Us 1, Bliar Nil. Sensorship to follow?

[Disco_Destroyer]

Media 'like feral beast' - Blair

Tony Blair leaves office at the end of June
Tony Blair has said the media can operate like "a feral beast" and its relationship with politicians is "damaged" and in need of repair.
The prime minister said relations had always been fraught, but now threatened politicians' "capacity to take the right decisions for the country".

The arrival of web-based news and blogs and 24-hour television news channels meant reports were "driven by impact".

Mr Blair also said newspaper and TV regulatory systems needed to change.

In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits

Tony Blair


In full: Blair's media speech
Send us your comments

In a speech to the Reuters news agency on public life, he said the media world was becoming more fragmented, with the main BBC and ITN bulletins now getting half the audiences they had previously and newspapers fighting for their share of a "shrinking market".

He said fierce competition for stories meant that the modern media now hunted "in a pack".

"In these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits, but no-one dares miss out," he said.

'Unravelling standards'

The result was that the media was increasingly "and to a dangerous degree" driven by "impact" which was, in turn, "unravelling standards, driving them down," he said.

Mr Blair, who will step down as prime minister on 27 June, admitted that New Labour's own attempts to "court" and "assuage" the media in the early days of his government may have contributed to the problem.

There will often be as much interpretation of what a politician is saying, as there is coverage of them actually saying it

Tony Blair


Blair's parting shot to media
Marr on Blair and spin

He said he had tried to have a dialogue with the media, through measures like on-the-record lobby briefings, monthly press conferences and the Freedom of Information Act.

But, he said: "None of it to any avail, not because these things aren't right, but because they don't deal with the central issue - which is how politics is reported."

He said people in public life, from politics to business, sport, the military and charities, found that "a vast aspect" of their job now was coping with the media, "its sheer scale, weight and constant hyperactivity. At points it literally overwhelms".

And he said there was increasingly commentary on the news, which could prove "incredibly frustrating".

Expecting to be rubbished

"There will often be as much interpretation of what a politician is saying, as there is coverage of them actually saying it," he said.

The current regulatory system, in which broadcasters and the press were subject to different rules and bodies, would need revision, he said, as internet broadcasting blurred the line between TV and newspapers.


We must try harder to focus on policies not just personalities

BBC political editor Nick Robinson


Read Nick's blog entry

And he said the relationship between public life and the media was in need of repair.

"The damage saps the country's confidence and self-belief, it undermines its assessment of itself, its institutions and above all, it reduces our capacity to take the right decisions, in the right spirit for our future."

Mr Blair concluded his speech by saying he had made it "after much hesitation" and he expected it to be "rubbished in certain quarters", but it "needed to be said - so I've said it".

The associate editor of the Sun newspaper, Trevor Kavanagh, said Mr Blair's comments were rather "sour" and "ill-advised" and out of character.

He added that Mr Blair and his government had received the most benign coverage of any leader in recent years.

That benign coverage only changed after the self-confessed "mistakes" made in putting the case for the Iraq war, not because of any change in the way the media operated, he said.

Liberal Democrat culture spokesman Don Foster said: "It's easy to blame the press for a loss of trust in politicians; a fairer analysis would point to his own culture of spin.

"Hints at the need for increased regulation of the press are deeply worrying. Politicians may not like what is sometimes written about them, but a free press is the best safeguard for accountability and against corruption and hypocrisy."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6744261.stm

[marky 54]

the only way they can repair media/public relations is by reporting the truth.

millions upon millions know they don't with more and more becoming aware of the properganda.

i can guarentee a lot of those who still watch the news and a buy paper only do so to see what their agenda is.

news = brainwashing today, therefore exposes what they want us think.

by watching the news i know what not to think as they never report fairly or report the truth or give the full picture.

if you've noticed they constantly want our views also, phone in/e mail us etc, giving the impression that our views are important to them, nope its just to see if their brainwashing is working.

[marky 54]

the only reason politcians have a bad image in the public is because they don't listen to the public, it has nothing to do with the media.

neglecting what the general publics concerns are ain't going to get you popular, its that simple.

i don't get why he seems obsessed with image, what did he expect when he takes away or changes laws that compromise our freedoms

its about time blair stopped blameing everyone but himself about the way he is viewed.

no doubt his solution to what he sees as a problem will be solved by taking away more freedoms.

[Disco_Destroyer]

This just in from the Daily Telegraph website: Click here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/11/nblair 111.xml

Thanks to http://www.myspace.com/thereal_eeyorns_blog for the Headsup!

[marky 54]

mmmm nothing on the main news channels, it seems nothing is news worthy to them apart from properganda or celebs.

there will be a loop hole there always is, war crimes only exsist when they want them to even if they have been commited, the same with inquirys, justice, and law applying to everyone.

[spiv]

All my life I have always wondered just how did the German people, most of whom were and still are decent honest hardworking people, just like people are all around the world, allow Hitler to rise to power, and ultimately commit his war crimes. I thought "surely there would be outrage by the ordinary folk?".

Now I know the answer, because the same thing is happening now with Bush & Blair - and yes, I equate both Bush and Blair (& their cronies) with Hitler (& his cronies).

And the secret is spin and propaganda, with the media just spouting what the Governments want spouted, and in the way they want, so leaving those many ordinary folks with mistaken impressions, and diverting and avoiding dissent.

But the difference now is that we have the medium of the Internet, and for the first time in history, those ordinary folk have a medium which they can voice their questions, outrage, can contact, discuss and organise themselves, free of control. And perhaps Blair is realising his oversight, and maybe he is feeling, perhaps for the first time, vulnerable, as he is realising the peoples' change in attitudes towards him and his war mongering policies. Because, even once he has gone, his illegal invasions of other countries (a war crime in itself) will remain, and he (& his cronies) can be brought to account for these crimes in years to come.

So this is a last chance to try to keep the media under his spell, and I sincerely hope that the real journalists and editors, the independently thinking ones (for I feel sure they are still there, somewhere) will be asking similar questions to the ordinary folk. One day those real journalists and editors will shake off their yokes of control, and the media will be the real media once again. This episode since 911 will be a lesson taught in history of the disaster, just like Nazism is taught nowadays.

[xmasdale]

[marky 54]

[festival of snickers]

censorship

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship


censor this:blair the war criminal will burn i hell

[festival of snickers]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=opera&rls=en&hs=8uV&sa=X&oi= spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=trotsky+and+censorship&spell=1


im searching for this because i heard blair likes trotsky the commie

[festival of snickers]

It is true that Trotsky urged a cautious, judicious censorship, but nonetheless he did support the office of the censor. In the introduction to his book he says

that the Party favored "complete freedom of self-determination in the field of art," but only after a condition. Artists must first pass a test: "complete freedom" would be granted to artists only "after putting before them the categorical standard of being for or against the Revolution." Of course, with

this condition, complete freedom is not complete.

http://www.socialis taction.org/auciello4.htm

if you click off from here then they know who posted it and the commies come here which could be ok maybe so i left a sapce in url

[Mark Gobell]

Picked this up from Blairwatch.

They suggest referring the Bliar-inferred on line regulator to the case of Arkell v Pressdram (Private Eye):

[uselesseater]

This is thoroughly sickening.

The whining Blair complaing because their PR isn't working.

I think we need to publicise and then lobby very hard to stop this getting through when it comes up.

[Disco_Destroyer]