Thursday 21 December 2023
You don’t ask the barber
Warren Buffett once said that you don’t buy a business from a person whose job it is to sell the business – it’s a naïve thing to do. Even if the seller produces a huge report about the business, you don’t bother opening it. Buffett went on to illustrate this by quoting an old saying –
You don’t ask the barber if you need a haircut.
It is worth extending this warning to mass media editorial policies such as the BBC on climate change. The BBC is entirely committed to the orthodox AGW narrative. In other words it has bet its reputation on, among other things, selling the alarmist climate narrative.
You don’t ask the barber if you need a haircut.
You don’t ask the BBC for information about climate change.
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8 comments:
As a general rule we don't buy anything from callers on the phone or doorstep. The rule provides the reason and the motivation to say "No thank you" and close the door (and yes we do have a sticker saying 'No Cold Callers'). If a travelling barber (there are some) called he would not gain a customer, even if I was currently displaying my Albert Einstein look.
It's a much tougher choice to exclude mainstream media news from our lives. But we do minimise it. We also minimise unsound conspiracy theories.
As a consequence we live quieter lives and feel better for it.
DJ - we're the same, nothing from cold callers via doorstep or phone. We haven't bought a newspaper for decades and don't bother with mainstream news, although I do scan some of it for blog subjects.
It occurred to me the other day - on hearing my sister-in-law talking about ‘The Archers’ - that I have not listened to Radio 4 for well over a year.
Radio 4 has been the background for much of my life; it was on all day in my mother’s studio when I was a child and later became a permanent fixture in my kitchen. I woke up to the Today programme and listened whenever I was out in the car for over thirty years, but the creeping and shockingly pervasive bias eventually drove me to retune everything to Radio 3 (although the rot is setting in there too).
Once upon a time, my extended family and I would have been Radio 4’s core audience, now - apart from a couple of ‘Archers’ fans - we have all defected to other sources or abandoned the medium completely in favour of audiobooks and chosen podcasts; if we are typical, then Radio 4 and the other BBC news formats have presumably been left largely preaching to the already converted.
...and you don't listen to Auntie's boring monologues, once you realise she is mentally ill. You remember how she could sometimes be good company (or was that because you were so much younger then?) but since she became obsessive about the weather, people's sex lives, and the black people living down the road, it's all a lost cause.
We can ignore her, of course, but she keeps sending those begging letters.
Macheath - it would be interesting to see some numbers for the Radio 4 audience over recent decades. I used to listen to it during the daily commute, but haven't listened at all since retirement 17 years ago. Part of that is content bias, but much of it is the inability to choose content. I'm sure you are right, Radio 4 and other BBC news formats have been left preaching to converted. Probably an older, dwindling audience.
Sam - ha ha, yes Auntie is mentally ill. Lost her grip on reality some time ago and there is no cure.
Remembered reading something about listening figures earlier this year; sure enough:
“Listening figures for the station have dipped to their lowest level since 2007. The Today programme, Radio 4’s flagship morning show, is doing particularly badly: its audience fell 12 per cent year on year, from 6.5 million to 5.7 million…”
The Spectator: Gareth Roberts:
The shameful decline of BBC Radio 4
Just the same for me. Radio4 was a constant companion when I worked in a studio workshop at home, particularly fond of 'Afternoon Theatre'. But four or five years ago every time I switched it on, it was discussing transgenderism, how nasty life was for black people or climate change. Havn't listened for two or three years and listen to podcasts and topics which interest me on youtube instead. I can even listen to old 'Afternoon Theatres' too.
Macheath - interesting, maybe as well as dull content they have problems attracting talented people who are comfortable with the narrow editorial policy.
Tammly - it's surprising that BBC people don't see that their interest in these fringe issues is not widely shared.
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