How the media (still) works: princes and pressure groups

A report out today ...

How far back do we date the phenomenon of vested interests putting out spurious press releases masquerading as news?  It definitely pre-dates the 1980s because I can remember instances of it back then quite clearly.  Commercially, the 'launches' of books, films, new products etc have been doing it forever, to amplify their advertising efforts.  Pressure groups muscled in on the act, and made it their own: the ghastly phrase "a report out today ..." is always the giveaway.

Why are they indulged?  That's easy: the media are bone idle.  In the case of, for example, local newspapers, they are and always have been grotesquely understaffed, and rely to 95% on stuff being handed to them on a plate: sometimes you can tell they've barely read what they've been sent.  But ... shouldn't MSM which have the slightest pretensions to, errr, standards of reporting, be above that crap?

Here's a wonderful example from the Grauniad.  (Did I say pretensions ..?) 

Labour MPs to lobby Keir Starmer to put green policies at heart of manifesto

This lengthy piece is completely devoid of news and, for afficionados, is a gem of its kind.  The press release / briefing that the Graun has swallowed whole, is from a new groupuscule that hasn't even launched yet!  So everything is about what "they" (assuming anyone joins the group) might do in future.  Classic stuff.

Which brings us to poor Prince Harry.  As an old mate of mine (a Tory MP) used to say, you can always get on the front page if you're willing to take your trousers down in public.  Was there ever a neater illustration of this maxim?  Put it away, son, everyone's laughing at you.

ND

The EU are going to dictate Hard Brexit, our hyperventilating politicians are myopic poseurs

The Fuss over Article 50 is something to behold really. How something so meaningless can come to dominate  the national psyche, even if only for a few days?


The 'Trigger' of Brexit was the referendum, from which there is no re-tying of that Gordian knot.


The Prime Minister will have an easy majority in Parliament to pass any Article 50 Enabling Bill, it is as though everyone has forgotten the large Labour Leave support and DUP support. It is really not in doubt. Plus, failure is a confidence matter for the start of a general election that the current Government would walk with current polling.


However, the real reason it is a nonsense is the posing of the likes of Jeremy Corbyn about Single Market access and such. None of this is in our gift. We voted to Leave the EU, that means the single market and all the other pieces. The only way to keep Single Market Access is to, err, not leave the EU but to stay in all but name.


There is no mandate for this and, moreover, that is a worse position to be in than either staying or leaving fully. With leaving we go gain control of the future, by staying we keep the status quo (for now), half leaving means we get all the bad stuff of EU bureaucracy and none of the political control


The EU nations are determined from everything they have said so far to make it either a stay or go negotiation. Perhaps hoping that stance will force a second referendum or that the punishment beating handed out will deter others from the same path.


What our red lines and negotiating positions are is being really over-analysed in the current febrile environment. Once Article 50 is enabled, it will be a full exit from the EU, bar minor stuff like police information sharing. The EU won't have it any other way.


As usual, our politicians are playing on their hopes about they think people voted for. Vox pops in the country show clearly whenever I see them that Brexit voting people knew what was coming; it is just the metropolitan elite who cling to the hope that somehow that is not so. Neither do these wets realise what having the EU on the otherside of the table means.  It means business, it means walking away.

Press Freedom is a boring subject

Here we are today, with the Government in a nice fix of its own making over Press Freedom. The Left, in the form of Labour and 'Hacked-Off', together with the Guardian spinning some crucial lies at the right time, have managed to get a majority in Parliament on their to to regulate the press by statute. So ending 300 years of Press Freedom. What do 'the people' think - er, nothing, this is nto really one for the man on the Clapham Omnibus is it. Indeed, after the scandal of phone hacking most people probably think the Press needs its wings clipping. I could not agree more, but with a whole host of journalists awaiting trial we are already at the point where future journo's will think twice before doing anything to get a story?

But the whole press issue is boring, of more interest is the direction of travel. How long will the writers of this blog continue to be able to publish without being registered or be able to publish with anonymity? We have been writing for 7 years now, but I doubt that will last another 7 years without state intrusion. Across the world there are great attacks on press freedom, often in a mis-applied response to the rise of twitter and facebook as forums for information sharing.

However, newspapers who are shock story driven, are overly keen to promote themselves as this thin end of the wedge, when the collective behavoiur of the editors has been abhorrent for years. Just look at the Gaurdian's relativistic morals publishing of Edward Snowden's revelations or the Mail happily laying into the dead if it helps make their point.

How can we stop the politicians form hiding there affairs and expenses (which explains the keeness of the dishonourbale members to vote for regulation on all sides of the house) but also tame the wilder elements on the press who are happy to ruin peoples' lives for the sake of a few extra copies? As often, the simple way is actually to carry on as is. The Written press is dying out anyway with newspaper sales and revenues collapsing. it's current desperation is bourne out of its failing business model. Let's instead allow it to blow itself out, but not let the politicians ape France and be able hide their indiscretions and wrong-doings.

Comedy is getting old

No Question Time today ..Hurrah!

