Royal baby

[graduate_owner]

I have just been listening to the BBC news at 1.00 and the one topic in over 30 minutes was (still is) the birth of William and Kate's baby girl.

I wish them well, BUT-
The coverage is just banal. One interviewer asked a member of the public "what do you think the name will be?".
Answer - I don't know.
Interviewer - " there's talk of Alice or Charlotte, could you handle that?".

This is headline news? Could a randomly chosen member of the public 'handle' the name Alice or Charlotte?

I have lost count of the number of people who have been asked if Kate will leave hospital today. Nicholas Witchell said "well as I keep saying, we will just have to wait and see". And still they keep asking the same question.

Just filling air time with nothing to say. Banal in the extreme.

And they are STILL speculating about when she will leave hospital. I'm changing channels now.

Why, you may ask, am I watching television when I could be in the workshop? Well I spent 30mins there this morning and practically froze, and it's May !!


K

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

so go on then......what was the eye colour????

Blimey...you missed all the important stuff...did she have hair...what was the weight....Jees...30 minutes and you missed all the detail....get back in front of that tele and pay attention next time!

 

[graduate_owner]

Actually I really don't mind being told repeatedly about weight or eye colour - at least they are reporting facts, even if the repetition is tedious. What really gets me is the moronic repeated speculation. Asking a member of the public if they think Kate will be allowed home today, and whether Diana is suitable for a middle name.

Who cares about an individual opinion? And for each person who agrees with using Diana's name there must be another interviewed who will disagree (balanced reporting?)
Then we get the same issues discussed all over again with the royal correspondent, and then again with a family friend or with someone who once lived in the same village as Kate's third cousin, or even the butcher who once sold Kate some pork (or was it beef? Yes I do believe it was beef) sausages.
Will she go home today? WE DON'T KNOW. We will have to wait and see (if we care that is), and although it may be important for those who are waiting by the hospital hoping for a glimpse, ('nuff said) it doesn't change the fact that after innumerable repeated speculative comments, we still don't know. WHY KEEP SAYING THE SAME THING?

As I said, it is filling up news (!) time with meaningless drivel that I find so annoying. Oh well, I'm going back up the shed now, to see if it has warmed up a little. I have set the news channel to record so that I won't miss anything (yeah, right).


I am a bit concerned that I may be relapsing into Victor Meldrew syndrome again.

K

 

[doorframe]

I'm pleased for the girl. At least she won't have to suffer any more of that 'acute' morning sickness.

I prefer Alice. I could handle that.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The puke inducing sycophancy is amazing - there was an interview (I forget with whom) and the debate was who would hold which child if George cried on being introduced to the baby. I thought I'd drifted back a few centuries.

 

[IHc1vtr+]

Couldn't give a flying f$%k myself.

 

[niagra]

Couldn't give a flying f$%k myself.

+1. Another baby being born into a life on benefits.

 

[DiscoStu]

I'm not bothered about the news coverage and I'm not a massive fan of the royal family. However I don't think you can say it's another baby living on benefits. William and Kate have both worked and do huge amounts of charity work. William was a search and rescue pilot so not exactly "not putting anything back into the system".

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Well, I suppose his annual salary as a pilot would have paid for her nights in hospital - if he had to pay. His income comes from the Duchy of Cornwall - Cornwall, whose land his father is busy ruining.

 

[MIGNAL]

Headline news. Woman has baby!! Unbelievable!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Someone in The Times said that the second child often arrives quicker than the first. That's unbelievable!

 

[RogerS]

Well, I can't wait to see what the next issue of Vive Charlie will have to say about it.

http://www.joomag.com/magazine/vive-cha ... 3425?short

 

[Doug B]

I can see the Sun's head line now " Alice, Alice (this is) who the fouk is Alice"

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Well, I can't wait to see what the next issue of Vive Charlie will have to say about it.

http://www.joomag.com/magazine/vive-cha ... 3425?short

Brilliant - I'd not seen that one before.

 

[graduate_owner]

Well it is the obvious dumbing down aspect of the news that bugs me. May as well be reading the Sun (or worse, the Daily Mail / Express). And have people noticed the video clips that are used on the news these days? If the news is about hospitals then we see beds, nurses with fuzzy faces, and feet - always feet. The ecomomy? - feet on the pavement. Unemployment? Yep, they'll show feet. I think someone rather high up in the BBC must have some sort of fetish.

K

 

[RogerS]

Well it is the obvious dumbing down aspect of the news that bugs me. May as well be reading the Sun (or worse, the Daily Mail / Express). And have people noticed the video clips that are used on the news these days? If the news is about hospitals then we see beds, nurses with fuzzy faces, and feet - always feet. The ecomomy? - feet on the pavement. Unemployment? Yep, they'll show feet. I think someone rather high up in the BBC must have some sort of fetish.

K

No, it's because if they show faces then they have to get the person's permission to show the footage.

So which paper do you read? They all have their political bias (apart from the FT). For example, last week,when it was revealed that Margaret Hodge (she who has lambasted many people for evading tax) had a fund that sheltered in a tax-haven, the Guardian was lip-zipped.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

bit of an own goal for Mrs Hodge was it not

 

[RogerS]

bit of an own goal for Mrs Hodge was it not

Certainly is although it's not news ! post733212.html?hilit=hodge#p733212

 

[Graham Orm]

Point of note: I thought all babies were born with blue eyes??

I have a friend who is in radio broadcasting who reads the news. I just happened to be listening when she read a particularly irrelevant story about a baby birth or a kitten up a tree or something. It was at a point where ISIS were in the news a lot and I think there'd been a plane crash too. I spoke to her a couple of days later and asked her what on earth made the baby/kitten story newsworthy, her answer was that 'there was no blood in it...to balance the other news'. Perhaps the over the top baby reporting is to give us a rest from the never ending election propaganda.

 

[Hardwood66]

Another freeloading fund sponge