Random Play: The Age of Reason
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So, who is the 14-year old at TV One who has been writing Simon Dallow's scripts lately? In the past few weeks on the 6pm news there has been a breathlessness coming through more befitting the E! Channel. It is a bit alarming.
But I'm starting to think that's the point
The news quality particulalrly on One is disappointing. One seems to have got worse recently if that were possible!!
The piece on the Sunday Six Oclock News about that "micrphone incident" left something to be desired. I counted at least 7 or more occaisions in which they showed the footage. I watched TV3 which was much better only 1 or 2 repeats.
Surely there are more interesting things happening in the world than an idiot hitting another idiot with a microphone. To repeat the footage that many times smacks of propaganda.
Your Fijian example seems valid I did not see the News last night. I have just returned form the States and enjoyed reading the NY Times International Edition Perhaps we should all give up on NZ produced news and use the internet?
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They are louder than they used to be. Living on the south side of Mt Vic, heard a lot of the loud public display and some of the bangs came with that crump of compressed sound. That's new.
Not so. They used to be a great deal louder. Not to mention more powerful and dangerous, and it gets more so the further back in time you go. A few years back - the year after skyrockets were banned if I remember rightly - you were able to get things called "Blue Thunder in the Night Sky" or some such name, which were single shots which sounded like howitzers. You got a crump of sound, all right.
Sometimes it seems everyone in favour of a ban is afflicted with short-memory syndrome. Fireworks used to be avaliable all year round until the so-called Fireworks Lady began her safety campaign which led to the under-14 ban and the week-before-Guy Fawkes sales restriction. Since then, things have gotten incrementally more restrictive. First bangers went, then rockets. Now the only fireworks you can get are endless re-workings of roman candles. Obviously restrictions on fireworks use are a good thing - but I think a ban goes much too far.
It seems like a classic case of a few morons, not to mention curmudgeons, spoiling everyone else's fun. When you consider the vast numbers of fireworks bought each year, it would seem the majority enjoy them without setting anyone or anything on fire. And when damage is mostly limited to a few irascables losing some sleep, I think arguing for a total ban is a great big over-reaction.
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Joshua,
I wasn't arguing for a ban, actually..I'd feel very hypocritical if I were to do that, and besides, I'm jsut not keen on bans.....just saying they seem louder. And I'm at the age when almost everything else seems quieter, except the music being played by young people...Oh, and car horns.
I was talking specifically about the public displays. Yep, I remember the firecrackers you used to be able to buy - I was about 10 when they banned the thunder banger (which was a size bigger than the doubly happy).
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Woop, mea culpa. The public displays definitely have a resounding crumpiness to them.
I'm afraid I just picked on your post as evidencing a "ban" mindset and had a little knee-jerk moment. Forgiveness, please! -
I like fireworks, my dog likes fireworks. Ban them? And then what do the people who like to make things go bang do?
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Get a firearms licence and train in making your own. I was wanting to do the course myself.
The govt have only banned the sale not DIY. Then get to know the various communities who rightly love fire works and hire yourself out to those who don't use fire works on 5 Nov. -
So do any other countries control fireworks quite as much as we do?
Interestingly, the UK bans fireworks being let off between 11pm and 7am, except on certain celebratory nights.
And it also looks like New Zealand is the only country outside of the UK where fireworks are let off on 5 November. Australian personal fireworks seem to be based around Queen's Birthday weekend.
We can look to other countries, but there are national factors to take into consideration, like weather (try lighting fireworks in Queensland!) and social and cultural aspects.
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Ok so what are we going to ban next?
Hell the police have to work really hard on Labour weekend because of all those drivers, so let's ban that. Even better, ban new years eve because they have to work even harder then, and sometimes people even get in fights and everything!
I think we should ban candles too, because a lot of people use them irresponsibly and we have houses regularly burning down around the country.
Oh and farming, got to ban that too because occasionally a farmer does something stupid during a burn off and causes a whole lot of trouble for some firemen.
As an aside if Progressive want to be really socially responsible, why don;t they ban alcohol sales on New Years Eve? They would be making a real contribution to community safety then, wouldn;t they?
PS Did anyone else have strange "don't go there" visions when Craig R wrote this
"And anyone who screws with my pussy is asking for a world of hurt -- don't care how you do it."
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PS Did anyone else have strange "don't go there" visions when Craig R wrote this
"And anyone who screws with my pussy is asking for a world of hurt -- don't care how you do it."
Yup, but I didn't go there...
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Craig often leaves me thinking 'Did he really say that?'
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i would have been one on the side of allowing us all to buy fireworks each year ... i've always enjoyed them and have never seen any accidents or other untoward events ...
