In View: The Imperial Party.

I do have a habit of looking for the unusual and the bizarre on the web, and I often go my own way politically. One of the more unusal things I have found on the web is web sites belonging to political parties who are shall we say minor parties. One such party in the UK is The Imperial Party.

Thomas Davison is offically the party's founder and leader, and whilst some of the basic ideals sound fine, once you get to the details, it all falls apart like a house of cards.

“Respect, Honesty, Integrity, Manners, Fair Play”

Sounds almost likeable doesn't it? But read on a bit further...

"...Our party wants back our right to freedom of speech for England and the English People and to reintroduce Christian values into our lives."

Christian values? I wouldn't go shouting that out too loudly, the "Christian Right" isn't exactly the more popular political voice with good reason. I was taught Christianity was about tolerance and forgiveness, two things that I do not see a lot of in the "Christian Right".

"...We will revoke all unnecessary ‘harmonisation’ laws forced on us by the E.U., and revert to Britain’s traditional systems of measurement and practice."

Does this mean you want to take us back pre-decimalisation? Back to before 1971? Why not go the whole hog, and make that a pound is 100 shillings and a shilling is 100 pence. Instantly, you'd reduce the price of the average home from £222,256 to £2,222.56, making house prices much more affordable!!!

"...congestion on the roads will be eased by new lorry-only toll roads for goods vehicles, expanding the breath of our major motorways..."

Lorry only toll roads? In case you hadn't heard, toll roads don't work. They force traffic onto smaller roads, increasing pollution and noise. And as for expanding the breadth of the motorways, everytime lanes get added to a motorway, they fill up just as quickly as the last time they were widened, you can't go on widening forever.

"...Under an Imperial Party government there would neither be tax-avoiders nor tax-victims. A single flat income tax of 25% will keep the treasury full and could reasonably be met by all sections of society. "

Hmm, that's a good idea, but I'm not sure you could keep the single tax rate that low. I'm more inclined to believe it would have to be around 30% or higher to fund the plans of the Imperial Party.

"...With the Imperial Party controlling Westminster, all over-60s will be entitled to exemption from council tax, heating bills, television licences, road tax, bus and tram fares and road tax. Special reduced-rent housing for over-60s only will be built for those who want it, and care homes should and will be provided free as part of the NHS. All pensioners requesting it will receive a liveable, non-means-tested pension, and we shall restore the link with earnings for those as yet not retired. Within a few decades, our Personal Added Tax (PAT) policy will ensure that pensions will remain sustainable and that there will be no ‘crash’."

This doesn't read too well. It looks like it hasn't been costed properly, and the sums just don't seem to add up. The retiree population is growing every minute as we all live longer lives. I'm more inclined to believe these policies will make the crash happen much quicker rather than preventing it. Very populist sounding, but they don't stand up to scrutiny.

"...We will institute ‘new business panels’ across the country, to which those wanting to start a new business may present their commercial ideas; if considered likely to be commercially viable, such new businesses would qualify for grants to help them achieve success."

Again, another great sounding idea, but the reality is you'd be creating regional versions of the BBC show "Dragon's Den". You're going to have an awful lot of disappointed people who won't learn great lessons in life because they tried and failed their own business. Some of these lessons can only be learned the hard way, and preventing people from learning them does not help their personal or business skills development, and I speak from experience.

"... Britain’s economic success and prosperity depends on Her businesses being beneficial to Her; we would ensure all British businesses remain in British ownership, no more the 49% of any business being allowed to fall into foreign hands."

One word describes this beautifully. Protectionism!

"... BBC to end their supposition type news and relay actual news and end the license fee, eventually to be sold off to commercial enterprise as it no longer a neutral , unbiased and independent body."

'Supposition type news'? Do you even know what you're saying? You're saying the BBC does not report facts. And as for ending the licence fee and selling off the BBC, you may as well destory it , for that is what will happen anyway if you sell it off.

"... Police officers to go back to patrolling the streets and given more powers to question and retain suspects, anyone found carrying a gun to be given hard labour for life."

Now how do you juxtapose that with...

"... We reject the creeping Police State being stealthily imposed on us..." Hmm?

You either don't want a police state, or you do, you cannot have it both ways.

"... Speed camera's and traps to be discontinued they are only a means to raise money for local government."

Excuse me, this keeps getting spouted by various political parties. How about some proof, that they are ONLY a means to raise money and NOT a way to catch offenders as they should be caught, in the act!

"... We will reinstate marriage as the basis of the family unit, we will make it harder to divorce; children need both parents who live together."

Erm, hate to break this to ya, but there has never been an official government line on what is a family unit. And whilst I agree that children need two parents who can get along well and live together, a household where the parents don't get along is NOT a good place for a child to grow up. Yet by your policies, you would force families that don't get along to stay together because of the children. Again, you can't have the penny and the bun.

"... All unemployed people to be given training at government centres in needed usable skills, if no work available in area, government will employ person on minimum wage until other work found."

Oh dear, talk about a bloated government. Another idea that sounds good, but hasn't been costed properly.

"... We will end overseas hand-outs. All charity moneys to go to UK causes."

I'm sure Oxfam and the Disasters Emergency Committee will love you guys!!!

This is what I meant when I said that some great ideals are let down by unpractical, uncosted, unworkable policies. This is the 21st cetury now, not the 19th Century!

Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo: Fallout from Clinton interview

Bill O'Reilly basically gloated about his interview with Hilary Clinton on Monday night's Factor. But as usual, he couldn't help but stick a few jibes in at MoveOn.org.



Funnily enough I checked MoveOn.org, and surprise surprise, there is no campaign on their site against Hillary Clinton. I think Bill O substitutes the word "liberals" or "progressives" with the term "MoveOn.org and their ilk", to make them sound less reputable and make the Democrats seem less electable.

The reality though is that the words of many Republicans make them and their party seem less electable everytime I hear them. The Republican Party and the conservative movement seem to heading further and further into radicalism and extremity, and that brings them closer to parties like the British National Party and the National Front, and that cannot be good for political discourse, not just in the US, but around the world.

Worst Person In The World: Rush Limburger

Rush "Limburger" Limbaugh takes the top spot in Monday night's Worst Person In The World on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Honourable mentions going to Steve Doocy's son and William Kristol.



Nobody should be able to get away with thinking that a mayor of major city looked more like a shoeshine boy.

Freesat launches in UK

Finally a new competitor to Sky has emerged in the UK. Freesat is a BBC and ITV joint venture designed to provide a subscription free alternative to Sky. Currently with around 80 channels, and more coming on stream soon, Freesat looks like a decent competitor.

All the major channels from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and S4/C are there with Channel 5 expected to follow soon. News channels are well represented with BBC News, AlJazeera and EuroNews, whilst movie channels are also well represented with the two True Movies channels plus Movies 4 Men. Unfortunately sport is not currently represented on Freesat, but with a currently expected 200 channels expected to be available soon, Freesat could well provide the alternative to paying out a monthly subscription to Sky or Cable that many people have been looking for.

Daily Telegraph lists the most influential Political Pundits, mostly conservatives.

The Daily Telegraph in the UK has listed the 50 most influential political pundits in the US. Crooks and Liars looks at the list with some degree of dismay. Nicole Belle who wrote the post probably didn't know that the Daily Telegraph is the UK equivalent of the Washington Times in political stance.

The full list runs like this, with political viewpoint added...

50 - Rachel Maddow (Lib)
49 - Mary Matalin (Con)
48 - Paul Krugman (Lib)
47 - J. C. Watts (Con)
46 - Mark Levin (Con)
45 - Fred Barnes (Con)
44 - Jeffrey Toobin (Ind)
43 - Paul Begala (Lib)
42 - Bill Bennett (Con)
41 - Mark Shields (Lib)
40 - Tony Snow (Con)
39 - Dee Dee Myers (Lib)
38 - Michael Barone (Con)
37 - Eugene Robinson (Lib)
36 - Newt Gingrich (Con)
35 - Joe Trippi (Lib)
34 - Howard Kurtz (Ind)
33 - Roland Martin (Lib)
32 - William Kristol (Con)
31 - Juan Williams (Ind)
30 - Peggy Noonan (Con)
29 - Ron Fournier (Ind)
28 - James Carville (Lib)
27 - Pat Buchanan (Con)
26 - Arriana Huffington (Lib)
25 - Michael Savage (Con)
24 - Laura Ingraham (Con)
23 - Mike Allen (Ind)
22 - Dick Morris (Con)
21 - David Gergen (Con)
20 - Joe Klein (Lib)
19 - Donna Brazille (Lib)
18 - Frank Luntz (Con)
17 - Andrew Sullivan (Con)
16 - Glenn Beck (Con)
15 - Bill Maher (Lib)
14 - Chuck Todd (Ind)
13 - Keith Olbermann (Lib)
12 - Bill O'Reilly (Con)
11 - Stephen Colbert (Lib - portrays a conservative)
10 - Mark Halperin (Ind)
09 - David Brooks (Con)
08 - Jon Stewart (Lib)
07 - Tim Russert (Ind)
06 - Matt Drudge (Con)
05 - John Harris & Jim Vandehei (Ind)
04 - Rush Limbaugh (Con)
03 - Sean Hannitty (Con)
02 - Chris Matthews (Lib)
01 - Karl Rove (Con)

Can't say I agree with this list. Rove could hardly be described as influential, he's only been a pundit for a few months. Both Olbermann and O'Reilly should rate higher, but that's just my opinion.

