Media moment of 2011 - "No one died in this attack"

Happy new year, I had planned to do a list of 10, maybe 20 top media moments of last year, that was until a bad cold slowed me down over Christmas, but with regular cocktails of Lemsip Max and Bushmill's Black Bush Whisky I'm back onto my list. It's now compressed down to 1 - my most memorable media moment of 2011.

No it's not the phone hacking scandal or the News of the World closure, because after The Sun's reporting of Hillsborough in 1989 nothing really surprised me about what the Murdoch papers were capable of. Although I did enjoy watching Rupert and James squirming on TV each night, I only wish it spread into the US and helped finish them off totally.

So my media moment of last year goes to ITV's current affairs programme, 'Exposure'. It was billed as the first of six documentaries, "providing an in-depth, revealing focus on a range of powerful subjects". The programme dealt with the links between Gaddafi and the IRA. The documentary was bad enough, taking 2 hours to repeatedly tell us something we already knew, that the former Libyan leader gave Irish Republicans weapons and lots of them. Then they showed footage that they claimed was the IRA in 1988 shooting down a British Army helicopter somewhere in Northern Ireland, only for it to turn out it was taken from a computer video game.

Even by the low standards of television that ITV seems to aim for, this was scandalous, are the viewers of ITV that 'dumbded down' now that they'll accept this kind of 'investigative journalism' or do ITV think checking minor details like this doesn't matter to the viewer. To think that this was the channel that once gave us quality, groundbreaking and award winning documentaries like 'World in Action'. The clip they used in the documentary they later admitted was from Arma 2, a videogame set in the fictional east European nation of Chernaus.

The best bit is when the narrator tells us that no one died in this attack, No shit!

It was lazy, stupid and comical televison, stick to soap operas and talent shows ITV.

Merry Christmas pop pickers

Amongst my presents from Santa this year was a couple of CDs, one from the older of the famous Gallagher brothers and the other from a Liverpool band called The Sums. These were real CDs with artwork, not downloads but a proper disc you can get hold of and play in the car.

There is a bit of a connection here between the two bands, it goes back a long time ago, when Oasis were starting out and trying to get a record deal they were helped and became mates with a few Liverpool bands and the lead singer of The Sums, Peter ‘Digsy’ Deary was in one of those bands at the time called 'Smaller', Oasis even wrote a song about him, ‘Digsy’s dinner’ on the first album. Well that was a few years ago and I don’t suppose Noel Gallagher does much boozing in the north end of Liverpool these days, where your likely to find The Sums playing.

Anyway through this blog I hereby recommend both of these albums, it’s hard enough trying to find a record shop these days and by the time you’ve found one then waded through all the x-factor garbage you probably just want to leave but both these albums are worth getting hold of. Noel’s high flying birds is full of big production classic tunes, every song is good and funny enough the artwork wouldn’t look out of place on a Weller album, which is no bad thing. The best thing Noel has done for years was getting out of that Oasis circus and he needs to stay out of it, it’s all been a bit embarrassing for a long time. The Sums album, ‘If only….’ Is just as good if not better. Digsy's delivery has always been a definitive factor, both live and in the studio and he's on form with his clever and subjective lyrics. It might sound a bit less polished, but that’s what makes it special, and the reason no doubt is because it was mixed by the band themselves, probably for less than one of those paisley scarves the other Gallagher brother sells in his fancy boutiques.

Here's an advert for The Sums album, Noel's doing alright for promotion without my blog.

Clowning around

So Nick Clegg is over his outrage at the EU summit and back laughing with his Eurosceptic mates. Clegg became the incredible sulk of British politics last week by snubbing David Cameron's commons statement on the new EU treaty. The Prime Minister cheered on by Tory MPs was pressed by Labour on the absence of Clegg and joked, "I'm not responsible for his whereabouts". The following day Nick Clegg claimed he'd stayed away from Parliament as he did not want to be a 'distraction' on the Government front bench.

As leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick clegg is expected to be far more pro-European than his Conservative coalition colleagues. Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show a few days later he said, 'I'm bitterly dissapointed by the outcome' no doubt after the howls of protest from his own party. It was widely reported that Clegg was told of the decision reached by Cameron only after the summit. Cameron speaking in the House of Commons after Clegg's BBC interview claimed that, 'Clegg had endorsed the strategy that he now appears to regret.

