More Fox Madness

The first video is a promo for a band called the Bastard Fairies. It stars a young actress and is directed, so they say, by an award winning documentary team.



The second video is Bill O'Reillys reaction to it, and a call for state child-raising and community mobs.



Brilliant.

Labels Could Sell Watermarked MP3s

Full story at Wired News.

Headlines

I know I go on about Fox all the time, but I genuinely find them fascinating. I struggle to understand how grown adults can be so deceitful, misleading and trivial when it comes to reportage, but I guess that shows off my naivity more than their callousness.

Anyway, look at this. It's my RSS news feeds, courtesy of a great site called NetVibes.


I draw your attention to the feeds for Reuters, BBC and Fox and ask you to compare their headlines. Here they are closer up:




Now, far be it from me to decide what the lead stories for various news organisations should be, but I do find it a little worrying that two of the most respected news sources in the world are running with Palestinian story and Fox have chosen to go with Angelina Jolie talking about kissing two slightly different people.

I know that Americans live sheltered lives when it comes to international news stories but, good grief, 5 out of 7 of their headlines are celebrity related...!

Happy Feet will Corrupt Your Children

I know that the 'Happy feet is liberal propaganda' story has been running for a while now, but here's the original Fox News video that kicked it off.



This makes me so mad, so infuriatingly hoppingly insane that I find it hard to form the words... they're not even trying to disguise it as news anymore, now they're just attacking anything - anything - that smacks of not agreeing with rampant consumerism, global corporate power and foreign policy. How absolutely paranoid do you have to be to fear an animated flick about dancing penguins and see it as an attack on your values and the American way of life...

I can't stand the fact that they disguise it as balanced opinion... before it was funny, now it makes me sick to my stomach. "An animated Inconvenient Truth" - "my kids were bouncing off the wall because it's so damned long" - "it presents man and big business as evil" - they write their opinions off as news, they claim promoting their agenda is discussion and bit by bit they are erroding logic and empathy from the minds of their audience.

Pastor resigns over homosexuality

"In a tearful videotaped message Sunday to his congregation, the senior pastor of a thriving evangelical megachurch in south metro Denver confessed to sexual relations with other men and announced he had voluntarily resigned his pulpit."

Full story here.

You know what I'd like to see, just once? A pastor come out and be allowed to keep his post, or at least fight to keep his post. So he's gay. Big fat hairy deal. I don't think that means his dedicated to the church has waivered. Wouldn't it be great if he didn't resign under the assumed knowledge that being gay is shameful and immoral, and sent a posititive message instead? Just once. It's not like this guy was the horrific homophobe and hypocrit that Ted Haggard was...

Online Video 'Eroding TV Viewing'

What is this TV thing I hear about...?

ITV

NTL Share Prices Fall After Rumours of ITV Takeover Bid

There's been a lot in the news recently about ITV and their myriad of problems; takeovers, falling audience numbers, decreased advertising revenue, failed digital ventures, lack of web presence, lack of creativity, lack of experimentation, reliance on soaps, uninspired programming... the list goes on and on.

And it's all true. ITV are an embarrassment and the sooner they get bought out / closed down / go into receivership, the better this countries broadcasting quality will be. Everything that is wrong with ITV can be seen in this clip of the new Family Fortunes 2006 opening titles.



ITV: Everything. That. Is. Wrong. With. Television.
Thanks to Andy Digitonal for spotting this one.

Digital TV has still yet to really take off and so many people have only 4 or 5 channels. These 4 or 5 channels, therefore, have a greater responsibility to their audience than their digital counterparts. This clip illustrates only too well that ITV are no longer capable of fulfilling that responsibility.

They rely on inane celebrity hosts, revamps of outdated shows, an end-of-the-pier approach to entertainment, low production values, patronising attitudes and, it would seem, an almost total contempt for the intelligence of their audience. They are poorly managed, poor programmed, poorly funded and barely watchable. When they decided to fill every evening slot past 11 o'clock with interactive quiz shows that, intended or not, resemble a telethon for a failing channel, you know they're fucked.

