Bench Turd

[Zenith]

The BBC has been cowed into submission over the past decade or so, but there are a few signs it has realised the mistake and is trying to recover. Time will tell.

I see it as being totally at odds with its audience and has developed and is pushing its own agenda, which amounts to luxury beliefs. To me it seems to be adrift in a leaky lifeboat with circling sharks, but it thinks it's clever to get up and dance about and throw lumps of red meat into the water.

I think it should be dissolved. On second thoughts it should be put on a subscription basis and have to survive on that. I'd be surprised if it lasted six months.

[tggzzz]

Its objective is to "educate, inform, entertain". Given that most people don't want to be educated and only want to be informed of things that match their intuitive prejudices, it is probably good it is at odds with its audience.

If you haven't had a TV for 30 years, you won't have seen what modern advertising-based "entertainment" is like. Jeremy Kyle baiting guests until the audience turns on half of them, at least one committing suicide as a result. Endless reality shows, which are as real as The Trueman Show (movie) and where the participants are carefully selected to have almighty rows with other participants while the audience tries to guess whether one will (biblically) screw another, "travellers" screaming at each other over who gets to buy the barely glimpsed contents of shipping trailers, watching people watch TV (really!). Etc.

I'm sure you have heard of Fox News and GB News, that make no pretence of being accurate and objective, and merely push one political agenda (and disgraced politicians).

Then there are the entire channels devoted to conspiracies, e.g. Blaze where the rest of this morning's entertainment is (I kid you not) "Conspiracy Files Unsealed", "UFO Files", "Ancient Aliens", "Ancient Aliens Unleashed", "The Worlds Greatest treasure Mysteries", "Strange Evidence"...

Frighteningly, the alternative to the BBC is worse: all you have to do is watch it.

[Zenith]

A lot of people think it falls far short of its Reithian ideals, "to educate, inform and entertain" and has for a long time. All news and media organisations have a bias, or push a point of view; GBNews, Fox, Sky, CNN, MSNBC. If you buy a newspaper, you are subscribing to that point of view. I really can't see why the BBC should be held up as a beacon of impartiality, which it clearly is not, and be funded in a way that shields it from commercial pressures, and which forces people who have no interest in it to pay for it.

It was a reasonable way of doing things when there was just one, and then a few, radio stations and TV channels. Those days are long gone.

I wouldn't be sad to see it dissolved, or put on a subscription basis so those that like it can pay for it.

"Ancient Aliens" etc, is the sort of tosh that's always existed in one form or another.

[mnementh]

Yeah, over here all that shit flies on the History Channel and Discovery.

mnem
"It's all shit; pick a stratum and dig in." ~mum

[Zenith]

There's always been an appetite for the gee whizz.

The prophecies of Nostradamus. It might be interesting if the devotees interpreting his oeuvre, manage to predict something that hasn't already happened.

The Bermuda Triangle. According to insurance records it isn't particularly dangerous. The tale has grown with the telling from very dubious origins.

Other great world mysteries which "baffle scientists".

It used to be books and magazine articles. About the first TV series I recall along those lines was "In Search Of" presented by Leonard Nimoy.

Ones I've seen are "Monster Quest", which never found a monster, and "Ghost Hunters", which has a team of people in an old building at night, suddenly running about screaming. I've never watched an episode of "Ancient Aliens" and don't intend to.

[Cubdriver]

When they first started, Discovery and The History Channel were both excellent. Somewhere along the line they devolved into that ‘hunting for the ghost of ancient Bigfoot's buried treasure' nonsense. Can’t stand it - they stretch fifteen minutes of questionable dreck into an hour including commercial breaks. I miss what they once were thirty years ago, but don’t miss not having cable TV over the past ten years. Occasionally catching it at a friend’s place reminds me that it’s mostly crap programming and more commercials than ever.

-Pat

[bd139]

I know a minor celebrity ghost hunter. He's a fucking moron. He has a big following. Of fucking morons. So there is a market for that.

[tggzzz]

I know a minor celebrity ghost hunter. He's a fucking moron. He has a big following. Of fucking morons. So there is a market for that.

