Gillian Tett looks beyond yesterday's Today item on "jurisdiction shopping" by banks. She warns there is an unintended consequence of the current worldwide desire to bash the bankers. Legislators in key countries are busy unilaterally changing internationally-agreed rules. Unfortunately, Tett says, this makes it more likely that practices illegal in one country but legal in another will be used to cover up looming catastrophes in the capital markets.
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Absolutely right, Paul. We have been "learning lessons" about the failures of social workers and their managers, and about dysfunctional relationships between social work departments, the NHS and the police, since the death of Maria Colwell in January 1973. Very little has improved and ruthless scrutiny is required to expose the repeated failures that have, repeatedly, failed to deliver effective reform. Such scrutiny demands detailed understanding as a foundation for persistent questioning.
Don't forget graphic novels - the Adventures of Superman (Clark Kent), Spiderman (Peter Parker), Tin Tin and Transmetropolitan (Spider Jerusalem) all feature journalists as the main character
Landing on the moon...
You head straight for the moon... you crash into the moon. Orbit the moon so you can use its gravity to slow you down enough to make a safe landing... you get to run about on the moon.
Go ahead and keep that goal in mind, just take care and focus more on what it takes to get you there. Rather than the end result.
Eurgh... I must stop using space to illustrate my points.
It's hard to say how spelt out it should be when people are stretching the boundaries of truth - Hunter S Thompson didn't say it explicitly it, but you know, somehow, that that's what he's doing. That's not the case with Kapuscinski, though.
Of course documentaries and news programming shouldn't do it - but is there a space in between fact and fiction here too?
For example, docu-dramas regularly distort and change things, and can then end up defining the public perception of an event - is that wrong? Should there be a clearer line between 'faithfully reconstructed' programmes and ones that are changed for dramatic/ideoogical purposes?
I doubt it would make a difference, though - some people will always get their knowledge of certain events through entertainment/Hollywood - there's no way of making that adhere to journalistic principles. I guess we've just got to live with the mess.
Personally, it really bothers me. I believe reporting needs to be true all the way through for it to work.
I don't like finding out Kapuscinski did this. I don't like commissioning editors who look at my rough cuts and try to persuade me to present someone in a misleading way. And it still bothers me that on a couple of occasions I have had arguments with colleagues about this and have ended up cutting something which may or may not have crossed the line.
Everyone who makes news or factual programmes comes up against this.
The very first "documentary" ever made was partly constructed. There was the Bear Grylls controversy over the making of his survival programmes.
Though they're not exactly new allegations.
I feel like I should be feeling a bit betrayed by Kapuscinksi, but I don't think I'm letting myself because I enjoy his books so much.
Having said that, maybe I wouldn't have enjoyed them so much if I'd known more about the way he 'blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction'.
I certainly think he should've been more honest about his writing. You regularly see a disclaimer in a memoir-type book saying 'in some cases I've condensed conversations that took place on separate occasions into one for narrative purposes/ condensed two real-life people into one character for the same reason' - could Kapuscinksi have done something similar? If it's not all true then he shouldn't be presenting it as such.
Either way, I won't be able to hold him in the same esteem again.
For a while now, I have been feeling I am missing out .
The thing is, sadly I appear to have given up reading fiction.
I didn’t mean to do this.
However, I tell myself I don’t have the time for it. I currently have six non-fiction books I am “reading”, all of which I know will inform and entertain me.
I am well aware that I probably won’t read them all from start to finish.
However, it happened that one of the books on my bedside table, which I am re-reading, is Ryszard Kapuscinski’s Imperium. It is wonderful reportage.
It is also supposed to be all true.
Then, according to this piece, it turns out he was making half of it up.
Perhaps I was reading more fiction than I thought.
This perceptive piece by Timothy Garton Ash looks at how much any of this matters.
Euphoric as I am to have encouraged a discussion about reading, and glad as I am to see such interesting responses, may I make a modest proposal?Perhaps we should start separate threads for fiction and non-fiction, or this could get confusing. My proposal was about fiction.
My Paper Chase - Harold Evans
Flat Earth News - Nick Davies
Too Big to Fail - Andrew Ross Sorkin
The Great War for Civilsation - Robert Fisk
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
I really enjoyed reading Tell Me No Lies by John Pilger, it is not a novel but is a collection of fantastic journalism.
Was her husband just checking out the competition?
