Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Beijing: Ignoring it is not an option

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  • Craig Ranapia,

    The episode of Media7 that screened last night concerned Sensing Murder. It was a riot.

    Fun riot, or 'we're not getting the deposit back' riot?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler,

    Meanwhile, Keith Quinn is blogging. Could it get any wilder than that?

    Well, I went through the link, started reading and then realised I'd kept reading and read all the posts so far. A good sign for a 'blog, I think.

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I think I'm going to find it pretty hard to muster an interest in the sports part, I have to say.

    Press release:

    August 6th. Today in Beijing, Chinese authorities shut down the press conference scheduled to release and screen the Tibetan made film, Leaving Fear Behind, at Beijing’s Hotel G. Journalists present were blocked access to the screening room and were forced to leave the premises.

    I was involved in translating the previous presser and had grave doubts at the time that the conference would go ahead - easy to be prescient sometimes. The two farmers-turned-filmmakers who made the film and managed to smuggle it out of the country before the March demonstrations were 'last seen' some time ago in two detention centres in Eastern China. Their cousin in Switzerland is the guy behind Filming for Tibet and the website where one could watch this doco, except the You Tube link is not there, and a search directly in You Tube as of two minutes ago draws a blank too. I'm not going to claim foul play by the Google guys since there is a problem on the film's site to begin with, and it's not hosted in China.

    So that leaves five short WMV clips for now, less then ten minutes all up. I'll take this in lieu of the opening ceremony.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Morgan Davie,

    Oh, Russell, your final "not facetious" question was wonderful!

    I think I need to blog about this show now. :-)

    Wellington • Since May 2008 • 36 posts Report Reply

  • samuel walker,

    slight tangent:

    The BBCsports sequence with music and animation by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett is most very brilliant.

    It is based on the rather terribly excellent Monkey stage show and upcoming album that was featured on an eisode of Imagine late last year.

    there is a rather nice higher quality and downloadable version at http://dekku.blogspot.com/2008/07/bbc-olympics-monkey.html

    Since Nov 2006 • 203 posts Report Reply

  • Morgan Davie,

    [Hmm, in my head, "Oh, Russell" was kinda head-shaking cynical admiration, but on the screen it looks like breathless adoration. Believe me, my adoration is entirely breathful.]

    Wellington • Since May 2008 • 36 posts Report Reply

  • samuel walker,

    ............there is a rather nice higher quality and downloadable version at.....................no fat clips

    Since Nov 2006 • 203 posts Report Reply

  • Corin H,

    Major league baseball started using MS Silverlight for their streaming service earlier this year, it's absolutely terrible, bad frame rates and it drops out constantly.
    Fortunately they kept the old Windows Media streams which still seem to work just fine.

    Since Jan 2007 • 14 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Hi folks. I finished that post as my boarding call was sounding (I'm in Christchurch talking to Broadcasting School students today) but since then the YouTube version of Media7 has been uploaded:

    http://www.youtube.com/TVNZMedia7

    And here's Kurt Anderson's Vanity Fair story on Beijing's "Radical, brilliant" new buildings, which he compares, perhaps tellingly, to those of New York in the early 20th century:

    http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/08/chinese_architecture200808

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    YouTube will carry official coverage in the 77 countries (including the likes of India and South Korea) that do not have Olympic media partners. The rest of us will be blocked from seeing that in favour of our own media-partnered broadcasters.

    I hate the internet locking me out of videos just because of where I am.
    Did they think maybe that there is a reason someone from New Zealand would want to watch the South Korean or Indian coverage?

    I am really looking forward to hearing the American coverage. They don't lose so well.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • FletcherB,

    "and we'll come back and wrap up after the break, but I'm not sensing a resolution."

    Brilliant!

    West Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 893 posts Report Reply

  • Danyl Mclauchlan,

    I won't try to ignore the sports; although I'm overwhelmingly bored by team games (rugby, football), watching individuals compete at that level is always compelling.

