In the world of news reporting there is nothing like having your finger on the pulse, an ability to read a room, an almost sixth sense to be able to provide an audience of readers, viewers or listeners with the news they need to know in an incisive, well-constructed manner, dripping in clarity. Right on the button and up-to-date.
Clearly the folks in the corner offices at Pacific Quay, keen to retain well-rewarded stipends and status provided by the mother ship at Broadcasting House, continue to try very hard to make sure that they demonstrate none of these qualities.
They do this in their unceasing quest to protect the established order of the British state from any chance of the countries subsumed by the power retainers in London stepping out of the shadows and taking the perfectly normal step of joining the family of world nations, as is their own legitimate democratic right.
A glance at the various late news broadcasts the other night clearly demonstrates that this is the case. (To put this into context this was the night before the Bank of England had to launch an emergency step in to stop UK pension funds from going straight down the cludgie.)
The main BBC news from where they are, not from where we are, led, as you might expect in such extra-ordinary times with the financial disaster that has arisen since the cheap Thatcher tribute act and her Chancellor made their first budgetary attempt to further enrich the very rich and tramp the heads of the working people and the vulnerable further into the mud last week.
Bloomberg headlines telling us that the at least $500 billion has been wiped off the UK’s stocks and bonds market since Truss took the prime ministerial reins. The International Monetary Fund saying that they are watching the situation in the UK very closely and making not very subtle references to Truss and Kwarteng’s mini- budget being at cross purposes with sanity, likely to increase inequality in the UK (I think we knew that one already) and that they better get their arses in gear in time for the full budget in November to consider ways to revert their policies and try and undo some of the massive economic vandalism they have causes in such a short time.
A huge embarrassment, the laughingstock of Europe once again.
No, the main BBC news didn’t hold back. They didn’t sweeten the deal, a news report about a huge financial issue which impacts everybody. A massive story.
Then over on the ITN News old Tom led us off as the main headline with a very worrying story about the arm-up-the-back referendum the Russians have launched in occupied areas of Ukraine, which experts are saying gives Putin the excuse he has been looking for to say, once he declares these areas to be Russian, that Ukraine is now attacking Russian soil.
Therefore he can justify (to his own unhinged self only) the use of tactical battlefield nuclear warheads, with the consequential nightmare scenario for all of us that this might become. Eek!
As if that didn’t sober the mood enough for the viewing public the story then moved on to the relationship between Taiwan and China.
Taiwan, the world’s largest high-end processor chip producer, is looking to put together a three million strong people’s army because they reckon there’s a full-scale conflict with China coming their way soon. Again, ITN didn’t sweeten either of these stories, both of which have potentially massive consequences for all of us.
So, bring on Reporting Scotland. Sombre looks, pause for dramatic impact and we’re off, huge sensational top headline time…. and. we. are talking. about. these. late. overbudget. ferries. again. (post-script, two days later and the BBC’s Scottish news online page is still running ferries as the main headline, this time reporting further delays). My goodness is that it?
The world is going to shyte in a handcart yet the implications for Scotland’s businesses, savers, pensioners and the rest of us of such financial incompetence, or the consequences of significantly escalated conflict around the world in terms of issues like the nation’s security and increasing numbers of refugees who may be seeking sanctuary from war in Scotland seem not to be that important.
They are not important as long as you can commission in-depth reports which flog a long dead horse until it re-incarnates neighing the nightmare words ‘SNP BAD!.’
A top headline? By all means, yes, report it, legitimately. There may have been some wrongdoing, and also report that Deputy First Minister John Swinney is concerned about some of the findings and has therefore asked Scotland’s Auditor General to investigate the BBC’s report, but the main headline of the moment on such a day? C’mon, who is kidding who?
Parochial doesn’t quite cover it. Embarrassing stuff. The news where you are is not about news at all. The news where you are is a 24/7 propaganda machine designed to convince you to put away all notions that Scotland could ever be better governed by the people who live there than by politicians and corporate leaders from another country, with their own agenda, an agenda which involves your vast natural, and potential, resources and your financial contribution.
If you can’t see it I’ve a late over-budget ferry or two I’d like to sell you.
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