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Charlie Brooker's Newswipe

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He got this show made, people watch it...but naturally nothing anywhere will change.

If a celebrity with a tv show cannot effect any change, what chance do the rest of us have?
 
I don't know, Charlie Brooker isn't exactly a celebrity outside of nerd circles and guardianistas, and his show isn't exactly that well watched (though i hear it does well on iplayer) because it's on BBC4 which is secretly the best channel but no-one watches it.

If only he was on BBC1 or 2.
 
This show really deserves to be on BBC2 at least

I only just noticed how every news report is identical to each other:lol
And I agreed about the 'anonymous source' thing, that really needs to stop.
 
Empty said:
Great episode.

The mockery of filler news reports was actually perfect (See it here US guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z4b_KMNpfs&feature=player_embedded) i thought the newsreader coat was such a nice touch. Stanhope was good again but the guest about anonymous reporting was pretty fucking scary as i have repeated the line about the being told to stop, wearing a thick coat after hearing it reported and taking it as fact not knowing it was bullshit.
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Yes, that was a pretty scary segment because the details about the shooting (the killed "suspect" wearing odd clothing and vaulting the turnstile) was all reported as fact, even here in Australia. And only now do I know those details were fabricated, which is obviously the effect of the truth (the later inquiry calling it out as rubbish) not being as widely-reported as the lies.

She was absolutely right. The anonymous source/patronage system in England is one of control, not transparency. But, of course, it shouldn't come as a surprise when talking of the land of CCTV and lurking drones.
 
Empty said:
I don't know, Charlie Brooker isn't exactly a celebrity outside of nerd circles and guardianistas, and his show isn't exactly that well watched (though i hear it does well on iplayer) because it's on BBC4 which is secretly the best channel but no-one watches it.
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Is your name Shane?

Also, fantastic episode as always. He's practically doing a public good by calling out how bullshit a lot of news reporting has become.
 
Jexhius said:
Is your name Shane?

Also, fantastic episode as always. He's practically doing a public good by calling out how bullshit a lot of news reporting has become.
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I do also like to refer to my actions by using the word 'famously'.
 
Oooh, a thread! I love this show, the newsclip pisstake from last night was fantastic. "And here's a lighthouse man being decapitated by a laser beam" :lol
 
Last night's episode was excellent, with multiple moments causing me to laugh out loud. The two men arguing in the street was hilarious, particularly when the "reporter" asked the man how it felt to be the head of a family of ASBOs, for him to reply, "annoying". Classic.

Oh and Brooker's recreation of a British news report was spot on, it was scarily accurate.

The anonymity issue was spot on as well, that needs to be revised.

"Thank god it's not a publicity stunt then!"
 
Absolutely love Newswipe. Should be on after the "proper" news every night :lol


Oh and iPlayer you are not my friend. .

Is it just me or does it not cache anything past 2 seconds after the bit you are watching? On Youtube etc. you can leave it and it caches the rest of the video ready for when you can come back to it. But this seems to have to rebuffer every time you resume? Minor gripe but yeah...
 
Empty said:
I don't know, Charlie Brooker isn't exactly a celebrity outside of nerd circles and guardianistas, and his show isn't exactly that well watched (though i hear it does well on iplayer) because it's on BBC4 which is secretly the best channel but no-one watches it.

If only he was on BBC1 or 2.
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On the leaked BBC executive reports of who the "top talents" were in the corporation Charlie was in the top group. They're probably debating where to put him in the schedule if they did move him.
 
Wes said:
On the leaked BBC executive reports of who the "top talents" were in the corporation Charlie was in the top group. They're probably debating where to put him in the schedule if they did move him.
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Awesome. Also, where can i find this leaked report?
 
Wes said:
On the leaked BBC executive reports of who the "top talents" were in the corporation Charlie was in the top group. They're probably debating where to put him in the schedule if they did move him.
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Where did you hear about these leaked reports? Kinda interested to hear who else the BBC revere, so to speak.
 
