Re: The BBC ..or is it just me?

by groundhog Sun Jan 24, 2021 10:07 am

I tend to watch CNN and the Canadian news, the difference is quite stark. CNN give you the news as it happens, informative and ongoing. The BBC in my humble view give you the news and then spend twice the time to qualify it with their opinion of what might happen or might not seeking out the negative along the way. Much more aligned to the British press where selling the story is more important than the content. ITV is very little better.

By contrast and again only in my opinion the UK channels are much better at the weather, in the US as many here will know they almost try to sell the weather forecast to you, irritating, but I guess when you are in areas where the weather is the same constant sun or snow every day you have to make it interesting somehow. snigger

by Askit Sun Jan 24, 2021 10:09 am

OldWomble wrote:

I think this really needs some examples, to help me understand.

Please, can someone who watches Al Jazeera or one of the "better, less biased" news broadcasters please give some examples of the positive sides of Brexit that these "better" broadcasters are showing but the BBC are not?
As I’m sure you are well aware, there are many positives from Brexit. Unfortunately the Brussels Broadcasting Company have never once mentioned any of them. Just look at all the FTA’s we have already signed up to all around the world, the huge inward investment from companies like Nissan etc and, most importantly, look at the vaccination program here compared with the EU. Yet all the BBC do is criticise the UK. They are NOT a national broadcaster and they are NOT independent. They need to be defunded ASAP.

Sorry OldWomble, what has the vaccination programme got to do with Brexit scratch head

by bikeralw Sun Jan 24, 2021 10:29 am

groundhog wrote:
By contrast and again only in my opinion the UK channels are much better at the weather, in the US as many here will know they almost try to sell the weather forecast to you, irritating, but I guess when you are in areas where the weather is the same constant sun or snow every day you have to make it interesting somehow.

Reminds me of this, which was an ongoing joke in The Fast Show..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZMUAd7OJc8

by pjonesf1 Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:20 am

OldWomble,
That is a new one on me, The Benefits of Brexit. A whole new topic.
So far I have lost the ability to stay in the Schengen region for more than 90 days and after 90 days I must return to the UK for 90 days.
Anything that is ordered from either side of La Manche is having fees charged to it. I've heard of 80 euro charged to two pairs of trousers from the UK and £30 charged for an alternator from Belgium.
This morning I was talking to a wine importer who says that in theory every case of wine should be opened up and a sample taken by the authorities, the price will increase and some suppliers are refusing to deal with the UK.

And the benefits?

by Roopert Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:45 am

OldWomble wrote:
As I’m sure you are well aware, there are many positives from Brexit.

You may be sure, but your certainty is misplaced!

If we are realistic, it's understandable that there is not at present any large amount of positive news about Brexit - you should not blame the BBC for that.

The reason is that, by its nature, Brexit must involve breaking a whole lot of things that used to work OK, to then re-make them to reflect our new relationship with Europe. And the fact is that we are still having to break and remake things, because we are only days into the new relationship.

So we are still having to go through crazy "solutions" such as HMRC requiring that every small retailer in the world will have to register with them in order to sell in small volumes into the UK.

The theory is that eventually we will get through this dislocation and start to reap the benefits of leaving Europe - but we are not there yet, and you should not expect the BBC to start making up or embellishing "good news" stories just to make things look better than they really are!

by OldWomble Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:56 am

Well Tony, it’s not rocket science. Just look at the state of the vaccination program across the EU. I think you’ll find we have already vaccinated more people here than all the other EU countries together!

by Askit Sun Jan 24, 2021 12:40 pm

OldWomble wrote:Well Tony, it’s not rocket science. Just look at the state of the vaccination program across the EU. I think you’ll find we have already vaccinated more people here than all the other EU countries together!

Yes, I get that but what has it to do with Brexit?

by Mike187 Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:15 pm

Isn’t that like saying Brexit is to blame for the high death rate in the UK?

EU counties are responsible for purchasing their own supplies of vaccine and vaccination programs as far as I’m aware.