... until last saturday night. i went to a bbq where no less than four of the men (aged 14, 14, 40 and 45 years) acted like total arseholes with the enormous pile of fireworks they had. they taped them together in order to make the biggest noise they could, they set them off in their hands while standing on the garage roof, they fired them directly into surrounding houses' porches, against their walls, and onto their rooves, and they also fired them into trees and such tinder as bamboo hedges. what a bunch of fucking wankers.
it was so gratuitous that several guests (mostly with younger children who i guess they didn't want to witness such dangerous behaviour) left in disgust.
the actual teenagers of the group i can forgive. adolescents take risks, and sometimes get a thrill from anti-social behaviour. the thing i can't stick is these complete tossers, with wives and children, who sincerely did not give a shit for their own or anyone else's safety, never mind the relationship with the neighbours (the 40 year old was the man of the house!)
truly amazing. if people of my acquaintance act like that, who am i to say that people who want a ban are being a bunch of spoil sports?
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We certainly do live in a country that likes to talk big. A quick glance at your own site, elsewhere, shows that – where you too are in breathless mode: “GR is widely regarded as one of NZ’s most versatile journalists, and its most respected music and travel writer.” Er, says who? Does writing it in the 3rd person make it seem like it’s not you writing it?
I think when you consider that Fiji’s military (whose representatives you think merely ‘allegedly’ gave Ballu Khan such a good kicking) summarily overthrew its democratic institutions (with a fair amount of roughing up) last year, showing scant regard for the due process of law or respect for human rights, then you might understand the reason for not inserting ‘alleged’, when your reporting (i.e researching of the facts) indicates what’s actually happened. The Fijian military didn’t dispute that he received his injuries during his arrest, only the manner in which he received them (in time honoured bullshit speak of military regimes it said that he got them because he “resisted arrest”).
I’d say someone who’s in hospital, guarded by soldiers controlling who gets to see him, not the medical staff, qualifies as being "in captivity." If it doesn’t, wtf does?
Barbara Dreaver, however breathless you might think her, is a respected reporter on the Pacific and has witnessed most of the region’s major news events of the past ten years (good and bad). When she says someone’s been bashed, knowing her careful reporting, I tend to believe her.
So what’s your post really about? People who’ve posted back seem to have noticed, even if you didn’t. What they care about is you quite rightly moaning about fireworks being potentially banned by the kill joys, not some lengthy preamble about how crap tv news is. If you were still being edited (and I think it’s a shame you’re not at times) I think your sub might have pointed that out - although as I write this I’m thinking, hang on, as a former “true renaissance man” at the herald (another gem from elsewhere!) the subs there probably routinely instructed you to have a crack at anything about tv news, never mind the actual topic of your story. Paranoid? Nah, just bored with the predictable, same old shit.
(Declaration of interest: I produced TVNZ’s breathless coup coverage in Fiji last year Graham. I don’t produce news any longer, but wouldn’t mind being 14 again)
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No comment on Graeme's PR puff, & you make a good point about the word "allegedly". However, choosing terms like "bashing" isn't information, it's polemic.
Watching BBC World, I've been struck at how unruffled - even bland - their newsreaders appear, in comparison to kiwi news. I want to know the news, but I really don't need newsreaders to instruct me on how I'm supposed to feel about it, either by their choice of words or their dramatic expression. That's what I read/watch opinion pieces for.
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...sorry, should've double-checked the spelling of Graham's name before posting.
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Fair enough Heather, take your point.
I don't agree though that newsreaders are "instructing" anyone how to feel; the cocked eyebrows and full-on empathy, etc, are from a gone-by era. I certainly don't think One News' readers are mugging the camera so you might react in a certain way. Yes, they have expression on their face and in their delivery because that's how people tell stories to each other - I for one would hate to see our news programmes be a carbon copy of the 'bland' delivery of BBC World (would love their resources but).
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they have expression on their face and in their delivery because that's how people tell stories to each other
Call me an elitist bastard, but I don't want stories, I want information. I don't want newsreaders to convey editorial emotion.
Incidentally, here is a really heroicly stoic newsreader. I hope he and his colleagues are ok:
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I am firmly in camp "dial down the emoting" when it comes to newsreaders. Bland is fine.
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I am firmly in camp "dial down the emoting" when it comes to newsreaders. Bland is fine.
Yes - they could all take a leaf out of the Maori Television frontpeople. Professionalism under fire, esp. in last few weeks.
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Sorry - first line above makes no sense. Should be word 'book' in there somewhere.
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Yes - they could all take a leaf out of the Maori Television frontpeople. Professionalism under fire, esp. in last few weeks.
I've only caught bits of Maori TV news and commentary recently, but I'd concur. Shaping up reasonably well overall. Now if only I spoke more than a few dozen words of Te Reo.
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Keep watching Kyle, I'm finding that I'm absorbing stuff from context.
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Sorry - first line above makes no sense. Should be word 'book' in there somewhere.
Kind of cute tho, I can see an interpretive dance coming on.....
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Keep watching Kyle, I'm finding that I'm absorbing stuff from context
Not only are you an elitist bastard Simon, but an incredibly intelligent one!
What on earth is editorial emotion?
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Who the hell is Simon?
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It's weird, but whenever someone gets my name wrong, they call me Simon.
Anyway, Grant, what I mean by editorial emotion is that when you read an item with overt emotion, I see that as potentially editorialising. This is Bad. This is Good. This is Funny.
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