BS: BBC News

Subject: BS: BBC News
From: JedMarum
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 01:29 PM

A thread was started by wilco, making a twist on the idiotic TROLL thread on the "hating of America" stuff - and the thread was ended because it so resembeled the TROLL thread it satirized (and maybe that was the right thing for the moderator to do) BUT, I though the point wilco made was a good one.

I have watched the stuff te BBC exports around the US in the news show category and have say it is pure trash! This is the same technique the tabloid rags use for their silly stories; MAN GIVES BIRTH TO ALIEN SPAWN and HEAD EXPLODES WHEN PSYCHICS DUEL - only they apply the same, most outrageous possible twist to the real world headlines. Anything that can be applied to pump up the story to outrage status is used. It is the "fear" and/or "anger" emotions they are looking to create in their audience - not the passing on of information, not news.

Yellow journalism in suits.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 01:35 PM

I disagree that the original thread was a troll, and stated so in that thread. I've also said I thought the censoring of wilco's thread was sheer stupidity, and much too extreme.

Of course, there is a good chance this thread will be censored too, with the usual idiotic excuse to "avoid duplicate threads". As if every thread in this place hasn't already been covered before.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: Kim C
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 01:43 PM

Well, Jed, I think most news bureaus rely on sensationalism anymore anyway. They report things before all the facts are in, which annoys me. And lately our local news in Nashville likes to go to Ft. Campbell when the soldiers are training, and put out headlines like "Soldiers Preparing for War." Well, duh, that's what they do at an Army base EVERY DAY. They were doing it long before 9-11, and would still be doing it if there were no threat of war.

They just like to scare people, that's what I think.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: JedMarum
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:21 PM

You are right Kim. It occurred to me to mention that point when I wrote my original comments - but the BBC product marketed here in the US is much worse.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:28 PM

Jed, did you even bother to read the BBC questionaire?

It seems to me you are not only jumping to conclusions but now trying some pathetic attempt to attack the BBC in an effort to support your insane belief that the BBC was attacking America.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: JedMarum
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:40 PM

Sorry GUEST. This thread was not about your thread and the BBC questionaire. I was simply commenting on the BBC news shows.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:50 PM

Jed,

You open with

A thread was started by wilco, making a twist on the idiotic TROLL thread on the "hating of America" stuff - and the thread was ended because it so resembeled the TROLL thread it satirized

Now say

Sorry GUEST. This thread was not about your thread and the BBC questionaire. I was simply commenting on the BBC news shows.

1. I haven't started any threads here recently.
2. That opening is a comment on the BBC news???

Go back on your meds quickly.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 03:14 PM

The trouble is when people sign in as GUEST, on the basis of experience, it's only prediuctable hat someone will jump to the (in this case erroneous) assumption that it's badly intentioned.

And that wilco thread, so far as I can see, wasn't censored, it was moved back to a thread where it belonged. Not censored so much as ushered.

Stuff the BBC exports to the USA? How does it do that? Presumably you aren't talking about the World Service, because I listen to that, and it's pretty good; and the stuff on the Internet doesn't appear to be targetted at any particular overseas niche.

That's a genuine question, Jed - presumably there is some BBC operation I'm not aware of. In which case, is it a question of the BBC selectively exporting rubbish, or some agency over there selectvely importing it? When we get rubbish from America on the TV here I assume that the decision to buy it, in place of the better stuff, is made over here.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 03:22 PM

McGrath, BBC does have a programming service this side of the pond. I would disagree with the way it is portrayed by Jed, though. In my experience, it's been pretty good. Not as good as the original mind you, but still pretty good. BTW, there are 2 guests posting here.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: Wolfgang
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 04:02 PM

There are not only (at least) two different GUESTs here, there have at least two different Joe (clones) made different decisions at different moments in time about the thread Wilco has started. Depending upon the particular moment at which you have watched the process you can come to different conclusions about what has happened.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 04:04 PM

I missed Wilco's thread, and would be grateful if someone who saw it could explain it

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 04:10 PM

So what does that programming service actually do? Do Amewrican broadcasters get on to them and say "Send us your pick of programs, and we'll put them on" or what? Or does the programming service go along to the broadcasters in the States and say "give us a list of your requirements and well see what we can come up with to fulfill them"? Or is it done some othewr way?

That's a genuine question, I'm curious to know how things like that work.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: Wolfgang
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 04:20 PM

Thread name was: Who loathes the BBC: A quiz from the US

Only post before the thread was closed was:
A recent CNN poll cited that the BBC is consistently mistrusted as a news source in developing countries. Your opinion?

All this information is by now fully integrated in the 'Who loathes the USA' thread.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 04:30 PM

Thanks, Wolfgang.

It would be good if Wilco could provide a link to said poll. I fear that he has however made it up, in the same way that Jed has made up the idea of the BBC news carrying MAN GIVES BIRTH TO ALIEN SPAWN and HEAD EXPLODES WHEN PSYCHICS DUEL type stories.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 06:12 PM

McGrath, I'm no expert on American BBC programming, but it started out being carried on our PBS (the only American network similar to the beeb, with no commercials). I'm guessing it works like any other programming on that network, ie the local affiliates have some choice in the matter as to what they carry. However, they have expanded, and now have a cable network. Their website is here:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/bbcamerica.jsp

The BBC programming on PBS is all I have access to, and it is pretty high quality, if somewhat dull. The cable channel is like any other cable channel, really. With the exception of news coverage being a different bias from the ones we're used to in the US.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 06:30 PM

Thanks there - looks good enough to bookmark. Maybe a bit worethy, but worthy is good when it come to news ayway.

I couldn't see those exciting stories Jed was talking about.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 06:32 PM

That would be because Jed made them up

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: Wolfgang
Date: 09 Jan 03 - 04:53 AM

Please digest what Jed actually has written:

This is the same technique the tabloid rags use for
their silly stories; MAN GIVES BIRTH TO ALIEN SPAWN

HE HAS NOT ATTRIBUTED THESE HEADLINES TO BBC.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: JedMarum
Date: 09 Jan 03 - 09:38 AM

I watch the BBC news too - but frequently end up railing at its 'creative' approach to reporting news. As Kim C pointed out above, the BBC is not alone in this approach. Many US TV news go for the same, formulaic style, to a lesser degree.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 09 Jan 03 - 12:09 PM

The original original thread was the troll, provocatively substituting "who loathes the USA" for the BBC's more carefully chosen "Quiz: How widespread is anti-Americanism?"

The BBC may sometimes follow a government agenda, and it would hardly be surprising if this were particularly in evidence in their world service, but to describe it as yellow journalism is ludicrous. Unless they produce a specially dumbed-down edition to match some of the crud that Middle America is exposed to.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jan 03 - 12:46 PM

The original thread, titled like that probably was a troll. The contents of the page the thread linked to were not anti-American.

There was no need for any of the anger and the questionaire could have been taken at face value.

Jed dived in without thinking and attacked the innocent (BBC) party. Perhaps he represents a type of American that does nothing other than help towards creating anti-American feeling.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jan 03 - 01:05 PM

"Unless they produce a specially dumbed-down edition to match some of the crud that Middle America is exposed to."

That was what I was wondering. Mind you the dumbing-down is pretty rampant here now, though not so much in the news as in the other stuff. Inevitably it comes across as Americanisation, but I don't think that's quite fair. But I think the hyper-commericial pressures that lie behind this probably tend to impact on America a few years before they reach us, so it can feel that way.

But so far as crass tabloid newspapers go the traffic may even be the other way.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC News
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 09 Jan 03 - 01:49 PM

The BBC including its World Service jealously guards its editorial freedom.