Just read the BBC news lewd article about no further restrictions until after Christmas. Containing this quote from Boris Johnson. No mention anywhere in the article of actual hospital numbers at all. I was expecting a number and some Comparison to how that stocks up agaisnt usual winter figures and last years Covid wave that lead to a lcokdown. But nothing. Just seems like lazy reporting to me.
We don’t report all the actual numbers unless it supports whatever agenda or decision has been made that day. We haven’t done since day one. The public have never been in control of al, the facts presented impartially, therefore the ‘Sharon’ clan on Facebook are being given a greater voice. Regardless of where you sit on the Covid/Lockdown barometer, and let’s not go down the rabbit hole of ‘if you disagree with my view you’re a radicalised interweb conspiracy theorist’, there’s got to be an admittance that our media has only ever pedalled one side of the story. If there’s ever a hint of suggesting something else all we get is ‘right wing nut job’. No healthy debate exists, even when inaccuracies and propaganda are clear to see.
You mean they quoted exactly what he’d said, but it’s their fault not his that there were no hard facts. How many dead people are you actually blaming the BBC for?
Jesus wept. Any need for that? He only suggested that a quote from the PM might be backed up by some of the most recent data.
If you want to find the actual data, it’s readily available; personally I’m fine with the government and media trying to give out simple clear in nuanced information. especially when you realise that idiots take ‘the vaccine doesn’t stop you catching it’ as ‘the vaccine doesn’t work’.
The data is out there. Data that needs explaining as it contradicts some opinions and decisions. Maybe I’m an outlier in that I’d expect my mainstream media, and proper journalists, to do some of that deep dive reporting for me. Rather than blissfully sharing what works for them and their objectives.
One stat that no-one will have is how many LFT have been done and not registered. Currently I'm sure loads are being done which are positive, but won't be registered due to Christmas coming up. How people will still stick to their plans if they've got no symptoms but are positive? Government's message at the minute is do the right thing, after Partygate folk won't listen. I'm sure Government behaviourists will have made them aware of this. However this won't be mentioned officially, due to the adverse press and potential for giving folk ideas.
"The biggest challenge to fighting this pandemic has been the media and the constant use of one side of the discussion on stats." Really? What about finding a vaccine? What about finding enough PPE, ventilators, ways to improve the care and treatment of patients in hospital? What about ensuring there are enough staff to keep hospitals running and looking after those who aren't covid affected, and to make sure they stay that way? What about arranging a mass vaccination programme? What about putting in place a system that has kept thousands of businesses afloat and enabled millions to carry on being paid whilst not working? I'm sure there are dozens of other "What about" examples that come as a bigger challenge before what seems to be your unhealthy obsession with this thing you call "media", and how you think that they are obstructing the fight against this pandemic. It seems to me to be because the mainstream "media" don't go along with your own point of view on dealing with the pandemic, it becomes the biggest challenge about the pandemic itself. Which it isn't. I'm not actually sure where you (and quite a few others on here) get their "media" from. You must spend precious time delving through obscure niche backwater online sites that hardly register with the vast majority of people who get their "media" from mainstream traditional outlets. You may of course think that Sky, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and all their online versions, plus the daily papers etc. (where most people get their "media" from) are all one sided. That they for some reason don't strive to publish the truth, or at least don't publish both sides of the story. Fair enough. I happen to think you're wrong. But to consider the media the "biggest challenge to fighting this pandemic" - tell that to a front line NHS worker and see what response you get.
Personally I think that if the state media routinely says the virus is designed to stop you spreading the virus and as such there may be vaccine passports to limit the spread, the government spends obscene amounts of money creating vaccine passports (while denying that they will ever exist) to limit the spread and when Chris whitty himself stands in front of the nation and proclaims that early indications are that the vaccines prevent you from passing the virus on and never deviates from that stance that when it turns out that the vaccine (whilst doing a tremendous job or helping to prevent serious illness) doesn't really do a fantastic job of preventing transmission then it's a perfectly reasonable conclusion to reach that it doesn't really work to the extent and in the way it was claimed. If I buy a new security light for my house which I'm told will illuminate a low light from dusk till dawn and will illuminate a brighter light when it detects movement but after it's been up a week I realise it does indeed give off a bright light when it detects movement but doesn't emit a low light from dusk till dawn it would be a reasonable conclusion to say it doesn't really do what I was told it did.
What on Earth are you talking about? I'm saying the PM gave the reasoning for no further action and that the report on it didn't contain any figures related to it. I wasn't even suggesting the report had a agenda either way just that I would expect some actual analysis of the decision the government made. Please do explain in what way any of that is me "blaming the BBC" for anyone's death?
Thank you. That wasn't in the lead article I read but is the sort of thing I was expecting. Which article is that in please?
It is on the live updates page. There is also a couple of analysis pieces in there which I think are pretty balanced as well.
I'll take a look. I wasn't actually suggesting bias I was going with lazy. It was just here's what Johnson said, here's the latest case numbers, thanks. What the Government are saying is they are unsure on the impact of Omicron on Hsopitals and ultimately deaths. So those are the figures we need to be watching if that's the government's metric for further restrictions.
So clarify the question is "how many deaths am I blaiming the BBC for" "As opposed to the alt right groups spreading misinformation and poison" On the basis I thought it was lazy journalism not to include hospital numbers and deaths in article reporting that the Government are using Hospital numbers and deaths as the metric for if we need go further with actions against the current wave of infections? Is that it or am I missing something?
You’re 100% correct. I meant ‘bigger’ as a response to what I was replying to, but didn’t type that. There’s probably an endless list of bigger challenges to the two mentioned, as you’ve pointed out. As for the media - I don’t get involved in who is right wing/left wing influenced, who’s in the government pockets, etc. But on Covid I honestly don’t believe they’ve ever represented the public correctly or fairly. I’ve seen very little proper journalism, supported by the pathetic questions we’d see on the daily briefings.