Charlie Brooker's News Wipe

[Thor Damar]

I've just seen the thing, another great episode but there where several weak spots.
The first as has been already mentioned is the coverage of Fox News, basically it's a rerun of the 'Bush is stupid, and the Right Wing are crazy' meme. Yes we all know that Glenn Beck is a disturbing emotional cripple with a tendency towards opportunism of the lowest kind, and that Bill O' Reilly is a arrogant windbag with anger issues there is no point banging on about it.
The second is Tim Key's god awful attempts at poetry

To be fair to Charlie he did get a pop in a Keith Olbermann, the 'pompous Liberal' of the US media and he made some interesting points about the shift in the newsreader from someone merely reporting the news to a celebrity.

Adam Curtis' piece on the rise of 'oh noism' was thought provoking Journalism, if the tried and fruitless narratives of 'good vs Evil' have failed and there is no attempt to provide a cogent political explanation then the news merely operates as a harsh condemnation of Humanity as a species.
Ultimately what else can we do but tut at the world?
A harsh and cynical view yes, but this could be the wake up call that we all need in these dark times, a call to use our brains and experience not the words of the overpaid journalists who ofter nothing but cheap sensational emotion and fear. Or at least that's my hope...

It was amusing watching Charlie talking to himself and his O'Reillyesq rampage at the end.

Can't wait til next week.

 

[wamdue]

he should do a show about the past, present & future of local news, and how ITV is screwing it up.

 

[TedShatner10]

Trying to makes out clear cut "good guys" and "bad guys" was bound to end in tears: everbody being evil with the endless machete massacre after machete massacre, AIDS spread by rape, and armies of feral boy soldiers armed with AK-47s, is hard to avoid when the very fabric of society has been utterly destroyed beyond repair, an unsustainable strip mining economy, and the average IQ is 75. The mass media had been artificially maintaining an illusion of "good guys and "bad guys" from the onset anyway, if the heartfelt goodwill of Live Aid helped a bunch of thugs who were ruling Ethiopia at the time.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Last nights episode was another classic from brooker....and I'm glad to see virtual masturbation back in the show....

 

[wamdue]

how much truth is there to what was said about the MMR vacancie? if true that is very shocking.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^You mean does it cause autism? Almost certainly not. Not now, not even when it had microscopic amounts of mercury in it.
If you mean is it true how much the media stirred it up? Yes, to a shocking degree, people were suing, lots of people didn't vaccinate their kids, and I believe there has been quite an increase in the occurrence of measles since, could be from unvaccinated kids coming from Eastern Europe, or could be from the amount not vaccinated because of this stupid story.
Of course parents are gonna get stupid when it comes to their kids, and think it's better to not give them the vaccine if it causes autism, a lot asked for the separate vaccines, but I don't think the NHS would allow that, and you had to go private if you want it.

 

[wamdue]

no I meant did the news really pick up the story, from that collection of data mentioned in the segment.

the NHS not allowing the single gabs probaly didn't help matters

 

[Bob The Skutter]

It was a published paper, just like tons of others, Like you hear one day "Study says global warming not as bad as feared" then the next day it's "Studies say global warming worse than predicted." Rather than print what the consensus was they printed this one paper and ran with it, and kept running with it no matter what anyone said.

As for the jabs, look at it from this point of view, if you can give one jab that costs £20 (hypothetically) instead of 3 separate ones that cost £15 each, to hundreds of thousands of people each year, which are you going to make available?

 

[Thor Damar]

Just saw it. Great stuff about the G20 protests and the media's idiotic scaremongering, refusing to discuss the reasons why the protests were happening and what actually happened at the G20 summit, the idiots!

The segment on Skynews's recession counter was so depressing it almost made me cry, thanks Charlie

And as for that Tim Key... I'm just glad that he was only around for 10 seconds, any more and I would have lost all respect for Newswipe. What is the point of that waste of airtime!

Anyway, another great episode from Brooker.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Probably Charlie doing a favor for a mate.

He said in one of his columns he was mates of some sort with one of the women from a past Big Brother, lo and behold there she is on the last series of Screen Wipe helping act out an explanation of how advertising works.

I like the poetry (there, I said it!), you just have to let it wash over you I guess.

 

[diankra]

If you mean is it true how much the media stirred it up? Yes, to a shocking degree, people were suing, lots of people didn't vaccinate their kids, and I believe there has been quite an increase in the occurrence of measles since, could be from unvaccinated kids coming from Eastern Europe, or could be from the amount not vaccinated because of this stupid story.

Even if the infection was brought in from abroad, it wouldn't be able to spread unless the vaccination rate within the local population was below the 'herd immunity' threshold (ie, the number of unvaccinated individuals is so low that it's unlikely an infected child would meet one, and unlikely-squared that they'd meet more than one and start an epidemic). That it had dropped below that was definitely down to the media fuss over Wakefield's theory.

 

[Ethros]

Another brilliant ep

Anyone else notice the high usage of Curb Your Enthusiasm music?
There was also some nice use of Rage Against the Machine and Queens of the Stone Age tunes in there too

 

[wamdue]

this series is going way to quickly next week is 5 of 6.

 

[diankra]

Not a fan of Tim Key, at least when he's doing his poetry - he was equally 'Why Are You On This Show?' on a Radio 4 series, Mark Watson Makes the World Better (which, admittedly, I nicknamed Mark Watson Makes the Radio 4 Schedule a Lot Worse).
I think he's turned up as an actor in a lot of comedies and been good though.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Well this weeks show was a bit of a miss, Brooker was in a neck brace and we were left with a compilation show, now as much as i have been enjoying the show tremendously a comp show after just 5 weeks of previous shows is a bit much.

Hopefully next week's show seeing as it s the finale will be back on track.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^I'm just watching now, and as good as it has been I'm thinking about switching it off, since it's all stuff we've seen within the last month.

 

[Ethros]

I watched on Sky+ and just fast forwarded through most of it. At least he had a good excuse though, and it looked like there would have a been comp show for No.6 anyway.

 

[Ethros]

New and final episode last night; bloody brilliant.
The whole "week in bullshit" part about Susan Boyle was perhaps the greatest thing I've ever seen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPQb2Nv03F4

Exactly whay I'd thought all along, but everywhere you look there's people jizzing themselves off over how amazing she is. I can't stand it
The way they have bring in how she "lifts the spirits of millions in these tough economic times" makes me fucking puke. I loved Brooker's reaction to the ITV News bit "oh, fuck you!"

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^^^I will catch this later on-demand, cheers for the reminder.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I just finished watching it. I wish there was more, I love both this and Screenwipe, it should be on year round. Just a shame Swine flu happened to later for the Charlie treatment.