My posts have been slowing down of late to such an extent that I am probably going to put my other two on hold and just post on here for the time being as I seem to be quite busy currently. If I am honest with myself the news and sport blogs are just me mouthing off on certain topics and do not add anything to the debate and if I don't post anything for a few days I start to feel guilty as if I have an obligation to keep them updated. My verbosity does not help which is why I have started to make any pithy comments on either of my Twitter feeds where, if anybody is interested, have the advantage of brevity. When I had the time if I was feeling obliged to post I would trawl around for a relevant story on which to comment in a way that I had not heard already before writing something down rather than being inspired to comment after hearing something which was more the case at the start of the project.
Ironically I got that feeling again today with the furore over Johann Hari but it's late and everything that could be said has been. However, there does seem to be a worrying trend of us and them in from the commentators where he has got a sympathetic hearing from those with similar liberal tendencies and an absolute pillorying from those on the right. Basically using old quotes is not great journalism and he should have been up front about his technique but it does not make him the scourge of Fleet Street (or wherever the Hell they are nowadays) and there are far worse columnists misrepresenting what people say. To be honest I was impressed that he had researched his interviewees enough to find previous quotes from them and suspect that other columnists would not have bothered. The anger directed at him from some quarters is over the top and I fear an American Fox News style media emerging where shouting and pointing fingers replaces debate. The more extreme elements there seemed to emerge under a right wing government almost as if they got too defensive justifying their actions and I hope it does not get that far over here. Any perceived faults in right wing commentators are more easily brushed aside as if we would not expect anything other from them but those on the left need to be holier than thou for fear of being labelled a hypocrite.
I suppose I could have posted that on News Views after all but it may be easier in the long run to combine all my ramblings in this one place from topical events to sport to the quotidian which was how it started before I differentiated them as I felt I wanted to separate the personal details from my political thoughts. It is all part of who I am, however, and to continue the calculus theme it may be time to integrate.
Ironically I got that feeling again today with the furore over Johann Hari but it's late and everything that could be said has been. However, there does seem to be a worrying trend of us and them in from the commentators where he has got a sympathetic hearing from those with similar liberal tendencies and an absolute pillorying from those on the right. Basically using old quotes is not great journalism and he should have been up front about his technique but it does not make him the scourge of Fleet Street (or wherever the Hell they are nowadays) and there are far worse columnists misrepresenting what people say. To be honest I was impressed that he had researched his interviewees enough to find previous quotes from them and suspect that other columnists would not have bothered. The anger directed at him from some quarters is over the top and I fear an American Fox News style media emerging where shouting and pointing fingers replaces debate. The more extreme elements there seemed to emerge under a right wing government almost as if they got too defensive justifying their actions and I hope it does not get that far over here. Any perceived faults in right wing commentators are more easily brushed aside as if we would not expect anything other from them but those on the left need to be holier than thou for fear of being labelled a hypocrite.
I suppose I could have posted that on News Views after all but it may be easier in the long run to combine all my ramblings in this one place from topical events to sport to the quotidian which was how it started before I differentiated them as I felt I wanted to separate the personal details from my political thoughts. It is all part of who I am, however, and to continue the calculus theme it may be time to integrate.
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