Worst Person In The World: Ann Coulter

"Coultergeist" is back, and winning the usual awards, such as Countdown's Worst Person In The World.



Well done, Coultergeist. At least you managed to keep Bill O'Reilly off the top spot.

Boris The Buffoon becomes Mayor Boris of London

When someone says the name "Boris Johnson" to me, lots of things come to mind. His untidy, unruly mop of a haircut is one. His unerring ability to gaffe even the simplest issues is another.

Now, as well as being an MP for Henley at the Westminster parliament, he has been elected as Mayor Of London. His style is known to be eccentic, almost buffoon-like in its eccentricity. A perfect example of this is a comment that was written in a column in the Daily Telegraph in 2004.

"There is absolutely no one, apart from yourself, who can prevent you, in the middle of the night, from sneaking down to tidy up the edges of that hunk of cheese at the back of the fridge."

What brought that line out in the article? Who knows, who cares! Boris's eccentricity and buffoonery are legend, as is his ability to gaffe. Indeed, The Hindu in India, in refering to the election of Boris used the headline "Gaffe-prone Johnson is London Mayor". Amongst the many times he has gaffed are the following...

"...The proposed ban on incitement to “religious hatred” make no sense unless it involves a ban on the Koran itself..." from his Daily Telegraph column in 2005.

"...Yes, cannabis is dangerous, but no more than other perfectly legal drugs. It's time for a rethink, and the Tory party - the funkiest, most jiving party on Earth - is where it's happening..." from his Daily Telegraph column in 2001

"...Look the point is ... er, what is the point? It is a tough job but somebody has got to do it..." upon being appointed Shadow Arts Minister in 2004.

"...I can't remember what my line on drugs is. What's my line on drugs?" During the 2005 UK General Election.

His opinions on people seem to change too. Witness the following quote from 2003 on US Presdient Bush from an editorial in the Spectator.

"...The President is a cross-eyed Texan warmonger, unelected, inarticulate, who epitomises the arrogance of American foreign policy..."

But he wasn't so vitriolic against him in his book "Have I Got Views For You"...

"...Not only did I want Bush to win, but we threw the entire weight of The Spectator behind him."

Now we have a buffoon, running the capital city. The term "political circus" has never been more apt. London is about to become a circus with Boris as a ringmaster in clown's makeup! It could be that Boris's gaffing between now and the next General Election might actually put a dent in David Cameron's plans to be PM. The Conservatives may have won the Battle Of London but they might lose the war as a result. Only time will tell.

The London Mayoral Election Result

Well, about ten minutes to midnight, and the results are finally announced at City Hall. With no single candidate getting over 50% of the vote after first preference votes were counted, it was down to Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone, and despite Ken picking up more second preference votes than Boris, the gap after first preference votes had been too great to make up, therefore, Boris Johnson is the new Mayor Of London.

The capital city, will be run by the biggest buffoon in UK politics.

I'll prove my point in a later post.

Local Elections 2008: England & Wales Local Councils - Results Review

With all 159 councils having declared in the Local Council Elections, it's time to review the results and analyse them.

It's not really surprising what the headlines are. Conservatives gaining 12 councils and 256 councillors, Labour losing 9 councils and 331 councillors. The media is refering to the losses for Labour as huge. Maybe in pure terms of numbers, losing over 300 councillors sounds like a lot, but in analytical terms, it's not nearly such a massive loss.

Remember, this is not 1 election to a governing body, but 159 elections to 159 different governing bodies, in these cases, local councils. When you do the maths, you realise that one average, Labour has only lost the equivalent of just under 2.1 councillors per council. Certainly not anywhere near as impressive sounding is it?

The Conservatives are trying to claim a major success. Yet, there are enough negatves out there for me to suggest that their 'major success' is somwhat tempered. Look through all 159 results and you see some really striking ones.

In Burnley, the council had been pretty much split between LibDems and Labour with Conservatives and BNP way back. However, the gainers from Labour's misfortune this time was not the Conservatives, but the Liberal Democrats who took control of the council with 23 seats to Labour's 12. Neither the Cobservatives (6) nor the BNP (4) gained out of Labour's misfortunes. For David Cameron, the failure make any kind of move in Burnley must be seen as somewhat of a failure.

In Colchester, which had been a Conservative council, albeit only briefly for less than a year, the Conservatives lost seats and lost control of the council. The Conservatives lost 5 seats there, with Labour actually picking up 4 seats, and the LibDems the remaining seat.

Coventry also went against the grain, with just 1 seat out of the 18 seats up for election changing hands, but it went from Conservative to Labour and with it, the Conservatives lost control of the council.

In St Albans, the Liberal Democrats took control of the council, despite the Conservatives having the better performance and gaining 3 seats, compared to the LibDems gaining only 1. But that 1 seat was sufficient to give the LibDems control and rather took the shine off what looked a good performance.

In Oxford, the Conservatives only had two seats on the council before the election. By the end of the night, they had none at all, wiped out. In Sheffield too, the 1 Conservative councillor there lost his seat, and the party is not represented on the council at all.

Add to this councils like Adur, Barrow in Furness, Brentwood, Burnley, Castle Point, Cheltenham, Daventry, Fareham, Kingston-upon-Hull, Manchester, Mole Valley, Rochdale, Runnymede, South Tyneside, St Helens, Stoke-On-Trent, Stroud, Swansea, Swindon, Thurrock, Wallsall, Watford, Waveney, Winchester, Woking and Worcester where the Conservatives failed to gain any seats at all, and it does somewhat take more than an edge of the Conservatives "major success".

There are also councils like Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Gateshead, Gwynedd, Knowsley, Liverpool, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Oxford and Sheffield where the Conservatives haven't even got a single seat on the council, and councils such as Bridgend, Broxbourne, Colchester, Coventry, Derby, Eastleigh, Gosport, Huntingdonshire, Ipswich, Leeds, Oxford, Purbeck, Reigate & Banstead, Sefton, Sheffield, Slough, South Lakeland, Southend-on-Sea and Stratford-On-Avon where the Conservatives suffered losses rather than gains.

Now how major does their success look? It looks rather patchy to me.

Bill O'Reilly Talking Points Memo: Thursday 1st May 2008

On Thursday night's edition of the Factor, Bill O managed the truly incredible feat of linking the Reverend Jeremiah Wright with former left wing radio talk show host, comedian and writer Al Franken. These links are getting more and more tenuous, even more tenuous than a Radio 4 link!



What I find particularly galling is the way he talks about the hate business being good for Wright and his church, yet conveniently forgets about all the money Fox News and their hatemongers, including BillO and Sean Hannity, make. "Fair and balanced"? I think not.

Worst Person In The World: Bill O'Reilly

He's done the Trifecta! 3 days on the trot for Bill O'Reilly as Countdown's Worst Person in the World.



If it hadn't been for Monday, he'd have run the gauntlet!

Pair found guilty of blackmailing royal

BBC News is reporting two men who tried to blackmail a member of the Royal Family have been found guilty of blackmail at the Old Bailey.

We still don't know who the 'minor royal' was the centre of the claims, and we probably never will, but I don't really care. This was pure greed at work. Trying unsuccessfully to sell the story to the papers, then trying to blackmail the royal in question. Greed is never good, no matter what Gordon Gecko said in "Wall Street".

"D.C. Madam" commits suicide in Florida.

MSNBC are amongst the many news sites at the moment reporting the death in Flordia of Deborah Jeane Palfrey. If the name rings no bells, then go back to last year, when the DC Madam scandal was dominating the political headlines in Washington. Republican Senator David Vitter from Louisiana was one of the more high profile names that got caught up in the scandal, but others did not escape scot-free either.

An official at the State Department, Randall Tobias, who was director of foreign aid programs, resigned his post after being caught in the scandal.

Of the usual blog sources that I follow, only Huffington Post has anything on the story currently, with one source suggesting that Deborah Jeane Palfrey suspercted she might be "suicided". She said she would not commit suicide, and if she was ever found dead, it was likely to have been murder. Now, whether this was paranoid ravings, or something closer to the truth, I'm not sure we'll ever know, because the Republicans, and the rest of the DC political establishment would love nothing more than to see this story buried.

Viewpoint Special: The Austrian Incest Case

I know that a lot of you are coming here for more information on the case of the Austrian man, Josef Fritzl, who kidnapped his own daughter and fathered seven children with her.

EuroNews is reporting that Fritzl is alledged to have threatened to kill his incestuous family with poison gas if they tried to escape.

France 24 reports that prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Fritzl. Although incest and rape carries shorter sentences, they're trying to establish a manslaughter case against Fritzl for the death of the seventh child.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide is reporting that police are asking for information from Fritzl's neighbours in the town of Amstetten.

RTE News is reporting that police are looking into possible links between the incest case, and the case of a murdered teenager in 1986 that has remained unsolved.

SwissInfo is reporting that Firtzl pretended to be his own daughter, in a phone call to his own wife back in 1994.

