Scrap the BBC

[Wetherby whaler]

Agree Llani, her “Love and Affection” has to be one of the most perfect songs ever written or performed.

[Witton Park]

I wasn't aware that there were any racist's on here.

Hope they play some Joan Armatrading.

It has me scratching my head as well.

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I can sign up to that no problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_WS3hJ3Iyo
This guys pretty good as well. I bet he'd be a shoe-in for the White House if he was standing.

I don't listen to Radio 2, but a bit of Thin Lizzy would work for me.

[bigfella]

Saw her at the Birmingham Odeon 30+ years ago, it was her home town and her birthday apparently, great gig.

Hope they don't play any rap, nothing racist, I just don't like it.

[creaky]

That's a very interesting point.

I watched a piece the other day on Youtube which discussed the plight of journalism, with the ex hack saying the industry is in trouble and much of what we see is now what he described as "churnalism".

He explained the problem roughly as this.

Most journalists working for the nationals had come up through the local/regional paper route and were professional, trained journalists. They were used to investigating stories, doing the legwork either as employed or freelance, attending courts, interviewing people and putting pieces together.

A story that might earn a freelancer a grand 20 years ago is now worth £200.

The papers do not have the money to fund and develop proper journalism, so they tend to just re-hash what is already out there.

He also went on to explain how the career path has changed markedly. Many journalists now tend to be graduates, the interns, researchers, move on to work for websites and if they can get on TV and radio to lift their profile, they might then get a column in a paper and even move in to TV.

Where are the journalists now going to come from who can find stories like the Dodgy Dossier, the Westminster Expenses scandal....?

I'll give an example, Andrew Norfolk. Durham Uni Newspaper, Scarborough Evening News, Yorkshire Post, The Times. He's had a 30 year career to be Chief Investigative Reporter.

I doubt you'll see that sort of career path anymore.

I think in most aspects of news reporting we are seeing a drive towards celebrity, personality, contacts... and it isn't healthy.

Thanks
, that's a good analysis, probably explains why most of my local newspapers just copy stories without any background or context.

[Travs]

I have a close family relative who is a senior correspondent on a local newspaper, controlled by a large national media group.

Every year for the last 7 there have been rounds of redundancies. Massively scaling back (i assume due to some kind of drop in popularity of newspapers).

Some stories in local media (especially online media) are copy/pasted, and some are (picking my words carefully) written in a way to be deliberately inflammatory, to direct clicks/comments towards their website and other social media outlets... it's like a spiral... a good headline generates more clicks on social media, so they move up the rankings on places like facebook & twitter, and their subsequent headlines receive a higher priority on these platforms.

These "click-bait" headlines, and the scaling back of resources, give a strong impression of newspaper quality, quite frankly, going down the pan. I do feel sorry for those genuine journalists who have pursued journalism as a genuine career...

[Mossdog]

It has me scratching my head as well.

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I can sign up to that no problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_WS3hJ3Iyo
This guys pretty good as well. I bet he'd be a shoe-in for the White House if he was standing.

I don't listen to Radio 2, but a bit of Thin Lizzy would work for me.

Thanks for posting. A great, impassioned, oratory. He'd get my vote too.

[Mike T]

I wasn't aware that there were any racist's on here.

Hope they play some Joan Armatrading.

Every now and then I have heard someone singing, and I have been absolutely electrified - Joan was one of those, as was Hendrix, and more recently Antony and the Johnsons. So many great hours listening to all three.

[Witton Park]

Every now and then I have heard someone singing, and I have been absolutely electrified - Joan was one of those, as was Hendrix, and more recently Antony and the Johnsons. So many great hours listening to all three.

All three? Sounds like 4

[Mossdog]

No singin', just a chillin' and a breezin' - George, sublimely understated...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14pitnJlcv4

[Llani Boy]

Hours after the release of CCTV footage showing the suspect in the Birmingham stabbings the BBC cannot bring itself to utter that five letter word, black, to describe him.

I can imagine the turmoil and distress that must be going through their woke little brains whilst they try to come to terms with the fact that a black man could do such a thing.