What an exciting day it has been. I woke up to the news of the election of the new Pope, Francis 1, checked a couple of Italian news reports and printed them, all the better to prepare myself for being able to speak about it in today's class. Papa Bergoglio sounds a warmer and more human person than his predecessor but it does seem he is unlikely to change attitudes to sex and birth control etcetera. It seems aggiornamento can only go a little way at a time. We shall see. Naturally the commercial press rabbited on about his appointment. Sorry, press barons and your minions: there is actually an election for the position of pope.
Apart from this I have been seething away at the standard of political journalism, which yesterday reached a new low in comparing a modest attempt to rein in bad and misleading press stories to the actual savage censorship of the press by sundry brutal dictators. News Ltd crowned this by putting the Minister's face into a photo of Stalin in uniform, which in my opinion reached a new low. I protested on line, but my comment was not published. Surprise. Most of the comments were as bad as the press report - which was very low on facts, but fervent in their belief that this government is both communist and socialist.
Get real, folks! If you want to be total ratbags, at least try and ascertain the facts, both historical and in the present.
Apart from this I have been seething away at the standard of political journalism, which yesterday reached a new low in comparing a modest attempt to rein in bad and misleading press stories to the actual savage censorship of the press by sundry brutal dictators. News Ltd crowned this by putting the Minister's face into a photo of Stalin in uniform, which in my opinion reached a new low. I protested on line, but my comment was not published. Surprise. Most of the comments were as bad as the press report - which was very low on facts, but fervent in their belief that this government is both communist and socialist.
Get real, folks! If you want to be total ratbags, at least try and ascertain the facts, both historical and in the present.
1 comment:
Oh yes. Hissy fits here at the comparisons. And bigger hissy fits at the numbers of people who seemed to accept it as total truth.
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