Abolish prisons and mountains news trawl
August 9th, 2007 | 
Author: As ever, my views, not my employer's.
Firstly, random Loki art. Because I can and because he's Loki.
And there are some responses to the hCard question over on the LJ mirror of that entry.
Now to real life. Or politics and broadcasting, anyway.
Abolish all prisons, says Oaten
This story accompanies another programme to listen to, if you're so inclined (and are able to use BBC Radio Player).
What is it with broadcasters telling blatant lies? And they blame the new generation of younger staff members who haven't been properly trained in journalistic ethics. Rubbish. I'm young, I've never done any journalism training at all and I still know you don't make up quotations or chop up film to make someone seem to be doing or saying something de wasn't.
Those clips didn't just happen to fall into a wrong-yet-coincidentally-more-exciting order. These people, young or old (the RDF clip was viewed and signed off by a very senior RDF staff member), know what they're doing. I am angry at being lumped in with them.
Having said that, the mandatory editorial standards training a while back was quite fun, so perhaps the "don't tell lies" bit will be too.
I still personally think the BBC is self-flagellating too abjectly over a handful of points, some of which are minor. I can understand making a clean breast of things, and maybe if I were outside I'd view anything less than this as arrogance (because the BBC was dead in the wrong about Marrgate – the reporter spoke without proof, even if proof later emerged). But we know people view the corporation as 'the BBC' as a whole — I'm 'the BBC', the people on the Today programme are 'the BBC', the people on Sunday Kitchen are 'the BBC', even the Blue Peter pets are probably 'the BBC'.
And most of us aren't arrogant liars. Well, I know I'm not, and I'll go out on a limb and say the same of Lucy, Mabel, Magic and Shelley.
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