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@PaulR said:
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The BBC should be overhauled into the margins of virtual non existence. I, along with most people that think and don't read The Guardian, find it incredible that we are forced to pay for a service we don't really want. A public sector tv station that can no longer make programs and is a glorified left wing news channel. How would that go down in your countries (of origin).
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What is your opinion on the BBC Proms, PaulR?
Far from me to engage in a political discussion here - for I'd be doing it in my customary gracious and forgiving ways, plus I don't see the moderators allowing it for too long - but I'd like to make a point which is at least related to what we do here:
I used to have my own broadcast as talent/producer on the national public radio here in Athens (say BBC 3 equivalent - a parody of it), and I have to say that I agree with Paul's blanket assessment of who runs the programming and who the target audiences are, as well as with Jasen's notion of their glorification of government centralization and the seemingly endless supply of money those "lefties" have access to. A lot of these "Marxists" in Greece (both on public radio and TV) have made untold millions with the blessings of the pestilential government we've had during the last 40 years. My salary was also disproportionate for Greek standards, during my brief tenure, and I saw incredible things happen around me while contracted there.
However, I have also lived in Australia for a very long time, and I must say that the best programming by far on radio and TV in both countries came from those public stations. Although I admit that in both countries those stations are ran by the fringe elements of society - thus there's a demographic misrepresentation in their ranks - there is no way that the vile, conspiratorially decadent private stations would ever pay to broadcast any quality program, let alone produce it. The private stations are the auspices of game-shows, sports, women's sit-coms and dramas, reality TV where retards watch twirps sleep and peep into their toilet habits, "talent"-shows, top10 crap, Hollywood movies, and endless commercials. The only thing they share with public radio/TV on a day-to-day basis is political commentary. All the documentaries, the concerts (classical), the great investigative reports (tainted red I agree), opera, the theatre, the great interviews, the old/great films, they're all audible/viewable exclusively on public radio/TV - 2MBS FM in Sydney being a marvellous exception, I hope it's still running. I think Dietz meant that we are all going to lose the quality programming that BBC offers if it is ever privatized. Who is going to take it up?
What quality programming would that be Erik? To speak of quality programming you immediately have to do comparisons with times gone by. Why do the BBC even bother to get involved in "daytime television"? BBC3 programs are generally for teenage imbeciles on how to squirt their zits at the mirror.
And the film for BBC3 this evening will be the same as it was yesterday evening - Tomb Raider. No one but those morons watch it. The BBC is no longer the largest tv station in GB. SKY television is and the BBC cannot compete with SKY in anyway, apart from news coverage, which is biased. Therefore, they cannot justify the licence fee and any future arbitrary increases based on their pension problems and lack of programming - especially in sports coverage.
The BBC do not do quality dramas anymore. The BBC are more interested in getting Labour into government to keep their news funding going. They need to be broken up and made much smaller.
When I was quite young, the only TV channel was the one BBC channel. That was it. No other channel. And they managed to make that pretty good considering in the afternoons they shut down and showed the Potter's Wheel, Fish in a Tank and Kittens playing with wool on an Armchair. Then came ITV. So then there were 2 channels. And now you have God knows how many channels, most of which are poor and show repeats of everything, although Sky Arts and their sports coverage are very good a lot of the time.
Plus they (SKY) don't stink up the place by constantly having communist dikes in for their political slant on recent events because it suits their policy.
I normally wouldn't get involved in these kind of discussions but I really can't resist this one - what "quality" programmes do Sky make? All I see is live sports, "reality" tv and American imports.
And if you want to talk about bias in the news - Sky's reporting of the NotW phone hacking scandal has been atrocious (they ignored it for just about as long as they could) but then again News Corp (owner of the NotW) holds the biggest stake in Sky (and has been lobbying for the BBC to be shut down for years).
Perhaps that's the kind of objective journalism you'd like to see more of.
