Comments on: Reuben Rants no 2: Hating Blair is making us stupid

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:15:18 +0000

Local demos/press I admit hadn’t occured to me.

With regards channel 5, I was partially having ago at them for general shallowness, and partially for experience of them being generally a bit to the right of the other terrestrial channels (both these assumptions may be out of date as I don’t tend to watch 5 and don’t currently have a TV). If covering a left wing demonstration, then the two are obviously linked, but I would defend a dislike of shallow and overly ratings driven reporting in any case as having nothing to do with snobbery and being a reasonable gripe for a socialist.

This is not to say that serious and detailed reporting is inherently less prone to a right wing slant, just that low journalistic standards are a barrier to serious arguments and can only impede us.

Should also add that I was using C5 as a shorthand for a style of reporting, but this doesn’t really change either of our points.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:54:31 +0000

So you drink Diet Pepsi? Not enough of a man to take it to the Max.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:26:12 +0000

Hmm, on masks. I admit to being fairly hostile to that sort of things when done by random people, but I have been forced through experience to admit that creative stunts are essential on occasion. Something like putting Blair in stocks or having Brown handing over a big blood-stained cheque makes a good photo. It’s not just Channel 5 Michael, I think that betrays a wierd snobbery actually. If you’re doing something outside of London you are exponentially more likely to get in the local press if there is a good photo opportunity. A photo will necessitate a caption, and suddenly your local demo has significant coverage, instead of a tiny box at the bottom of page 7. These are not insignificant considerations. Of course, they decrease in importance on national demonstrations, and it’s wierd when ordinary people just turn up in them in an unco-ordinated way.

By: Salman Shaheen

Salman Shaheen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:59:00 +0000

Far too calm for a rant. Think about the treatment of fat people on Little Britain and then launch into it…

By: Reuben

Reuben — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:58:03 +0000

Thanks michael. Could not have put It better

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:28:47 +0000

Simon: I thought the point was fairly clear; the media like people wearing Tony Blair masks at demos because it looks funny and gives them something to focus on the does not involve coherent arguments. Unless you think that were it not for the mask wearers the media would go away entirely* I don’t see why dressing up to please the media should be our priority.

*Actually, some of the media might be shallow enough not to bother to run a story on a protest if they didn’t get any amusing pictures. In which case I would still argue on balance that good coverage minus channel 5 is preferable to silly coverage with channel 5.

Who is this Shirly you keep talking about?

By: jon

jon — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:37:41 +0000

Great video, Reuben, but we need more anger.

By: simon

simon — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:15:31 +0000

Surely.

By: simon

simon — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:14:58 +0000

You’ve answered your own question re: masks, surely. The media like it. That’s a pretty important consideration surely. Crikey this is a terrible video.