Archive for the ‘The Media’ Category
The One Show Reborn
Gorgeous Gaby. Who's He?
Christine is long gone and now forgotten.
Gaby Logan was absolutely stunning tonight.
No one else will do.
Conrad Black. Surely This is Fiction?
He Walks On Water
Every day I sit in this very spot and wrestle with what’s believable, what’s credible, how much can I get away with in the pages of my current novel. Indeed, one of my characters is a disgraced banker sentenced to not enough years at Her Majesty’s pleasure. It would suit my plot perfectly if he could be released and get to play his part in the thrilling climax which I am fast approaching. Maybe he could even meet a grisly fate in the last few pages gaining a richly deserved reward for his crimes of fraud and avarice.
Now I have my inspiration from true life. There are no limits.
If Conrad Black can be released on bail pending appeal then my imagination must in future know no bounds. Anything is possible. Truth really is stranger than fiction. In a few months Lord Black could be donning ermine and regaining his seat in the House of Lords, once again directing editorial in The Daily Telegraph.
Unbelievable but true.
ITV Cock-Up The World Cup. Immediately!
Unbelievable! I would never, ever, not in a million years choose to watch any sporting event (or anything else I can think of) on ITV.
Now I know why and I know I’m right!
ITV Hopeless Dorks
Less than five minutes into the game, at a completely inappropriate moment, at the merest pause in play, it cuts to an ad. I can’t even remember who it was only four minutes later, so it was a waste of time and money anyway. Then the screen goes black for perhaps 20 seconds. Then we get the pictures back – England have scored!
What absolute, unforgiveable INCOMPETENCE!
Only the BBC should be allowed to screen such important events. ITV is useless .
Sack somebody now!
Advertisers! Pull the plug on the jokers before we boycott you!
The World Cup Beckons
The Big Match
I despise football. I really do. It’s everything it stands for – the appalling, vulgar display of tasteless, oafish, dare I say “chav” behaviour. It’s a thin, insubstantial sport populated by overpaid primadonnas who behave appallingly and set a terrible example to youth.
What a pompous old git I am!
It’s a completely different thing isn’t it when it gets infused with the spirit of international competition?
It’ll never be rugby though, so those that want to see the original, totally uplifting South African story go to the 1995 Rugby World Cup finals. That was a similar occasion but with a proper sport. In fact, go to Invictus, the absolutely fantastic movie which tells the whole story.
I have been taken up by it though. Africa has a wonderful exuberance and I was caught by the romance of the first match, delighted that South Africa managed a draw. Then, who could resist a chance to see the French go down? And go down they did! Well, they scraped a draw against a 10 man Uruguay side when they were the favourites. Lovely to watch!
So it looks like I’m hooked in. There’s nothing else on anyway. It’s been a welcome relief from the tribes of harridan, conspiracy-obsessed bloggers in the US. As a Brit, a Welshman living in England, I am grateful to live in a country which has a sense of perspective. We are not of Europe. We are certainly not of either the Middle or Far East. Thank God we’ve got more history than the Americans. This is still the land of the free. Nowhere else comes close.
And tomorrow Barack Obama is going to find out whose arse is “gonna get kicked”. Then maybe he’ll mind his manners and remember who his friends are.
En-ger-land!
Idiotic Israelis, Insane Islamists
It astonishes me the bigotry, intolerance and crass stupidity demonstrated by so many who write for one side or the other on the terrible conflict in the Middle East.
Many of them are erudite and eloquent, passionate and caring – but only of their own cause.
I thought (maybe I’m wrong) that part of the idea of blogging was to comment on each other’s writing and participate in debate.
No chance!
So many of these obviously intelligent people censor comments that they disagree with and deem anyone who disagrees with them as a fascist, racist or xenophobe. The vitriol I’ve attracted from some is almost unbelievable. They can’t understand that in one article I can condemn the evil behaviour of the Israelis and in the next I condemn the great evil that Islam has become. I can call some Israeli behaviour fascist. I can call some Islamists perverters and defilers of Islam.
Some of these bloggers write (rant) at the most incredible length. They probably don’t have the benefit of my experience from which the most important thing I’ve learned is that even those people who agree with you will get bored if you go on and on and on and on and on…
It’s just a tip which you can ignore if you want but if you can’t get your point across in a couple of hundred words then maybe you should think again!
