Coronavirus

[DracoM]

I'm sure this has been much aired, but I am going increasingly crazy about the almost literally wall-to-wall coverage in practically EVERY prog on R4, R5, and extensive TV of the most tragic, appalling, life-shortening, life-blighting, nation-depressing stats, stories, videos.

Look, the NHS is doing a truly amazing job, YES, yes, yes, BUT the media are up to their armpits wallowing and savouring glug and muck and tragedy - pretty normal for some, i agree - because extracting max mileage out of all this, striking attitudes is what they are plainly doing.

BUT what the heck is that doing for the MOOD of the NATION??? I am regularly switching off news bulletins. I got the message, I am self-isolating, I am doing what I'm told, but to have EVERY bulletin heading with the Sinking of the Titanic - like EVERY bulletin.......?? is this going to go on for the next six months of whatever?

The Archers - at the mo - and R3 are pretty well the only virus-free bits of media, and, people, that means I've GOT to listen to [a] Ian Skelley [aaarrggh!], and [b] Lynda SNELL [even louder aaaarrrggh!!]

Not sure I can take it much longer. Which is why I mostly listen to https://areena.yle.fi/radio/ohjelmat/yle-klassinen/ because it's in Finnish [ which i do NOT speak] and the music is great.

Help!!

[Cockney Sparrow]

I understand your sentiment, Draco - but broadcast and press journalism is the only way the government is being held to account at the moment, and challenges made to their decisions, or lack of them. At a time of a vital threat to this country (and nearly all others, with whom we are interconnected) our elected representatives are off on their Easter break. It beggars belief.

When it gets too much, I listen to the radio 4 news at 18:00 or midnight (on iPlayer if necessary) as it is the purpose of those news bulletins to give a balanced view of the issues of the day.

[LMcD]

I'm sure this has been much aired, but I am going increasingly crazy about the almost literally wall-to-wall coverage in practically EVERY prog on R4, R5, and extensive TV of the most tragic, appalling, life-shortening, life-blighting, nation-depressing stats, stories, videos.

Look, the NHS is doing a truly amazing job, YES, yes, yes, BUT the media are up to their armpits wallowing and savouring glug and muck and tragedy - pretty normal for some, i agree - because extracting max mileage out of all this, striking attitudes is what they are plainly doing.

BUT what the heck is that doing for the MOOD of the NATION??? I am regularly switching off news bulletins. I got the message, I am self-isolating, I am doing what I'm told, but to have EVERY bulletin heading with the Sinking of the Titanic - like EVERY bulletin.......?? is this going to go on for the next six months of whatever?

The Archers - at the mo - and R3 are pretty well the only virus-free bits of media, and, people, that means I've GOT to listen to [a] Ian Skelley [aaarrggh!], and [b] Lynda SNELL [even louder aaaarrrggh!!]

Not sure I can take it much longer. Which is why I mostly listen to https://areena.yle.fi/radio/ohjelmat/yle-klassinen/ because it's in Finnish [ which i do NOT speak] and the music is great.

Help!!

I share your feelings about the blanket coverage of the Coronavirus crisis. I suspect that every news organization is terrified of missing any genuinely important developments and constantly seeking fresh angles in the meantime. The story of the 99-year-old ex-servicemen who, the last time I checked, has raised £2 million for the NHS is a truly inspiring story that deserves to be covered, but much of the rest is tiresomely repetitive and often very trivial. We usually listen to the 6 p.m. news on Radio 4 and watch the 10.p.m. news on BBC1. We've given up on those awful press conferences.
If it helps, Georgia Mann is presenting Essential Classics this week. I'm enjoying listening to some unjustly neglected CDs and audio cassettes, and also building up an impressive collection of films recorded off the BBC and various Freesat channels.

[oddoneout]

I'm sure this has been much aired, but I am going increasingly crazy about the almost literally wall-to-wall coverage in practically EVERY prog on R4, R5, and extensive TV of the most tragic, appalling, life-shortening, life-blighting, nation-depressing stats, stories, videos.

Look, the NHS is doing a truly amazing job, YES, yes, yes, BUT the media are up to their armpits wallowing and savouring glug and muck and tragedy - pretty normal for some, i agree - because extracting max mileage out of all this, striking attitudes is what they are plainly doing.