"It's only TV" you may cry, or "you may not like it but others do" but that is not a valid argument. There is nothing wrong with light entertainment, nor quiz shows, nor family programming but there is everything wrong with the approach that this channel takes to them. We've been patronised for so long by this pathetic commercial entity that we've forgotten what good TV looks like.

Ditch the channel. Sack the management. Start again.
And don't give it to fucking NTL.

Rumsfeld to be Accused in Germany For War Crimes

Though he has resigned as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld is expected to be accused of war crimes in a lawsuit to be filed next week in Germany.

The Center for Constitutional Rights will file the suit on behalf of a group of Iraqi detainees as well as the so-called 20th hijacker, who is currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.

"The former secretary actually authorized a series of interrogation techniques," said Michael Ratner, President of CCR. "They included the use of dogs, stripping, hooding, stressed positions, chaining to the floor, sexual humiliation and those types of activities."

Those techniques, he says, amount to torture and violate the Geneva Conventions. Ratner will be traveling to Berlin next week and plans to file the suit on Tuesday.

Full story.

Hung parliment

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death

I was in a second hand record fair in Bakewell, Derbyshire when I heard this. Radio 2 announced it to the small council room and just one voice could be heard afterwards... "about bloody time" a man in the corner said, we all looked at him and then turned away.

It's weird that news like that, news it's possible we would have all cheered 10 years ago can now be greated with such ambivolence. Such are the events of the last 5 years that this is no longer a cause for celebration or a reason for outrage... it's just another part of the story.

The weekly Bill O'Reilly fix

In Bills new mailout he talks about his appearance on the Letterman show and how:

"predictably, the far-left in America has seized upon the Iraq situation to once again paint their country as villainous. That is both sad and infuriating. Recently, I appeared on "The View" and "Late Show with David Letterman," flogging my book "Culture Warrior." Both Rosie O'Donnell, the new lead on "The View," and Mr. Letterman are liberal people who vehemently object to the war. So I asked them: "Do you want your country to win in Iraq?"

Here's a link to the full column.

Here's the Letterman interview courtesy of the lovely YouTube:



It's pretty good theatre - Bill makes an ass of himself, Dave gets some good insults in and the debate is quite heated. I would draw your attention, though, to the bit that runs from 2 minutes in to 3 minutes in that starts with Bill saying:

"Whenever you have a situation where Americans are... depressed. People don't want to watch the news, people don't want to hear about Iraq, they don't want to hear about Iran, they don't want to hear about the nutty North Korean guy. They wanna watch Bowling for Dollars... Dancing With the Stars..."

If ever one statement explained Fox News' attitude to their audience, it's that one.

Here's a link to the Rosie O'Donnell interview.

Start at 1.25 when Bill outlines his theories about the culture war. This is chilling stuff... I always try to avoid using terms like 'fascist' and 'Orwellian' as these days such terms are used on a daily basis and have been robbed of their meaning, but in this case I'll make an exception. The 'outing' of secular progressives, the glorification of Judeo-Christian morality, the scaremonging, the rewriting of history... it reminded me of McCarthyism meeting Eugene Terre Blanche.

billoreilly.com
SweetJesusIHateBillOReilly.com

Gotcha!

The image is pretty small so this is what the subtitle says:

"Sharon Wood stares from the window of the Corfu chalet where her two little children died... her face unable to hide the unbearable pain."

It's a shame that the Daily Mirrors online front page differs from their printed one as todays lead story was a masterpiece of writing. Alas, though, the online front page changes by the hour and I can't find the specific piece so you'll have to trust me on this one.

