Phones, letters, e-mails
| 10:21 UK time, Monday, 24 July 2006
Among the audience reaction received by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in the past 24 hours were comments that "there are not enough interviews from the Lebanese" and "Israel is not getting equal coverage". We also received these e-mails:
I wish the ´óÏó´«Ã½ would stop banging on about blogs. I want quality journalism from intelligent people. Blogs are 99.999999% self-indulgent ramblings from people whose opinion I have no interest in.
Can the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news teams, when quoting statistics in news broadcasts, not make a mockery of our language? It is ludicrous to state, for example, that "In the UK, 30,000 people die of lung disease every year". No, they don't! Once they've died, those people can't die again the following year ! Do you not see that the better way to quote that (fictional)statistic would be: "Every year, lung disease is responsible for 30,000 deaths in the UK"? If ´óÏó´«Ã½ London were to tell me that "Somebody is mugged on the tube every 38 minutes", my immediate reaction would be "and he's getting really fed up with it now".
Comments
""there are not enough interviews from the Lebanese" "
Whoever is saying this is obviously blind, whether naturally or by choice remains to be seen. There are more Lebanese interviews than there are days in a month.
I can't believe how good looking all the Lebanese victims are. Yummie mummies boarding the evacuee ships, a doe-eyed girl being carried up the gangplank by a sailor, an attractive young girl in hospital, etc. etc.
I've every sympathy with the (non-militant) Lebanese people and what they are enduring right now, but it concerns me that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ feels it necessary to illustrate so many of its reports with images of 'beautiful' victims. Neither myself nor anyone I know is so shallow as to be incapable of empathizing with ordinary people.
Please, can we have less striving after iconic photojournalism and more emphasis on realistic portrayal.
Adding to that is ´óÏó´«Ã½Â´s ways of representing news about deaths and the family´s reactions. Almost always it is mentioned - "the family is DEVASTATED at the death of the ....". What does one expect other than the feeling of devastation...no one feels happy that a family member/ friend has met untimely death so what is the need of highlighting "devastated"...it is like obituary columns mentioning - "SAD Demise"....is there someting called "Happy Demise".
Sanjay
Those who state that blogs are 99% rantings from self indulgent people are self indulgent Republicans/Democrats/Traditional Left/Traditional Right who do not tolerate independent opinions.
Those emails are brilliant. I wish I'd written them, instead of writing self-indulgent ramblings for people whose opinion I have no interest in.
I'd like to add some balance by noting that my blog is 99% self indulgent ranting.
I write a blog from which earn nothing from and it is about helping others achieve more in life. Maybe I'm in that 1%!
The message on correct English is a bit pendantic but I feel is correct. Perhaps people today fear responsiblity hence the lack of the phrase "...is responsible for...".
To Roger Lancefield: Lebanese women are very, very attractive for the most part. It's just how it is.
Ref comment 7: Ian, hate to be the one to tell you, but your blog is 99% self-indulgent too. :-)