Having fallen out of love with the BBC, I was involved in a blog post war on another site over privatisation. The person most in favour of the BBC claimed that the ten most popular UK comedies were BBC productions. This was probably a reference to the top 50 British sitcoms.

This is probably true. If you take television over the last 60 years then the BBC has a monopoly for 20 of them, a duopoly for another 10 and very limited competition for another 20 before Sky and Virgin and C4 + C5 got their act together. But if the poll is ALL TIME WORLD greatest comedy/sitcoms how does the BBC do?

Not so well I'd guess. 8 out of the 10 BBC shows are over 25 years old. {but then the poll was 2004..anyone got a newer one?} Not that that matters much, but it does mean that some of the 'newer' comedies from other sources are likely to give the BBC a run for our money. For me, here's a possible best ever.

1. Simpsons
2. Seinfeld
3. Outnumbered
4. Blackadder5. Phoenix Nights
6. Friends
7. Porridge
8. Red Dwarf
9.Charlie Brooker's various wipes
10. IT crowd
11. Yes Prime Minister
12. Alan partridge
13. Frasier
14. Family Guy
15. Big Bang theory
16. The Thick of It
17. Father Ted
18. Larry Sanders show
19. Cheers
20.Lead Balloon

No room for Soap, Open All hours, Reggie Perrin, Some Mothers do 'ave 'em, New Statesman..which haven't aged as well as others. And no room for Extras, Dad's Army, Curb your enthusiasm, Peep Show, Daley Show,Armstrong and Miller well...well .. because there's just no room..dammit!


So lets see. List your top BBC & NON BBC comedies into the comments and see if can come up with a top 20 best ever. I have a sneaking suspicion my BBC favouring opponent may have been right.

They think its all over.. It is now.

Setanta has finally gone off the air for good in the UK. The Irish broadcaster slipped into administration some £200 million in debt and costing at least 200 jobs. Lots of babble on the Beeb about poor customers still having to pay for a blank screen but as its a monthly subscription service, one of its attractions and weaknesses, it shouldn't be hard to stop the direct debit. Poor punters..out of pocket £12.99 max. Could the business model have worked without the recession?

Setanta needed 2 million subscribers to break even. That was a big ask. Sky, has 9 million and has taken 25 years to build up. Setanta did not do badly with viewers, getting 1.2 million, but there was no room for the unexpected. Like a global recession or the bad publicity from a poor customer service problem. Also Setanta did not appear to offer value for money. A Sky package costs far more but also includes far more. Especially a lot more of much better football matches. Then add in movies and sports and comedy and lifestyle and documentary and music , sci-fi/horror/shopping/quiz and many other channels. Setanta was not bad value for a die hard, rugby, golf and footy fan, but it did lead to football fans feeling they were being asked to pay twice. The competition rules, largely bought in to break up the Sky monopoly were inadequate. Only one of the six sold packages needed to be sold to a second bidder as well. This was the inferior tea time kick off, early start games.

But the real question that should have been asked when the directors sat down to work out their plan to topple Sky was

"Hasn't this been tried before? like ITV digital?"

The Setanta plan was thinking that people would not pay for Championship football but WOULD pay for Premiership football. That was a little bit wishful. Footy fans will pay a huge amount to watch Liverpool vs Man Utd but not a lot for Stoke vs West Brom. Setanta made the classic mistake of over paying for a product.

There are other reasons too. Short term private investment income, when long term investment was required. That same long term investment made very difficult to find when TV rights are sold in 3 year packages. Once Setanta lost two of its three Premiership rights for 2010-2013 back in February it was all over bar the switch off.

Sunday Business Round Up - 16 September

Busy week for the beginning of the end of the working year. Not helped personally by having my bag stolen in the gym yesterday! A short round-up as I have a few calls to make this morning...

Northern Rock sale -It has only taken 2 days for this business to have to put itself up for sale. So when a bigger one goes pop, maybe give them a week?

Who is next? - the Lefties have some thoughts on this...

Meanwhile in the US - banks are asked to be more straightforward in their accounting to help prevent the crisis getting worse. All very well, but without pushing the boundaries where are their profits coming from?

Housing in the UK - Housing boom over, HIPS, interest rate rises and sub-prime crisis have finally slayed the dragon? Too early perhaps to say Hooray at last?

Good news somewhere in the UK - John Lewis, the staff owned retailer, makes huge profits for the year.

Bids on the Edge - Barclay's looks doomed, whilst Sainssbury's might be left at the altar.

Metronet fall out - Tube upgrade and maintenance due to be delayed over cost wrangling.

HSBC vultures - Are the management under threat from their investors over strategy? I doubt it, the bank is still very solid, despite the crisis.

More Gym mergers - the over-capacity issues are still plaguing this industry. I have always found it odd that this business grew up as quickly as our obesity crisis...

Branson over the moon - He will step up to the Google challenge of being the first to send a private space craft to the moon. Don't bet against this one with Virgin Galactic about to get off the ground.