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UK Media now a provincial backwater

I have been wondering about the British media recently.

The constant coverage of "Slebs" and "infotainment" has got to have a price.

I finally see that it it does.

Did you know that a large demonstration took place yesterday in Brussels protesting the delay in forming a government and supporting Belgian unity?

One might have thought that such a significant event might warrant a story on the BBC. In fact I got the story from Al Jazeera. On the British media, neither press nor the BBC seems to have reported this at all- not even as a five line story.

Now some will find the very idea of Belgium faintly comical. The Economist has recently called for the country to be dissolved. However the fact that the majority of Belgians still rather like their country and thousands are prepared to demonstrate this support will presumably come as a surprise to British commentators.

If we are so ignorant of the affairs of a country which is practically our closest neighbour, it can hardly be a surprise when our country makes misjudgements in countries much further away, like- to pick two examples at random- Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dumbing down is quite literally making our country stupid.

On the London paper last week, there was even- and I am not making this up- a headline on the front page: "Amy Winehouse goes to the shops".

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Anonymous said…
I wonder if the allure of celebrity is partly attributable to the instantaneous success and adulation which associate with it. Personally, I prefer the Medieval model with most people scrambling over decades for advancement, the common mass being obliged to wear a limited range of colours and realise that unseemly ambition will be stifled. Would you support this return to traditional values? Wheatley
3:38 pm
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