Ivan Cameron 2002-2009

It's not that often that I talk about UK politics, usually because US politics is more fun, and often easier to take the mickey out of.  But this post is not about mickey-taking, it's about a young life, the oldest son of the Leader of the Opposition, who died overnight aged just 6.

Ivan was not an ordinary boy in the normal sense.  He had Cerebral Palsy, and Ohtahara Syndrome, a particularly severe and nasty form of Epilepsy.  Most sufferers usually die before they are 2 years old.  Some might say Ivan was lucky to live so long.  I say, he was lucky to have such dedicated parents as David and Samantha Cameron.

I have Epilepsy myself.  I used to be a sufferer of Grand Mal Epilepsy, which is fairly serious, but thankfully, not a patch on Ohtahara Syndrome.  These days, I suffer only with Petite Mal, which even compared to Grand Mal, is nowhere near as bad.  I have massive sympathies for David and Samantha, coping with an epileptic in the family is something my own parents managed ably, but add cerebral palsy to the mix, and I think David Cameron has shown just what a good parent he truly is.

Whilst I might not agree with his party's policies, I send my deepest sympathies and condolences to David and Samantha Cameron, and their close relatives and friends. 

Rest in peace, young Ivan.

Fox News demostrates the worst of press release journalism

Both NewsHounds and Media Matters for America highlight a recent example of the worst example of "press release journalism" that I have ever seen.

If you don't know what I mean, Press Release Journalism is simply taking a press release that some company has put out, and basically publishing it without any form of counterspin or criticism or equalisation. Most newspapers do this to a greater or lesser degree. Most of the time, it is free advertising for whoever put out the press release. But at its worst, say when a political party, political organisation or pressure group is the beneficiary, then it is nothing less than allowing propoganda and bias to go unchecked.

Well, the beneficiary of this particular piece of lazyness was the Senate Republicans, who put out a press release and Fox News dressed it up and presented it as their own research. But the reason this one was so easily spotted, was the fact that there was a typo in the press release, giving an article date as 12/19/09 instead of 12/19/08. Now that would not have passed even the most cursory of checks. So it would seem that Fox News didn't even check the press release over at all, before using it, cos their graphics department re-used the same text from the release as part of their full screen graphics, typo and all.

NewsHounds says this proves that Fox News is in the GOP's pocket. Media Matters says it's lazy journalism. I say that it is in fact both lazy press release journalism, and inherent republican bias at Fox News. Shame on you, Fox News Channel!

Porn star to turn politician?

Hey, stranger things have happened in the past, but this would be a case of poacher turning gamekeeper. CNN's Sean Callebs reports on a campaign to oust Senator David Vitter, the Republican senator from Louisiana.



Hey, if I could vote for her, I would!

Scolari sacked as Chelsea Manager

Well I have to say that this is a bit of a surprise. At the beginning of the day, we were expecting Tony Adams to be sacked as Portsmouth Manager and that happened as predicted, but this came out of the blue, literally and figuratively. Ray Wilkins will take temporary charge as the search begins for a new manager.

BBC News and Sky Sports News are all over the story as is Setanta Sports News.

Idiot Brigade Awards - Wednesday 4th February 2009

Today's awards start with the Best Act of Political Suicide, which goes to the leader of the UK Conservative Party, David Cameron. In Prime Minister's Questions today, after PM Gordon Brown had said "Does anybody want British jobs not to go to British workers?" Cameron stood up and without saying the word, basically answered 'Yes'. His response was that the PM had basically was a protectionist and an oppourtunist, and was pandering to people's fears. Way to go, Cameron! That's really talking the economy up. Oh and nice to have known you, since that one statement just lost him the next election next year.

But now to the medalists, and the bronze medal goes to CNN's Lou Dobbs, for parroting a talking point without checking it. He claimed, as others have done before, that more than $4blln dollars would go to advocacy groups like ACORN under the cover of a neighbourhood stabilisation programme. In fact, The Neighborhood Stabilization Program is a programme from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a government department. Lou, you used to be a journalist, a business journalist, and a damn good one. Now, you're starting to sound like a poor man's Rush Limbaugh!!!

