TOP 100 NEWSPAPER SITES
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| Copenhagen climate summit: future generations will blame us, Brown warns Gordon Brown warns world leaders at the Copenhagen climate summit that future generations will blame them for risking the survival of the human race if they fail to reach an agreement. telegraph.co.uk |
Detroit terror attack: how the 'bomber' tried to blow Flight 253 from of the sky The aircraft lights had dimmed, most of the 278 passengers had fastened their seat belts, and the cabin crew were preparing to take their seats on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253. telegraph.co.uk |
Pope thanks guards for keeping him, Vatican safe VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday thanked the Carabinieri police who maintain Vatican security for their "humble yet indispensable work."... hosted.ap.org |
All opinions welcome | Jon Canter News vox pops underline the great democratic right to not have a clue what we're talking aboutThere she was, on the BBC's Ten O'Clock News, a young, dark-haired woman, somewhere in Edinburgh. Nick ÂRobinson was canvassing Âopinions on Scottish Âindependence from Âordinary people, people on the street, so-called real people.This particular real person was all in favour of Scottish independence. In fact, she thought it had already happened. Fooled by the existence of a devolved assembly, she didn't know Scotland was still part of the UK. Let's face it: with all due disrespect, she didn't really know what she was talking about.All opinions were welcome, though. She had no need, before she gave her opinion, to prove her knowledge of Scottish affairs; any more than, before you phone in your vote on Strictly Come Dancing, you must prove your knowledge of dance. That would be intellectual means testing, whereas we believe in a non-elitist, opinion-Âcanvassing democracy.Vox pops are democratic, cheap and cheerful. In fact, they're free and Âcheerful. Unlike Robinson, the dark-haired woman was not being paid to be on the news. If she had been, she'd have stared into the camera after giving her opinion, then intoned, slowly and meaningfully: Dark-Haired Woman. (Pause.) BBC News. (Pause.) Edinburgh.We never learned her name. Of course we didn't. It didn't matter. All that Âmattered was that she was authentic. She looked like a Kirsty to me. Was her granny watching? What a wonderful Âsurprise, to see wee Kirsty popping up on the news. What would she say when she phoned her? "I saw you on the news!" Then what? How would Kirsty's granny word her congratulations? Maybe she'd lapse into the vernacular: "You didnae ken what you were talking about, hen, but your hair looked lovely!"There, but for the grace of the BBC, go all of us. When Nick, with his early Michael Caine glasses and his boyish Tintin charm, bounds up to me outside Tesco Express and asks my views on the exchange rate mechanism – a subject of which even my dog knows that I know nothing – I'm sure I won't be able to keep my mouth shut. I'll be a rabbit in his headlights. Together, therefore, we're bound to produce car-crash Âtelevision. On the other hand, unless he's broadcasting live, Nick will have the choice to cut me out of his finished "package". Isn't my ignorance a Âpowerful argument for keeping me off the BBC news?Yes, it is. Or, to put that another way, no, it isn't. In the case of the dark-haired woman, Nick was at pains to point out the opinions we were watching weren't representative. He wasn't conducting an opinion poll or carrying out any kind of scientific research. Nevertheless, he was dumbing her up – elevating her Âignorance to newsworthy status – for a reason. Here was a person who didn't understand the constitutional reality in Scotland. And, he implied, she is not alone. Such ignorance is probably widespread. That's why her deservedly humble opinion was news. Allegedly.If nothing else, opinions are time-Âconsuming. We can't expect the news to consist just of news. There are too few facts chasing too much airtime, Âparticularly on channels devoted to "rolling news". How long can you keep rolling before you fall off?I know a TV journalist who's never recovered from her stint reporting on the death of George Best or, more accurately, the time preceding his death. Hour after hour she stood outside Cromwell Hospital in London, describing in depth the poor man's condition, which could be summed up in one word: alive. How many ways could she find to say that his last match had gone into extra time, that the big referee in the sky still hadn't blown the final whistle, that the diminutive, blue-eyed, fleet-footed, tippling Ulster genius hadn't yet dribbled past heaven's gatekeeper? It was the news reporting equivalent of the Dead Parrot sketch. When the facts keep letting you down – keep refusing to be facts, in fact – how much better to fill the time with opinions from across the democratic range, from expertise to idiocy.Do you agree with the opinions expressed in this article? I'd love to hear from you if you do. Equally, I'd welcome opinions on this article from people who haven't read it. There are millions of them, and their opinions on the subject deserve to be heard. Or do they?TelevisionJon Canterguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Britain Hosts Meeting on Yemen With Underlying Focus on Terrorism International focus again shifts to Yemen after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up American airliner on Christmas Day www1.voanews.com |