students and opposition. They also focused more on the violence side of the protests rather than the peaceful side of which the majority were. They are also pursueing an agenda that the Scottish Government decision to prevent tuition fees for Scottish based students is racist as it doesn't cover students based in the rest of the UK and they will have to pay £6000 per year. Snow Chaos - in Scotland we had a break down of our transport infrastructure a few weeks ago in central Scotland. The BBC pursued an agenda of blaming the Scottish Government, covering their own back as their weather forecase was wrong and failing to give out vital information to motorists. When a similar event occurred in England, there was nowhere near the animosity to the Westminster Government as there was to Holyrood. Megrahi - the headlines are always structured in a way that is negative to the decision and the way the stories are angled always benefit the opposition parties and US Senators views. They fail to show many of the Scottish Governments letters, speeches and statements on the matter. They also angled the Wikileaks cables that exonerated the Scottish Government from any allegations of bribery or making the decision for the 'wrong reason' and instead focussed on one cable that suggested that Jack Straw said that Salmond would make the decision instead of Kenny MacAskill. Also, see the recent Question Time in Glasgow where Dimbleby tries to shout down Nicola Sturgeon for talking about Scotland issues then bringing up Megrahi from nowhere 5 mins later-not to mention the countless local issues that get talked about when it is elsewhere in the UK. Iraq/Afghanistan - watch John Pilger's new documentary about the media in war and how the placement of journalists in the military helps provide a pro-war narrative. Also watch Andrew Marr's recent interview with Tony Blair, it's definitely not hard hitting and gives Blair too much opportunity to look good. It also seems to be setting up a narrative to attack Iran. These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head and I'm sure there are more. They are definitely not impartial.
Good points. The BBC has not been impartial since it rolled over for Tony and got rid of Greg Dyke over the Dr. Kelly affair. It is also seems to think that the Borders of England stop at the outskirts of London and surrounding counties. Example: Hull floods, rendering entire estates uninhabitable, and there is barely a mention. The river goes up a few inches in Oxford however, and there are nightly live reports from worried-looking journalists standing by a river bank looking like, well, a riverbank. Because if it bursts Oxford may be in trouble... We get a lot of waily-waily about the snow in Dorset but nothing about the much more severe conditions in Wales and Scotland. The BBC has been sliding downhill since Greg Dyke left. And don't get me started on Radio 4 Womens' Hour suddenly channeling The Lady magazine...
Bang on squire! It's ever since Greg Dyke left that I have noticed the BBC has basically become properly institutionalised. Even Pravda have been slagging it off for it's bias these days and they weren't exactly the pillar of unbiased reporting during the USSR years. It just seems to be that the media and Westminster think that Britain simply involves the SE of England. I'm not talking as a bitter Scot here as it's not just us that suffer, most areas of England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland suffer from lack of funding and lack of media attention compared to London and the surrounding areas. London 2012, Millennium Dome, Crossrail etc etc. Where do we see similar investments and 'vanity projects' around the rest of the UK? Oh and since you mentioned The Lady magazine, have a look on the BBC website for when Boris Johnstone's sister, who is a writer/editor for them gets absolutley roasted of an SNP MSP for saying she might get pelted by a haggis in Balloch-pure drivel from an idiot. Watch these clips when you have time, they are funny to see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12009917 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12009916 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12009918
Never fear, Citizens! The scourge that is Wikileaks has a new Nemesis! Behold, the WTF! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/22/cia-wikileaks-taskforce-wtf Really?
See if thats one thing I despise, it's the fact that I knew none of this... simply because I wasn't old enough. But as I get older, everything I appear to read has to be taken with a pinch of salt and a raised eyebrow. Nex, I'm sure it was you that agree'd with me when we stated that when England becomes England again and not Londland, thats when the country will prosper again? Oh I saw that on my way to work this morning and had to have a good chuckle at it. Makes me think of aload of American's in suits screams "TO THE WHAT THE FETH MOBILE!".
I'd agree with this too. The UK as a whole is far too centralised. What other country in the world has their media, politics, finance centre, population centre all in the same city? The policies of this country are far too driven to divert money from elsewhere in the UK to London and the surrounding counties in order to prop up economic bubbles and the financial industry. Not to mention power subsidies and lower fuel costs for those living there compared with the rest of the UK...even though there are very few if any of those resources nearby. There is now plans to introduce a tax break for games developers and software developers in London, yet they refused to grant the same request to the already developed games and software industry in Dundee. They'll bail out the banks and fincacial institutions that London jobs and economy relies on but fail to bail out and manufacturing companies throughout the UK when they need a bit of aid such as Corus in Teeside recently.
It's true, I believe Nexxo enlightened me to this more than anything! Since me and him spoke about it, it's been something I've looked into and it really is awful how this nation runs. I mean, that metalworking place in Sheffield that builds Nuclear Power Plant components can't get a loan, despite how much it means to the economy, while they give tax breaks to companies in London, dispicable. I think the balance of power is shifting slowly now. I've seen alot of factories and development centre's opening up in the midlands the past six months and actually prosper. Our nations future rests in Research and Development, Technology, Hi-Tech... not manufacturing, but at the same time our manufacturing base is required to make sure our economy can trundle along quite nicely and keep us all supported. This is what past governments seem to have failed to see. "How can we make more money now we can't compete with Germany, USA and China?" "I know, we'll invest in money!" Economies should be ran by accountants and economists The NHS should be ran by Doctors and Surgeons (retired from their fields) The Military should be ran by ex-soldiers and officers (retired and serving) etc... etc... etc... etc... until thats done, we'll have a nation of degree level management personel who've no idea what they are doing. "Sir what is your job?" "Well, I manage a management team of team leaders who assess levels of management throughout the nation by using different banks of consultants who all require a level5 degree in management and human resources!" Totally off topic... but hopefully Wikileaks can bring about a fair few changes to the system above so we can actually do something about the state of the UK.
Yeah the Sheffield one is totally baffling. Now it is looking like they'll need to wait a long time to get the reactors built as the people that can make that steel are in short supply, think the main ones are in France now and will have orders from other countries like France and China before the UK get in any orders. I think you are thinking that manufacturing just means old school metal work and so on. I do mean the hi-tech industries too built from R&D and having construction of the products in the UK rather than designed here but built abroad. The two biggest 'wealth' generation in the UK are the Midlands and Scotland for their manufacturing and R&D based economies. How many people here would actually know that? Both areas operate in fiscal surplus, meaning they contribute more money to the UK Treasury than they get back in spending. Funny how you need to dig really deep to find this stuff out though. Yet we're told in the media that London subsidises the rest of the UK.
