How many more correspondents for UK newspapers do we need?

[Ron Avery]

Can we have a new section on the Forum called "Bits you might have missed in the UK papers if you had been bothered/bored/slightly interested enough to read them"[blink]

In this section could go all the posts with links to the articles in the UK papers..  Of course they are posted in good faith, but it seems every other post nowadays contains a link to some UK newspaper or other. 

Is it me or does every other post that is not about motor bikes [:'(] say "look! look!! look!!  You MUST read this because I found it REALLY interesting".[Www]

[Clair]

Guilty as charged.

I put my hand up to posting links to articles in UK papers.

I try to bring to the fore issues related to living in France, which I hope will be of interest but may be missed if I linked solely to French news articles.

In my defence, I will add that I back them with related stories from French newspapers, with Google translations...

What's my sentence, M'Lord ?

[Bugsy]

There's a terrific article in this weeks Motorcycle News that you must see.

It's all about ......................................................................................[:D]

[Kitty]

Clair et al.  Keep up the good work.

It's interesting to read articles that one may have missed.  Only yesterday, for example, there was an interesting thread following an article by Helena Frith Powell (posted by Sweet 17).

 

[Clair]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhh.... Not HFP again!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hoddy]

For those of us on an unbelievably slow dial-up connection in France they serve a useful purpose. I could not possibly do a quick trawl around the UK newspapers and often find the links interesting and am grateful for them.

 

Hoddy

[Ron Avery]

You are missing the point Hoddy, you only get to read what others think is interesting.  Surely if the world and his wife were interested they would read the articles/papers for themselves.  I have no problem with a link to  France related topics now and again, but at the moment it seems that everybody thinks everybody want to read their articles.  Try reading aloud to your kids every five minutes what you have found interesting in the paper and see their reaction!!

If you cannot access the papers' sites on dial up in France Hoddy you must be reading last years posts on this Forum , downloading that on dial up is not slooow its painfully sloooooow!!.

[Russethouse]

If other people were not interested in the links there would be no replies on those threads - sometimes there isn't, members here seem to be quite capable of discriminating what does and does not interest them....it may not be to your taste but it certainly seems to appeal to others....

[woolybanana]

Perhaps ,we should call these things a specific name rather than just links. I wonder what? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I know, we can call them RAs (sic). Thus, "here is a good RA"  Look at this RA I found in Gunclub Monthly" or "there are lots of RA's in the Daily Express on such and such" . Yes, seems a very sound idea.[6]

[Will]

Good idea, but perhaps we should have a different name for the links to the Daily Mail. Some of the others are occasionally worth reading, but the DM links are only good for xenophobes and masochists [:P]

[Kitty]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Perhaps ,we should call these things a specific name rather than just links. I wonder what? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I know, we can call them RAs (sic). Thus, "here is a good RA"  Look at this RA I found in Gunclub Monthly" or "there are lots of RA's in the Daily Express on such and such" . Yes, seems a very sound idea.[6][/quote]

As in perhaps, WB, how many RAs do we need?  [Www]

Here's an RA that I found in The Sun:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/expats/

 

[Ron Avery]

Funny that all those who have so come out in favour of links to UK papers on here live in the UK a lot of the time, so might they find the reference more interesting than those who don't or is this the credit crunch biting?  Are real newspapers expensive there these days?[Www]

Instead of RAs call them 'EARs  like " 'EAR, You MUST read this".

[Clair]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]Funny that all those who have so come out in favour of links to UK papers on here live in the UK a lot of the time [...] [/quote]

[8-)][blink]

[Hoddy]

No Ron I wasn’t missing the point; I was disageeing with it. I think all our forum members can work out that other people copy what they find interesting and think that others might too. For me a good example is Bugbear’s link last night to the article about rednecks. I would never have come across that because I don’t surf, but I am glad to have read it.

As to the slow dial-up connection it certainly makes one sort out priorities. After my personal emails this forum is always my first site.  I presume the comment about reading last year’s posts was an attempt at humour. I don’t find any difficulty at all in keeping up with what is on the forum.

 

Hoddy

[Weedon]

I find reading about credit crunches and falling house prices a little on the boring side so am always looking for real news and found this.

http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880908021

[woolybanana]

Just how high was the guy?

[mint]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]

You are missing the point Hoddy, you only get to read what others think is interesting.  Surely if the world and his wife were interested they would read the articles/papers for themselves.  I have no problem with a link to  France related topics now and again, but at the moment it seems that everybody thinks everybody want to read their articles.  Try reading aloud to your kids every five minutes what you have found interesting in the paper and see their reaction!!

If you cannot access the papers' sites on dial up in France Hoddy you must be reading last years posts on this Forum , downloading that on dial up is not slooow its painfully sloooooow!!.

[/quote]

Ron, the sun is shining today, I'm going to bake a cake, all's well with my world and so I feel very brave and want to challenge you on this one.

Do you think you really get to read the "interesting" happenings in the world just by reading the papers you choose to read?

Ever heard of editors?  Do you think all the "interesting" things get written about and the "boring" ones don't?

Believe me, there are concepts like agendas, gate-keepers, notions of "balance", newsworthiness and many others besides which govern and drive the media.  All those old-fashioned values are also nowadays complicated by the internet and the stuff that individuals can now "publish" on it.

My point is that, it doesn't much matter if people put links to articles from newspapers which they find interesting.  I am sure people on the forum are perfectly capable of following the links that they want to and not the links in which they have no interest.