I'd like to sign off on a happier note than that though, so for those of you unfamiliar with The Guardian, Daily Mail & NotW I present to you a clip that is still the very best overview of our beloved UK newspapers;
I agree with Paul in that, today, there is just so much more available on the boob tube then there ever was. I think I have over a thousand channels in my satelite TV package. Of that thousand about 95% is just pure garbage or stuff that just doesn't interest me, ie. The Shrimp Channel? Who the hell watches that? I don't watch much TV anymore but when I do I usually watch things like the History channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Nat. Geo and a few others. I really like the older documentaries like the ones the BBC used to run but apparently don't anymore. It seems that those privately operated channels offer the best programming IMHO.
However you're right Errik at one time PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) ran some good stuff. To some extent, they still do. Thank God they've stayed out of the unreality TV market. I remember when they ran the Ken Burnes Civil War documentary which was excellent. Also Vietnam, the Ten Thousand Day War which was actually a Canadian production very good as well. But in today's market, those productions could easily be picked up by private run TV stations on satelite or cable.
Martin, I read the Gaurdian from time to time and unfortunately their readership doesn't know how to debate. When I call out some of their erroneous reporting or challenge an editorial leaving a comment on their website, instead of engaging in honest healthy debate they just attack me by calling me a "racist," or "Bigot" or "moron" or whatever. Apparently if you don't goose step to the prevailing left wing drum at the time, you're ridiculed and dismissed.
BTW, Martin don't take this the wrong way but why is the font on your website so small? As some marketing advice, make the font bigger because if I have to take out my glasses to read the small print on your site it's just easier to click away somewhere else.
Jasen - don't take any notice of Martin.
Jasen - it's difficult for Americans to understand this. But what you proabably don't know is that the 182 readers of The Guardian are all mentally ill and need help. They think Captain Pugwash is going to do a great job of running the country in 3 years time and all their benefits will be restored, payed for by anyone stupid enough to still be paying tax.
English people that are left in this country realized long ago that the problem was always going to be population control and that will naturally come in xy years time.
Ahoy there!
I guess then that the "younger generation" of UK must be mentally ill as when I was studying at the University there few years ago, most of the students were reading The Guardian.@PaulR said:
Jasen - it's difficult for Americans to understand this. But what you proabably don't know is that the 182 readers of The Guardian are all mentally ill and need help. They think Captain Pugwash is going to do a great job of running the country in 3 years time and all their benefits will be restored, payed for by anyone stupid enough to still be paying tax.
Jasen - don't take any notice of Martin.Jasen - it's difficult for Americans to understand this. But what you proabably don't know is that the 182 readers of The Guardian are all mentally ill and need help. They think Captain Pugwash is going to do a great job of running the country in 3 years time and all their benefits will be restored, payed for by anyone stupid enough to still be paying tax.
Kind of proves my point doesn't it? Ridiculing and dismissing going on right there.
Mis-reporting (or as they prefer to call it editorialising) is true of every paper. For example, the Daily Mail hyped up the MMR vaccine scare (though they weren't the only one). Then when the research saying it was dangerous was debunked they didn't print a thing. So now our vaccination rates have plummeted and we had our first deaths from measles in decades (as we were at, or close to, herd immunity levels before the scare) and the Mail print an article saying it's the French that have caused the rise in measles infections.
The Telegraph recently printed a story saying that average wages in the public sector were higher than the private sector (which plays nicely into the narrative of public sector bad & wasteful, private sector good & efficient). The problem is that's is so much more complicated than that. Yes the average wage is higher but that's partly because all the low skilled jobs have been outsourced to private companies. Also, we know that women are paid less than men to do the same job and that women are disproportionally employed in the public sector so if anything the result should be the opposite. However since proper research hasn't happened we don't actually know. And this happens every day in all of the papers - utter crud being printed based on the political stripe of the paper rather than on solid research and reporting.
I don't see a lot of Fox News but I know the lack of balanced reporting in the US isn't just confined to the left.
However, none of this has anything to do with my original point.
Not sure why the font on my site is appearing small - I'll look into it and thanks for the heads up!
@devastat said:
I guess then that the "younger generation" of UK must be mentally ill as when I was studying in the University there few years ago, most of the students were reading The Guardian.
Well the fact that they let you into a university in the uk and a quick recap of your previous posts completely validates my point I think you'll find. The days of anyone being able to go to a university (or what are basically glorified polytechs) for the moronic masses in the UK are most definitely numbered and should NEVER have been allowed to happen. But that's what you get with 13 years of Labour. A complete watering down of values and a penchant for music by Zimmer.