Empty said:
I don't know, Charlie Brooker isn't exactly a celebrity outside of nerd circles and guardianistas, and his show isn't exactly that well watched (though i hear it does well on iplayer) because it's on BBC4 which is secretly the best channel but no-one watches it.

If only he was on BBC1 or 2.
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Charlie deserves a bigger audience, it's definitely worth putting the show on BBC 1/2 but it may not necessarily have a big impact or the one we desire. It'd be a shame if they decided to take more control over it. It should be ported over as is rather than altering it to appeal to a wider audience. The risk is that it may be seen as just 'a guy making fun of the news' rather than something more thought provoking. That is not to take an elitist approach and say everyone else is stupid and they won't get what the show is about. I'm sure there are lots of people who would love it and haven't seen it before.
 
Christ i love Tim Key. Anyone catch the one series of a sketch show he did called 'Cowards'?


And yeah, newswipe has been great so far.
 
Fuck i just got past the bit of the typical news report.
Fan fucking tastic, he nailed that, definitely. :lol
"Here's some dowdy kitchen man opening letters explaining how he was affected by the situation".
 
Just seen episode 2.

Agree with some of the "meh" comments about episode 1 - it felt like a compilation of series 1, though that in itself is probably a comment on the news.

Episode 2 was great, mock news report was great, BBC Breakfast irritates the hell out of me (but what else is there?) and it was nice to see their reporting style lampooned. Also, I'm amazed at how badly ITN News comes across in both series. I never watch it, I'd never even give it the time of day, but holy fuck does it come across as a joke!

I'm really interested to see next week's about coverage of Haiti. Recently as there was a report on BBC News Online that essentially said "[The survivors] are pulling together, not tearing themselves". Given the news had been bleating for 3 days that it was going to turn nasty any second, I was pleased humanity was defying the expectations of the press. I'll be interested to see Brooker's take on it. He's funny and capable of viciously spiking his targets, but in fact I think he's at his best when he's actually just being sincere - see his obituary on Oliver Postgate, or the piece on Screenwipe about the coverage of the McCanns. Doesn't need humour or viciousness, and it hits home twice as hard.
 
You get your wish this episode SFA-AOK, he neatly demonstrates their bullshit attempts to create a story over the violence by hugely playing it up and a positive Fox News clip that has to be seen to be believed. Rest of the episode was great, the Jude Law documentary was so ridiculous and cringeworthy, the look on their faces discussing going to Afghanistan was priceless, and the entire bit on the celebrities on news charade was spot on. I also really fancy Marina Hyde, so it was nice to see her appear.
 
Thought Episode 3 was really good. I had hoped there would be a segment on the Haiti coverage and here it was. Also I :lol 'd at the iPad in This Week In Bullshit.

Empty said:
I also really fancy Marina Hyde, so it was nice to see her appear.
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You too huh? :D
 
Last episode was alright, but Charlie is totally re-cycling material from previous series, it makes me keep wondering if it's a repeat. BBC send this show to die every season though, it needs either more advertising or a move to BBC2. I'm a massive CB fan, and I only ever know it's on by randomly flicking channels every now and then.
 
Given the success of the "How to make a newspaper report" bit, I wonder if there's scope to do a bit of commentary about viral videos using that as the jumping-off point - or if that's seem a bit too self-indulgent?
 
Empty said:
he neatly demonstrates their bullshit attempts to create a story over the violence by hugely playing it up and a positive Fox News clip that has to be seen to be believed.
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Yes, it's difficult to believe, isn't it? Although Shep Smith being involved wasn't much of a surprise.

Empty said:
I also really fancy Marina Hyde, so it was nice to see her appear.
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Not bad at all, I must agree. The American reporter from last week, though...
 
Thanks for the quick replies. Now I don't have to keep this tab open for fear of forgetting I had ever asked a question.

Damn, I never realized Ducky had such an illustrious history.
 
SFA_AOK said:
Just seen episode 2.

Agree with some of the "meh" comments about episode 1 - it felt like a compilation of series 1, though that in itself is probably a comment on the news.