CNN reports that a tenant in Josef Fritzl's house claims that Fritzl's son was often seen entering the secret basement, an area that Fritzl said was off-limits to his tenant and indeed to his own wife.

All in all, much more information is coming out and we'll try and keep track of it here, as it develops.

Over2You: Wednesday 30th April 2008

Well, you know what's been on my mind recently, now tell me what's on yours. It's over to you...

News Roundup: Tuesday 29th April 2008

BBC News: Austrian Police have revealed that DNA evidence has backed up the claims that an Autsrian man fathered 7 children with his own daughter.

Commentary: My viewpoint on this is already posted here, but I note the considerable international interest in this story. Most newspaper commentary on this has been predicatbly horrified, whether the paper is politically on the left or the right. The more horrifying thing to me, is not so much that it happened, more that it actually went undetected or untraced for so many years. I find it difficult to believe he handled this entirely on his own. I also find it difficult to believe that his wife knew nothing about it. I hate to say this, but I'm sure there is more to come in this story, and it will not make nice reading.

BBC News: New reseach suggests about half of all Polish and Eastern European migrants who have come to the UK since 2004 have returned home.

Commentary: In a related story, BBC News also reports that a farmer near Peterborough takes on lots of Eastern European migrants to pick fruit and veg at a wage of £7-an-hour. Locals didn't want the job with one person quoted as saying, "...I'd prefer to sign-on than do that." This is what gets me riled up. Some of these lazy people would rather do nothing for a week and earn just £60.50, rather than do 30 hours work, and earn over 3 times as much, before deductions. It's shameful that people are not willing to work for more money than most retail workers get.

MSNBC: US presidential candidate Barack Obama has denounced his former pastor over public comments Reverend Jeremiah Wright has made recently.

Commentary: As the race for the Democratic nomination stretches on towards the convention, you have to wonder if the current situation is hurting the Democrats or the Republicans more. Sure, John McCain may have the Republican nomination sewn up, but the Democratic candidates are dominating the headlines and as the old saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

When does kinky porn become Illegal?

BBC News has an article about the fine line between porn that is kinky and porn that is illegal under a new law, the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, that will get its final reading this week.

The new law defines extreme pornography, which will be declared illegal under the new law as...

• An act which threatens or appears to threaten a person's life
• An act which results in or appears to result in serious injury to a person's anus, breasts or genitals
• An act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse
• A person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal

This law has been drafted in a hurry, rushed through, not properly considered, and an overreaction. This law makes criminals out of consumers, rather than producers, which still applies by the way in the 1959 Obscene Publications Act.

There is no way that any government should be interfereing in people's private lives. Censorship is a no-no.

Ronaldo in Transvestite sex scandal

BBC News is reporting that Brazillian football star Ronaldo has been caught up in a sex scandal with three cross-dressing prostitutes.

I must be one of the few people who finds this obsession with famous people and sex scnadals boring. What people do in their private time and away from their jobs is not public business, and we should just let them live their lives.

Austrian man kidnapped daughter then fathered her children.

BBC News is reporting the quite horrific story of an Austrian man, who is now 73 years old, who kidnapped his daughter some 24 years ago, and then fathered children with her.

Quite honestly, I think the whole story is shocking, and needs no hyping at all. Though I do imagine the tabloids will overhype it as they usually do.

Viewpoint Extra: Chanelle Hayes Sex Tape - Real or Viral Advertising?

Well, now we know the truth, and whilst I was partialy right in terms of the intent behind the video, the actual thing it was promoting was quite different to what I imagined it to be. Who would have imagined that Chanelle's partner in the video, was a furry puppet!



Incidentally, this is being reported by the Daily Star and other newspapers as showing that Chanelle is game for a laugh and happy to poke fun at the celebrity lifestyle, including her own.

My take on that is much more cynical, I'm afraid. It proves to me that Chanelle and her team knew all to well, that the timing would make great promotional capital for her reality TV show and her first single, the video I posted previously. I feel that Chanelle is much more saavy than other so called D-listers, and perhaps, just perhaps, she might just make the C-list yet. It'll take time, but she seems to be putting the work in. We'll see if she fades from view when the new housemates come into view, or whether she has more staying power than some others.

Chanelle Hayes Sex Tape - Real or Viral Advertising?

Once again, I touch on a territory that I don't tend to deal in. This time, it's the world of celebrity sex tapes, which seems to be quite a popular line in the tabloids. But this one... well, you tell me.

Chanelle Hayes, who was a contestant in Big Brother 8 in the UK, has a new reality TV series airing in the UK and Ireland on VH1 called "Chanelle: Wannabe Popstar". Her debut single, I Want It, is released on 18 May. But the video is already doing the rounds on the music TV channels.



So, with all this happening in her life, what do you think gets uploaded to YouTube? A Paris Hilton-style, night vision-esque production of a 'sex tape'.



It's not that we're not used to seeing her with very few clothes on in provocative poses. She's practically a contract babe for the Daily Star, she seems to be in the paper most days in some pose or another wearing very little. It's either very cynically timed by her management to coincide with her music and relaity TV projects and garner more publicity, or it's very cynically timed by some ex-boyfriend out to destroy her. I know which one I believe.

On the YouTube page,the video is titled "Who Is That?", and the "user" who uploaded this is called "ohnoshedidnt90". They only joined on April 18th 2008, the day the video was released and exactly a month before the single is released. I don't know about you guys, but I smell a rat, or should I say, a viral.

This looks like nothing more than an attempt at viral advertising for her single. After all, the girl in the sex tape wears exactly the same outfit that Chanelle does in the bedroom scenes of her music video. The bedroom also looks very similar, although it appears to have been shot from a different angle. I'd go so far as to say this is a piece of viral advertising shot on one of the sets that her video was shot on. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am here.

Citroen think we don't know our Europeans!

I rarely get involved writing about the latest advertising campaign for such and such a product or service. For a start, there are simply too many of them, I'd never to talk about anything else. But one campaign recently has drawn my attention, and indeed, drawn my contempt too.

It's the campaign for the new Citroen C5, under the tagline, "Unmistakably German".

*Sigh* How stupid do they think we are? The word "Citroen" is a French word, and Citroen has always been a French-owned company!

Citroen is about as German as Hamburgers!

The ads, and the making of them are at the website for the Citroen C5. It re-inforces just how out of touch the advertising industry is with real people. They think they have to be clever and try to mentally outwit us in order that we don't think we're being sold to. Let me tell you, I work and have worked for a long time in the retail industry, and I find that the opposite works best. If you're upfront, honest and straight forward, it tends to work better than trying to outwit them.

Time for a reality check, methinks.

Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman to direct!

MegaStar reports that actresses Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman, who recently teamed up on "The Other Boelyn Sister" and apparently became best friends there, are both to make their directorial debuts in a new film, called "New York, I Love You", which is a collection of short stories based in the city of New York.

Now, I like watching these two on screen, but it will be interesting to see how their directorial debuts will be recieved. It's obvious that both are planning for a future behind the camera after they feel they've done what they can in front of it, so good on them.

Over2You - Friday 11th April 2008

What's happened in the world today that makes you want to vent your spleen? It's over to you...

The Incredible Hulk Movie Trailer

I thought it was about time I brought this one onto here. It's the movie that I am most interested in this summer. Edward Norton stars as Dr Bruce Banner alongside Liv Tyler and Tim Roth in The Incredible Hulk. Here's the trailer.



Plus, a little something extra...



This widget not only contains the trailer, but also a special behind the scenes video which tells you more about how the filmakers decided to pitch this film version of the Hulk.

They're hoping this will launch a possible Hulk film series in a way that the 2003 Ang Lee movie couldn't. There was nothing wrong with the Ang Lee movie in terms of staying true to the comics and the character, but since most people who'd had any experience with the Hulk had come across him in the 1970s live action TV show which had starred Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, the fact that it was so far removed from that whole surrounding meant that whatever fan base the TV show had built up, wasn't transferred to the Ang Lee film.

With this film being re-imagined more along the lines of the old TV show, with some comic-book elements kept in, they're hoping to combine the best of both worlds in one film, and it'll either be a great success cos it will put it off spectacularly well, or it will be a big flop because it will have failed miserably. It's not easy to combine two worlds into one like that, and I hope they've done it right.

Over2You - Thursday 10th April 2008

What have you spotted on the net that deserves highlighting? What's got your blood boiling? These posts are designed for you to tell me about anything that is on your mind. So, over to you.

Politically biased musical butchery!

Do you remember the old 1983 song from the Weather Girls, It's Raining Men? Released in the UK in August 1983, it reached the dizzying height of Number 73, before being re-relased in March 1984 and reaching Number 2!

I say this because of a video that is on You Tube. I will link to it, rather than embedding it, because it is SO crap that it makes the people Simon Cowell insults on American Idol and other so-called 'talent' shows look like pros!

Out of tune, out of sync with each other, discordant, and that's just the good points!

This piece of pro-McCain idiocy not only butchers a perfectly good piece of music and turns into politically biased mush, but proves conclusively that the concepts of parody and satire are completely lost on conservatives. This comes across as a pure attack video with nothing redeeming about it.