Erik - don't listen to Martin because rumour has it he's the subject of a new, yes new, BBC docudrama for the hopelessly insane.
Good evening.
And your opinion is that the only guys that should be allowed to go to universities in the UK are the guys wearing a Benetton shirt and going punting in Cambridge?@PaulR said:
Well the fact that they let you into a university in the uk and a quick recap of your previous posts completely validates my point I think you'll find. The days of anyone being able to go to a university (or what are basically glorified polytechs) for the moronic masses in the UK are most definitely numbered and should NEVER have been allowed to happen. But that's what you get with 13 years of Labour. A complete watering down of values and a penchant for music by Zimmer.
I may be talking without all my facts - for example, I don't know anything regarding the SKY programming in the UK. However, from my experience in Sydney and Athens, as well as intelligent Italian friends and what they think of RAI in recent times, and others, it seems to me that although Paul is absolutely correct that TV and higher education standards have dropped like bombs in the last few decades, I haven't seen the private sector (or anyone else) picking up the cross of quality programming. I believe the reason for that is that quality programming costs money that is not recouped during broadcasting (commercials, subscriptions, syndication, etc.). Logically, the only organization that would be willing to disregard the fiscal aspects of programming in favour of those of quality and duty, is the government. If government channels become completely commercialized or are completely sold to private enterprize, God Help us. Also, if those public institutions are infested by supposed Marxists, that is something for which the rest of us have to take the blame for having allowed it.
@PaulR said:
Well the fact that they let you into a university in the uk and a quick recap of your previous posts completely validates my point I think you'll find. The days of anyone being able to go to a university (or what are basically glorified polytechs) for the moronic masses in the UK are most definitely numbered and should NEVER have been allowed to happen. But that's what you get with 13 years of Labour. A complete watering down of values and a penchant for music by Zimmer.
Erik - don't listen to Martin because rumour has it he's the subject of a new, yes new, BBC docudrama for the hopelessly insane.
Good evening.
Because using ad hominems as substitute for real arguments is oh so intellectual, wouldn't you say?
Also, if those public institutions are infested by supposed Marxists, that is something for which the rest of us have to take the blame for having allowed it.
What exactly constitutes the so-called "Marxism" of these people, if I may ask? Is it corruption, cronyism, permanent backyard dealing with private interest at the expense of the public interest? Is it vulgar snobbery and contempt for the so-called "lower" classes (a sidenote and to put things in proper perspective: I'll take Tottenham rioters over City of London criminals anytime), not to forget their "culture" and "education" solely as signs of social distinction devoid of any meaningful content?
Great. Karl Marx would have been really proud.
Because using ad hominems as substitute for real arguments is oh so intellectual, wouldn't you say?
Hey ........Hey! I watch Wallander just like anyone else! What would your assessment of Wallander be for instance? Think that maybe it takes a left- wing stance? What do you think? Think that maybe the first series with Krister Henriksson and his daughter didn't quite pander from the top down? So they then went bottom up for the 'younger' viewers on the second series?
Don't you talk to me about intellectuals sunshine because I've watched Swedish films before you were born and watched how the intellectuals in your film industry have died a slow death.
Erik - today our glorious students get their A Level results and we are informed as usual that the pass rate is 97.5%. These children are fucking geniuses. All the world needs to know that. I am a moron because my generation pass rate was a mere 45%. This is what selective breeding in Great Britain has achieved. A master race of super intelligent chidren that seemingly can't fail an exam. Just think of the musicians we're going to produce over the coming decades if this goes on. Tremendous! I'm hearing Chinese pre- anti capatilist tunes as I write. Onward Erik - onward I say!
Yeah, Marxist is a bit of a strong word these days, at least it is in the states. I guess over in Europe the word doesn't have as much of a sting to it (I read somewhere that something like 25% of Europeans list Karl Marx as one of the great Philosophers who ever lived). When most educated Americans think "Marxist" they think of troops marching through the streets in Soviet styled May Day parades. In America, Soviet = Not Cool.
