大象传媒

on this groundswell of goodwill please Obama give Al Gore a job and Hillary, we need to try and heal the planet after the mayhem and avarice of a Bush presidency

The planet is the problem and it is not climate change.

Celtic Lion

Loved the Newsnight Extra - particularly Jeremy asking Dizzy Rascal if he would consider being a future PM!
;-) you never know!!!!!

Your 20:00 special a waste of time to people like me who aren't TV addicts and anxiously twiddle the knobs continually to make sure they they aren't missing anything.

No idea until I checked into the site late this evening to see what was on the menu ... and I would much have liked to have seen it.

Repeat please and a couple of days notice this time round. We don't all live, breathe and die for TV!

Obama put a "planet in peril" above financial crisis in his victory address.




At least he may have his priorities in the right order.

Celtic Lion

... and while I'm at it (and sorry to be on this occasion an example of that most dire and obsessive of bores - the serial blogger) but

"Jeremy is in Washington tonight for two extended programmes reflecting all the excitement, the historic significance and the seismic cultural shift of this most historic of election results."

struck me as very beeby comfort zone stuff indeed.

I don't personally have a problem with it myself but it is surely predicated on a tacit approval of the election's result: far better would have been something like

"Jeremy is in Washington tonight for two extended programmes examining the historic significance of the US presidential election result and what it means for all of us"

sort thing.

Boring thus but there you go.

I found the extra programme extremely good - we got to have indepth analysis and extra interviews, including Dizzy Rascal and Alice Walker (writer of The Color Purple) and Baroness Amos to name but a few, and would not have fitted into the regular Newsnight slot.
Anyway, Obama's election victory is history in the making and why shouldn't the 大象传媒 be part of it? I don't find it boring at all.

@ Rinpoche - Jeremy told everyone about the 8pm Newsnight special on last night's Newsnight.

@ Mistress76uk - whoops, admit not to watching the whole thing through last night: appreciated

I did so enjoy a remarkably pleasant and affable Christopher Hitchens tonight! What a treat and the edition altogether very fair and interesting and not all luvvy cuddly under the comfy eiderdown as I had feared.

Ms. Huffington of the internet or something new to me and appreciated and I shall be off searching for her soon on Google. The unexpected from Newsnight always welcome.

Closing remarks about how nice to see young children in the White House not at all merely sentimental waffle but a real issue I think - rescuing the family I mean.

(Oh dear that makes three from me tonight - I'll get therapy or something)

And excellent Newsnight tonight too especially with the Chris Hitchens/Tom Friedman/Ariana Huffington trio. Brilliant!

Todd Harris could have been predicting what I have been saying about the future of our party system over the months on this blog.
1. Has the current party system of both UK and USA served its purpose, a throwback of 20th.Century politics.
2. The Americans have kicked out the Republicans as they were so hated especially Bush and we will kick our the Labour party due to Blair and Brown and the supposed hated policies.
3. Therefore the party system of the two countries have "flip-flopped" They elect socialism (now becoming respectable as was said) and we will elect Conservatism. Todd Harris said "moving away from the party system".
4 Todd Harris said the recriminations of the Republicans will be that they were not Republican enough as Labour will say they were not left wing enough. "they are very good at squabbling" (Republicans as was said). So will Labour be!

5. The age profile of the Democrats was seen to be younger than the Republicans, as appears to be happening in the Tory Party. Something to be learned there by Labour-- about "reconnecting".
6.Finally the obvious elephant in the room as someone indicated, that things are so bad then the Republicans (Labour?) said let the Democrats (Tories) try and sort it!

The parallels of what can happen in our election, how it was said that Republicanism did not exist in some areas-similar to Labour will not exist in some Southern areas.
It is worth Newsnight casting its eye on the lessons to be learned by our system. As I blogged earlier Cameron will copy to the letter what Obama did as the word "Change" can mean all things to all people. Brown at least smacked him down at question time today-he is improving!!

The use of the internet and Face book was something new to me but was said to be responsible for much of Obama's success.

I just felt that when our election results come in tonights Newsnight will be deja vu on what Labour must do to "re-connect" and whether Cameron's "talk" will result in any solutions.-- I bet not. Just replay this edition in May 2010 and substitute our parties instead of the American parties.

CALL THE CALVARY . . .