Our silver medal today goes to Dick Morris who has been caught lying! Back on 24 November 2008 on Hannity and Colmes, Morris denied claims that he was working with the National Republican Trust, claiming they had only bought ads on his website. But in an email to his mailing list, which also appeared on his website, Morris says and I quote, "...As I did during the election, I am working with the National Republican Trust to do what I can to stop this (stimulus) package from passing..." So not only did Dick Morris lie about his relationship with the National Republican Trust, but he wants the USA to remain in recession! Charming fellow!!!

But today's runaway winner has to be Bill O'Reilly, who last night on his Fox News show, accused some of his favourite bogey-men, The New York Times, the ACLU and George Soros, of using the illegal immigration issue as a cover for creating a one-party state. Funny, cos the Republican party just tried to use 9/11 over the past 7 years as a cover for creating an effective one party state! A Republican party state. But guess what... in 2006, the electorate threw the Republicans out of Congress, and then two years later, threw them out of the White House. I guess they're smarting a bit!!!

ITV drops the ball, again!

ITV1 was showing the Everton vs Liverpool FA Cup 4th round replay tonight, and it was 0-0 with just a few minutes left of extra time. Suddenly, ITV's playout system decides to start running commercials, early. And so we never saw the winning goal happen live. By the time the people at The London Studios realised something had happened and managed to override the system to get us back to the game, Everton were celebrating the goal, which we did not see happen. We got to see all the usual replays, but once again, ITV almost literally dropped the ball in their sports coverage yet again.

And as I say that it looks like their playout system has chosen now to throw a complete wobbly. Makes me think of the old Windows 95 dialog box of doom which used to read "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down!".

Sky News returns to Studio A with a new look

Sky News launched a new schedule earlier this week, and today, Wednesday 4th Febraury, one day before their 20th birthday, they launched their new look with instead of one big set with 8 presentation points, they're using 4 smaller sets.

The first set we saw at 6am was the new look to Sky News Sunrise.



The desk had been described as a chat show desk and it has to be said, the look is somewhat reminiscent of a chat show set, like the interview sets for Jay Leno's Tonight Show, or the Late Show with David Letterman.

But it does give Sunrise a very distinctive look, which is more relaxed than Sunrise had previously been. This set is also used for Jeff Randall Live.

The second set we saw at 10am was a desk based set for Sky News Today.



This seems to be the basic set, which may well get used on other programmes.

The third and final set we saw was at 2pm for Afternoon Live.



This set has also been used for the infamous News Sport & Weather, for 15 minutes, every 15 minutes.

Live at Five used the second set, but with the anchor desk rotated to a different position.



This is also done for Sky News at Ten. This gives Live at Five and Sky News at Ten an almost flagship style look compared to the other bulletins and programmes.

I like the new sets, they have managed to make the one studio look much better than it did even when the new studio was launched in 2005. Now, if they can just take out the slight conservativeness that has infected their agenda in the past few years, they'll be heading back to the top of the news channel wars. But until they lose that very slight bias they have, they will lose out to BBC News 24.

More snow in Truro

I promised more footage and here is some more. I shot this early morning on Tuesday 3rd February 2009. These were the kind of scenes people in Truro, Cornwall were waking up to.



More snow is in the forecast for Wednesday night and early Thursday, so we could well be seeing more snowfall then. Up to 20cm is expected, and if any does fall near me, I'll bring it to you here on Viewpoint.

Viewpoint on video. 1a: Snow in the UK

My perspective on the snow in the UK

Snow has been falling across the UK from Kent, up to Scotland and down to Cornwall. It's been reported that this was the most extensive snowfall for around 20 years. It's certainly the first major snowfall I have seen since November 25th 2005, which was the last time we saw about 1 inch or so of snow fall. And it continues to fall as I type this.

Earlier today, I shot some footage of the snow falling, and I've uploaded it for you to see. To those who live in areas like the northern parts of British Columbia in Canada, or around the Rockies, this will look likem a small flurry to you. To us here in Cornwall, this is some serious snowfall. We rarely see any snowfall like this currently, yet in the past, I remember at one point when this kind of snowfall was a good day, not a bad one.



Depending on the conditions as things develop through the night, I might be able to bring you more footage later on. We'll see what happens.