You just cant win with the press....!
Discussion
Just nipped down my local shop for some milk and noticed the headline on the Daily Mail (the paragon of journalistic integrity I know!). It was blithering on about "The Winter of Discontent". Its particular points were:
1) Highest Gas prices in the world
2) No Flu jab stocks left
Ok, I am first to criticise the government where necessary. But this is just pure rubbish. Ok, so gas is expensive AT THE MOMENT. But thats because of the successive governments botched attempts to liberalise and introduce competition to the energy supply markets.
Secondly, the problem with the lack of flu jabs is that the morons in this country have been going to the doctors for the flu jab in the mistaken belief it will protect them from Bird Flu.... where on earth did they get that idea from?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4456876.stm
So the public has been paniced into getting flu jabs.... by? Yes, thats right, the Daily Mail..... all of the crap that they have been publishing over the last couple of months has created this - 100,000 to die in the UK due to bird flu? Pandemic of the world, end of civilisation as we know it, its all the imigrants - you know, the same old crap they print each and every day.
Now the Daily Mail are bitching about something they helped cause in the first place. What the hell can you do? Do these papers not have a shred of decency in them? Or is all down to money? With this lot influencing the public as a whole, we are all doomed.....
1) Highest Gas prices in the world
2) No Flu jab stocks left
Ok, I am first to criticise the government where necessary. But this is just pure rubbish. Ok, so gas is expensive AT THE MOMENT. But thats because of the successive governments botched attempts to liberalise and introduce competition to the energy supply markets.
Secondly, the problem with the lack of flu jabs is that the morons in this country have been going to the doctors for the flu jab in the mistaken belief it will protect them from Bird Flu.... where on earth did they get that idea from?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4456876.stm
So the public has been paniced into getting flu jabs.... by? Yes, thats right, the Daily Mail..... all of the crap that they have been publishing over the last couple of months has created this - 100,000 to die in the UK due to bird flu? Pandemic of the world, end of civilisation as we know it, its all the imigrants - you know, the same old crap they print each and every day.
Now the Daily Mail are bitching about something they helped cause in the first place. What the hell can you do? Do these papers not have a shred of decency in them? Or is all down to money? With this lot influencing the public as a whole, we are all doomed.....
off_again said:
So the public has been paniced into getting flu jabs.... by? Yes, thats right, the Daily Mail..... all of the crap that they have been publishing over the last couple of months has created this - 100,000 to die in the UK due to bird flu? Pandemic of the world, end of civilisation as we know it, its all the imigrants - you know, the same old crap they print each and every day.
Then let's hope the Daily Mail reporters are the first to get this bird flu that's supposedly going to wipe us all out!
scorp said:
I heard something in the region of 4,000 people per year die of influenza in the uk.
>> Edited by scorp on Thursday 24th November 12:26
Best have a panic about bird flu then... I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the mainstream media are on the whole, scum. They cause scaremongery, panic, sensationalism, etc. All the things happening in the world, and things like kate Moss gets the front page.
off_again said:
So the public has been paniced into getting flu jabs.... by?
I thought it was the Government who did - during the height of the bird flu alert by saying that having the flu jab would assist in protecting from the bird flu virus.
I might be wrong - but could swear it was.
K
jesusbuiltmycar said:
But Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said GPs may have been giving the vaccine to the worried well rather than those most at risk as recommended.
The Daily Wail is as usual playing to the lowbrowed! If you'd listened to the parliamentary debate, you'd have found out that
1) Labour have NOT increased the order for 'flu jabs this year, as opposed to 2003 and 2004, deliberately misquoting figures to save money...
2) made the GPs responsible in that they have to account for the jabs and PAY for any not used, thus they logically under-order....
3) the drug companies seem to be behind the panicmaking declarations about a pandemic (mostly Roche) so that the Tamiflu jab (which is a killer, hundreds mostly teenagers, died in Japan using it wrongly!) can wash more filthy lucre into their coffers!
4) Deliberate misinformation from Labour health(?) dept exacerbating the panic and fueld by the gutter press like the Daily Wail
If people lsitened to what the medics are saying instead of politically motivated garbage they'd not have gone running to their docs asking for the flujabs anyway. Take up last year was only around 65%, this year 110%, thanks to Hewitts bullshit!!!!
As a low-browed Daily Mail reader, I reckon you're all wrong. The original post on here was posted yesterday. Would someone care to tell me what the front page headline of the Times was the day before? Was it something like UK RUNS OUT OF FLU VACCINE or something equally unambiguous like that?