If you think your ears can stand the pain for 2 minutes 35 seconds, then go ahead. Otherwise, save your sanity! And to be honest, would you defend any of these three at a Sanity Board hearing???

Oh and perhaps they ought to consider when they choose clothes for their next bluescreen bonanza, not selecting clothes that disappear in the chromakey!!!

If I could have rated it a minus score, I would have!

Strange Op-Ed in Jerusalem Post,

When an op-ed piece in a newspaper starts like this...

"It is apparently better to be a terrorist than a law abiding citizen."

...you do wonder where the hell the piece is going to go after a line like that. This line appears in an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post! It is a piece written by a former Palestinian terrorist, who was the subject of an article, also in the Jerusalem Post, which surprisingly claimed that this guy was a terrorist whose bombing history can't be found.

I will say little more, other than enlightening, and well worth the read.

Could it be the CBS Evening News without Katie Couric?

The Wall Street Journal Online is reporting that Katie Couric could be on the verge of departing from CBS. The Journal reports that CBS executives are under pressure to cut costs on the programme, and the biggest target there is Katie Couric with her contract reportedly worth $15 million a year.

If she were to leave, who should get the anchor duties? Well, Harry Smith, longtime CBS News anchor, but like Katie mostly for morning programmes, has proved himself a more than capable anchor when he has substituted for her. The only other feasible alternative from within CBS News is Russ Mitchell, who anchors the Sunday edition of the programme. Can't say I see any other reasonable alternatives from outside of CBS News.

TV Newser has more on this developing story.

Momentarily back to the 2006 Congressional Election

It was back in August 2006, on the eve of the Connecticut Primary to decide the Democratic Party candidate for Novermber 2006's upcoming Congressional Election, when Joe Lieberman's campaign announced that his site had suffered a "denial of service" attack and had been taken offline.

Lieberman blamed supporters of rival candidate Ned Lamont for organising the crash via denial of service attacks.

Well, Crooks & Liars reports today that the FBI office in New Haven, Connecticut has concluded that there was no denial of service attack, but that the server was "...overutilized and misconfigured..."

I doubt that Lieberman will remember any of this though. He's moved on to be "Chief Corrections Officer" on the John McCain Republican campaign!

Ident City is Back!

A couple of years ago, I was struggling to try and update a site that I had been trying to work on for the better part of 8 years. I'd had enough of spending hours coding a single page, only to spend a few more hours touching up that coding when things went wrong.

So I scrapped the site and started a blog. That blog was Viewpoint, which is what you are reading now. But now,I have relaunched Ident City as a blog. I will be posting on Ident City about UK television and any other television related news I find.

Stay tuned.

Inside Cable News is back!

Spud has brought back the Inside Cable News blog, rebranded as ICN 2.0. It's at a new address, which I have put in the links in place of the original.

I'll be keeping an eye on the RSS feed as usual, and if Spud is good on his word, he'll be probably getting regular links from this blog.

Welcome Back, Spud.

Breaking News: Zimbabwe Election may be over, soon.

BBC News is reporting that the election in Zimbabwe maybe over very soon. The US Embassy has confirmed that American, French and British Ambassadors in Harare have been summoned for a meeting, and there have been many reports throughout the day about possible talks going on between Zanu PF and the MDC, with South Africa thought to be involved as a mediator, although there have been flat out denials of this by some of the parties said to be involved.

All this information comes with the usual warnings, that because there is no independent media in Zimbabwe, and no foreign news agencies are allowed to report from there, there is no independent verification of these reports.

The US Embassy is also saying that President Mugabe is due to give a broadcast sometime between 1900 and 1930 GMT. As I write this, it is currrently 1823 GMT.

This could be a very interesting evening. We'll keep a close eye on this one, and keep you updated.

Capital Life closes

I turned on Capital Life earlier to listen to the music, and all I found was silence. The scrolling message on my DAB radio says, "We're sorry, but Capital Life has closed down. Thanks for listening to the station over the past few years."

So, just as Global buys GCap, Capital Life closes. I used to enjoy that station. Oh well, Capital Life's demise might be a good thing in the long term, but confidence in DAB is low. What with 4 Digital being put back until November, it seems that a lot will be on the shoulders of established stations. Is there no-one with the guts to try something new on Digital 1? I guess we'll see in time.

Worst Person In the World: Dick Morris

Last night, was another special edition of Countdown, on NBC. And as usual, it featured some of the MSNBC regular features, such as Worst Person In The World. The Bronze, for the third edition in a row, went to WalMart, who own Asda in the UK. They've sued a former employee who was broadsided by a semi, and claimed over $400,000 in compensation which was being used to provide 24 hour care for her, since she was brain damaged as a result of the broadsiding. WalMart sued and won in court a claim for all the money this woman had in the world. I understand that Keith will continue awarding Bronzes every night to Walmart until they atone, which they should do VERY quickly, since this is generating tons of negative publicity for the company.

Silver went to Rush Limburger, I mean, Rush Limbaugh, and former Clinton advisor Dick Morris got the gold. Check out the video below.

American local TV station online 24/7

I've discovered that a local TV station in Witchita, Kansas, broadcasts a channel online 24/7. KCTU's internet channel is different from the broadcast channel, but it does show one thing. If a small local TV station in Witchita can sort out broadcasting 24/7 on the web, why can't some other TV channels do the same?

This all came about as a result of the station losing their affiliation with ION Television, originally known as the PAX network. Kudos to KCTU for a fine idea, well executed.

Posh legs it in PVC, not leather.

The Daily Star's headline "Posh Gets Leathered" got me interested earlier. Victoria Beckham is not known for wearing much leather. In fact, it was somewhat of a surprise when she turned up to the Spice Girls press conference in what looked like a PVC bustier and leggings.

Well, she's back in PVC again, only this time it was treated to look like leather. There was no way you could have leggings that tight made from proper leather. In fact, the Daily Mail called it correctly by calling her "PVC Posh".

I'm certainly not a fan of Victoria Beckham, but certain style choices always interest me, and the fact she chose PVC not real leather is interesting. Perhaps the fetish styling of PVC and latex remains a favourite amongst celebrities, rather than real leather.

Carla Bruni Sarkozy... and that picture!

Today, French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in the UK for a state visit, with his new first lady. at the same time, a photographer has released a nude photograph of Carla Bruni Sarkozy from around 15 years ago.

The photograph can be seen on the sites of the Daily Star and Daily Mail. There's no need for me to post the picture here directly, both links, if you choose to visit them, will show you the photograph. I could go off on one of my usual rambles about press intrusion, or about the price of fame, but there is more than that here.

I suspect that the photographer involved is making somewhat of a political statement rather than purely selling a picture. Nicolas Sarkozy is not a popular figure in France these days, largely down to his affair with Carla Bruni. The most recent poll puts his approval rating at just 37%, which is well down on his early approval ratings just after his election.

It'll be interesting to see if the Carla Bruni situation is as damaging for Sarkozy as Iraq has been for "Dubya".

Heritage Foundation, ready and poised... for almost 36 days!

Crooks and Liars some time ago reported that the Heritage Foundation website had a clock counting up the days, hours, minutes etc, since the expiration of the so called Protect America Act.

Well, having just been back there myself to check, I can report that it's still there, still counting, and still wrong. On the Widget it counts the number of days etc, "Since Congress Let Emergency Surveillance Powers Lapse." I think these people need reminding that a version was sent to Bush's desk, and he brought out the veto pen, since it didn't include immunity for the actions of the telecoms companies, actions that Bush refused to confirm happened, even though his VP did confirm it.

If these powers were SO vital, he should have accepted the bill that was sent to him, and then separately negotiated with Congress for the Telecoms immunity. But since he DIDN'T accept that bill, it was BUSH, not Congress who let the powers lapse. Nothing more than pure petty politicing, yet again.

Reporter attacked because she was black.

To say I am angry about this story would be putting it mildly. I am sickened by the actions of those who thought they could intimidate a local news reporter and scare her off a genuine news story, because the reporter happened to be black.

The reporter's name is Charmayne Brown, and she works for CBS-affiliate WSPA News Channel 7. Another news crew from NBC affiliate WYFF News 4 was also on the scene, and like WSPA's crew, they were covering a local story in Union, South Carolina about a murder of an elderly man in Spring Street in Union. The murder victim's grandson had been charged with that murder. It turns out, two of the people who attacked Charmayne, were relatives of the man charged.

Here's the video, courtesy of YouTube. But be warned, I do not believe that this video is suitable for anyone with a nervous disposition.



To me, this is media intimidation, or an attempt at it, with racial undertones at the very least, if they're not overtones. Both WYFF and WSPA report this story, and WSPA anchors Amy Wood and Tom Crabtree have both blogged about this story. I totally agree with Amy. You attack one journalist, you attack us all. We are supposed to be impartial observers, but I happily put my usual impartiality aside for this. I hope these people get the full weight of the law down on them. They have made for themselves more enemies around the world than you could ever possibly imagine.

The attackers names have been released by local police. So, Trina Vinson, Tousha Smith, Billie Taylor and Ronald Harris of Union, SC, you are today's Worst Persons In The World.

PETA is not Protecting our Environment Today at All!

Adult move star Jenna Jameson is fronting a new campaign by PETA, wanting people to "Pleather Yourself" by wearing plastic-based alternatives to Leather.