BUT what the heck is that doing for the MOOD of the NATION??? I am regularly switching off news bulletins. I got the message, I am self-isolating, I am doing what I'm told, but to have EVERY bulletin heading with the Sinking of the Titanic - like EVERY bulletin.......?? is this going to go on for the next six months of whatever?

The Archers - at the mo - and R3 are pretty well the only virus-free bits of media, and, people, that means I've GOT to listen to [a] Ian Skelley [aaarrggh!], and [b] Lynda SNELL [even louder aaaarrrggh!!]

Not sure I can take it much longer. Which is why I mostly listen to https://areena.yle.fi/radio/ohjelmat/yle-klassinen/ because it's in Finnish [ which i do NOT speak] and the music is great.

Help!!

Perhaps be more selective about listening/watching? Plan a menu of acceptable programmes/repeats and switch things off otherwise. There's a lot of R3 that doesn't have Ian Skelly(he's having a break at the mo anyway, although I don't know if you would find Georgia Mann more tolerable?), including TTN. You might want to have the mute button handy though for when the generic all station news bulletins come on - but they are infrequent. Watching TV news isn't compulsory and I stopped doing so very many years ago. Very occasionally I'll see part of C4 news.
I agree the blanket coverage, especially when much of it is of questionable use or veracity, is depressing, so for the sake of my mental wellbeing I avoid as much as possible. There are better things to pay attention to.

[DracoM]

Thx for advice.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thx for advice.

It CAN'T be all doom and gloom! Yes the story of the 99-year old serviceman was a welcome contrast; but wouldn't it be nice if the BBC news were to maybe end with SOMETHING positive from the day? Or even a positive reminder of signs of progress from further back? Maybe something promising (even if tentatively so) in the way of research, lessons being learned SOMEWHERE - it doesn't have to be in the UK.

[teamsaint]

The OBR " scenario" of a 35% drop in GDP really is extremely unhelpful, potentially very damaging, and the press really could do better than flag it up as a headline.

People need to be encouraged to engage in the economy as actively as possible, and as soon as possible, to help get out of this mess. freaking people out with unlikely scenarios is a disastrous approach.
Many parts of the economy will in any case come through this relatively or completely unscathed.
The media would be better employed encouraging those with the means to get spending as soon as they can, and in the best way they can.

Away from the pandemic , but related in some ways, is an online virtual book launch, for a REALLY important book that we have just launched,by the late Polly Higgins, with some huge names from the environmental lobby endorsing the book. Published in conjunction with " Stop Ecocide" and all profits going to them.

Available from independent high street and online booksellers, and more than reasonably priced.

https://agreatread.co.uk/dare-to-be-great-unlock-your-power-to-create-a-better-world-9780750994101/

[Petrushka]

Perhaps be more selective about listening/watching? Plan a menu of acceptable programmes/repeats and switch things off otherwise. There's a lot of R3 that doesn't have Ian Skelly(he's having a break at the mo anyway, although I don't know if you would find Georgia Mann more tolerable?), including TTN. You might want to have the mute button handy though for when the generic all station news bulletins come on - but they are infrequent. Watching TV news isn't compulsory and I stopped doing so very many years ago. Very occasionally I'll see part of C4 news.
I agree the blanket coverage, especially when much of it is of questionable use or veracity, is depressing, so for the sake of my mental wellbeing I avoid as much as possible. There are better things to pay attention to.

Completely agree with this. I also stopped watching TV news several years ago when I realised that it wasn't doing me any good hearing about constant doom and gloom over which I had no control and was powerless to do anything about. I limit myself to reading the Guardian online (even that can raise the blood pressure at times) and leave it at that.

Constant exposure to TV news really isn't good for mental health and I'd advise stopping it. You'd be surprised how little you miss it and you'll feel much better for switching it off for good. 24 hour news has a lot to answer for.

[Joseph K]

The OBR " scenario" of a 35% drop in GDP really is extremely unhelpful, potentially very damaging, and the press really could do better than flag it up as a headline.

People need to be encouraged to engage in the economy as actively as possible, and as soon as possible, to help get out of this mess. freaking people out with unlikely scenarios is a disastrous approach.
Many parts of the economy will in any case come through this relatively or completely unscathed.
The media would be better employed encouraging those with the means to get spending as soon as they can, and in the best way they can.