    I am going to ignore TVNZ news for the next month; they always spend too much on these overseas pageants and then dominate their news broadcasts with hundreds of pointless live-crosses to nothing in order to justify the expense. Last night they crossed LIVE to an empty swimming pool as one of their lead stories. Its only going to get worse.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Last night they crossed LIVE to an empty swimming pool as one of their lead stories. Its only going to get worse.

    Tonight's live cross: "Yes that's right, they are now filling up the swimming pool here at Beijing. With only a day to go until the biggest show on earth..."

    Man, I could so get a job writing news-talking-head's scripts for them.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    I thought it was nice of Jeremy to extend the benefit of the doubt to the show's producers. I thought producer guy's language was very carefully chosen.

    Baldock made no particular claims about what his "psychics" do. His boldest claim that the show reawakens interest in cold cases and that people came forward to give him information afterwards. He didn't point to one thing that his psychics came up with that was hitherto unknown but then corroborated. I'm sure he would have if he could.

    If what he really wanted to do was make a documentary programme that sheds new light on cold cases, he could have done that without the psychic bullshit. He can't credibly claim to be making a documentary or working in the public interest when half the airtime is devoted to misleading the public about psychic powers.

    TVNZ's Media7 site says "He has gone to great lengths to ensure the integrity of the programme and the way that it selects and uses the psychics involved in each case." Really? This one of those cases where English is lacking - other languages make it clear when a statement is a reported claim from another person. I would preface that sentence with Baldock says...

    I'm afraid nothing would really make me happy other than the show being cancelled, and an equal or larger sum of public money being spent on an expose of psychics and mediums, and maybe the culprits being put in the stocks with a supply of rotten vegetables, but in the meanwhile I'm glad Jeremy had the opportunity to put the boot in.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Litterick,

    Ignoring Beijing is an option, one which I shall be taking. Sport is a media-pharmaceutical complex, the Chinese regime is an hideous tyranny of old men making money from oppression and the efforts of our brave athletes will blown out of all proportion by patriotic bombast; what's more, the architecture is ghastly techno-kitsch.

    And I don't buy the argument that the Chinese youth are seething with righteous indignation in the face of Western media bias. I think what we are seeing is a new wave of nationalism, one which is very dangerous for all of us. The regime has used the Games to stoke up all the old Chinese resentments against the West, to its advantage.

    All of it is horrible; I shall ignore it all, because I am powerless to do anything about it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    I watched Media 7 last night and i have to say i was more than a little disappointed.
    I have never watched Sensing murder, mainly for the concept and the negative media reaction, but now I may just watch it occasionally. The reason? Well I thought the producer? had some salient points. The police have swept some cases "under the carpet" or into the "too hard basket" and if this program sheds some light, even if that light is only an increased public awareness, on those cases then that must be good.
    I don't think it matters how stupid the concept of "psychics" is. If some dumb f**k watches the programme for that alone but comes away with a little empathy or, better still, a revelation that they actually know something that could help the investigation then, surely? that is a good thing.
    your program purports to be fair and insightful yet the text of the discussion was decided before any opinions were aired.
    Sorry Russell, but I thought it a poor show.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Mark Thomas,

    The idea that the program is there to highlight unsolved cases is disingenuous.

    If the intent of the show is to highlight unsolved cases, why isn't it called "Unsolved Murders"? I would have thought that would be interesting enough on its own. Dispense with the psychics (and save the program some money).

    Unfortunately, the program is called "sensing murder", and it gives the "psychics" credibility. It's a shame that not everyone can see them for the charlatans they really are

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 317 posts Report Reply

  • Sam F,

    If the intent of the show is to highlight unsolved cases, why isn't it called "Unsolved Murders"? I would have thought that would be interesting enough on its own. Dispense with the psychics (and save the program some money).

    I would tend to agree. It's a sad day when NZ tellymakers have to resort to psychics when angling a cheap, exploitative programme to the lowest common denominator. Weren't we doing a good enough job of that already?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    I don't think it matters how stupid the concept of "psychics" is.