The Tories will be quite happy to let Nick Clegg or any of the leading Lib Dem politicians sulk and whinge in the media, as long as it's their policies that get pushed through. David Cameron has certainly made himself more popular with his 'Bulldog spirit' to the far right of his party, who will now push for more moves away from Europe and add even more embarrassment to Clegg's Lib Dems.

There still seems some mystery surounding Clegg's whereabouts during Cameron's commons statement, I reckon he was probably entertaining children at a party somewhere in the capital, after all a 'clown' is what he's allowed the Conservatives to turn him into. It doesn't seem that long ago that Cameron famously referred to Clegg as a joke during the election campaign http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8678196.stm

The only thing he's missing now is the red nose and a big pair of daft shoes.

Keep it real, keep it smooth

I bought a cheesecake today in the shop by work, I'll be honest I was probably attracted by the orange reduced price sticker, didn't really look at the box other than seeing the word cheesecake and some sort of Xmas festive flavour, I quickly grabbed it before someone else beat me to the bargain. It really didn't matter about what type it was as I've never found a cheesecake that I didn't love. Suddenly studying for a Masters and running a blog after being in work all day was now going to be a bit more fun eating cheesecake.

Imagine my horror to find it had all kinds of stuff in it, cherries, berries, apricots, bits of orange and god knows what else, who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to do that. Now I'm fine with a bit of creativity and innovation and by all means decorate the top of it with as much fruit as you want or put it on the side of your plate, have it with ice-cream, cover it in syrup, fruit sauce, chocolate buttons, custard or whatever you want, you can make it any bizarre flavour you want, even experiment with the biscuit base. But when it comes to the most important bit, the actual cake, keep it smooth, creamy, unblemished, that's what any right minded person wants, expects and demands, not all the shenanigans that was going on in the one I got.

Absolutely scandalous idea, that trust I had with any cheesecake has gone, never again, they should leave the fruit concoctions to Mr Kipling. Keep it smooth, keep it real, scandalous, no wonder it was reduced, heads should roll at the Co-op in Whiston.

Bad Joke, Good Joke

While I was getting my head around how to start blogging last week, one of the big stories in the media was Jeremy Clarkson's comments about shooting striking public sector workers in front of their families.

I wouldn't expect anything else from the likes of Clarkson and despite his eventual half-hearted apology I can well believe he holds these views, what was scandalous is that he was given the chance to express his extreme right-wing opinions on prime time BBC One, dressed up as a joke as he later claimed, especially given his track record of offending the Welsh, Gypsies, Mexicans and very recently the families of suicide victims.

Of course he was always going to spew his venom towards the Unions and anyone else who dared to protest against the government cuts that certainly won’t be affecting his life much. There have been many calls for him to be sacked, which now seems unlikely as he makes the BBC too much money, and it has since been reported in the Daily Mail online (7.12.11) that the strike question was arranged beforehand with the producers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069493/Jeremy-Clarkson.html

I don't want to stop chat show guests having opinions and I'm not calling for more censorship, I'm not even against people cracking sick jokes now and again, but on the BBC as a Public Service Provider, it needs to be balanced.

So I've got an idea for the One Show to balance things up and provide some 'provocative humour' for their more left-wing viewers. Maybe when Margaret Thatcher dies they should invite Arthur Scargill onto the show and let the former leader of The National Union of Mineworkers and the producers agree on him saying something a bit witty, something like saving the nation a load of money instead of wasting it on an expensive state funeral, especially during these tough times. How about simply throwing her down one of the many coal mines she helped close, it'll be fine and Arthur can always say sorry the next day, after all it was only a joke.

MA Media Management

Well here goes, my first attempt at running a blog, it’s part of my MA in Media Management and the idea I think is to study and participate in a bit of citizen journalism. 'Scrape Away' is not only the title of a great song by The Jam, but also my way of describing a blog that at times might just scrape away at the media headlines and news content to reveal more of the story.

Not sure exactly what I’ll be blogging about, or how often, probably the things in the news that have wound me up, anything really, but politics, football, music, a bit of culture and various media related issues should be enough to keep me busy for a while. I welcome any comments good or bad, or ideas to blog about along the way, Cheers, Peter.