Away from the pandemic , but related in some ways, is an online virtual book launch, for a REALLY important book that we have just launched,by the late Polly Higgins, with some huge names from the environmental lobby endorsing the book. Published in conjunction with " Stop Ecocide" and all profits going to them.

Available from independent high street and online booksellers, and more than reasonably priced.

https://agreatread.co.uk/dare-to-be-...9780750994101/

My auntie made me aware of this book launch a few days ago.

[teamsaint]

My auntie made me aware of this book launch a few days ago.

Excellent, well done her.

Ebook is £1 on Amazon, or there is a free offer on Earth Day ( April 22) I think .

Just need the Guardian to get their finger out....... which should happen, not least because George Monbiot wrote her obituary in the paper.

[richardfinegold]

10,000 known U.S. Healthcare workers infected. Real number probably much higher

[Old Grumpy]

Completely agree with this. I also stopped watching TV news several years ago when I realised that it wasn't doing me any good hearing about constant doom and gloom over which I had no control and was powerless to do anything about. I limit myself to reading the Guardian online (even that can raise the blood pressure at times) and leave it at that.

Constant exposure to TV news really isn't good for mental health and I'd advise stopping it. You'd be surprised how little you miss it and you'll feel much better for switching it off for good. 24 hour news has a lot to answer for.

Entirely agree. I get my news from the i and the Guardian/Observer at weekends - I do find the Lifestyle articles on how to furnish one's second home do raise the blood pressure, though

OG

[cloughie]

Entirely agree. I get my news from the i and the Guardian/Observer at weekends - I do find the Lifestyle articles on how to furnish one's second home do raise the blood pressure, though

OG

Yes but they were probably printed a month or three ago and require a pinch of NaCl.

[Serial_Apologist]

central banks printing yet more money out of thin air at will, and further debasing near-meaningless currencies, we're probably heading for "helicoper money" - govt. handouts for all to "stimulate the economy" I think predatory capitalism has gone too far now, and cannot be fixed.

Governments do this in any case: it's known as the money supply, but its relationbship to what some economists rightly insist on calling "the real economy" is reduced to resorting to interest rate controls when inflation threatens. Inflation is an indicator of excess money sloshing around the economy with no real "value" behind it: nobody wants to buy into it because it is in effect worthless. This is the consequence of reducing capitalist economics to deregulated market relations - which you rightly describe as "predatory capitalism". The only way it can be fixed is by returning to the needs of a real economy, and, if you have to, using infrastructural expenditure to underpin the private sector the way postwar governments did. But even then the system overheats periodically through overproduction, one of the main symptoms of predation, and described euphemistically as recession or depression; and the thing is that while the captains of industry are empowered to squirrel their gains away in property or capital exporting, until governments have the metal to expropriate their means of production so planning to meet social need can proceed, the vicious merry-go-round will just carry on spinning, as it always has done.

You won't find BBC commentators telling you this, though they might occasionally bring out Prof. David Harvey if you're lucky.

[teamsaint]

The OBR is in the business of reporting on its research. It's a very important headline, affects everyone in some way, and I've seen figures of 40-50% bandied arround on non-mainstream news outlets. It could be as bad or worse than the Great Depression, because even that didn't happen so fast as this.






Who wants to spend given the prevailing uncertainty and wider realisation of how interconnected and fragile everything really is? Furthermore, with central banks printing yet more money out of thin air at will, and further debasing near-meaningless currencies, we're probably heading for "helicoper money" - govt. handouts for all to "stimulate the economy" I think predatory capitalism has gone too far now, and cannot be fixed.

One silver lining, there will be long overdue debt forgiveness for poorer nations.

The OBR report suggests, even in its worst case scenario, a very quick “ recovery” from a projected 35% fall in GDP in one quarter only. Of course that will be to a position of recession, but to highlight the 35% as a headline figure is really misleading of their position. But of course nobody really has much idea of what the real situation will be , other than greatly increased government debt, and a move into recession.
I’m not sure why those with secure incomes and savings ( and that is still a lot of people) shouldn’t want to spend. And those with insecure incomes or struggling businesses need them to. Money needs to circulate.

I did mention about debt relief to Africa in a post on Monday.and yes, the realisation of how interconnected we are needs to bring long overdue change in how we allocated production resources and so on.