Mike

by IanH Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:59 pm

Wifey stumbled across Al Jazeera, I was v cynical at first, try it, surprisingly good.
One to avoid more than Covid is RTUK, has a prime time spot run by Alec Salmond!
Anyone interested in my App???!!!

by Peter Brown Mon Jan 25, 2021 4:10 pm

The BBC just e-mailed me a link to the Survey. I took great pleasure in letting them know how poorly they perform and that I believe them to be untrustworthy. I expect there is an autodelete on the inbox!

by Gromit Mon Jan 25, 2021 4:42 pm

Mike187 wrote:EU counties are responsible for purchasing their own supplies of vaccine and vaccination programs as far as I’m aware.

Mike

I'm not sure about that Mike??

It appears that the EU has yet to authorise the Astra Zeneca vaccine, and presumably no countries in the bloc will be allowed to use it until that happens.

Will they??

There's so much mis- and dis-information out there that it's difficult to separate truth from media fiction.

by TeamRienza Mon Jan 25, 2021 4:43 pm

I just got the same survey. I had already filled one out from a link by someone on a forum, so I shall be able to give them both barrels again.

Davy

by Roopert Mon Jan 25, 2021 4:44 pm

I think there must be a big campaign on - I've just received the same email too.

As an aside, I was interested in the wording of this BBC article - especially the title:

"Taiwan reports large incursion by Chinese war jets"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55788359

It seems likely that the BBC chose to re-use the term "War jets" (which I'm guessing was probably how it was reported in Taiwan) rather than create a title that would conventionally be used here.

by Guest Mon Jan 25, 2021 5:40 pm

My major complaint with the BBC and particularly the news is that they buy into the "celebrity" stories too much.

Right now the top panel of the BBC includes "Chelsea sack manager Lampard" and "Knightley rules out *** scenes directed by men"

WHO CARES??? hugegrins

by groundhog Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:01 pm

Just had the survey through myself, this should be fun!!

by Mike187 Mon Jan 25, 2021 8:22 pm

Gromit wrote:
Mike187 wrote:EU counties are responsible for purchasing their own supplies of vaccine and vaccination programs as far as I’m aware.

Mike
I'm not sure about that Mike??

It appears that the EU has yet to authorise the Astra Zeneca vaccine, and presumably no countries in the bloc will be allowed to use it until that happens.

Will they??

There's so much mis- and dis-information out there that it's difficult to separate truth from media fiction.

There is an EU body that approves medicines to be marketed in the EU, but individual countries can approve vaccines on an their own emergency powers and Hungry has approved the Russian Sputnik vaccine, probably for political reasons.

As far as I can gleen (not from the press) the EU is purchasing the vaccine (nearly 2 billion doses at the moment) to be distributed to national hubs, from there everything is down to the individual country including the priority of which groups of their population get it first.

One nice touch I thought was they are printing the vaccine leaflet in English rather than the individual languages.

Your right Dave there is there is a lot of mis and disinformation out there but it all can’t be laid at the door of the media, politicians and others are just as liable to bend the truth to put it mildly.

Mike

by Mike187 Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:26 pm

groundhog wrote:Tonight I heard a neesrooder say "More people have died in the UK from the pandemic now than in World war 2." Now that is not strictly true is it, 70,000 UK civilians died in World War 2 but the small matter of the 350,000 that died from the armed forces is conveniently not mentioned, it would ruin the dramatic

Sorry to correct you on this one Hog but the reporter, Clive Myrie, did actually compare COVID deaths to UK civilian deaths in World War 2 in his piece, not sure if someone in the studio afterwards missed it out or not. Very powerful pieces that I don’t think could be done without the agreement of those doctors and nurses, much better than Boris or Mat Hancock saying how stressed NHS staff are. Perhaps lockdown rule breakers should be forced to watch that series of reports as well as a fine to drive home to them the possible consequences of their actions.

But I do agree with the feeling of this thread about the amount and quality of news output being poor.

Mike

by groundhog Tue Jan 26, 2021 9:38 am

Mike
I bow to your better memory than me, it was five days ago and if you asked me again I would have said the newscaster was a lady!

