bureauista » BBC http://bureauista.com/blog This is my blog. Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:58:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Twitter 1 BBC 0 http://bureauista.com/blog/2009/01/twitter-1-bbc-0/ http://bureauista.com/blog/2009/01/twitter-1-bbc-0/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:30:00 +0000 bureauista http://www.bureauista.com/blog/?p=56 I don’t agree with the BBC’s decision not to broadcast the DEC’s Gaza appeal, but I can at least understand why Mark Thompson struggled with it (incidentally, it’s nice to see citizens complaining about something a little more important than Jonathan Ross for a change).

But what I don’t understand is their decision not to mention [...]]]> I don’t agree with the BBC’s decision not to broadcast the DEC’s Gaza appeal, but I can at least understand why Mark Thompson struggled with it (incidentally, it’s nice to see citizens complaining about something a little more important than Jonathan Ross for a change).

But what I don’t understand is their decision not to mention the furore that this decision has created. The Guardian have reported it. CBS have reported it. As a British citizen I expect the BB-fucking-C to tell me the news, but when I go to the BBC news homepage, it tells me nothing about the 10,000 complaints it has received since refusing to broadcast the appeal, nor does it tell me about the protestors who staged a protest at the BBC’s offices in Glasgow yesterday.

In fact, I heard about the protest on Twitter first, when someone I follow posted a picture taken inside the presentation. I flicked through the news sites intermittently for a while, and read nothing, so I retweeted the info. A while later I noticed someone else had retweeted my tweet again, so Twitter users were clearly clamouring for the information.

Four hours later and the Guardian have picked up on the story, but the BBC? They’re telling me that ‘breast ops defy financial gloom’. I’ve had a low opinion of the Beeb’s news production for years, but this really takes the biscuit.

Twitter 1 BBC 0]]> http://bureauista.com/blog/2009/01/twitter-1-bbc-0/feed/ 0 You put Russell in the ratatouille!? http://bureauista.com/blog/2008/10/you-put-russell-in-the-ratatouille/ http://bureauista.com/blog/2008/10/you-put-russell-in-the-ratatouille/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:48:00 +0000 bureauista http://www.bureauista.com/blog/?p=31 I’ve been following the whole Ross-Brand fiasco story in the media with some interest, as Brand is a common topic of conversation among my peer group. Only last week a friend and I were watching him on TV and agreed that he was struggling. His entire show was based around dissecting untrue news stories about his [...]]]> I’ve been following the whole Ross-Brand fiasco story in the media with some interest, as Brand is a common topic of conversation among my peer group. Only last week a friend and I were watching him on TV and agreed that he was struggling. His entire show was based around dissecting untrue news stories about his sexual exploits, a gambit he has used over and over again on his radio show. There was none of the gentle whimsy he can be so good at. I suppose he really has disappeared up his own backside as fame has consumed him; a shame, as his early shows on Radio 2 (I missed the 6Music ones) were often absolute gems. Instead of talking about himself incessantly, he spent large parts of his show giving advice to listeners on unusual problems. One that sticks in my memory was about a woman whose dog barked incessantly whenever she was driving. Over the course of the show, Brand got her to take the dog out in her car then hold her phone to the dog’s ear so he could calm it down (amazingly, it seemed to work). Each week the problems were entirely different, allowing Brand to free-associate at will, leading to many laugh-out-loud moments. I stopped listening to his podcast with any regularity last year when he dropped that item in favour of talking almost exclusively about himself. In the earlier stages of his career he was merely becoming famous, and his dissections of his own celebrity resonated more, purely because they were an unusual comic device at the time; he really ought to have moved on over a year ago, or done the decent Eminem thing of recognising when you’ve run out of material, and bowed out gracefully to concentrate on his acting.

As for the answer phone messages that lead to his downfall – I’ve heard him leave similar messages many times. What about the non-stop sexism and homophobia (so patiently pointed out to him by Simon Amstell recently) – why has he never been censured for any of that before? I suppose the addition of smug Jonathan Ross and his over-inflated salary was just too much for certain people to bear. I’m a fan of both Brand and Ross to an extent, but I’m glad this has happened. Brand’s material was getting very tired, and hopefully Ross will think twice before trotting out his standard Carry-on comments in future. It was an overreaction in terms of the crime itself, but long overdue when you consider how much these clowns get paid to produce ill-prepared, lazy, predictable, patronising material week after week after week. Let’s hope they both go away and raise their game.

You put Russell in the ratatouille!?]]> http://bureauista.com/blog/2008/10/you-put-russell-in-the-ratatouille/feed/ 5