One individual (who I won’t embarrass by linking to), told me today that offering a link to my post on the subject was “an advert”, referred me to his “comments policy”, suggesting that I am a “xenophobic bigot”.
I explained to him that my comments policy is “please do”!
A Very British Bobby
Good Cop
Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde of Cumbria Police is the sort of man I would want around when the chips are down. He has done a magnificent job fronting Cumbria Police’s reaction to the Derrick Bird killings. He’s not only done his employers proud. He has been a great force for good and of comfort for the people of Cumbria and the nation as a whole. He has been professional, calm, dignified, accurate, understanding – everything that we could possibly have wanted from him. He is in the very highest traditions of the British police.
What a stark contrast from the out of control, lying, scheming thugs in the Metropolitan Police TSG, responsible for multiple assaults at the G20 and Gaza protests and the death of Ian Tomlinson. Only last month, 30 years after the event, they finally admitted responsibility for the death of Blair Peach at the Anti-Nazi league protest in 1979. How can there be such a contrast in the conduct and behaviour of our police officers?
I am sure that DCC Hyde still manages to fit in well with the canteen culture of the police. The difference is he is obviously a fundamentally decent man. He’s not from the sort of neo-Nazi, violent, fascist subset of the police that Sergeant Leroy Smellie and the rest of the TSG belong to.
When I first wrote about Smellie’s acquittal I came across Inspector Gadget, a blog written by a serving police inspector. The memory of what I read there has stayed with me and it disturbs me greatly. It offers an insight into the murkier corners of that canteen culture that should be rooted out and destroyed. Just like the appalling, scandalous predominance of Masonic culture in the police, it astounds me that Inspector Gadget is allowed to continue his rantings and provide a forum for police officers whose attitudes prove they are unfit for the job. Don’t anybody try to tell me that the true identity of Inspector Gadget can’t be established. That would just be another police lie.
I cannot let it pass without calling yet again for charges to be brought against the TSG officer who was clearly seen to assualt Ian Tomlinson shortly before his death.
However, I want to end on a positive note and say, once again, how much I admire the conduct and professionalism of Deputy Chief Constable Hyde.
Sex And The City
I Don't Think Much Of Yours
The sight of these four pitifully deluded women on the sofa today promoting their new film…..eurrghh! It has to be one of the most embarrassing things I have seen. I saw the much-more-gorgeous-than-them Susanna Reid interviewing these hags on BBC Breakfast this morning. I had to switch over urgently it was so excruciating.
The expression “mutton dressed as lamb” isn’t quite right. It’s more like “sad fifty-something dressed as bad taste hooker”. In fact, I thought the Bradford hookers also being interviewed today were much better looking.
How can these four preposterous women display themselves in such gaudy, tacky, cringeworthy fashion – fashion? Do they think those ridiculous shoes, those absurd hairdos, those undignified dresses have any appeal at all?
This is about as far away from sexy as you can get. It’s almost enough to make me start looking at boys!
Facebook – It’s A Snide, Snide World
I don’t know the name of the geek from Facebook who said that he wanted everyone on the planet to become a member of his website but he follows Adolf, Joseph, Benito, Francisco and other tyrants in having ambitions that must be thwarted at all costs.
Let me be clear, yes, you can find me on Facebook. It’s true, with nearly half a billion members it is difficult to ignore it. I use it to publicise this blog to as wide an audience as possible. You can call me a hypocrite if you want but I don’t and won’t participate in the snide, puerile and thoroughly unhealthy relationships and lifestyle that it promotes.
Is This The Real Life Or Is It Just Fantasy?
If there are nearly a half a billion members on the site there must be at least a billion virtually identical photographs that consist of two or three faces (usually inane blondes at a party) pressed together cheek to cheek with vile grimaces or smiles. If it’s supposed to be about individuals why does everyone look exactly the same, talk exactly the same and behave exactly the same?
There are now an extraordinary number of sad, dysfunctional people who live their life, vicariously and actually, on Facebook. This, I believe, should be of great concern to all of us. More than that, the site encourages behaviour that is dishonest, underhand and snide. It’s not a force for good. It’s a force for evil. It’s a perversion and abuse of the internet, probably mankind’s greatest ever invention.