When that parrot ceased to be from bird flu a while back, I was at home flicking the tv channels, and was really quite surprised at the extraordinary lengths that BBC News 24 was reporting the story. They went on and on about it. They showed the press conference given by a woman spokesperson, and they showed it in a length that I really can't recall any other news story of the past recieving, never mind what the disaster was. The tv report of this lady spokesperson just went on and on, and I remember thinking "is this scaremongering or what?". The very idea that the Mail has created the flu scare is absolutely ludicrous. That sort of thinking is frightening, as well as being plain wrong.
What is wrong with publishing the story on gas prices? It is something that is going to have some very serious consequences. It doesn't matter how it has come about, it is a newsworthy story that needs reporting. I haven't seen any other newspaper on this subject, but please don't anyone expect me to believe that the story hasn't been covered throughout the rest of the media. We also have (I believe) the most expensive diesel in the world, and has been for some time. When you think of the level of taxation that is raised because of our high fuel prices, and consider that presumably other nations are doing alright without this level of taxation, instead of moaning about the press we should be demanding to know where the hell our money is going. No wonder the government gets away with so much when so many saps indulge in class bickering about the fact that the newspapers report the news or how the newspapers report the news.
The Mail is no better or worse than any other UK newspaper on the whole, IMO. The one main criticism I have of it is that it is regularly 24 hours late with the news. Very often its lead article will have been published else where 24 hours previously. This always leaves me at a loss as to why the Mail gets such criticism, 'cos they're only reporting what everyone else has reported.
I read the Mail and I read PH, and I can tell you that they are both exactly the same in terms of views expressed. The only difference is that PH is far more right wing.
Oh, one more thing that you class warriors completely fail to see: some of us can read between the lines.
When that parrot ceased to be from bird flu a while back, I was at home flicking the tv channels, and was really quite surprised at the extraordinary lengths that BBC News 24 was reporting the story. They went on and on about it. They showed the press conference given by a woman spokesperson, and they showed it in a length that I really can't recall any other news story of the past recieving, never mind what the disaster was. The tv report of this lady spokesperson just went on and on, and I remember thinking "is this scaremongering or what?". The very idea that the Mail has created the flu scare is absolutely ludicrous. That sort of thinking is frightening, as well as being plain wrong.
What is wrong with publishing the story on gas prices? It is something that is going to have some very serious consequences. It doesn't matter how it has come about, it is a newsworthy story that needs reporting. I haven't seen any other newspaper on this subject, but please don't anyone expect me to believe that the story hasn't been covered throughout the rest of the media. We also have (I believe) the most expensive diesel in the world, and has been for some time. When you think of the level of taxation that is raised because of our high fuel prices, and consider that presumably other nations are doing alright without this level of taxation, instead of moaning about the press we should be demanding to know where the hell our money is going. No wonder the government gets away with so much when so many saps indulge in class bickering about the fact that the newspapers report the news or how the newspapers report the news.
The Mail is no better or worse than any other UK newspaper on the whole, IMO. The one main criticism I have of it is that it is regularly 24 hours late with the news. Very often its lead article will have been published else where 24 hours previously. This always leaves me at a loss as to why the Mail gets such criticism, 'cos they're only reporting what everyone else has reported.
I read the Mail and I read PH, and I can tell you that they are both exactly the same in terms of views expressed. The only difference is that PH is far more right wing.
Oh, one more thing that you class warriors completely fail to see: some of us can read between the lines.
Just ignore it all. News is not actually NEWs, but old... most of what you read sits simmering for months before it's "good" to be news, and help sell papers or cause panic. Some of it isn't even news, like the gas prices, or the cold spell of weather, it's been like it already, they just "glam" it up with a fancy headline.
Apart from random stuff like disasters or some footballer dying, and then to the media it's just a bonus to sell more papers and make more drama out of something bad thats happened...
Does watching the news and worrying about it really make it any more bearable if it does effect you? Does the news and current affairs really bother anyone? 75% of the time it's just crap that I don't need to know, the other 25% is just Labour propoganda... Ahhh, ignorance is bliss.
Dave
Apart from random stuff like disasters or some footballer dying, and then to the media it's just a bonus to sell more papers and make more drama out of something bad thats happened...
Does watching the news and worrying about it really make it any more bearable if it does effect you? Does the news and current affairs really bother anyone? 75% of the time it's just crap that I don't need to know, the other 25% is just Labour propoganda... Ahhh, ignorance is bliss.
Dave
Well that's newspapers! You can't win.
Let's take two different retailers:
Tescos - The press are all over them because they made huge profits, accusing them of screwing suppliers, having almost a monopoly, reducing choice, killing the corner shops, etc.. etc..
M&S - When they profits were faling, press say: M&S is a failure, it's too old fashioned, it's out of touch, it's lost the plot, it'll threaten jobs, etc.. etc..
