Mandy Rice Davies Applies

[djm4_lj]

"There will often be as much interpretation of what a politician is saying, as there is coverage of them actually saying it."

Tony Blair, talking disapprovingly about the news.

Obviously, if you're a control-freak like Tony Blair, you would think that's a bad thing. Personally, I want our news media to interpret what our politicians say, rather than just slavishly reporting that they've said it. And many different points of view, and different information sources? Yes please!

In other news:

Paddy Ashdown continues to talk sense on Iraq, and foreign intervention in general.

Bisexual Underground tonight.

Comments

[zotz]

Possibly he means interpretation in a rather more pejorative sense - the sort of comment that's slightly divorced from what it purports to be a comment on. The best recent example I can think of would be all the comments in the press about how Brown was believed to be, or said to be, or thought to be, behind the votes in favour of the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill, followed a couple of days later by someone actually asking him and him saying that he didn't actually support it.

There's certainly a hell of a lot of that around, and it's frequently unclear whether it's based on anything more than preconception and conjecture.

[lovelybug.livejournal.com]

Yes, we were just talking about this. Of course, he's perfectly happy to slag off the press not that he doens't need to get elected anymore...

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I often find there's loads of interpretation of what was said, but actually finding what was said can be very difficult. Most hysterical articles turn out to be based on a wilful misunderstanding of a reasonably-inoffensive press release or statement.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I'd be fascinated to know what advice on Iraq Ashdown would give to the next US president.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I'll be at BU tonight, though may not get there til after 7pm as I have a colleague's leaving do tonight and I should at least show my face for a swift pint.

Do you have any BiCon flyers left in the BU bag? I've brought a handful more but we've just done the mass mailout to regional bi groups, and are due another batch arriving.

I'm also bringing a bunch of stuff encouraging people to propose or run workshops at BiCOn - hope you don't mind!