Webs Wonder Design

I get increasingly dissatisfied with the mainstream TV and Radio in the UK. So much of the coverage now is personality driven rather than issue driven, and there is so little in depth coverage of foreign news stories. Repressive regimes such as Burma’s get scant coverage until a humanitarian disaster such as the Myanmar cyclone forces the country into the media spotlight.

• The BBC constantly runs scared of sticking its neck out in case it gets chopped off as it did over the Iraq “Dodgy Dossier” - even though all the facts it reported subsequently turned out to be true. Even News 24 is parochial and has at least one eye on entertainment rather than information.
• All TV paid for by advertising is constantly looking over its shoulder to check that the advertisers approve and is concerned primarily with audience figures. Keep it light and happy seems to be the guiding principle here.
• American stations like ABC, CNN and Fox - the “mainstream media” in the States - are under the thumbs of the advertisers and the the Government. Witness the uncritical acceptance of US Government Propaganda on WMD in the run up to the attack on Iraq. They have failed again to cover real issues in the Presidential race, focussing instead on out of context quotes from controversial associates of Democratic candidates, rather than substantive issues such poverty, healthcare and foreign policy.

How refreshing it has been to find the Real News Network run by “Independent World Television”. Funded entirely by donations it has informative items running for up to 10 minutes. Articles can either be streamed or downloaded as podcasts. I download the podcasts onto my laptop as they become available from the afternoon onwards GMT and watch them in Miro later in the day when the soaps take over the nation.

Here’s a an interview with Paul Jay, the founder of The Real News about what e is trying to achieve.

Break free of the mainstream media and get informed!

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