The political right in the states are trying to brand President Obama as a Marxist which I think is a huge mistake because, first of all, it makes us (I'm a member of the American Right) look like extremists and crazy. And secondly, most Americans think Karl Marx was one of the Marx Brothers, 'wasn't he the one with the big nose, glasses, mustach smoking the cigar?' Yes, Paul and Errik, unfortunately we've dumbed downed our fine institutes of higher learning in-step with Europe. FDR was more of a Marxist than Obama could ever hope to be. Obama's econolmic advisors are all from the John Manard Keynes school of economics which is basically run the government credit card all the way to the limit and beyond, sink it all in a slot machine and pull the arm. To hell with deficits, debt and inflation. By expanding government well beyond it's seams and going on a spending binge we will create demand which, in turn, will get business back to hiring again. Oh and let's do a psuedo nationalized health care while we're at it.
It didn't work for FDR and it won't work for Obama. The problem is that businesses know that at some point somebody is going to have to pay the piper and they fear, rightfully so, that it will be them. So instead of hiring they are hording. They'll need that money for the big tax hits that are around the corner to pay for the out-of-control spending and health care regulations for their current employees.
I'm not sure why my fellow American conservatives are so worried. No president in history, except FDR, has ever been re-elected with a 9.2% unemployment rate. Reagan was re-elected with a 7% unemployment but that was because he lowered it from 15% in 1984. We could dig Reagan up out of the ground right now, run him again, and we'll still win.
You'll have to forgive me all as I'm a little tipsy right now and just couldn't resist replying to this thread yet again. If I've insulted any fans of the late "Great" Karl Marx my appologies.
If I've insulted any fans of Groucho Marx, for that matter, my deepest appologies to you as well. Actually I always thought he was a funny guy.
PS Have a nice day.
@PaulR said:
Hey ........Hey! I watch Wallander just like anyone else! What would your assessment of Wallander be for instance? Think that maybe it takes a left- wing stance? What do you think? Think that maybe the first series with Krister Henriksson and his daughter didn't quite pander from the top down? So they then went bottom up for the 'younger' viewers on the second series?
Don't you talk to me about intellectuals sunshine because I've watched Swedish films before you were born and watched how the intellectuals in your film industry have died a slow death.
Well, I would say that my point - that you are a condensending pseudo-intellectual jerk in need of better manners - still stands.
Have a nice day.
Well, I would say that my point - that you are a condensending pseudo-intellectual jerk in need of better manners - still stands.
Have a nice day.
Oh Jesus. Now I've hurt your feelings.
How's the welfare state going over there btw? All those foreign visitors decided to stay on right? :)))
@jasensmith said:
FDR was more of a Marxist than Obama could ever hope to be. Obama's econolmic advisors are all from the John Manard Keynes school of economics which is basically run the government credit card all the way to the limit and beyond, sink it all in a slot machine and pull the arm. To hell with deficits, debt and inflation. By expanding government well beyond it's seams and going on a spending binge we will create demand which, in turn, will get business back to hiring again. Oh and let's do a psuedo nationalized health care while we're at it.
What you have is a Euro wet dream led by Merkel. The USA took on the wrong guy at the wrong time. That is partly because Bush pulled up a big deficit and what was needed probably, was a President that could reverse that. Instead you got a party much like Blair's Labour governmet that just wanted to spend on crap to validate their raison d'etre to their particular voters, when the in reality the deficit should have been cut straightaway. The idea that the USA could suddenly come up with some kind of NHS and the cost of that was laughable. Unfortunately, I hasten to add, because in a utopian world free health care would the thing to have right?
Here in England no one is spending any money. They are either paying off their mortgage debt with unrealistically low interest rates while anyone with any money is hoarding and won't spend anything when it's difficult to get any return. Inflation will stay high and sooner or later their could well be chaos on a massive scale when certain countries say enough is enough and pull the plug on the Euro, or have it pulled on them. This is the second time in 20 years the euro experiment has crashed. The first was the ERM fiasco in the early 90's. The high street could be a thing of the past. What we need here is a Bill of Rights similar to the USA. Strictly from a personal point of view I wish to be able to wander down town and buy a 357 magnum just for the hell of it.😊
Perfect storm brewing.