I still regard the comparison as meaningless even if the newsreader did refer to the civilian population. The population of the UK in 1945 was circa 45 million, today the population is circa 66 million so by default civilian deaths would be approaching 50% higher now. On the other hand of course the death rate itself was potentially higher in 1945. You can make statistics say whatever you want. I just feel I don't need unsubstantiated numbers thrown at me for the sake of dramatizing a news story.

Totally agree with you about the visits to stretched hospitals by politicians of all colour, pointless, also rule breakers are being dealt with far too leniently, it would do some of them good to see the human side of this!

Stay safe allthumbz

by Askit Tue Jan 26, 2021 9:49 am

It's the same kind of meaningless comparisons done by all news agencies, when they say, that's like "x double decker buses", "x swimming pools" or "x football pitches" shrugg

by Guest Tue Jan 26, 2021 9:52 am

As has been pointed out by the WHO making comparison between ANY independent circumstance is fraught with pitfalls. France has similar health and population counts to us but has significantly lower population density, the UK population spread had more people working the land during the war than we do now.

We quote ANY death within 28 days of a Covid positive, other countries are far more selective, I think this is a major reason for a high count. If someone had a severe heart condition before Covid then dies of a heart attack after, did they die of Covid or a heart attack?

by babian Tue Jan 26, 2021 10:02 am

Two Olympic swimming pools, twice the size wales etc etc.

by Peter Brown Tue Jan 26, 2021 10:03 am

A year ago it was simple, we had the law of the land and we had government advice about certain circumstances such as travelling abroad.

Now we have rules (and that term is spreading like wildfire into reporting on anything) that embrace both the law that must be complied with and advice which you can choose to follow or not.

No wonder so many people are confused - particularly law abiding people who are censured for not heeding some advice or the other. If it is critical that a certain course of action should be taken by the public then it should be made a law - simple.

by Gromit Tue Jan 26, 2021 1:12 pm

HairyFool wrote:As has been pointed out by the WHO making comparison between ANY independent circumstance is fraught with pitfalls. France has similar health and population counts to us but has significantly lower population density, the UK population spread had more people working the land during the war than we do now.

We quote ANY death within 28 days of a Covid positive, other countries are far more selective, I think this is a major reason for a high count. If someone had a severe heart condition before Covid then dies of a heart attack after, did they die of Covid or a heart attack?

Hi Hairy

Exactly the point I've been annoyed by for months now!!

Say there were 500 passengers on a plane, all having tested positive three weeks ago, if the plane nosedives into the ground they would go down as 500 Covid deaths.

This way of presenting the data is just another strategy to generate fear - the declared aim of SAGE according to a leaked email of a few weeks ago. (And this is not down to the mainstream media who are clearly doing as they are told.)

by Bobskate Tue Jan 26, 2021 1:39 pm

I am watching the BBC lunchtime news. Virtually every item is about Covid and almost every one is desperately sad involving people being affected. The only main item not on that theme relates to the treatment of unmarried mothers in Northern Ireland. Equally bad. I am sitting here with the mute button which I press when it gets too much. The only item not muted is the weather....though just a minute, dull, drizzly cold and grey. I’ve just zapped that as well. It’s relentless.

by Gromit Tue Jan 26, 2021 1:56 pm

Bobskate wrote:I am watching the BBC lunchtime news. Virtually every item is about Covid and almost every one is desperately sad involving people being affected. The only main item not on that theme relates to the treatment of unmarried mothers in Northern Ireland. Equally bad. I am sitting here with the mute button which I press when it gets too much. The only item not muted is the weather....though just a minute, dull, drizzly cold and grey. I’ve just zapped that as well. It’s relentless.

Yes Bob, and that's something else that doesn't help at all.

What we all desperately need is a bit of positive news, and possibly some indication of when we might begin to come out of all this. Easily achieved, but good news seems not worth bothering with on the BBC.

What really gets me down is the repeated glimpses of a light at the end of the tunnel, which then gets snuffed out as the tunnel gets longer and longer. I won't accuse Boris of breaking his promises (like Laura Kuenssberg et. al. love doing all the time) as he usually doesn't actually promise - but he keeps airing his hopes and targets which make you feel that things are improving at last.

Now it appears that the lockdown may last until 17th July.

Ye gods. Shall I live that long!!! shrugg