I can say categorically that overrepresentation in ads was my gateway drug. Gradually, then suddenly, I became outraged that activists were given free rein to impose their fantasies on the public.
I would once have agreed with you about there being a better, more-responsible way for Pochin to address her grievance. But I now think that that expects too much. How often it happens that a left-wing grievance makes itself heard in some antisocial fashion before being picked up and sanitised by the establishment. In comparison, a phone-in radio programme is the height of propriety.
I watched Immigration: How British Politics Failed, the surprisingly candid BBC documentary, and was amazed to learn that in 2003 the BBC did a whole day of programming dedicated to immigration. Impossible to imagine today. If the establishment wants a responsible debate, it needs to provide that kind of platform for it.
Yep you do get the impression that establishment media used to be balanced. E.g. the BBC documentary The Last Whites of the East End, hard to imagine that being made today.
Farage is a shrewd operator and I wonder if he has licensed Pochin to go out on a limb and say things that would cause a massive ruction if he said them, but throws red meat to people like me who might toy with the idea of joining Ben Habib's outfit (especially if it gained traction).
Agree with everything you wrote here. Pochin, however, was amazingly stupid to express herself the way she did. She could have made the point more effectively without saying it 'drives me mad', which just creates an opening for the racism attacks. Farage needs to school his people in some communications discipline.
Hard to say, it's possible the furore it generated got people talking and that many would agree with her and thus support Reform more. But I'm not sure how many it turned off vs turned on.
In the US, the over representation of blacks in TV advertisement has become obscene. With 13% of the population in the US being black, almost 90% of TV advertisements have blacks represented. When whites are also in the same commercial, the Black always has a lead role. Worse than this, it is obvious that white males in the US are being excluded from advertisements altogether let alone lead roles. I’ve never been a racist of any kind. But I do resent product marketers, and service marketers attempting to perform social engineering on our society. Whether consciously or unconsciously, I have begun to steer away from products and services that advertise with blacks. Call it what you like, but it may be a form of self preservation. I don’t know. In addition, the increase of homosexual and bisexual characters in advertisement has become Ludacris. They represent a tiny portion of members of our society in the US. Yet nearly 25% of television advertisement has got to slip in a gay couple or some sort of other LGBTQ member. Advertisers better wake up. Because the cat is out of the bag, and Americans are tired of it.
In the US, the over representation of blacks in TV advertisement has become obscene. With 13% of the population in the US being black, almost 90% of TV advertisements have blacks represented. When whites are also in the same commercial, the Black always has a lead role. Worse than this, it is obvious that white males in the US are being excluded from advertisements altogether let alone lead roles. I’ve never been a racist of any kind. But I do resent product marketers, and service marketers attempting to perform social engineering on our society. Whether consciously or unconsciously, I have begun to steer away from products and services that advertise with blacks. Call it what you like, but it may be a form of self preservation. I don’t know. In addition, the increase of homosexual and bisexual characters in advertisement has become Ludacris. They represent a tiny portion of members of our society in the US. Yet nearly 25% of television advertisement has got to slip in a gay couple or some sort of other LGBTQ member. Advertisers better wake up. Because the cat is out of the bag, and Americans are tired of it.
On some very important matters the media are far beyond being biased. They've become morbidly corrupt.
ALL racism needs to be challenged, yet there are injustices and victimizations that get mis-reported or ignored as though those injustices/victimizations are ideologically and therefore socially/politically acceptable. The media (i.e. news, literary, social and entertainment), though especially the woke mainstream news outlets, can largely be credited for the creation and maintenance of current societal/institutional racial standards and even hypocrisies in Western society.
Anti-Caucasian racism or violence, for example, can be expected to not receive objective coverage, if any at all, by the neo-liberal news media, quite unlike when the racial makeup is reversed. It's likely they deem such occurrences, however newsworthy, as not being a social/societal problem and therefore un-worthy of proper coverage.
Over my decades of news consumption, I’ve heard this justification more than once, although it’s not even their professional/objective prerogative to do so in the first place. They also appear to (erroneously) believe they can be both journalistically activistic AND truly objective/professional.
According to my journalism instructor approximately three decades ago, the probable rarity of such an assault (in this case, anti-Caucasian racism or violence) would make it newsworthy; and the opposite would apply to the common or usual occurrence, such as that resulting from a recurring social/societal problem.
Also, all the more disturbing and concerning about that news media’s failure to condemn or even properly cover such racist assaults is that it encourages the justice system to not objectively/fully charge and prosecute those responsible.
Not only can the racists (of color) not be held properly criminally accountable, they may also notice the news outlets downplaying or omitting the racial motivation behind such serious crimes, perhaps leaving the impression that the inexcusably vicious acts were somehow morally justified. It’s in our flawed, if not corrupted, human nature (especially as children) to observe such societal cues and take advantage of them.
Being married to an Oriental lady, and having bi-racial offspring, WE all agree with Ms Pochin, and find nothing untoward with her comments or the manner in which they were expressed. (We still have not forgiven her for her spiteful remarks about Mr Habib, though. An apology is long overdue).
Great piece.