Anyway, two things occured to me when I caught this front page in the newsagents earlier. The first is how much the writing of the subtitle, and indeed the whole story if I could prove it, resembles a Hello! magazine spread. Take the subtitle and just change a few words and you'll find it to be the exact same language as they use to announce another inane celebrity event:

"Brad and Angelina pose in Nambia as they await the birth of their baby."

It's the party line, it's the official statement. It doesn't offer you any other way to interpret the picture, it leads nothing to chance. The language is so clear and understandable that the usual questions or ambiguity that headlines use to lure you in have been completely removed.

Obviously there is a big difference between the two news stories, and clearly there is no other way to report the Sharon Wood story as anything other than the horrific tragedy that it is, but this subtitle really concerned me. It was a celebrity cover...

Which brings me to the second thing that occured to me about this front page; it's a paparazzi shot. This wasn't taken by a fleet of photographers as they entered the chalet, nor was it posed for by Ms Wood - it was taken with a telephoto lens. That's very dark... a grief-filled mother has become an appropriate target for the stalkaratzi.

Of course the story is sympathetic to Ms Wood - it couldn't be anything else - but that doesn't justify intruding on her personal grief. This isn't a celebrity tit-slip, or a politician fallen from grace, or a massive public tragedy... this is a woman who's just lost both her children and she should be allowed to visit the place where they died without a commission-hungry hack hiding outside a window trying to get snaps of her.

Good News

Enron's Skilling gets 24 years

Made my day. Take that Skilling, you fucking leech on society - I just wish Ken Lay was *still alive* to get the same fate.

Copyright

In France, a movement to legalize Web piracy of films and music.
Wikipedia founder: what copyrights should we buy with $100MM?
Hollywood studios step up battle against pirates.

http://www.fightfilmtheft.org

The old switcharoo

Loads of things about Iraq right now... the tide seems to be turning, and while I think it's a good idea our beloved leaders are bullied into finally changing their foreign policies, I can't help but think of the stupidity of our actions and what a mess we've created.

Basically we've fucked up a whole country. It may not have been a great country, but we've utterly ruined it now. A 5th of the population dead, political and religious chaos, no security, no infrastructure and one hell of a pissed off populous. We've destroyed the lives of 26,000,000 people, and no amount of backtracking and schedule shifting is going to change that. We're the assholes, we're the baddies, we're the meglomaniacal masterminds with plans for world domination.

I just feel so damned sorry.

A few from today:
Schroeder says Bush's religious talk worried him
Bush faces political nightmare if Democrats win
US Republicans launch terror ad
and my favourite:
Wife's phonecam pics 'smoking gun' in sex-with-dog case

Republican Sex-Pest Labelled Democrat by O'Reilly

October 3rd 2006
"Tonight on three separate occasions, during two different segments, Bill O'Reilly showed video of his fellow culture warrior, boy-crazy Congressman Mark Foley, with the tagline "Former Congressman Mark Foley (D-FL)."

That’s right, kids. Mark Foley, that darling of the right and champion of child protection, was dubbed a Democrat as soon as it came out that he's child predator. This is what we in the business call "a lucky accident."



But will the average Fox News viewer see the three-time accident for what it is—a mistake? Consider that, according to the Columbia Journalism Review and Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) Research Center, Fox News viewers have far more misconceptions on such important issues as Iraq's involvement in the 9/11 attacks than viewers of other networks. Consider also that the average O'Reilly viewer is 71. And that’s just an average. So for every 30-year-old Factor fan, there's a 112-year-old screaming about "secular progressives" and whomever else has criticized Bill.

So we can promise you that the average O'Reilly fan is sleeping well tonight with the knowledge that the creep in Florida who was trying to bed boy pages was a Democrat after all.

- SweetJesusIHateBillOReilly.com

Bad Boy Snipes

An arrest warrant has been issued for Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes, who is charged with dodging millions of dollars in taxes.

98% Back Veil Ban

My favourite news story of the day.

