Broken Britain

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nathanlee

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I post this nervously since I didn't want to be political on my blog, but perhaps this is a little? It's entirely sailing related, and I started out with the intention of writing something completely different, but it just ended up as this.

Thoughts would be appreciated. I'd hate to think I'm the only person who thinks it.

http://onkudu.com/2010/05/23/broken-britain/
 
Well its a nice sentiment.. and certainly deserved some covereage... in fact it probably will in tommorrows papers....

But tell me... what is news about someone sailing across the Atlantic?
 
Nathan, your thoughts about the Jester Challenge are brilliant, and worthy of being a column in any of the (more) serious (are there any now?) newspapers.
It has a hint of Libby Purves about it (please take that as a compliment), but I am sure it is infinitely better than the column that she will most probably write for YM (or the Times even?) on the same topic.
Would it be worth sending it to the good folk at the Observer? Maybe they are so engrossed in slagging off Britain that they didnt realise that today was an auspicious day in their own history?
 
Nathan,

I sympathise with this sentiment.

This is up with your normal quality of prose and one phrase stood out...

An armada of dreams​

Lovely expression and sums up the Jester form me (at the moment)
 
photodog said:
But tell me... what is news about someone sailing across the Atlantic?
Click to expand...

I don't have a TV, but I'm guessing it's a fair bet to say that the guy who did 86mph on a lawn mower has had some air time?

He's certainly had column inches today, as well as radio time.

If that is news (and I certainly think it should be since it's another example of determination) then amateur, self funded, unsupported, profitless ventures in to the worlds fury nursery, where death is a genuine prospect, is indeed news worthy.

Why is the Fergie saga news? She was trying to earn a few quid by using her contacts. Chances are she would have had bugger all influence anyway, so that's little more than character assault. Yeah, sure, it's a bit dodgy, but it's hardly the epitome of evil is it.

So why is the Jester worthy of news? Well, aside from all the other reasons I mentioned, it might inspire some young person to go on and do it for themselves. It doesn't have to be sailing, it can be anything that's challenging, but at least it's not another example of people profiting from dishonourable deeds.

Not to mention the column miles that were likely dedicated to some totally insignificant and morally unaware life of a self obsessed attention whore in the tabloids. That bias just doesn't seem right, to me anyway.
 
I'm a massive fan of the Jester Challenge. Blondie Haslar was a god and the ethos of the Jester Challenge matches my view of the spirit in which sailing is best undertaken.

...but 86mph on a lawnmower. Now that really is cool.
 
Evelyn Waugh really explained this best in "scoop" ... When you pick up the phone and someone tells you something you dont know... Thats News..... If you pick up the phone and someone tells you the same thing again... it aint News.

So, Jester Challenge... Very worthy... but all been done before..so not news.

Feature maybe.... But alas... without a new hook... not news.

Sad but true.
 
photodog said:
But tell me... what is news about someone sailing across the Atlantic?
Click to expand...

Myes. I have enormous admiration for the whole Jester Challenge idea and for the people who take part. However, it's been happening for years and so although wholly admirable it lacks that quality of novelty which is rather essential for news.

As a comparison, people getting to the top of Everest don't make it beyond their local newspapers any more, save in unusual cases like the thirteen year old who has been carried up by three sherpas / made the ascent himself (delete as cynical) today.
 
photodog said:
Evelyn Waugh really explained this best in "scoop" ... When you pick up the phone and someone tells you something you dont know... Thats News..... If you pick up the phone and someone tells you the same thing again... it aint News.

So, Jester Challenge... Very worthy... but all been done before..so not news.

Feature maybe.... But alas... without a new hook... not news.

Sad but true.
Click to expand...

I really, really, really (I'll add some exclamation marks to confirm my desire)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

want to argue that, but alas I can't.

Actually, perhaps I can. All it takes is a talented reporter. I mean, really, is the fergie thing news? Has nobody tried that very same stunt before? Has a popular public figure never visited a warzone before, and has a celebrity never split up with a boyfriend before? It's all the same stuff but with different names. That could be said for the jester, but better than that, if a good reporter dared dig a little in to it, they might find a gem of a story. Didn't a Polish(? sorry if that's wrong) competitor build his own boat for the last atlantic Jester, and then turn up in Newport under jury rig. That's got to be news, surely.
 
nathanlee said:
Didn't a Polish(? sorry if that's wrong) competitor build his own boat for the last atlantic Jester, and then turn up in Newport under jury rig. That's got to be news, surely.
Click to expand...

Well... It was probably news in Poland when it happened...

But your gonna have to do better than that to get it into a UK paper as news....

Its a nice Feature... or maybe something for the sports section.... but alas... a bunch of people leaving to go sailing across the Atlantic in little boats... no matter the hurdles they as individuals have had to jump to arrive at the start line... is not gonna wash nowadays...