Thus it is with newspapers, TV, radio, you-tube, whatever media you care to choose.  You do not follow each and every article or programme or feature, do you?  Of course not, you pick and choose.

In any case, speaking from my own viewpoint, I'm always more interested in what is NOT being said or reported or only reported with sketchy details.  In other words, I'm more intriqued by what "they" don't want me to know than by what "they" are happy to share with me.

If I were to put a link here and write Don't Read This!!! what's the betting that it will get more attention than if I simply write, please follow this?

[TWINKLE]

I found this - it's NOT a newspaprer article and I'm certainly not interested in it but I'm sure someone will find it amusing - or not.

http://grumpyoldgits.org/default.aspx

 

[Kitty]

[quote user="TWINKLE"]

I found this - it's NOT a newspaprer article and I'm certainly not interested in it but I'm sure someone will find it amusing - or not.

http://grumpyoldgits.org/default.aspx

[/quote]

Or this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyVAVdqyt-A

 

[Kitty]

This one made me chuckle:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2776047/Health-and-safety-inspector-falls-off-ladder.html

 

[Ron Avery]

Sweet 71[:P]  said "Do you think you really get to read the "interesting" happenings in the world just by reading the papers you choose to read?  Ever heard of editors?  Do you think all the "interesting" things get written about and the "boring" ones don't?"

Well Sweets, if as you say the really interesting stories are not published in any of the on line papers and 99% of the links given on here are to an article in a UK on-line newspaper, how can anyone publish a link to the interesting stories if they aren't published?. 

The original point which seems to be getting lost, is if people want to read the UK papers like The  Mail/Times/Telegraph/Mirror/Sun/Sport etc etc they are quite capable of doing so without being pointed only to bits that may or may not interest them.

[Russethouse]

It made me laugh too, but mainly because I can hardly wait for Rons comment [:D][:D]

[Ron Avery]

[quote user="Cathy"]

This one made me chuckle:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2776047/Health-and-safety-inspector-falls-off-ladder.html

[/quote]

No offence Cathy, but this is typical of the bowlocks published in the UK. Nothing funny about a maintenance man falling off a ladder, but call him a "Health and Safety Inspector" and the world dies laughing, been better perhaps if he been killed or seriously injured?

Despite the headline the article says "Friends Provident, who were employing the inspector to investigate their buildings at Clyst St Mary, near Exeter, said the injured man was part of their maintenance team who was carrying out safety checks on the building when he fell.

So which was it?  A maintenance man or a H&S inspector "being employed to investigate their buildings" or perhaps a structural engineer even?? 

For the record risk assessments are done before undertaking work, not up a ladder[:@].

[mint]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]

Sweet 71[:P]  said "Do you think you really get to read the "interesting" happenings in the world just by reading the papers you choose to read?  Ever heard of editors?  Do you think all the "interesting" things get written about and the "boring" ones don't?"

Well Sweets, if as you say the really interesting stories are not published in any of the on line papers and 99% of the links given on here are to an article in a UK on-line newspaper, how can anyone publish a link to the interesting stories if they aren't published?. 

The original point which seems to be getting lost, is if people want to read the UK papers like The  Mail/Times/Telegraph/Mirror/Sun/Sport etc etc they are quite capable of doing so without being pointed only to bits that may or may not interest them.

[/quote]

Ron, of course I didn't say anything like that.

Clearly, there are really interesting stories that don't get published.  Why else do you think all Freedom of Information Acts are limited in scope and why else do you think  there is an Official Secrets Act?  Governments as well as newspaper proprietors have kept and will always keep the "public" in the dark when it suits them.

Some interesting stories get published, of course they do, why else would people read papers on line or "real" ones?  Nonetheless, what is interesting to one person could be yawn-producing in others.  Therefore a range of stories get published.  Equally, I am certain that many stories never see the light of day.  Of course, the press and other media, are "freer" in some countries and regimes than in others.  But, notice that I emphasise freer because, naturally, it's just a matter of degree and it is never the case that there is an entirely "free" press, broadcasting, whatever.  And, anyway, would it be a really good thing if it were a free-for-all?

Dear Ron, I don't really want to argue with you.  For a start, I don't think I am equal to any contest.  I always look forward to reading your posts because, if there really were a free press, I believe you'd make an excellent editor and you'd tell us all the things the government and big boys don't want us to know.

And just show I'm done with arguing, here is a [kiss]

[Russethouse]

[quote user="Ron Avery"][quote user="Cathy"]

This one made me chuckle:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2776047/Health-and-safety-inspector-falls-off-ladder.html

[/quote]

No offence Cathy, but this is typical of the bowlocks published in the UK. Nothing funny about a maintenance man falling off a ladder, but call him a "Health and Safety Inspector" and the world dies laughing, been better perhaps if he been killed or seriously injured?

Despite the headline the article says "Friends Provident, who were employing the inspector to investigate their buildings at Clyst St Mary, near Exeter, said the injured man was part of their maintenance team who was carrying out safety checks on the building when he fell.

So which was it?  A maintenance man or a H&S inspector "being employed to investigate their buildings" or perhaps a structural engineer even?? 

For the record risk assessments are done before undertaking work, not up a ladder[:@].

[/quote]

You don't think you were having your leg pulled, just a teensy weensy bit, in the nicest possible way - do you ? [:)]