Clay wrote: <Are you certain that your sources are absolutely correct? I tend to be skeptical when it comes to the news we read and hear from commercial sources (their goal, after all, is to make money, and sensationalism sells...)>
Our broadcast news isn't a commercial source. Newspapers are, but they tend to have a political bias rather than a commercial one. BBC news is funded from the license fee paid by everyone who has a TV set and from the sale of programmes to other UK companies and to overseas companies. There are no advertisements on BBC - yes we actually get to watch a programme from start to finish with no interruptions - apart from trailers for their own upcoming programmes or public information announcements like "If you're over 65, get your (free) 'flu jab now" which happen between programmes. The news on commercial stations isn't funded from a biased source either. All programmes on these stations have four or five breaks per hour in their programmes which are each fillled with several short pre-recorded advertisements for different products, so no one company can dictate content. Some popular programmes are sponsored by a particular company eg Cadburys the chocolate manufacturers sponsors 'Coronation Street' (one of the popular soaps), but has no say on content and their sponsorship anouncement occurs at the breaks only. They don't get extra product placement opportunities in the shops or anywhere else in the soaps either. The news on commercial stations isn't sponsored. Newspapers do exaggerate and distort - the aim of the tabloids in particular is to sell through sensationalism. The Prince Charles rumour is one example. The newspapers printed a hint to increase their circulation. Their normal ploy is to publish and then wait to be sued if what they pubish is incorrect. A court injunction being taken out by one of the people involved stopped the publication of the actual story - which any UK citizen is entitled to do. The broadcast news only reported what each newspaper had published - they didn't report the story themselves. They dare not take the 'publish and wait to be sued' route. Anything broadcast is governed by the Broadcasting Standards Authority which has very strict rules. So, yes I am certain the sources are correct as it was on BBC news. I did actually buy a newspaper on Saturday for the first time in many years, but not for the biased news - there was a free Elvis Presly CD in it! Jean in Poole To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
