All entries for Wednesday 19 November 2008

If Charlie Brooker was a newspaper…

...it’d probably be the best newspaper in the world

: 19 Nov 2008 17:29 |  Tags: Charlie Brooker Guardian Mashups Media Newspaper |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Should we believe reviews of Baz Luhrmann's Australia?

Reviews started leaking out yesterday of Baz Luhrmann’s long-awaited new film, Australia.

And the first ones were all very positive.

The Sun, The Times and the Herald Sun in Australia all broke the apparent embargo which said reviews shouldn’t be published until after last night’s premiere in Sydney.

So what links the publications who published early, and who all found the film to be “perfect”, “beautiful” and a “love letter to Australia”?

They’re all owned by Australian Rupert Murdoch.

Who, coincidentally, also owns the film’s production company and distributor.

Naturally, being the first available reviews, websites that publish reviews of reviews all used the Rupert Murdoch-owned ones.

Funnily enough, the reviewers who waited for the embargo to be lifted found the film to be ‘not the masterpiece that we were hoping for’, ‘not a bad film… But far from a great one’ and a word that crops up in most of them is “cliched”.

The bias is so obvious, even Homer Simpson would notice it.

EDIT: Even members of the Murdoch stable seem to realise the film might not be the masterpiece they first thought.

: 19 Nov 2008 10:00 |  Tags: Australia Film Rupert Murdoch |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Someone needs to consolidate…

Dizzy has found some great quotes from recent budgets.

“borrowing for this year and future years is therefore £27 billion (2003), £24 billion (2004), £23 billion (2005), £22 billion (2006) and £22 billion (2007).” - Budget 2003

“borrowing for this year will fall to £34 billions (2004) and in future years fall further to £33 billions (2005), falling again to £29 billions (2006), then falling to £28 billions (2007), £24 billions (2008) and £22 billions (2009). - Budget 2004

“[it] will be £34bn (2005) this year falling to £32bn (2006) next year, then falling again to £29bn (2007), falling to £27bn (2008), then to £24bn (2009) and then £22bn (2010).” - Budget 2005

“[borrowing] will be £37bn this year, £36bn next year, then £30bn, falling to £25bn, £24bn and £23bn in 2010-11” - Budget 2006

“the figure for [borrowing] this and future years will be £35 billion (2007) – over 1 billion less than forecast at the Pre Budget Report – then 34 (2008), 30 (2009), 28 (2009), 26 (2010) and 24 billion (2011)” - Budget 2007

If Gordon Brown were a normal person, would he need a) advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau, or b) sectioning?

: 19 Nov 2008 09:15 |  Tags: Debt Economy Gordon Brown Politics |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem