December 2006

BLAIR: A GOOD DAY TO BURY BAD NEWS?

On a day of a million conspiracy theories here is another one for the cynical and the jaded to chew over. Pinch me hard but am I the only one to notice a classic example of news management today.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2006/12/blair_a_good_day_to_bury_bad_n.html#more

The much hyped news event of the last few weeks has been the speculation about the contents of Lord Stevens's official report into the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed. The press conference has been telegraphed and the world media has been salivating at shoving pictures of Diana on every front page. The iconographic woman still has the power to sell papers ten years after her death. So I suggest it was a good day to bury bad news. Slap bang in the middle of two press conferences the first at 12, when Stevens faced the cameras. The second at three when Mohamed Al Fayed responded to the Paget report the news broke that the police questioned Tony Blair on Thursday investigating allegations into loans
for honours.

Blair's office confirmed as news crews gathered at Harrods and QEH conference centre that the PM had been interviewed as a witness, not a suspect. Coincidence or a clever ploy to disperse the spillage?

The newspaper and TV bulletins are already gorging on the horror of a ripper on the loose in Ipswich.

Not a bad time to out the news that the PM was questioned by the fuzz. Blair popularity has plunged to floor of a Pacific trench. How can we forget his heartfelt speech on the day after the Princess's death? It seems an age away from the current image, of a broken premier limping off into the sunset . I am sure his supporters are doing all they can to launder the news in the little time that is left at Number Ten

Some might argue that news management is clever opportunism or a strategically planned campaign to distraction and deflect like a Las Vegas illusionist. The advance knowledge that the world's media would
be devouring the Stevens report provided the perfect cover to hide in the shadows of two strutting behemoths. But then again, maybe this is just another conspiracy theory constructed to double bluff.

IS CHANNEL 4'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE REALLY ALTERNATIVE?

Stuntwatch: Over the years, Channel 4 has generated hype with its 'alternative' Christmas message. Does it really have anything new to say this year? By Mark Borkowski

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2006/12/is_channel_4s_xmas_message_rea.html

The trouble with being 'alternative' is that if you do it often enough you become predictable - and then you're not alternative any more. And that is what has happened to Channel 4 with its annual 'alternative'
Christmas message.

Over the years C4 has managed to generate massive media hype around the festive season with its wacky/zany/alternative treatment of the traditional Queen's Christmas message. I suspect that Channel 4 doesn't really believe in Christmas, but that hasn't stopped it trying to cash in with its own seasonal stunt of winding up the outraged of little Britain.

Since the early nineties the channel has offered up a cornucopia of 'alternative' messages featuring a fashionable, and often controversial, celebrity delivering a message in the manner of her Maj. but the joke is wearing thin. Quentin Crisp, Rory Bremner (as Diana, Princess of Wales), Barry and Michelle Seabourn, a Merseyside couple who appeared on Wife Swap, Marge Simpson, Sharon Osbourne.. I could go on.

There were some highpoints - Margaret Gibney, a Belfast schoolgirl, broadcast a plea for peace in Northern Ireland. Doreen Lawrence and Neville Lawrence. Genelle Guzman, survivor of the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks. It's important to get it right.

So this year the publicity-seeking gnomes of Victoria have gone for another 'controversial'-slash-'alternative' idea by giving air time to a Muslim woman who wears the Niqab - though quite what she's got to do with Christmas (a Christian festival the last time I checked), I'm not too sure.

I hope it's good, because otherwise the objective of stimulating debate will be submerged in a predictable onslaught from the usual (John) Gauntian quarters. And don't forget to turn to Teletext page 888 for Clarification.