Do these look like Bushisms to you?

鈥渙ld, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, DISABLED AND NOT DISABLED Americans鈥�

鈥淚t's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to PUT THEIR HANDS ON THE ARC OF HISTORY AND BEND IT once more toward the hope of a better day.鈥�

Things can only get bitter.

SPOIL PARTY GAMES (#10)

Declare War on Terror to last 'for all time' (you can't beat an abstract noun) then announce a War Parliament and tell them: if they can't act like grown-ups, we will ship in foreigners to do the job. After all, foreigners are always SO much better at the work ethic are they not?

I'll get me passport.

Nice to see a sober Hitch. And a great end credits tune - the Hendrix version of the Star Spangled banner...good choice.

Does Barak Obama ? If so, maybe he should create a .

If Newsnight could spare a moment from reporting on elections in foreign countries that British people can't vote in, perhaps it could report on this assault on our freedoms that Labour is doing? Or is reporting on things that actually have a direct impact on British people not of any interest to the British State Broadcasters "flagship news programme"?

Meanwhile, in a Galaxy far, far away...

I'm sure it's down to the digital switch over in Peebles, but I haven't heard much on this:

Gordon Brown braces himself for defeat in Glenrothes by-election



If he wins, or doesn't lose as badly as anticipated, I am sure normal service will be resumed as normal and Polly T will be on to tell us what we should think.

Clownsrun the towns, I am interested about how my party is using the internet and e-mails to note what we bloggers say.

The only people that read our "blogs" are you and me!!-and the "usual suspects Barrie, Jade et al. (Certainly not Newsnight!!!??)

As one who has peered into the "cutting edge" of my constituency party HQ I still noted that we are still in "Gestetner mode". You obviously know something I don't.

If we are to use the Obama technology of the internet please advise how, we need every help we can get.

PS I bumped into Hazel the other week "networking" in one of my favourite Salford alehouse, probably "keeping an eye" on me. Not a computer in sight but a foaming pint of real ale. That will do for me.

when a native american becomes president that would be the full circle?

CALUMNY?

Hazel is incensed (though not fragrant) about people who see politicians as lying hypocritical, duplicitous dissembling obfuscators.

If the bow enhances, Hazel - wear it!

All together now: "On the good ship Lollypop . . . "

NOT INTO

Barrie (#18) "...people who see politicians as lying hypocritical, duplicitous dissembling obfuscators."

I reckon politicians don't know they're doing it much of the time which accounts for a) their chutzpah (Blears and Cooper are very good examples) and b) their incorrigibility. Always watch out for coherence theorists - they don't do correspondence.

OK, Diziee Rascal?... Is that the best you could get to represent the black hip hop youth in the UK? The 大象传媒 has pushed the race aspect, and you can clearly see the difference between US reporting and UK. As the US understands this is historic, (which is why they had Russel Simons, hiphop mogul, enterprener and philanthopist who speaks to knowledgably about the politics, history and other matters), but the 大象传媒 asks Dizzie Rascal to come on - just the way he was interviewed was disrespectful !

Obama is president-elect who HAPPENS to be black. 大象传媒 should have more knowlegdeable "experts" to talk about this historic event, thank god I have CNN and other news channels !

BEWARE OF GREEKS BEARING NO RESEMBLANCE TO OTHER GREEKS!

I love that stuff JJ! No matter how brilliant the thought, some perishing Greek has always thought it first, followed by serial eggheads up through the ages. But these guys don't do government do they!

As for Minnie Cooper (or 'gobby' as Andrew Neill called her, when she cluster-bombed Daily Politics) she just curdles my brain. At least Hazel makes no attempt to appear cogent, but Mrs Balls clearly thinks she has magically acquired some special attributes.

All together now: "On the good ship, Lollypop . . . "

I'M FUZZY ABOUT THE WHOLE BLACK/WHITE THING.

I can't abide oratory, so Obama can no more appeal to me than Blair. Oratory is style before substance - I prefer substance.

Having said that, he looks BROWN to me. Not much beyond a heavy UK tan. Also. his features present, to my eye, as not far from 'Caucasian'. (Hi Blogdog - stop sniffing like that.) I don't notice heavy musculature either. I set eyes on my first black man when about 13, and my brain KNEW he was different. Today, Obama's orating alerts my brain more than his 'blackness' does. So if it is OK with the dog: I will refer to him as 'oratorical' rather than black, as that is his primary 'colour' to me. But then - I am prejudiced against oratory!

