Not quite all of the News.

When the "News" is neither accurate or comprehensive.

At 10pm last night, we had stories covering Nouri al-Maliki, Ferguson Missouri, mount Sinjar, Robin Williams, GCE A levels, Sir Cliff Richard, David Cameron and arming the Kurds, Russia and the Ukraine, Syria, European athletics, Ebola, Eurozone, Tony Pulis (I did not know who he is either. It seems that he is/was the manager of Crystal Palace), and a number of other, in some cases even less significant stories than those listed, purporting to be "The News".
BBC Television News channel, Sky News, The News from ITN and even Aljazeera, all carrying stories and reports of events at home and from around the world. However, what was conspicuous by its absence on all news channels, certainly the ones which I saw at least, was any report on the current situation in Gaza. Not a mention or even a word.
It was as if Gaza had completely ceased to exist and had disappeared into the sea. Aljazeera did not make a passing reference to the Palestinians or even the ceasefire talks in Cairo.

Palestinians stand in rubble of the al-Qassam mosque

I am not suggesting that Gaza should dominate every news programme on every channel on the hour, every day every week, as there are many stories which demand and should rightly receive coverage, but for all major news channels to fail to even mention the truce extension, the exchange of rockets resulting in Israeli airstrikes as the extended ceasefire came into effect, is baffling to say the least and could be considered by some to be ominous.
Even leaving aside the question of ceasefires, rockets, Egyptian mediators and other important matters but not necessarily at the top of the list of issues for this discussion, it is difficult to reconcile the proposition that the manager of some football team for example, is somehow more newsworthy than the plight of 500,000 homeless who remain without shelter, children usually two to a bed in overcrowded hospitals, the lack of food water and shelter in the area and the immense task of rebuilding homes, hospitals and infrastructure.

Yesterday, (August 14th) I commented on how the story of the Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar, had overnight become almost a non story, as things were not as bad as previously thought and that only a few thousand people remained on the mountain top.
Yet this item featured prominently on the "news" channels carrying reports from correspondents in Washington, London, Irbil and Baghdad.
It is a question of balance. At the end of the day of course, the content of a news programme or a magazine or newspaper is an editorial decision for the programme management, but it would be worrying to think that content decisions were being taken by a third party based more on political bias and expediency, than on comprehensive, accurate and true coverage. I have already raised the specter of state or other interference with the content of our news.
It would be a sinister progression down the path towards complete restriction or manipulation of media content, if reports from Gaza and the living conditions and fate of the people there were to be completely eradicated from the news as is clearly the case with Bahrain.

Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe...

The writing on the wall

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-government-zero-hour-contract-ban-latest-a9257281.html?fbclid=IwAR0OW6qhoVnO9MVH-E9ruKFLnL_V3NQ5PMpYEkGGHEXskJxkAsrr2UJjRIs Two-thirds of voters want Boris Johnson ‘s government to ban zero-hours contracts, a poll has found. There will be many people over the coming months and years who will tell the "pollsters" that something should be done about the homeless, or the costs of electric, gas and water, or about the costs of public transport, or the failing (and privatised) NHS, or the excessive profits and tax avoidance of large corporations. etc. To all those I say, that if you did not vote Labour then you have only yourselves to blame and you must bear the consequences of your actions. Johnson a nd his sycophant cronies have been given a blank cheque to do as they please and sell off vast portions of the British economy to the Americans, (the takeover of British defence giant Cobham by a US private equi...

Greed and envy are good says Boris Johnson.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/embrace-culture-of-greed-says-boris-johnson-8968276.html Embrace culture of greed, says Boris Johnson Boris Johnson. "I stress – I don't believe that economic equality is possible; indeed some measure of inequality is essential for the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Joneses that is, like greed, a valuable spur to economic activity." Johnson delivering the annual Margaret Thatcher lecture at the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, Wednesday 27th November 2013 Boris Johnson seeks to emulate Thatcher. He appeals to the evil side of the "nasty" party, for a society where greed is good, where selfishness is encouraged, where division amongst people by envy and status is championed as a proper objective and where the excesses of business and government are regarded as appropriate and right for the advancement of the few at the expense of the many. Johnson is an evil man with evil intent...

Agenda 2019

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