Thank you Daily Express. Thank you for such a newsworthy story and for splashing it over the front pages. Thank you for being so socially concious that you thought it applicable to basically put out a call for increased intolerance, misunderstanding and fear amongst the British population.

It's always been very interesting how the Americans tend to 'forget' that their incredible wealth is due to a hundred years of free labour thanks to the slave trade. I worry that the same thing is happening here - we invited thousands of darker-skinned foreigners over to our shores post-war to help us rebuild our nation, and then turn our backs on them. Now we are a few generations down the line, now these peoples childrens children are beginning to feel at home, now they have a legitimate right to try to live by their own customs, now they have a voice - we start to demonise them.

The Guardian headline yesterday was about universities being asked to spy on Muslim students to see if they had any extremist leanings. Problem is, alot of Muslims look like 'normal people' these days - if only these extremists could wear something that would set them apart from 'normal' people and make them easier for us to see.

MCDONALD'S BUYING WAY INTO HIP-HOP SONG LYRICS

“The stars of hip-hop have become brands,” said Douglas Freeland, director of brand entertainment strategy at McDonald’s. “This partnership reflects our appreciation and respect for the most dominant youth culture in the world.”

"Telegram to Hip Hop: Dear Hip Hop .(stop). This shit has gone too far. (stop). Please see that mixer and turntables are returned to Kool Herc. (stop). The ghettos are dancing off beat. (stop). The master of ceremonies have forgotten that they were once slaves and have neglected the occasion of this ceremony. (stop). Perhaps we should not have encouraged them to use cordless microphones, for they have walked too far from the source and are emitting a lesser frequency (stop). Please inform all interested parties that cash nor murder have been added to the list of elements. (stop). We are discontinuing our current line of braggadocio, in light of the current trend in "realness". (stop). As an alternative, we will be confiscating weed supplies and replacing them with magic mushrooms, in hopes of helping niggas see beyond their reality. (stop). Give my regards to Brooklyn."
- Saul Williams

Scientific Poll: 84% Reject Official 9/11 Story

"A monumental new scientific opinion poll has emerged which declares that only 16% of people in America now believe the official government explanation of the September 11th 2001 terror attacks. According to the new New York Times/CBS News poll, only 16% of Americans think the government is telling the truth about 9/11 and the intelligence prior to the attacks. The 84% figure mirrors other recent polls on the same issue."

The full story is here.

How influential is Kate Moss?

Very... according to this article on the Suicide Girls Newswire.

This is the full piece:

CELEB: Kate Moss is the 'World's Most Influental Celebrity'

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:00:00 -0700

In a rather disturbing development, British researchers named Kate Moss as the most influential celebrity in the world. She beat out do-gooders such as Madonna, Angelina Jolie, and Brad Pitt.

British experts analyzed how many times a star is mentioned in the media, magazine covers, and entries on Google.com to come up with the power list.

Everyone's favorite born-again Brit Madonna came in at #2, with soccer stud David Beckham in third. Angelina edged out her real-life paramour, Brad Pitt, by one spot to come in at #5.

This revelation comes as a shock, as Moss made more headlines for her naughty lifestyle and her public drug habit, rather than for her positive, influential ways. Moss landed on magazine covers everywhere after photos surfaced of her diving face-first into a pile of cocaine.

Her romance with another famous junkie, Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty, consistently keeps her in the news. Tales of the couple fighting, partying and, trouble-making delight celeb-watchers everywhere. Despite this, Moss, who has a four year old daughter, reportedly said she wants to have a child with Doherty as soon as possible; she believes it will help him kick drugs.

According to the Sunday Mirror, she told a pal: "I love him and know that, for all his faults, I will spend the rest of my life with him.

"I also want my little girl Lila to have a brother or a sister.

"But Pete has to stay off the drugs. And the only way for that to happen is if he's with me all the time."

Yeah, dude. I hear the best way get a man to settle down is to get knocked up. Works like a charm, according to my grandmother.