Episode 2 was great, mock news report was great, BBC Breakfast irritates the hell out of me (but what else is there?) and it was nice to see their reporting style lampooned. Also, I'm amazed at how badly ITN News comes across in both series. I never watch it, I'd never even give it the time of day, but holy fuck does it come across as a joke!

I'm really interested to see next week's about coverage of Haiti. Recently as there was a report on BBC News Online that essentially said "[The survivors] are pulling together, not tearing themselves". Given the news had been bleating for 3 days that it was going to turn nasty any second, I was pleased humanity was defying the expectations of the press. I'll be interested to see Brooker's take on it. He's funny and capable of viciously spiking his targets, but in fact I think he's at his best when he's actually just being sincere - see his obituary on Oliver Postgate, or the piece on Screenwipe about the coverage of the McCanns. Doesn't need humour or viciousness, and it hits home twice as hard.
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What episode was this in? I'd love to see it.
 
Solid episode this week. The news stuff especially regarding the Chilcot inquiry was pretty funny, and the Adam Curtis piece was good; i liked his point about the struggle for politicians to make unpopular decisions for the greater good these days, his overall narrative, and it had all the good stuff we always see from Curtis but found the emphasis on elites being so much better than normal people made it come off as slightly condescending. Felt like there were better areas of Environmentalism that Stanhope could have made fun of, though i agree that the news focuses on easy solutions to big problems so as to comfort on this issue, i feel like mocking those who actually make cuts is counter-productive and telling them not to have children is unreasonable as efforts for population control, if that is your solution, need to come from the top and be organized.
 
Empty said:
Solid episode this week. The news stuff especially regarding the Chilcot inquiry was pretty funny, and the Adam Curtis piece was good; i liked his point about the struggle for politicians to make unpopular decisions for the greater good these days, his overall narrative, and it had all the good stuff we always see from Curtis but found the emphasis on elites being so much better than normal people made it come off as slightly condescending. Felt like there were better areas of Environmentalism that Stanhope could have made fun of, though i agree that the news focuses on easy solutions to big problems so as to comfort on this issue, i feel like mocking those who actually make cuts is counter-productive and telling them not to have children is unreasonable as efforts for population control, if that is your solution, need to come from the top and be organized.
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While I broadly agree there wont be a western demcoracy that recommends population control, not now and probably not for a hundred years so I felt his point was well made. Obviously doing what you can is helpful too.
 
I absolutely love the Stanhope segments, his brand of absolute pessimism is delicious and thank god theyve seemingly shitcanned the "ironic awful poetry" segment that dragged Newswipe down as a whole.
 
Oh yeah it's a big step up on the poems but lik I say, still not completely sold. I'll have to rewatch the series at a later date, see how I feel about them then.
 
Just popping in to say that I'm an American that recently discovered this show and that I ripped through the first series yesterday morning. So fucking awesome. It's like a much better version of The Daily Show! I'll probably go through Series 2 (including tonight's ep) soon.

Edit: Oh, they got rid of the poetry segments? Thank fucking god.
 
CajoleJuice said:
Just popping in to say that I'm an American that recently discovered this show and that I ripped through the first series yesterday morning. So fucking awesome. It's like a much better version of The Daily Show! I'll probably go through Series 2 (including tonight's ep) soon.

Edit: Oh, they got rid of the poetry segments? Thank fucking god.
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Nah, they still have the poems. They were better in the second series, IMO.
 
I thought tonight's episode was excellent, especially the bit on the John Terry scandal, Brooker absolutely nailed it. I had my face in my hands several times thinking "oh my god, what were they thinking".
 
sv311z.jpg
 
"I bet he's shit hot at Metal Gear Solid" :lol :lol


Good episode this week. Stanhope was back on form, his segment was fucking great, and Brooker nailed the John Terry hullabaloo. The show continues to make Sky News/ITV look like useless stalkers though, with the following of the dead designers car through london, the standing around in john terry's local park hoping to spot him, randomly following cars around Stamford Bridge and all that stuff. Was that the last episode of the series, or do we get one more?
 
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