press – Page 11 – don't confuse the narrator

set-tos on set

The BBC have apologised for broadcasting, on BBC1’s Breakfast programme, an unbleeped version of an audio tape where – allegedly – Christian Bale berates a colleague for ruining a shot on the set of Terminator Salvation. A spokeswoman is quoted as saying, “A technical error led to us broadcasting an unacceptable swear word.” Which seems a bit of an understatement if it’s true that the outburst includes the use of the F-word 35 times in just over four minutes.

The incident (the ‘berating’, rather than the BBC apology) has caught my attention as it comes hot on the heels of a scandal in Spain Continue reading “set-tos on set”

pictures of pigs

I hadn’t really planned it that way, but one of the things that brings people to this blog is the subject of pigs being slaughtered. It surprised me the first time I noticed the search phrase on the blog stats, but there certainly are several mentions – and photos – of pigs (or boars) in various states. That’s probably because I’m based in Spain and there are pig products pretty much everywhere.

As may be apparent from most of the posts, I do my own photography. Much of it is done in public places, as was the picture which follows the break. (Don’t look if you are faint-hearted.)
Continue reading “pictures of pigs”

journalism for beginners

Yesterday I mentioned the 1939 Spectator diarist’s fear of what might happen when the newly invented cheap ball point pen got into the hands of the “inexpert and frankly incompetent”. Of course we’ve gone way beyond that now.

Now, anyone who owns a digital camera thinks he is a photographer; anyone with a computer is a journalist and anyone with a mobile phone is an on-the-spot reporter. And very few of us have any professional training in journalism.
Continue reading “journalism for beginners”

explosive news?

Is it only me, or does the juxtaposition of these two headlines – from the same page of today’s El País – catch the attention of anyone else out there?

Was it the proximity to the first story that forced the headline writer to use such an ugly adverb as “laboralmente” in the second?

And am I the only person who noticed the flyer which fell out when I turned the page?:
Continue reading “explosive news?”

reader, beware

In these days of economic recession, credit crunch, financial crisis, or whatever term the media are using today, it’s logical that we should look back to the Wall Street crash of ’29 in an attempt to make comparisons and perhaps find solutions.

However, in these days of electronic media, blogs, wikis, archives and resources written by “the unwashed masses”, it’s all too easy to get confused by what’s real and what isn’t. Continue reading “reader, beware”