You know the sort of person who’d rather text than make a phone call? It’s often very dishonest communication, the ideal way for a coward to make excuses, lie or deceive. It’s said that 80% of communication is non-verbal and you certainly get a lot of that extra meaning over the phone. You get none at all by text. It’s just the bare, badly, carelessly or deceptively chosen words. Facebook goes even further, it encourages members to post messages and pictures so that they’re seen by third parties as well. In fact, often the message or picture is posted mainly for their benefit, to embarass or annoy. This is the real wickedness. It’s already led to murders and countless, countless, arguments and disputes which have ended in violence. Of course, it depends on you. You or your friends can behave badly through any medium or face to face. The point is Facebook encourages you to be snide. It’s not nice.
I don’t know what the answer is. I certainly wouldn’t be encouraging children to use it. For many it’s already become a substitute for real life. Its most well known deficiency is the way it makes you collect an ever greater quantity of friends with no regard whatsoever for quality. My sons and all their real world friends have in excess of 1,000 Facebook friends. I have 24 so that must make me – what?
There’s no doubt that there are business opportunities presented by Facebook. With that many members there’s bound to be. In that context it’s not surprising that Cheryl Cole has 1,698,477 friends. Mind you, Paul Macartney only has 11!
So I’ll be staying on Facebook but I won’t be participating in it. I think it should have a big warning flash up on the screen every time you log in: “GET A LIFE”
The Young Apprentice
"It's not my fault!"
Doesn’t this programme reveal the real truth about “The (Grown Up) Apprentice”?
All those retarded, celebrity-wannabees who would never have lasted five minutes in a real business were children themselves. The very idea that any of them had any idea what they were talking about was just a hugely patronising insult to the viewer. Incidentally, I’m reserving the title “The Adult Apprentice” for a really innovative little idea that’s on my very top shelf.
It’s an indictment of the researchers that work on this sort of lowbrow dross. They chose the idiot contestants on “The (Grown Up) Apprentice” to fail and to indulge in all sorts of puerile angst and confrontation. I prefer “The Young Apprentice”. It’s much more honest, more amusing and entertaining without making the contestants look like idiots. This is the way I would expect children to behave!
I can’t wait for one of the kids to call him Lord Suralan. Seems to me he’d make a perfect chairman for the FA, which is just another load of nonsense for spoilt kids.
Anyway, in “The Adult Apprentice” you won’t get fired but you will be punished.
Peter Reynolds 
Censors And Abusers Of The Blogosphere
with 11 comments
By comment on this post I will record all those bloggers and website publishers who have chosen to bar me from their sites.
Book Burners
You might think for a gentle if opinionated Brit like me that’s unlikely to happen but it already has – several times. I am profoundly distressed that most of the censors are from the US. In fact I have learned a lot about America recently that I don’t like very much at all. I’m disillusioned by the sheer nastiness and level of abuse that has been directed at me just for expressing my opinions.
I NEVER descend to abuse when commenting on other people’s words. I NEVER censor comments that other people post about what I have written.
What amazes me is that so many of these people just can’t take the debate. They descend into abuse and then they bar me. If I did as they do I’d be so embarrassed and ashamed of my behaviour I don’t think I could carry on writing. That’s how important integrity is to me and how irrelevant it seems to be to these people.
Some of the craftier censors don’t bar me completely. It’s almost unbelieveable isn’t it (?) but what they do is edit my posts or allow some while deleting others! It’s incredible isn’t it that people can stoop so low?
So I do intend to embarrass these cowards here. At least by posting links to their sites they will learn that they’ve been placed, deservingly, into the same category as book burners and censors the world over and throughout history.
Of course, anyone who wishes to explain, argue or defend their actions has only to post here. All comments will be published in full.
Welcome to my hall of shame.
Written by Peter Reynolds
June 10, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Posted in Politics, The Media, What is this blog about?
Tagged with abuse, America, ashamed, bar, bloggers, book burners, Brit, censors, commenting, comments, cowards, craftier, debate, deleting, disillusioned, distressed, edit, embarassed, embarrass, gentle, hall of shame, history, incredible, integrity, nastiness, opinionated, opinions, publishers, stoop so low, unbelievable, US, website, writing