    I think it does. So-called psychics extract large sums of money from a gullible public, preying on their grief and distress, sometimes making it worse. And Baldock is lending them all the credibility of a purported documentary.

    The programme does actually do harm, but because we don't see the extra money people waste on paying for psychics or the police resource wasted on pursuing bogus tips or measure the agitation of people being stirred up again, those harms don't get set in the balance.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    Lets not for get the "Real Exocist" on last night.

    It showed itself as filling the gap in USA Mental Health. All poor & looking for help with recognised mental health issues and family histories.

    He did listen and give some support to people in desperate need of help. They must be able to afford his help rather than clinical support and as he doesn't physically restrain or try to drown the demons, he might actually be doing some good.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report Reply

  • Bob Munro,

    Thanks very much to Russell and the people and links on PAS for helping to make sense of the multitudes of points of view of China in the lead up to the games. It's helped me a lot to get some understanding. There are myriads of views.

    Here's yet another one.

    Christchurch • Since Aug 2007 • 418 posts Report Reply

  • Gabor Toth,

    I am going to ignore TVNZ news for the next month; they always spend too much on these overseas pageants and then dominate their news broadcasts with hundreds of pointless live-crosses to nothing in order to justify the expense.

    Our household has almost entirely switched over to TVNZ7 on Freeview for our domestic television news - primarily the 8 to 9pm news hour. The difference to the increasingly crappy 6pm “One Network News" is so great that it is amazing to think that these two evening news broadcasts come out of the same institution.

    Apart from the fact that it is at a far more sensible time, there are no pointless live-crosses, no advertisement breaks, decent interviews that go on for several minutes, minimal "coming up later..." teasers and a weather forecast which simply tells you what the weather is going to be tomorrow without infantile banter about "switching on your leckie blankie...". It is a genuine hour-long news broadcast.

    Unfortunately, despite our ravings about Freeview to various friends, family and colleagues, no one else we know has got themselves a set-top box. My advice to anyone who asks is to put aside that cell-phone upgrade they were thinking about and get a STB instead. Freeview is rather excellent and it deserves to be supported.

    Wellington • Since Dec 2006 • 137 posts Report Reply

  • Hamboy,

    If the intent of the show is to highlight unsolved cases, why isn't it called "Unsolved Murders"? I would have thought that would be interesting enough on its own. Dispense with the psychics (and save the program some money).

    That was my conclusion from watching Media 7 last night too.
    I'm disgusted though, using murder victims and their families for entertainment. And the argument about it highlighting unsolved cases doesn't really fly because of the use of the psychics and their promotion of them.
    They are using it as an excuse for exploitation.

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 162 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Eade,

    “I don't think it matters how stupid the concept of "psychics" is.”

    Shouldn’t god be solving these crimes anyway.

    IMO “psychic” tians are a spiritual group as WEIRD as any other although in their defense they very rarely kill people and the faith itself seems to rely on a “base ‘self affirmation process than any real doctrine,

    ….and chicks love it , I don’t know why? Its like almost an act of describing an alternative sense of sense (?) not shared by males at least from my anecdotal experience, does anyone have stats? I've never met a guy into it. It must be pretty popular if it’s rating.

    auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 1112 posts Report Reply

  • B Jones,

    There was a fairly good unsolved murders show that screened quite late, sometime in the last year. It was full of cheesy gumshoe shots and had some random guy researching all these unsolved crimes, with some straightforward re-enactments - the one I particularly remember was a Japanese tourist who was found in a maintenance cupboard in central Auckland. Despite the cheese, it was perfectly justifiable in the way Sensing isn't - it relied on real information, or informed speculation (clearly noted as such) rather than becoming a promotion vehicle for fraudsters that chips away at people's ability to critically think about the world.

    I liked Jeremy Wells before - I totally heart him now. He gave credit where it was due, but didn't hold back for a second where there was an important point at stake.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 976 posts Report Reply

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