Now, I've no problem with the idea of wearing plastic, I have PVC trousers myself. But they seem to be so caught up in animal rights, that they haven't figured out that more plastic leather clothes also equals more damage to the environment. You see, Plastic is derived from Oil, and since we are running out of Oil reserves, as well as the plastics themselves being quite damaging if left to attempt to rot, you see just how a single minded approach to an issue can fail to see something just as bad.

"... By choosing pleather, you are keeping the fun alive and helping animals! What could be better?" How about leaving a planet for our children and grandchildren to actually live on?

Viewpoint Extra: NY Governor linked to Prostitution ring!

Okay, so he's finally gone. Eliot Spitzer has finally decided the time was right to resign his post as New York Governor. Lt Governor David Paterson takes over. So I thought the time was right to use some video highlights from whatever sources were available.

First from MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, how Keith reported the story Monday, and fair play to him that he did report it.



And then from Tuesday's Countdown, the Worst Person award, which does relate... just!



Now, some of the Breaking News coverage from Monday's MSNBC daytime news cycle.



Next, the Monday announcement from Eliot Spitzer, that was long on reterick and short on detail.



Next, more coverage from after the announcement.



Now, fast forward to today, and the announcement from Eliot Spitzer of his resignation.



and finally in our video roundup, MSNBC analyses what happens from here on in.



The most interesting thing about this whole affair is just how little Eliot Spitzer has said. He's given very little detail about the allegations, and it would seem that he is preparing to face justice and probably serve time, so he is avoiding saying anything that would damage any defence he can come up with.

We'll keep our eyes on the video screens and let you know what else we find in this story.

NY Governor linked to Prostitution ring!

This is a pretty big story in New York, and to be honest, in my view, this is a pretty big story overall. New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is reported by the New York Times website to have been involved in a prostitution ring. According to the report, he was caught on a federal wiretap meeting up with a high-price prostitute at a hotel in Washington, in relation to a ring, the Emporer's Club VIP, that was broken up last week.

So far, Eliot Spitzer has not indicated that he intends to resign, but sources have told WCBS TV in New York that Spitzer could resign as early as Monday evening and was not expected to continue as Governor. If he does, until the state constitution, The Lieutenant Governor, David Paterson, would serve out the rest of the term, and the post of Lieutenant Governor would be vacant until the next election in 2010.

This is big news, and to be honest, if he doesn't resign, it will be very damaging for Democrats in New York in upcoming elections, not just the Governor's race but other elections including possibly the 2008 Presidential race. By geographic association, if nothing else, this might also damage Hilary Clinton's chances if she doesn't distance herself signifcantly from Spitzer.

Dead And Buried?

I am nothing if not a realist. In the many years that I have been following the media, I've seen the them do a lot of silly things. But the way industry insiders such as Ralph Bernard have recently talked down DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) digital radio is almost nothing short of deliberate sabotage. Thankfully few others have gotten in on the act, though DAB does have its problems. But then, so does GCap, the company Ralph Bernard worked for. So maybe, it was telling that Mr Bernard did everything he could to hide GCap's problems behind the façade of a DAB crisis. After all, almost all of GCap's radio stations broadcast simultaneously on analogue AM or FM and on DAB Digital Radio.

But now, a group of analysts have bought into this façade and are trying to suggest that there is a real crisis in DAB, a crisis that - by the way - doesn't actually exist except in the minds of bean counters who are looking for profit all the time. The name of this group of analysts: Enders Analysis. Now, this analytical organisation has tried to claim that in fact DAB is about to become the next Betamax!

First of all, the analogy is way off the mark. DAB is not in competition with FM, or AM, or even DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) which is fairly new on the scene. If that were the case, then LW would probably have been closed off years ago. Secondly, to look at how long it takes for something to bed in to the public consciousness, you only need to look at VHF/FM. The band was opened up in the 1950s, but it didn't become popular to listen on FM until the 1980s. Even when Radio 1 had to hand over 1053 and 1089 AM to commercial radio in the 1990s, there were still plenty of people to convert over to listening to Radio 1 on FM.

The report's writer then goes onto suggest that DAB's financial health is looking grim by saying:..

"With three of the largest radio groups having reduced their commitment to the DAB platform in recent months, their stations having been replaced by a mix of ethnic, religious and non-commercial broadcasters, the future health of the DAB platform must be under question."

I really think this guy needs to wake up and actually do a little research. There are other issues at work here than just DAB. First, Yes, GCrap GCap is closing stations, not because DAB is a failure, but because of their own lack of confidence in both finances and in broadcasting itself. Remember they tried to sell off 9 stations as a bundle, that they felt were "non-core stations". They failed, miserably. GCap's Gold Network is in danger of collapsing. The whole network of 40 stations gets less than 1.5 million listeners, with some stations doing incredibly pathetic numbers. Gold's Plymouth station gets a mere 7,000 listeners. It's because the product being offered, whether by DAB, FM, AM or online, is one that people think is not up to scratch. It doesn't mean the platform will fail.

Virgin Radio may have closed one digital only station and put the brakes on launching another, but that again has little to do with DAB. SMG, who own STV and Grampian as well as Virgin Radio, are trying to sell Virgin Radio, but again, there are few interested parties. It's an attempt to make the Virgin Radio company more attractive to possible investors. It's got nothing to do with any possible failure of the DAB platform.

People were saying similar things about Digital Terrestrial Television when On/ITV Digital collapsed in 2002. I remember it well, I was reporting on it at Transdiffusion. Now, with Freeview as the base of the platform, the platform is thriving. Commercial Radio went into the platform without looking at how long it takes to establish one. They were looking for a quick 5-year or so turnaround to profits, rather than the 15-20 years it takes to properly establish a new radio platform.

DTT went from being a commercial platform to being a public service platform and has thrived. DAB needs to go down the same route and it won't as long as GCap are in charge of national and local multiplexes. GCap's Digital One and Now Digital are the DAB equivalent of ITV Digital. The daft thing is, this moronic writer of this report, whose name is Grant Goddard, also referenced the ITV Digital debacle!

"Ofcom faces a public outcry if the DAB platform were to fail, with owners of the 6.45 million DAB receivers sold to date demanding a refund of their purchases (remember ITV Digital?)."

Yes, I do. As I mentioned earlier, I reported on it, first hand, you can find the articles over in Bitstream on EMC, along with those of some of my colleagues who also reported on it at the time. And in all honesty, I do not see how over 6 million people would demand refunds for something that they HAVEN'T subscribed to, but just bought a piece of equipment for. Believe it or not, there are still ITV Digital digiboxes out there working, albeit not brilliantly, but they are working, just. But the most moronic statement of them all has to be the one that follows:

"Channel 4 is faced with the task of imminently launching a brand new DAB multiplex in the middle of a snowstorm around the future of the whole platform,"

A 'snowstorm' that has been created predominantly by two people. GCap's Ralph Bernard and Enders Analysis's Grant Goddard. Channel 4 got a taste of running a digital radio station in the recently demised Oneword, and it obviously didn't put them off because they chose to bid for a new national multiplex. And they won. 4 Digital group's stations represent the freshest ideas for DAB ever. All Digital One seems to have done is trotted out the same old tired sound, time and time again, and Joe Public is bored with it. With the growth in online listening, listeners can tune in to stations the world over, and find the cream of the crop.

Sadly for commercial radio, the UK's best stations are run by the BBC. British commercial radio barely flickers across the online 'dials' at all. But stations in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe are all providing a far superior product to almost anything we have here in the UK. The reason is simple. Whilst our commercial radio stations have cut back content to the bare bones of music, commercials and news, other stations across the world have upped their content levels and because of this, are able to take advantage of the Podcast medium, which out of necessity, has to be speech based.

DAB as a platform is not at fault. It's the stations themselves that have shot themselves in the proverbial foot. Yes, we've lost a number of radio stations on DAB, but they've closed because their business plans were not realistic, in much the same way that a multitude of stations have closed on digital television, not because of the platform, but because their business plans were not realistic, not designed for the new digital broadcast environment that exists these days. And because they aren't making money as quickly as they want to, they want to abandon a broadcast platform. And you, Grant Goddard of Enders Analysis, are actively encouraging them with this piece of anti-DAB propaganda!

The report reads like the kind of hit job that I would expect from Fox News covering a Democrat, rather than an analysis of DAB. It has so many inaccuracies, that I have detailed and more, and come to so many erroneous conclusions, that I have to consign this report to the only file where it seems to fit in. The waste paper bin!

Carol Barnes 1944-2008

This is a sad day for journalists and news junkies alike. Carol Barnes was a consumate professional newscaster, anchoring all of ITN's main news programmes on ITV, including News At Ten. She also launched Channel 4's first breakfast programme, the Channel 4 Daily. Some video clips for your perusal. First, the first edition of the Channel 4 Daily.



Next, an edition of ITN's News at 5.40, on the day that the 1991 ITV franchise round came to an end, and the fate of 4 of ITV's licencees is revealed.



Rest In Peace, Carol Barnes. You will be much missed.

One less extremist broadcasting

It has been noted by many blogs, including Crooks and Liars and Political Blotter, and confirmed by both KSFO and Melanie Morgan herself, that Melanie Morgan no longer works for KSFO in San Francisco.

