Journal Entries
Pre-mod
Posted Oct 30, 2007
I'm in pre-mod again on every other BBC discussion board apart from, seemingly, this one. This REALLY infuriates me, as I consider my comments on the POV forum were legitimate, defensible, and fair comment concerning a certain BBC presenter. I wish I could go into more detail here about it, but this is the last BBC forum to which I currently have open access without going into pre-mod status first (ie, a moderator has to read and approve of my posting before allowing it to go onscreen, a process which could take hours and rather kills the point of having access to messageboards - ie being able to respond more or less immmediately ). So I don't want to draw attention to this without losing access to hootoo too.
This particular presenter and I have a backstory. I once complained formally to the BBC after having had the misfortune to listen to his programme - some of the content was too extreme even for me. I'm open-minded, I like to think I have a sense of humour, and I do appreciate an intelligently funny dirty joke. But this particular presenter pushed it too far: content of his show was obscene without being funny, it added nothing to my listening pleasure, it didn't inform or entertain, and the person concerned was being filthy for filthy's sake - just out of a juvenile desire to shock, or being gratuitous. So I discussed it with a couple of people, asked if I was oversensitive or if I was losing a sense of humour as I got older, they said "no, that should neveer have been said on radio" and supported me in complaining. So I sent in a formal complaint, and the folllowing weekend, I tuned into this person's radio show to see if he'd toned it down a bit and to give him another chance.
What he did was to talk about my complaint concerning his show - it had evidently irked him that somebody had dared to complain - and although I wasn't named, they stopped short of that, this presenter and his sidekick took it to pieces, and took the point of view that I was some sort of prudish Mary Whitehouse with too much time on my hands and no sense of humour. I thought - can he do that? Can they take a valid listener complaint that must have been passed to the production team for their comments, and then tear it to pieces, and be personally offensive to the person making the complaint (ie, me) on a live radio show?
He had, and as far as I was concerned, that made it personal. I wish I could name the presenter, but let's just say he does a weekly show which is lazy, ill-produced, amateurish, and which regularly takes the p out of people ill-equipped to defend themselves - ie, just bullying. How the hell this person got a BBC contract in the first place beats me.
So I recently posted to a thread on the Points of View messageboard - poor naive me, I thought this was the place where complaints and criticisms of BBC radio could be aired, but evidently not. The thread title was an invitation to suggest ways the BBC could save money and cut its expenses. So I suggested they discontinue this presenter's contract and save on one salary. I even provided good reasons.
Next thing I know, the post has been yikesed from POV, a follow-up post asking why the first post had gone (but without naming the presenter in question) is also yikesed, so evidently the POV mods cannot take criticism either, and then, about two hours ago, they put me on pre-mod. On all BBC discussion boards except this one.
So I wonder if, after my first bruising encounter with this person, he has his minions watching the boards for critical comment and has them hit the "complain here" button? He certainly seems to have powerful supportwers in the heirarchy, if the newspapers are to be beleived, and is very much the untouchable golden boy... so I'd better copy this entry to an off-board log before it goes too! I wish, I really wish, I could identify this egotistic monster here....
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Latest reply: Oct 30, 2007
July 7th 2005
Posted Jul 7, 2005
Well, Blue Öyster Cult has been well received by those who have seen it - I'm pleased, it wasn't my intention to write either a po-faced discography with a blow-by-blow analysis of every track on every album right down to how much cocaine the lead singer took just before doing the final cut. Nor was it going to be a gushing fan hagiography where you have to have your critical faculty surgically removed before starting to write - these are generally gods-awful and unreadable.
It had to be (and this was the only way I could write it) semi-autobiographical, a kind of history of how the band's music has worked (or in some cases not worked) on me since I started getting into them in the mid-eighties.
There's probably more to add yet, especially on the Patti Smith and mike Moorcock connections - glad I found, almost by sheer chance, that Guide entry on Moorcock! I really thought, after searching on his name, there wasn't one and that I'd have to write it: this search engine was totally useless when I entered "Michael Moorcock" as a search item.
Hope I can get to collaborate, I'd like to add a few ideas about "use of Celtic mythology in the Corum cycle" (or refer this to Pam?)or "The Eternal Champion: one story: umpteen books"
The question arises - if I can't find an entry on Patti Smith, and I still find it hard to believe NOBODY has written a bean about this extraordinary woman, maybe I'm not looking hard enough: it doesn't necessarily mean, if a search on "Patti Smith" comes up with zilch and I get tons of stuff on people called Smith, every Smith except the one I'm looking for...after all, look at my Moorcock searches.
As for t'other Guide entry, Tanks in WW2, this is developing into a monster... Yataghan skimmed over a tough subject without realising how deeply and intricately he'd have to go into it. Now I'm discovering that and it's too late to back out....
...ah well, only two more sub-essays to write, one on Germany and one on Russia. The two toughest, mind you, but they'll be a challenge!
Then a note on "origins", a brief spiel on "WW1" and a note on the Locust Years and she's ready to roll...
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Latest reply: Jul 7, 2005
AgProv2
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