Day: May 30, 2003

And I almost forgot to talk about last night’s TV. Somehow I found myself watching the Jamie Theakston-narrated “documentary” Shops, Robbers and Videotape last night. This hour of unquestioning pro-CCTV propaganda wasn’t exactly balanced journalism, of the kind you might, foolishly, expect the BBC to generate. More a cheap homegrown version of all those police camera car chase shows that Channel 5 get from the states.

No, this was the kind of program that was quite prepared to use the term “Big Brother” in connection with the state of the art integrated CCTV system installed in Soho that provided most of its material, but, unfortunately, it clearly meant “Big Brother” as in the TV show, not as in 1984.

Anyway, I felt rather uncomfortable about the way the program accepted CCTV as a thoroughly good thing, without bothering to question whether there might be a downside (taking the “if you haven’t got anything to hide, you’ve got nothing to worry about” point of view so beloved of compulsory ID card advocates).

Setting aside the fact that Jamie Theakston was narrating (surely someone averse to having his picture taken without his consent), there was also something very Brass Eye drugs episode about a lot of the footage.

Combine that with the somewhat over-zealous policing on display (I can’t be the only person who feels slightly uncomfortable about the way the talking heads from the force admitted that they enjoy going after people spotted on the CCTV because it’s exciting, and “gets [them] out of their daily routine”, and then having to watch four of them pile on top of some guy they suspected of dealing drugs). Then there’s the fact that they didn’t seem to actually catch anyone (except the odd handbag thief and someone who’d just bought Cannabis – and you could hear the disappointment in the WPC’s voice when she told us that it was only Cannabis).

Anyway, like the idealistic fool that I am, I’d like to see a bit more balance, but then why would you expect the BBC to bite the hand that feeds it, when there’s hours of cheap, sensationalist TV footage available for just the price of interviewing a couple of policemen?

Oh, there’s more privacy-related news in this week’s Need To Know…

Oh, and speaking of anniversaries…

Hypocrisy is a wonderful thing. The third leader in today’s Guardian bemoans the curse of what it refers to as “premature anniversitis” (anniversaries being noted in the media at length for weeks around the actual event, as with recent coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Everest ascent). The column goes on to remark that “a little leadership by example is in order”, “anniversaries will continue to be duly and arbitrarily marked – but only on the right days”.

So we can expect The Guardian not to copy the activities of other papers, where “Everest anniversary articles have been appearing everywhere for months; and ‘William at 21’ is already in full flood, even though the happy day is still more than three weeks away…” Oh, so, you mean articles like the one on page 13 of today’s paper, then, about Prince William, on life at St Andrews and, um, turning 21?

There’s much to write about today – the line-up, last night’s TV, six months ;), Blair in Kuwait and the missing WMDs, the backpedalling of the Bush administration over WMDs, the interview with Salam Pax in the Guardian… where should I start?

As ever, with the line-up, it’s the clashes that stand out. I mean yes, I can’t miss the essentials, like the Manics on Sunday, The Flaming Lips/Radiohead double header on Saturday night, but hang on, what about the three way Radiohead-SFA-Lamb clash on Saturday night? Doves or Moby? Can I catch The Libertines on Saturday afternoon and still make it back to the main stage for Polyphonic Spree/Turin Brakes/Supergrass/Flaming Lips/Radiohead?

Oh, and, on a technicality, what’s John Cale (off-of the Velvet Underground) doing playing in the “new” tent?

Anyway, excuse me while I go off and start circling bands in the paper like a kid at Christmas with the TV pages of the Radio Times (oh, and maybe do some work). I’ll be back later. In the mean time, I found this (now removed) page rather amusing: “NME.com will reveal the line up tomorrow [er… just as soon as we’ve bought The Guardian or Q and copied it out of there]”