With the press, it's heads I win, tails you lose! However, don't blame the press. They are simply writing articles which sell newspapers. The moment their customers stop buying the product because they're fed up with sensational articles will be the day the newspapers stop writing them.
Let's take two different retailers:
Tescos - The press are all over them because they made huge profits, accusing them of screwing suppliers, having almost a monopoly, reducing choice, killing the corner shops, etc.. etc..
M&S - When they profits were faling, press say: M&S is a failure, it's too old fashioned, it's out of touch, it's lost the plot, it'll threaten jobs, etc.. etc..
With the press, it's heads I win, tails you lose! However, don't blame the press. They are simply writing articles which sell newspapers. The moment their customers stop buying the product because they're fed up with sensational articles will be the day the newspapers stop writing them.
heebeegeetee said:
The very idea that the Mail has created the flu scare is absolutely ludicrous. That sort of thinking is frightening, as well as being plain wrong.
That's fine. While other news (or is it olds
) outlets were just starting to report on Avian Flu, the Daily Mail was emblazened with predictions of 50,000 dead in the UK. If I remember rightly, that figure was picked out from a bit of press some doctor did. Cant remember his role / title / responsibility, but he talked about the model which they have used to assess the risks to the UK - in the case of Avian Flu they referred to worst case scenario as 50,000 and that they have put in place the relevant supporting systems for this (drugs, emergency services, response systems etc). Not only did the Daily Mail mis-interpret the report, they then accelerated the fear for the feable-minded by suggesting that UK was going to see 50,000 deaths from Avian flu THIS YEAR..... that is scaremongering and I am afraid the Daily Mail was instrumental in this. Though I would conceed that the Daily Mail were not the only ones involved. Several others were too - mis-reporting such important facts is stupidity. Avian Flu has kill probably 200 worldwide. Quite how the DM can justify running such a story is beyond me.....
heebeegeetee said:
What is wrong with publishing the story on gas prices? It is something that is going to have some very serious consequences. It doesn't matter how it has come about, it is a newsworthy story that needs reporting. I haven't seen any other newspaper on this subject, but please don't anyone expect me to believe that the story hasn't been covered throughout the rest of the media.
Its all about the political spin you put on it. Again, its not just the DM here, but they put a rather nice spin on everything saying that it is Blair who has forced the price of gas / petrol / diesel to the levels that it is at the moment. In fact, the mere suggestion that he woke up one morning and thought "sod the UK, I am going to ensure that the UK pays the most for its fossil fuels" is quite stupid. I would agree though, that a combination of the people in power and civil servants have contributed to the level of taxation that we are currently paying on petrol and diesel. For the gas though, this is part of a bigger picture problem to do with energy prices in the UK. The systematic botching of the privatisation and liberalisation of the energy market in the UK has lead directly to the current problem we have today - its BOTH Labour and Conservatives who have lead us to this point, and again to pin the blame on one person only is political spin....
heebeegeetee said:
The Mail is no better or worse than any other UK newspaper on the whole, IMO.
I absolutely and whole-heartedly agree. My wife got the Times the other day - shocked to see sensationalist headlines, rubbish conjecture, comments which are out of line for what was a broadsheet and a complete lack of real journalism.... so yes, they are all as bad as each other....
As for the BBC News - take a look at the crap that they are spouting about the all-day booze licenses! Now thats sensationalism, and the BBC is supposedly independant.... shame it isnt and obviously has its own political axe to grind now and again....
And finally, why select the Daily Mail? Well that was the one I saw in the paper shop. No other reason, it just took my attention. I dont buy newspapers because I think they are all full of sh*t and the self-publicist journalists are the biggest bunch of hypocrites I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. So I voted with my money and they wont get a penny from me.....
Marki said:
On Sky News (sorry its all i got) this morning they compared gas prices for business users
UK 1.65 a unit
NL :50p a unit
D :40p a unit
Sounds like someone is making a killing or they cocked up their numbers
Not necessarily. As I understand it, it's related to planning (and possibly futures). The Dutch and German industries/governments were sensible enough to engage in long-term contracts for gas supply to them, hence they paid a little more a while ago, but are benefitting now.
To relate it to you - think about personal loans - interest rates are low now, so like-for-like a short-term loan (2-3yrs) will give you a lower interest rate (COST) than a long-term loan (10yrs), as lenders (Sellers) believe that rates will go up over the longer-term.
Hansen said:
..and the morale is: Don't read the newspaper!!! We all know it's full of crap, so why do you read it?
Yeah go and read a paper with REAL news like www.thesun.co.uk
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