I think the best way to address your question, Paul, is to contemplate the alternative. Publicising the careers of interesting people who have the courage to live according to their own moral codes does rather more public good than indulging populist values. That said, I'll be surprised if it wins her any additional votes.
it's a great angle, I grant you.
But what does it say about our prurient interest in these things? Seems to me a little unfair that just because of her background, a prospecitve parliamentrary candidate standing for Parliament gets acres of space in the papers - The Sun, Telegraph, Mail etc - and a disproportionate amount of coverage elsewhere - when other candidates who might have deeply dull jobs (accountants springs to mind) will probably struggle to get a mention. Discuss...
See also this report
Clearly we can expect some hot, live political engagement on the historic streets of Gravesend. At least the local Liberals understand the meaning of tolerance. That's quite rare these days.
The rumour mongering circulating on the net highlights a vital difference between good, professional reporting and gossip. Honest journalists abide by the PCC code, so we "take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information." Others are less careful. They repeat damaging rumours without establishing whether they are true or false. I prefer the good journalism.
;)
I was reading an older copy of the News Shopper the other day (don't hurt me). And, to my horror, I saw that my old school had been placed in 'special measures' by Ofsted.
I thought this as being quite odd as, whilst I was doing more work experience at the KM, the school had posted its best ever GCSE results. Beating the year I took mine ha. (And no, they doesn't mean the school should have been closed down years ago)
The odd part being that two reports were conducted, (both can be found here), and come to two utterly different conclusions. Ofsted gave the school a rating of 4, which means 'inadequate' and the SIAS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools) gave it a 2... Which strangely, is good.
"The school has not demonstrated a satisfactory capacity for sustained improvement." - Ofsted
"St. George’s Church of England Humanities College in Gravesend is a good and improving Church school." - SIAS
Eh? Does Ofsted work? I know a lot of teachers say that it doesn't.
Even KCC were a bit miffed by the findings.
According to the PCC, articles that involve grief or shock must be handled sensitively with sympathy and discretion. The article of the accident should not be presented in an insensitive or distressing way so as to cause grief or distress to the family. The publication should not trivialise or glamorise the circumstances; editors best placed to decide what their readers will find acceptable in terms of taste and decency. However, because the accident happened in a very public place, witnessed by members of the public and published after family members had been informed, the press are quite within their rights to publish the images without any threat. Personally I think the press should just give the guy a break!
They may not show the contact but they might show him writhing around in pain. I think, for a parent, or friend for that matter, it would be much worse.
I can't imagine MOTD showing it anway. It won't enhance the programme at all, the only bad news is we'll have to listen to Lineker, Hansen and probably Shearer giving their usual half arsed view of things.
It's fortunate that people would have tuned in anyway to see the Bridge-Terry handshake that never was. So there is no need to satisfy anyone's morbid curiosity.
I think this is the main difference here. I watched it live and I would be very surprised if Match of the Day showed the tackle tonight as they did with the Eduardo injury. You've got to think of the boy's parents and family too, he's only nineteen and they wouldn't want to see him in that much agony on television. I think we're all better off not seeing it to be perfectly honest - even if some of us are curious to see it again.
In preparation for placements, I strongly advise that you begin to read the newspapers/listen to kmfm and read our online platforms to get a sense of and feel for the kind of news and features that we run. Try and identify running stories or on-going controversies. Look at www.kentonline.co.uk and the links to the various local websites via the "where I live" section.
It will also help to try and familiarise yourself with the areas you will be working in (if you are not already) - you may be thrown in at the deep end and it pays to have at least a modicum of local knowledge. If you've never actually been to where you are going, try and visit at least once before your placement.
Well done with this project, it really was amazing.
I followed it all day, so you did replace the BBC for a day (for me anyway) - and although I can't give you any constructive comment, I thought you pulled it out of the bag big time.
Big thumbs up from me!
Great site mate, looks really professional. Doesn't look out of place on the world-wide-web at all!
Aces!
I'm not keen on the re-design. It rather flattered to deceive. If it hadn't been for the Rawnsley stuff, the chunkier news section might have looked rather less impressive. I did like the main newspaper bit but then I always did and the sports section appears to have escaped major surgery. My biggest gripe is that the've crammed the remaining stand-alone supplements into one - and it looks like the proverbial quart into a pint pot. Very messy. Travel seemed almost invisible - about half a page
The magazine is OK but I had trouble reading the minute font but heh, maybe people with vision issues are not their target demographic...
Compare and contrast with the Saturday Guardian which rather pointedly luxuriated in all its usual space....
My bad...should be around for the second Podcast...cheers x