Upon research, the reason why she was let go becomes clear. KSFO's owners are a company called Citadel Broadcasting, who bought the former ABC/Disney owned and operated radio networks and stations, except for Radio Disney and ESPN Radio, last year. And in 2007, they made a huge loss, over $1 billion, $1.5 billion before income tax. This is a serious amount of money to be losing and about 65% of that loss occured in the last quarter of 2007.

Make no mistake, Citadel cannot afford to be losing that kind of money for any length of time, no company could. Citadel own 243 radio stations, over 60 on AM, including many of the old ABC talk stations. It needs to make cutbacks, quite obviously. Melanie Morgan may not be the first cutback, but she is one of the biggest names to have faced the chop so far. Who else has to fear the axe? I imagine we'll soon find out.

Perhaps this means that not all conservative talk radio is popular in the US. Sure, Rush Limbaugh's show is the most listened to show in America. Thankfully for the realms of sanity, second and third place go to NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered respectively. Perhaps the era of dominance for conservative talk radio is over or at least, on its way out. Which does beg the question, if it is on the way out, what will replace it programming wise? Don't get me wrong, conservative talk show hosts will continue to exist on the radio schedules, but hopefully as part of a more balanced schedule of programming, rather than dominating talk radio schedules 24/7/365.

Worst Person In The World: Jonah Goldberg

For those of us outside the US, who sadly cannot watch the show live, I'm very glad that MSNBC allows embedding of video clips from Countdown with Keith Olbermann and other programmes. This clip comes from last night's show, and as usual, Bill O'Reilly manages to feature. He gets a bronze this time. The winner though is Jonah Goldberg, who I hadn't heard of before he tried to equate fascism with socialism. Enjoy the clip.



From "Countdown with Keith Olbermann", Monday 3rd March 2008.

NPR criticises the world of punditry

This is an old entry on NPR's News blog, but I thought it worth highlighting anyway.

NPR's Tom Regan blogs about how pundits have taken over the world of cable news in the US. He references American activist Bethania McKenstry, who said one of the truest things I've ever heard.

"...I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side -- I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts..."

It is so true. Just look at the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Russ Limbaugh and Michael Savage. So many opinions, yet so little facts to back them up. The number of times each of them has opened their mouth only to stick their foot in it, I have lost count of.

But there are countless amateur pundits out there on the net, who I catch making fools of themselves more times than I can count in a day, never mind a year. The amount of rubbish that is spouted as hard solid fact and is believed as such, is sad. My previous post, was just one such occasion when I just couldn't stand to read this, without doing a rebuttle. I've done many others, throughout the history of this blog.

Make no mistake, I am as much a pundit as any of them. My difference is, at least I do research, and have facts to back my opinions up, which most of them seem to be sadly lacking on.

A Biased BBC??? Not Likely

I'm not ashamed to criticise the BBC when they get something wrong, but that's not nearly as often as some commentators try to claim. Take the blog Biased BBC.

They have used this online report as an indication of bias against Israel in its reporting. But as usual, this is not the case. The BBC is actually providing an unbiased report, which is not what the blog writer wants.

"...Who are these Hamas "militants" to whom the BBC obliquely refers? Can't they say the word "terrorist" since that is clearly the word which best sums up those who shelter amongst Gaza civilians whilst targeting innocent Israeli civilians with indiscriminate rocket fire?"

What this writer clearly forgets is that the BBC is a global broadcaster and these online stories can be read around the world. To some Palestinians, the people he calls "terrorists" would be called "freedom fighters". Language is much a weapon in these wars as missiles and bombs. So, to avoid being seen to be taking sides, the word "militant" is used, which is defined by the dictionary as "...aggresive or vigourous in support of a cause." "Militant" is a word that avoids taking sides. "Terrorist" means the writer thinks that side are in the wrong.

Perhaps this David Vance, who writes this blog has also forgotten that it was Israeli militants back in 1948 that made a land grab for the area we now know as Israel, which was formally called Palestine. Pre 1948, Israel did not exist. The land grab was illegal at the time, but because the Jews had suffered massively at the hands of the Nazis, it was left relatively unchecked.

But of course, like many conservative minds, and bad tabloid journalists, David Vance never lets the facts get in the way of a good story.

I give him half a point though for the BBC not reporting the many rocket attacks from Gaza to Israel. However, the information he seeks is available from other sources, but it does little to support his cause that the BBC should be reporting this. The following information snippets came from the site of the Intellitgence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC).

"...terrorist attacks originating in the Gaza Strip continue, the genuine source of the Gazans' suffering. On the day of the human chain six rockets were fired at Sderot and western Negev towns and villages, resulting in the wounding of a 10-year old boy; several civilians were also treated for shock."

"...Rocket and mortar shell fire at western Negev towns and villages continues. During the past week 22 rocket hits were identified in Israeli territory, compared with 45 the week before. In addition, 40 mortar shells were fired at IDF forces and villages near the security fence. The rocket fire on February 25 badly wounded a 10-year old boy. About 15 civilians were treated for shock during the past week."

Not one single death reported from all the rockets fired into Israel. And if David Vance is correct in his assertion that hundreds of these rockets are being fired into Israel, how come only 22 hits were reported? Perhaps this next clipping I've found might answer that question. It comes from the site Global Sercurity.org.

"...The Qassam rocket was first launched into Israeli territory on March 5, 2002, by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. While the rocket lacks a guidance system and is very inaccurate, the initial psychological effect of the rockets upon Israel has been significant."

So, it lacks any form of guidance and is very inaccurate. No wonder very few deaths have ever been reported from these rockets. It would be more through bad luck on the victim's part, rather than any judgement by Hamas. No wonder the large number of Hamas rocket attacks don't get reported normally.

But David Vance completely ignores the facts, much like his conservative broadcast bretherin at Fox News, and uses any slim opportunity he can to attack a public broadcaster doing its job. His Pro-Israel bias is blatantly obvious, yet he seems to see bias in an unbiased report. As The Doctor once said, "I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren't there!"

The "Biased BBC" blog is like far too many others out there on the web in that they espouse a non-factual, purely political point of view. They present opinion and propoganda as fact and hope you don't notice. Unfortunately for Mr Vance, I could see already that his "story" had more holes in it than a block of Swiss Emmental Cheese! A little research then proved that his story had no legs to stand on. Yet, there are people out there who believe this rubbish and others like it, whether it be politically conservative or liberal.

It just goes to show, choose your information sources carefully, and don't believe everything you read or hear anywhere, without a little research to see if it holds water, like the BBC report does, or leaks like a sieve, like the "Biased BBC" blog entry does. I don't expect him to even acknowledge this entry, despite the hours of hard work that went into it. But for me, the satisfaction comes in getting the facts out into the public domain, something it seems that a lot of blog writers know nothing about.

Bill O'Reilly may be in trouble.

On a recent edition of his radio show on Fox News Talk and Westwood One, The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, The Frank Burns of News managed to go against the wishes of the man he cheerleads on both his radio and TV shows, US President George W Bush, aka "The Dubya", by using the word lynching in relation to the wife of presidential candidate Barack Obama. The piece relates to a supposed quote from Michelle Obama, about how proud she is about America now because the nation has hope.

On last night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Keith talked about the story as his number 1 story on the countdown. If my html skills are up to scratch, the video of the segment should appear below.

UK Government sponsors football club!

In all the furore that has taken place over the "nationalisation" of Northern Rock, one small fact seems to been overlooked by the rest of the media.

According to Northern Rock's own web site, the bank are the main sponsor of Newcastle United, and since they are currently owned by the UK government, that means that Newcastle United are the first ever UK football club to be sponsored by the UK government.

Weird or what?

A Viewpoint Original Report: A Jinxed Shop???

Most of the pieces you read here on Viewpoint are commentaries on items in the news or on the net. And most of the time, I'm happy to do just that. Just occasionally though, I like to do some original reporting of my own. The recent posts on CNBC Life have been posts that were not originated from a web piece but from something I spotted on screen whilst watching TV myself. A post asking if it was time the Home Internationals returned to the football schedules was another piece not inspired by something I could link to on the web. So you see, I do follow other things besides what goes on on the web.

Just recently though, I have been noticing in my own town, a growing trend of shops closing down. A sports goods shop closed last month, after a long time of trying to sell off the remaining stock they had. Focus DIY's store out of town is in process of selling off all their remaining stock and closing down, apparently to be replaced by an ASDA supermarket, according to my local sources. And now, a toy shop that opened in town just months ago is closing down as well. They had been based in a store that in recent years has housed everything from a newsagent/card store, to a CD/DVD store and now this, only for them to be closing too.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is not the first time a shop has closed in our town. Hell, many years ago, it was thought that the heart would get ripped out when a popular local department store closed. But it didn't get ripped out, it just adapted. But for one particular shop location in the centre of town, to be so unstable, in other words, to not have a store stay there for a length of time beyond a couple of years in the last 5 years, is quite unusual for Truro. In fact, this is the first time that I can think of in my lifetime that any shop location in town has seen any rapid turnover of shops. Twice, Calendar Club have been there, then Foop, who went to the wall, and now, Hawkin's Bazaar has decided to sell up. And all this has happened since McColl's sold up some years ago, on account of it being too close to WHSmith, who are about two doors down the road from this site.