I can say categorically that overrepresentation in ads was my gateway drug. Gradually, then suddenly, I became outraged that activists were given free rein to impose their fantasies on the public.
I would once have agreed with you about there being a better, more-responsible way for Pochin to address her grievance. But I now think that that expects too much. How often it happens that a left-wing grievance makes itself heard in some antisocial fashion before being picked up and sanitised by the establishment. In comparison, a phone-in radio programme is the height of propriety.
I watched Immigration: How British Politics Failed, the surprisingly candid BBC documentary, and was amazed to learn that in 2003 the BBC did a whole day of programming dedicated to immigration. Impossible to imagine today. If the establishment wants a responsible debate, it needs to provide that kind of platform for it.
Yep you do get the impression that establishment media used to be balanced. E.g. the BBC documentary The Last Whites of the East End, hard to imagine that being made today.
Farage is a shrewd operator and I wonder if he has licensed Pochin to go out on a limb and say things that would cause a massive ruction if he said them, but throws red meat to people like me who might toy with the idea of joining Ben Habib's outfit (especially if it gained traction).
Yeah doubt it's so explicit but implicitly this is his method, and it works well.
Agree with everything you wrote here. Pochin, however, was amazingly stupid to express herself the way she did. She could have made the point more effectively without saying it 'drives me mad', which just creates an opening for the racism attacks. Farage needs to school his people in some communications discipline.
Hard to say, it's possible the furore it generated got people talking and that many would agree with her and thus support Reform more. But I'm not sure how many it turned off vs turned on.
In the US, the over representation of blacks in TV advertisement has become obscene. With 13% of the population in the US being black, almost 90% of TV advertisements have blacks represented. When whites are also in the same commercial, the Black always has a lead role. Worse than this, it is obvious that white males in the US are being excluded from advertisements altogether let alone lead roles. I’ve never been a racist of any kind. But I do resent product marketers, and service marketers attempting to perform social engineering on our society. Whether consciously or unconsciously, I have begun to steer away from products and services that advertise with blacks. Call it what you like, but it may be a form of self preservation. I don’t know. In addition, the increase of homosexual and bisexual characters in advertisement has become Ludacris. They represent a tiny portion of members of our society in the US. Yet nearly 25% of television advertisement has got to slip in a gay couple or some sort of other LGBTQ member. Advertisers better wake up. Because the cat is out of the bag, and Americans are tired of it.
In the US, the over representation of blacks in TV advertisement has become obscene. With 13% of the population in the US being black, almost 90% of TV advertisements have blacks represented. When whites are also in the same commercial, the Black always has a lead role. Worse than this, it is obvious that white males in the US are being excluded from advertisements altogether let alone lead roles. I’ve never been a racist of any kind. But I do resent product marketers, and service marketers attempting to perform social engineering on our society. Whether consciously or unconsciously, I have begun to steer away from products and services that advertise with blacks. Call it what you like, but it may be a form of self preservation. I don’t know. In addition, the increase of homosexual and bisexual characters in advertisement has become Ludacris. They represent a tiny portion of members of our society in the US. Yet nearly 25% of television advertisement has got to slip in a gay couple or some sort of other LGBTQ member. Advertisers better wake up. Because the cat is out of the bag, and Americans are tired of it.
On some very important matters the media are far beyond being biased. They've become morbidly corrupt.
ALL racism needs to be challenged, yet there are injustices and victimizations that get mis-reported or ignored as though those injustices/victimizations are ideologically and therefore socially/politically acceptable. The media (i.e. news, literary, social and entertainment), though especially the woke mainstream news outlets, can largely be credited for the creation and maintenance of current societal/institutional racial standards and even hypocrisies in Western society.
Anti-Caucasian racism or violence, for example, can be expected to not receive objective coverage, if any at all, by the neo-liberal news media, quite unlike when the racial makeup is reversed. It's likely they deem such occurrences, however newsworthy, as not being a social/societal problem and therefore un-worthy of proper coverage.
Over my decades of news consumption, I’ve heard this justification more than once, although it’s not even their professional/objective prerogative to do so in the first place. They also appear to (erroneously) believe they can be both journalistically activistic AND truly objective/professional.
According to my journalism instructor approximately three decades ago, the probable rarity of such an assault (in this case, anti-Caucasian racism or violence) would make it newsworthy; and the opposite would apply to the common or usual occurrence, such as that resulting from a recurring social/societal problem.
Also, all the more disturbing and concerning about that news media’s failure to condemn or even properly cover such racist assaults is that it encourages the justice system to not objectively/fully charge and prosecute those responsible.
Not only can the racists (of color) not be held properly criminally accountable, they may also notice the news outlets downplaying or omitting the racial motivation behind such serious crimes, perhaps leaving the impression that the inexcusably vicious acts were somehow morally justified. It’s in our flawed, if not corrupted, human nature (especially as children) to observe such societal cues and take advantage of them.
Being married to an Oriental lady, and having bi-racial offspring, WE all agree with Ms Pochin, and find nothing untoward with her comments or the manner in which they were expressed. (We still have not forgiven her for her spiteful remarks about Mr Habib, though. An apology is long overdue).