Nobody ever went bust underestimating the taste/intelligence of the public.

That's one reason it is good to have lofty ideals and not to be beholden to plutocrats/owners.

[Zenith]

I know someone who's fully into it and belongs to a ghost hunting group. She works in a local shop. Apparently you can arrange group stays in certain inns and hotels known to be "active" and which make a business of it. Sometimes they have a medium in on the act. They did the local churchyard, but it didn't turn up much.

She's got some of the electronic gear for ghost detecting, which I believe does nothing more than pick up noise.

[bd139]

This guy is top tier bell end. Barry Ghai... Hounslow's finest ghost hunter

His wife does everything she can to get on TV. Last time it was creating far too many children. Before that it was Britain's Shittiest Driver or something inane and pointless.

I've been in their house and given the spiel. They are mental.

As for the gear, it's either commercial stuff they don't know what it is or how to use it or blatant bullshit devices and I doubt they have a GCSE between them so well there you go...

I did think for a moment to not post this but I realised the guy is a cunt and I dislike him and his family and what's he going to do - haunt me? Woooh oooooh etc etc

[Zenith]

It did cross my mind they might have had a confederate ringing the phone, or some other way of arranging it.

They might have accomplished a materialisation or even a simple spectre.

When I was a lad a spook appeared from behind a gravestone in the churchyard on Sunday evenings. One old lady saw it and was in a bad way. Eventually it turned out to be the kid from the paper shop, wearing an outfit made from a white bed sheet.

[tggzzz]

This guy is top tier bell end. Barry Ghai... Hounslow's finest ghost hunter

You can always console yourself with the thought that such people are allowed to vote.

[bd139]

It did cross my mind they might have had a confederate ringing the phone, or some other way of arranging it.

They might have accomplished a materialisation or even a simple spectre.

When I was a lad a spook appeared from behind a gravestone in the churchyard on Sunday evenings. One old lady saw it and was in a bad way. Eventually it turned out to be the kid from the paper shop, wearing an outfit made from a white bed sheet.

As always, the least trustworthy appraisal is eyewitness accounts.

I wish the BBC understood that.

[bd139]

This guy is top tier bell end. Barry Ghai... Hounslow's finest ghost hunter

You can always console yourself with the thought that such people are allowed to vote.

This is why I am in favour of voter ID. Stupid people are more likely to lose it.

[tggzzz]

This guy is top tier bell end. Barry Ghai... Hounslow's finest ghost hunter

You can always console yourself with the thought that such people are allowed to vote.

This is why I am in favour of voter ID. Stupid people are more likely to lose it.

Looking at the way votes have been cast in the UK in the past decade, are you sure of that?

[bd139]

You can always console yourself with the thought that such people are allowed to vote.

This is why I am in favour of voter ID. Stupid people are more likely to lose it.

Looking at the way votes have been cast in the UK in the past decade, are you sure of that?

Spent a lot of time recently with a large variety of people and I think it holds.

Just the other day one of the acquaintance antivaxxers snuffed it from a very avoidable case of Covid. Some other idiot unaware that he was also an antivaxxer blamed him dropping dead on the vaccine.

I literally at the start of the year was told by him he’d be fine and it was statistically unlikely he’d die unless he took the vaccine. I explained the flaw in the reasoning. I’ve never felt vindicated by someone dropping dead until then. It’s a grey and murky victory.

[tggzzz]

This is why I am in favour of voter ID. Stupid people are more likely to lose it.

Looking at the way votes have been cast in the UK in the past decade, are you sure of that?

Spent a lot of time recently with a large variety of people and I think it holds.

Just the other day one of the acquaintance antivaxxers snuffed it from a very avoidable case of Covid. Some other idiot unaware that he was also an antivaxxer blamed him dropping dead on the vaccine.

I literally at the start of the year was told by him he’d be fine and it was statistically unlikely he’d die unless he took the vaccine. I explained the flaw in the reasoning. I’ve never felt vindicated by someone dropping dead until then. It’s a grey and murky victory.