I can't say that the economic situation looks bad, because it doesn't, but is it the case that that particular shop location is jinxed in some way? I hope somebody moves in there and proves me wrong.

Classic FM's Simon Bates on US television!

If I were to say to you, Simon Bates, what does he do, you'd probably say, he presents Classic FM's breakfast show and he used to be a BBC Radio 1 DJ, and occasional host of Top Of The Pops back in the day. But what if I told you, he also is a commentator for CBS News in the US?

It can be amazing what you can find on the internet sometimes.



There he is, sat somewhere in London, reporting on a story for CBS News's overnight news programme, Up To The Minute. And, by the way, the story itself is an interesting one. A cautionary tale in it's own way, about how details in a story can make all the difference. Fascinating story, told in the inimitable Simon Bates, Our Tune style, only without the background music!

I think if I'd said that Simon Bates was a commentator for CBS News, you'd have thought it was a different person to the Classic FM presenter. Just goes to show, that on the internet, you can find the unexpected, without even looking for it.

Changes at Fox News Watch

Fox News Watch is the Fox News equivalent of CNN's Reliable Sources. I haven't been able to watch it recently because of the fact it changed timeslots. But I respect the programme for the fact it is completely unlike the rest of Fox News output. It truly is fair, balanced and unafraid, especially of criticising their own employers. Still, that is their job, or in some cases, was.

Inside Cable News is reporting that Eric Burns will not be returning to the show when it has a relaunch in the spring. That is a shame, as I like Eric Burns, he was a good moderator on this media discussion show. Trying to control the likes of Neal Gabler, Cal Thomas, Jim Pinkerton and Jane Hall was a tough job for anyone. I hope that Fox doesn't change it for the worse and makes it just like the rest of the network, as that would be disastrous. But I can't help feeling that Fox News Watch's weeks may be numbered.

America Votes 2008: Super Tuesday

They're still voting in 23 states right now, but in West Virignia, the Republican Caucus is over and NBC News/MSNBC are calling it a win for Mike Huckabee, giving him another 18 delegates. Huckabee polled 567 votes, against Romney's 521 votes and McCain's 12 votes. This is a winner take all state, so all 18 delegates go to Mike Huckabee. But the Romney camp is crying foul.

A McCain vs Obama contest would be very interesting as both would look to take the "moderate" vote as it is termed over in the US. To me that would mean a very interesting contest for the politcial centre, and perhaps a more interesting fight than a Romney vs Clinton one where both have strong bases in their side of the political spectrum but do not stretch very far into the political centre.

Viewpoint Extra: NBC Universal to launch CNBC Life?

A follow up to a previous post. I have just seen a new promo advertising CNBC Life. They announced that the programming block, which will air on weekends begins 23rd February. No further information available at this time, but it does seem like this will basically be the same as the old CNBC Weekend brand that they used a couple of years back.

WPITW on Countdown: Clinton got a lot of passes!!!

I have to agree with Keith Olbermann on this one. I don't think former President Bill Clinton got any passes. CNN, Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, were all around back then and were all over the Clinton Lewinsky 'scandal' like a bad rash 24/7/365 for 2 years plus! He didn't get any form of pass at all. Anyway, have a look at the WPITW segment from last night's Countdown With Keith Olbermann. That is, if my HTML skills are up to scratch!

From American Gladiators to the WWE!

Wrestlezone.com is reporting that former host and commentator of both American Gladiators and International Gladiators Mike Adamle is to debut at the Royal Rumble this Sunday.

I'm not sure if he is being groomed as an eventual replacement for good ol' JR, Jim Ross, or whether he will join Michael Cole eventually on SmackDown, but at the moment he will be joining the RAW team, alongside Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler and Todd Grisham.

I think this is a good move for WWE, as because of his background with American Gladiators, he is probably more qualified than some others that WWE have taken on before. He was also an NFL star back in the 1970s, so he is quite used to the rough and tumble of sports. I look forward to seeing Mike Adamle in action on WWE programming.

Viewpoint Extra: Heath Ledger 1979-2008

As a follow up to the obituary I wrote, I notice that the Dark Knight website, the one for the new movie to be released this summer in which Heath plays The Joker, has been replaced by a simple page. A touching and fitting tribute to a real actor, who worked for the joy of acting, rather than for any twisted notion of fame. He will be greatly missed by us all.

Red Eye's Fixed Noise "Alert!"

Fox News Channel has a late night news/talk/comedy show called Red Eye, which normally fails to be any of the three, never mind all of them. However, one recent edition did manage to include a real comedy gem, for about a whole 20 seconds!

20 seconds, out of the myriad hours of output they have wasted on this show. Still, it is a gem worth sharing. Kudos to the mystery newsreader, whoever you are...



And kudos to the guy who recorded it and put it up on YouTube for all to see.

Viewpoint Extra: NBC Universal to begin CNBC life?

To follow up on a recent post of mine here, it would seem that CNBC Life is NOT a new channel, at least not yet.

By checking around various forums, I have discovered that CNBC Life is a new programming block coming up in February on CNBC Europe. I have to thank Digital Spy forum member Epsom for discovering the information. Unfortunately at the moment, no further information seems to be available. I'll let you know as soon as there is more info.

Heath Ledger 1979-2008

Heath Ledger was perhaps best known for his starring roles in two films. The first was the role that first brought him to public attention, Sir William Thatcher in the 2001 film A Knight's Tale. It featured among its soundtrack, a cover version of the old Queen track, We Are The Champions by Robbie Williams, which no doubt helped propel a film which had no strong star names to sell it on.

The other role, was the one that garnered him an oscar nomination. Ennis Del Mar in the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, the film who garnered a ton of noteriety when it was revealed that it was about two gay cowboys.

Ironically, a lot of people I know were looking forward to his next big performance, that of The Joker in the follow up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight. Pictures had already begun to circulate showing him in the Joker make up and a real buzz was growing about this role. It was very likely that his performance in that film would have catapulted him from superstardom to megastardom.

IMDB has him listed as being cast in a film called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which is the next film from Python member Terry Gilliam. Whether he will appear in that film now remains to seen.

According to the press reports I have seen, it is believed that his death may be drug related. It also could be suicide, which given the information made available so far, is a possibility. We won't know for sure for a while yet. Heath Ledger, born in Perth, Western Australia, was just 28.

R. I. P.

New Five News - Coming Soon

There is a new blog from Five News which is written by new presenter Natasha Kaplinsky, as part of the build up to the relaunch of Five News under the name "Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky".

In her first video post, she talks about having done research for the new show at CBS News. So, we can expect to see a bulletin modeled on the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric". She talked about sofas and the new set being built, and a more casual look. The casual approach to news has been done before, very successfully too, but it's very difficult to do without looking too gimmicky.

The new programme is due to launch in February so we'll keep an eye on that.

NBC Universal to begin CNBC life?

I have been watching CNBC quite a bit recently, and I have noticed a promo which is very minimalist, but seems to indicate a new channel could be being launched by NBC Universal under the CNBC brand. It seems to be called CNBC life, and according to the promo, it will have sports, current affiars, entertainment and other things besides, and to me, with my memory, it reminds me an awful lot of the old NBC Super Channel that "appeared" in 1993, only to disappear in 1998.

This could mean some changes to the weekend schedule of CNBC Europe, which would be interesting to see happen. What would be on CNBC life exactly? Not sure, the advert wasn't too specific, but I hope that we will get to see NBC's Today show again, which I remember from back when Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric were the hosts, now it's Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera. I also hope we will see material from MSNBC, such as Hardball with Chris Matthews and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. I would also like to see ITN providing World News again for the channel, although I have to admit I think it unlikely.

I do think however we might get to see full editions of The Tonight Show and Late Night on a small tape delay (less than 24 hours), which is better than what we're currently viewing now here in the UK and Ireland. The only thing it did say at the end of the promo was "CNBC life. February" so we won't have to wait too long to find out.

America Votes 2008: Iowa Caucus

So, the results are in, just about. We know who won, we know who lost, and we know who's heading for the race exit door.

On the Democratic side, which saw apparently a record turnout, Barack Obama polled 940 votes, John Edwards polled 744 votes and Hilary Clinton polled 737 votes. As far as the other candidates go, Bill Richardson polled 53 votes, Joe Biden polled 23 and Chris Dodd polled a single vote. 3 were uncommited. Neither Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel polled a single vote.

It was not long after the final result was announced that word came out from the relevant camps, that both Sen. Joseph Biden and Sen. Christopher Dodd, had pulled out of the race to become the Democratic nominee for this year's race to the White House.

Since neither Mike Gravel or Dennis Kucinich polled a single vote, both candidates must and should be, seriously considering whether their bids for the White House should continue. Even Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, should be looking at whether his bid for the White House has much gas left in the tank. I still think he could come up on the rails and it is not inconcievable that he could pull of an unlikely victory, but more and more, this is looking like a three-horse-race.

On the Republican side, things are a little different.