But if something interesting happens during the race it may become news...

There are a LOT of worthy causes fighting to get space in the papers... but most of them dont have good PR... so they never see the light of day...

The problem that you have with the Jester is that the Ethos is one of individualism and self sacrifice beyond visibility... its not about getting trophies or setting records etc... its about individuals doing something for themselves... with no recognition.... and that Ethos runs totally counter to the desire to create a media event... I cant help but think that turning the challenge into a media even would in fact just ruin it... it would destroy the basic concept of the whole thing.
 
Comment posted N

Well written Nathan.
If you can continue to maintain your focus, and to this standard then people will surely want to read what you have to say.
Debate is good!......so to use “what makes Britain great” in the positive MUST be a winner!:D
OG.
 
photodog said:
Well... It was probably news in Poland when it happened...

But your gonna have to do better than that to get it into a UK paper as news....

Its a nice Feature... or maybe something for the sports section.... but alas... a bunch of people leaving to go sailing across the Atlantic in little boats... no matter the hurdles they as individuals have had to jump to arrive at the start line... is not gonna wash nowadays...

But if something interesting happens during the race it may become news...

There are a LOT of worthy causes fighting to get space in the papers... but most of them dont have good PR... so they never see the light of day...

The problem that you have with the Jester is that the Ethos is one of individualism and self sacrifice beyond visibility... its not about getting trophies or setting records etc... its about individuals doing something for themselves... with no recognition.... and that Ethos runs totally counter to the desire to create a media event... I cant help but think that turning the challenge into a media even would in fact just ruin it... it would destroy the basic concept of the whole thing.
Click to expand...

You got close to it in your last reply. I wasn't just 'wordsmithing' I was actually stumped by what you said, but thought of an answer as I wrote my reply. However, I have no such rebuke for this. You're right. This sad reality is the cold I referred to in the original bit.

"the Jester is that the Ethos is one of individualism and self sacrifice beyond visibility... its not about getting trophies or setting records etc... its about individuals doing something for themselves... with no recognition.... and that Ethos runs totally counter to the desire to create a media event..."

That is our ailment, and I can only offer the Jester Challenge as a lemsip. :)
 
Ubergeekian said:
Myes. I have enormous admiration for the whole Jester Challenge idea and for the people who take part. However, it's been happening for years and so although wholly admirable it lacks that quality of novelty which is rather essential for news.

As a comparison, people getting to the top of Everest don't make it beyond their local newspapers any more, save in unusual cases like the thirteen year old who has been carried up by three sherpas / made the ascent himself (delete as cynical) today.
Click to expand...

Isn't the word news is derived from the points of the compass rather than "new" though?
 
I agree that the Jester challenge is worthy of more coverage, but maybe it'll get a mention at the end of the race.

As for Fergie's whatever and a footballer meeting soldiers, it sounds like you're reading the wrong paper if it doesn't interest you. In fact isn't 'Broken Britain' a slogan from 'the wrong paper'?

When sailing has been on TV, it has generally been pretty boring, but I've watched it dutifully. There's a 'yachting' series on BBC World, but it's all about the lah-de-dah venues, interviews with the skippers, and their wives if they're pretty, and some nice but pretty generic sailing shots to bulk it up. How the race unfolds, and what tactics made the winner can not be gleaned from it. Bottom line is, they failed to make interesting programming from it, so nobody watches it. Ergo, the public is not interested in sailing
 
it doesn't matter what the learned peoples of this fora regard as news, where the acronym came from, or whatever constructed deffinition we impose - Nathan put his finger right on it in his third paragraph: news is what the media serve up to us in order to generate the most sales, clicks, footfall etc. In the current capitalist paradigm, you can't really expect anything else of them.

that's not to say it's their fault, after all, just like government, we get the media we deserve, collectively.

So you could argue that on a marco scale the media select what is news, but in the long run, a society sets the framework within which the media operate, both politically, economically, and, most crucially to this arument, in terms of what they want to read, which is generally a reflection of their values and beliefs.

An alternative argument says that the media clearly occupy a powerful position in terms of influencing opinion, and should be accountable for this.

I reckon whatever you argue, it always comes back to basic education and critical literacy, so in the former argument, the market for pap such as Hello! simply dries up, and in the latter people are able to make intelegent judgements on the opinions they are reading.
 
nathanlee said:
I don't have a TV, but I'm guessing it's a fair bet to say that the guy who did 86mph on a lawn mower has had some air time?

He's certainly had column inches today, as well as radio time.

.
Click to expand...

News means something new . It doesnt mean a routine trundle across the Atlantic or even a single handed sail round the world. It means someone doing something for the first time as Chichester did.

The Jester thing might well interest some sailors but probably not even the majority of them. Newspapers survive on a good judgement of what will catch the imagination of the paper buying public. And lets face it, more men are interested in Jordan's knockers than are in small sailing boats
 
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