I'll get me sack-cloth.

barrie (#22) I don't care what colour he is either, what bothers me is a) the rhetoric and most of all b) his Civil Rights focus. This suggests to me that Political Correctness/Cultural Marxism which is Trotskyite i.e. anti-state, may be about to get worse, and with it, more of what we've seen recently, not less. People don't see it, but one just has to look at the debates on Clause 19 of the Employment Bill going through the Houses now to see how this (cf. the ECHR) has a crippling 'treacle effect' on social behaviour/language and legislation. The debate in the should be watched whilst it's still available. Begin about 5 hours in.

If one looks closely (or just read Paul Mason's piece here, much of the deregulation in the USA sprang ostensibly from Civil Rights legislation such as the and its revisions. The repeal of Glass-Steagall was under the Democrats, the policy makers/advisors were free-marketeers, and they're still there in Obama's team.

Did they mean well, or did they know who would benefit at whose expense all along? My bet is on the latter, I don't trust evangelists, nobody else should either.

NOT OVER TILL THE ORATORICAL BLOKE 'SINGS'

America had Bush - a man with a past that showed in his Presidency. We had Blair (who was much on the American Stage) whose damaged psyche intruded, tragically, in prime-ministerial function. We now have Brown, a walking Rift Valley; with Moral Compass Manse-Man on one side and 'IT'S NOT FAIR' I want (need) to be great, on the other.
Now America awaits Obama; a man with enough creative fracturing in his past to warrant observation. It is well documented that those of us with buried hurts, perform off-centre in adult life. Excessive drive (need) zeal, obsession, etc is common and deviousness well represented. Another home for these aberrants is the stage, where so many are weird, it becomes de-rigueur. Then there is the church - especially the pulpit variety. Blair's rhetoric was often pastoral. His "What I say to people is" being 'close enough for jazz' with "And I say unto you".
Rev Obama has already been writ large from an elevated position, and will soon draw breath for the big number. Does he sometimes walk in his own shadow? We shall see. The shadow of Bush and Blair, on closer inspection, is dark red, and still spreading.

Britons and Americans, it seems, have noticed nothing, and we continue to elevate the thrusting, wannabe over the retiring noneedtobe. While we do, hand-cart stocks will defy the Index, and Hell will salivate.

OBAMA'S AMERICA?

I'm not sure that's right. If one is talking of democracy one has to look at demographics, at group affiliations and for potential conflicts of interest. When one group actively celebrates the election of a candidate because of his ethnicity and another because of to getting him elected, I think one should ask questions.

Look through team Obama from the Chief of Staff down, Axelrod, Plouffe and this piece by and ask how 1% of the population seemingly and whether this is likely to be impartial and democratically representative.

It could be. I'm just not so sure. I'm wary of any group which is prone to use a charge of of anti-semitism whenever it's pointed out that there are rational grounds for proportionality concerns given the explict endogamy of the group and their hostility to others with views at odds with their own.

Some people are frightened of asking such questions because of decades of PC conditioning.

The first four share something more than reverence for Obama, and is clearly very good at intimidating those who dare to state what some might only dare to think.

Does it matter? Would it matter if they were Muslims?

Maybe those sectors of the media (esp it seems the Guardian) complaining about the Dizzee Rascal interiew should lighten up. It went with the spirit of what was an extraordinary, high, day and captured some of that optimism.

I just watched a preview of the 6th November in which Jeremy Paxmann interviewed a certain Dizee Rascal following Barack Obama's historic victory in the US. And i'm left wondering: how more cynical can the bbc get, projecting this stereotype image of black britain? It's rare to find a black intellectual getting interviewed on the bbc. You find hip-hop artists, sportsmen, and (ocassionally) politicians. A Havard educated lawyer, married to Havard educated woman, wins an election in the US. The Bbc brings a 'rascal' as the voice of back british men, and (Jeremy Paxmann) cynically encourage him to run for office one day. The message for black kids at home is "you want to be a barack obama? Forget the university, forget education. Become a 'rascal', find yourself a flute, and sing your way to the office of prime minister!" Isnt Trevor right about institutional racism, not only in British politics but the society at large?