With 96% of the precincts reporting, Mike Huckabee is leading and almost certainly has won, with currently 39,814 votes. Mitt Romney polled 29,045 votes. Fred Thompson polled 15,521 votes with John McCain polling 15,248 votes, just slightly behind Thompson. Ron Paul polled 11,598 votes whilst Rudi Guiliani came a bad sixth with just 4,013 votes. Duncan Hunter (who?) came in last with 515 votes.

On the Republican side, the pressure is really on for ALL the candidates. Miken Huckabee won Iowa, but it's considered that New Hampshire is a much tougher state for him because the kind of Christian Conservatives that he appeals to, just aren't there in New Hampshire. Mitt Romney also needs to come up big in New Hampshire. To keep him in the campaign, he really needs to win, or at least come a decent close second. Thompson really needs to pick up ground in New Hampshire, otherwise his campaign is dead in the water. Current polls there indicate he is way off the pace there with just 2%. John McCain also needs at worst a second place in New Hampshire or he is very likely to be truly out of the running.

Ron Paul and Rudi Guiliani on the other hand don't seem quite so badly off. Rudi hasn't strongly campaigned in either Iowa or New Hampshire and seems to pinning his hopes on Super Tuesday, February 5th, when 18 states go to the polls. The problem is of course that this strategy could backfire rather badly if Huckabee's momentum in Iowa spreads through New Hampshire and on to Super Tuesday. Ron Paul needs at least a third in New Hampshire to keep his momentum going, but even he wouldn't be entirely dead in the water if he didn't. But he would be in some degree of difficulty if he didn't.

As for Duncan Hunter, he may as well quit now. His chances were always remote and now seem about as likely as snow during a Florida Summer!

At the moment, I am watching coverage of the "Countdown To New Hampshire" live on MSNBC, via their web site. I hope they continue broadcasting live on the web, as out of all the US based news channels, only CNN broadcasts on the web, and that's audio only. I really would like to see more news channels broadcasting on the web and in video too.

Merry Christmas from Viewpoint

To all of you around the world, let me wish you a very merry Christmas, and hope that your festive season will be a calm and peaceful one.

WLS TV in Chicago discover Breaking News... First Hand!

This happened Sunday Night in Chicago, live on the 10pm newscast at exactly 10.02pm. A mini van crashed into the street-side studio of ABC affiliate VLS TV.

Someone took some video from the overnight repeat and edited it into a 6 minute video of the relevant bits of the story. You can watch that below, or if my HTML skills are up to their usual standard, or if you're reading via video non-compliant RSS viewer, then the link is here.

Opera wants IE unbundled from Windows

BBC News is reporting that the Norwegian company behind the Opera browser is appealing to the European Commission to have IE unbundled from Windows, to have Microsoft follow web standards rather than creating their own, and to have other browsers pre-installed on Windows machines.

We've been in this territory before, when IE was first bundled with Windows about 10 years ago. Back then Netscape made a similar complaint to the American authorities, based on similar lines, which got them nowhere basically. Netscape went bust and became Mozilla, and Navigator, the Netscape browser, regerated into Firefox, and is now enjoying renewed success. But Internet Explorer still dominates the market.

I don't think that Opera will be successful in getting IE unbundled from Windows. However, it might just manage to get other browsers pre-installed as standard on all Windows machines. If that can be achieved, it would be a small victory, but an important one. I feel that is as much as can be possibly hoped for. IE is far too much a part of Windows these days for it to ever be unbundled. I have even less hope that Microsoft will EVER follow any standards other than their own, but allowing other browsers to be bundled with Windows, is at least an achieveable aim, and one that just might happen. Don't hold your breath though waiting...

Kylie Minogue loves the leather biker chick look

The Sun reports that Kylie Minogue seems to like her new leather biker-chick look. She's not the only one who likes it.

Kinky Gerlinky has photos of her from the Nobel prize shindig that was held recently. I have to admit I like the look too, it actually works well for her. Not everyone could get away with it, but she can.

And in just under a couple of weeks, she will be co-starring alongside David Tennant in a new Doctor Who adventure, playing the role of Astrid, a waitress on board the Titanic. The episode, Voyage Of The Damned, airs first on BBC1 in the UK on Christmas Day at 6.50pm.

Paris is a golden girl!

The Sun has a couple of pictures of Paris Hilton actually doing some work for a change, albeit posing for an advert for a champagne, but nice to see actually earning a living for once!

The interesting thing about these pictures though is that Paris is posing nude, but covered from head to toe in gold paint, ala Shirley Eaton in the Bond film, Goldfinger.

Back To The Blog!

After a period of enforced disconnection, thanks mainly to high winds, I am back, and ready to resume updates to Viewpoint once again.

The Golden Compass - anti-Christian?

CBN News has on their website a story about the new film from New Line Cinema which stars Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Dakota Blue Richards, The Golden Compass.

Now, being a Christian broadcaster, they have some very surprisingly un-Christian things to say about a movie and the book it was based on, describing it as a atheist, anti-christian film. Some of their contributors go further, by calling it part of a decietful stealth campaign to bash Christianity and promote athiesm.

But when you see on a daily basis just how much harm religion has done in the world, in areas like Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine, isn't it really the case that religion of all kinds have done little to help themselves and their causes over the years by the fact that there are many religions, rather than a single one. Religion is supposed to be a unifying force. Instead, it has become just another thing that divides us. And these people are complaining about a movie? I really think they need to get their priorities straight.

US Cable News Ratings: Countdown on the rise

Bill O'Reilly use to bragg about how his 11pm airing got a better number than Keith Olbermann's 8pm airing. He might not have that to be able to bragg about for much longer.

On Tuesday, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 8pm had 874,000 total viewers, 273,000 in the money demo, compared to The O'Reilly Factor at 11pm having 867,000 total viewers, 226,000 in the money demo. This was reported by Inside Cable News who use live numbers only.

TV Newser, who use Live + Same Day numbers reported that Countdown at 8pm had 952,000 total viewers, 316,000 in the money demo. Compare this to the 11pm Factor having 879,000 total viewers, 226,000 in the money demo.

Not that Bill O'Reilly had bad numbers that day. TV Newser reported 2.747 million viewers watched the 8pm airing of the Factor, 471,000 in the money demo, according to Live + SD numbers, whilst Inside Cable News reported that the live numbers for the Factor were 2.71 million total viewers, 459,000 in the money demo.

Now, TV Newser have released the Live + SD numbers for Wednesday, and it makes fascinating reading.

The O'Reilly Factor at 8pm had 2.85 million total viewers and 658,000 in the money demo, some of O'Reilly's best numbers this year. At 11pm, he did very well again, scoring 1.208 million viewers, 401,000 in the money demo.

But again, Countdown at 8pm beats Factor at 11pm, with Countdown's best ever numbers. A massive 1.209 million viewers watched Countdown, 409,000 in the money demo, beating the 11pm Factor by 1,000 total viewers and 8,000 demo viewers. This is an incredible performance, by anybody's standards. More people watched Countdown on MSNBC than watched any individual programme on both CNN and Headline News and also The Big Story on Fox News Channel. Expect John Gibson on The Big Story to do his usual anti-Keith Olbermann hit job tomorrow then!

Now, Inside Cable News has also reported the live numbers, and not surprisingly, with the Live+SD numbers being so close, The Factor at 11pm had more live viewers. 1.186 million total viewers, 391,000 in the money demo, compared to Countdown at 8pm with 1.148 million total viewers, 375,000 in the money demo.

Still, these are record numbers for Countdown, the first time they have scored over a million viewers live, and against top class numbers for O'Reilly too. O'Reilly fans and Olby haters are going to hate me for saying this, but this is fair and square, a great showing for Keith Olbermann, not only against O'Reilly himself, but a great rating show. Whether Olbermann will overtake O'Reilly at some point in the future, well, who knows. If it were to happen, it wouldn't be for a few years yet, but at this point, I wouldn't rule it out.

XM / Sirius Merger could be approved imminently.

There are a lot of reports out there, far too many to link, but they all suggest, like this one, that approval for the merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite radio is due to come imminently from the US Department of Justice.

This smells to me very similar to the British Satellite Broadcasting / Sky Television, which was allowed to go ahead, despite the fact that it was against the rules that BSB were told to work by by the IBA. Sky had the deep pockets of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp to fall back on. BSB had no such benefactor, and most of their shareholders were worried about the upcoming 1991 Channel 3(ITV) licence process.

Sky were the 'winners' in that so called merger. They basically absorbed BSB into their company with the token changing of the name to "British Sky Broadcasting" rather than tell it like it really was, Sky basically swallowing up BSB.

The real similarity here though is that XM and Sirius, like Sky and BSB, are both losing money, hand over fist, quarter by quarter. Because these two are the only competing satellite radio services in the US and Canada, this really shouldn't happen, in much the same way that BSB and Sky should not have happened. But you know it's going to. History says the merger will go ahead, the market says the merger will go ahead, my head says the merger will go ahead, but my heart does not want it to. I cannot abide the creation of a monopoly by a market that is supposed to favour competition.

The shareholders have voted for it, now we wait for the confirmation from the DoJ that, as we expect, this merger will happen, despite what we know to be in the better interests of everyone. If the market is so good, then let the market decide, and if the market decides that neither should survive, then so be it.