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Sunday 7 August 2016

News & Media

I know it's summer & traditionally it's a silly season for news, but there are enough real news stories in the world without some of the drivel & we see, read & hear.

Do we really care that the Camerons are on holiday & he is getting middle aged spread? Isn't he entitled - a) to a private holiday - b) to a bit of comfort eating while running the country. It must be difficult to fit exercise in to a Prime Ministers schedule. (I do know he has resigned by the way. That makes the story even more irrelevant).

Then there is the total blanket coverage of the Olympics. All three of the BBC TV stations are swamped with events. There is very little else. Surely the main public broadcaster should provide choice for licence payers who aren't interested in sport. It wouldn't be quite so bad if other providers had something better than the usual summer fayre of repeats.

Don't misunderstand me I don't think the Olympics is drivel. I can appreciate the huge effort by everyone involved, especially the "clean" athletes who have devoted their lives to punishing training regimes. I do question the cost, the infastructure & ballyhoo which is far from the original concept. I also wonder how many people are interested in the more obscure sports. Quite a bit of coverage must only be of interest to a very minority audience - but we all lose programme choice. Not only do we have coverage of the actual events, we have to listen to the numerous commentators & often the word drivel is relevant then.

I think there is a case for having some sort of public discussion about communications in the 21st century. Things are changing so fast. Technology is evolving beyond our capacity to keep pace with the implications of how we use it.


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