Sometimes it is unpleasant to be right.
Sometimes the relevant concept is "architect of their own misfortune".
And sometimes "influencers" are far worse than "paid shills". Stakes, anthills, and 6 week's water is an appropriate response.

But did they have voter id?

My mother wouldn't have had photo id: too old for driving licence and passport. She would have had to do things the hard way.

Myself? I turn up with my driving licence, and watch the shock of horror on their faces as they apologise for it not being sufficient.

[bd139]

Looking at the way votes have been cast in the UK in the past decade, are you sure of that?

Spent a lot of time recently with a large variety of people and I think it holds.

Just the other day one of the acquaintance antivaxxers snuffed it from a very avoidable case of Covid. Some other idiot unaware that he was also an antivaxxer blamed him dropping dead on the vaccine.

I literally at the start of the year was told by him he’d be fine and it was statistically unlikely he’d die unless he took the vaccine. I explained the flaw in the reasoning. I’ve never felt vindicated by someone dropping dead until then. It’s a grey and murky victory.

Sometimes it is unpleasant to be right.
Sometimes the relevant concept is "architect of their own misfortune".
And sometimes "influencers" are far worse than "paid shills". Stakes, anthills, and 6 week's water is an appropriate response.

But did they have voter id?

My mother wouldn't have had photo id: too old for driving licence and passport. She would have had to do things the hard way.

Myself? I turn up with my driving licence, and watch the shock of horror on their faces as they apologise for it not being sufficient.

Pays to have an old persons bus pass even if you don’t use it. My mother had one even though she couldn’t drive and didn’t have a passport.

Driving license is fine if it’s not as old as the sun.

[tggzzz]

Pays to have an old persons bus pass even if you don’t use it. My mother had one even though she couldn’t drive and didn’t have a passport.

Driving license is fine if it’s not as old as the sun.

Worryingly, I do have such a bus pass.

Driving licence is the same colour it has always been; the pink hasn't faded It will be several years before it has to be changed.

[bd139]

Pays to have an old persons bus pass even if you don’t use it. My mother had one even though she couldn’t drive and didn’t have a passport.

Driving license is fine if it’s not as old as the sun.

Worryingly, I do have such a bus pass.

Driving licence is the same colour it has always been; the pink hasn't faded It will be several years before it has to be changed.

Not a photocard one? My driving license is a fairly recent photocard one. Had to change it when I moved. Look less like a serial killer now.

As for bus pass, a relative passed away this morning during somewhat risky surgery. Make every moment count. So I take your point on not watching Youtube. Also I'm sure Carlson only does his videos to suck the life out of the universe

[tggzzz]

Not a photocard one? My driving license is a fairly recent photocard one. Had to change it when I moved. Look less like a serial killer now.

When I moved here, I expected it to be for half a dozen years, later amended a dozen. Then Life Intervened.

36 years in one house is ridiculous; it is so long that even the postcode has changed. But my neighbours have been here 25, 35, and three others were here when I moved in. One war heroine who walked past had been here for many decades; none of the many obits indicate exactly when she moved here, but early 50s seems right. And the couple that ran the local off licence until last year famously very rarely left the village.

Clearly the place is satisfactory.

As for bus pass, a relative passed away this morning during somewhat risky surgery. Make every moment count. So I take your point on not watching Youtube. Also I'm sure Carlson only does his videos to suck the life out of the universe

My condolences.

Most recent yootooob vids are time vampires. Unfortunately there are a few that aren't, so yootoob isn't completely ignorable.

Doubly unfortunately too many recent science documentaries appear to have been influenced by "every equation will halve your audience" mentality until they have become homeopathic. Yes Brian Cox, I'm thinking of you gazing wistfully at the night sky for 10 minutes at a time[1].

[1] using a subjective clock, of course.

[bd139]

Brian Cox has the information density of the intergalactic medium. The veritable Essex Boy of physics.

[tggzzz]

Brian Cox has the information density of the intergalactic medium. The veritable Essex Boy of physics.

He was tolerable in the early days.

Then the glitterati latched onto him being brainy and pretty (both terms being relative, of course).

[AVGresponding]

He works quite well opposite Robin Ince in "The Infinite Monkey Cage"