Labour Peer And BBC Presenter Fight To The Death Live On TV

WHAT follows is footage of a row between Labour peer Lord Foulkes and BBC news presenter Carrie Gracie.

You are expected to know who Foulkes and Gracie are, being news junkies. But it’s hard to keep up.

The Mail says Foulkes is friends with Michael Martin, the House of Commons Speaker. They look a lot alike. And Anorak wonders if they are the same man working an elaborate expenses dodge?

The video is what counts for a highlight on 24-hours news shows, those rolling expanses of nodding heads debating the days key news item.

Right now in a studio at the BBC, gaggles of news experts are jabbering away about Madeleine McCann, swine flu, Susan Boyle, Israel and global warming as the TV directors flit beween issues hoping to avoid dead air, which, incidentally, is going to kill you.

Eveyone talks at once in a constant stream of opinion and faction.

Over on Sky, the presenter is stood on a patch of foreign dust reminding us that they are live from an area closer than you are to the scene. They voiceover stock footage of the incident, which is of either a) death or b) imminent death.

The fundamental is that something only exists if it on the telly. And because Gracie is on the telly, she stands for all of us losers who aren’t. She’s no longer a journalist - she’s our spokeswoman.

Of course, Foulkes is one of us too - a taxpaying citizen - so we are on both sides, having it every way, winning and losing, taking and giving and making zero progress.

The result is that no one has a f***ing clue what’s going on. It’s just telly and - above all - entetainment.

Here’s the video:

Anorak

Posted: 12th, May 2009 | In: Key Posts, Media Comments (3) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink