'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

Empty Vessels

On my travels, whether the trip is in real time or on the internet, it is easy to see that many more of us are relying upon the television to deliver the news to us these days.
The main national broadcasts are preceded by a musical fanfare delivered at a volume far beyond the level of the programme itself, so demonstrating the truism that empty vessels do indeed make the most noise.

Whether you live in The States, The UK, Continental Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the content of your national TV news service has been in decline over the past decade or two and has now reached a point where you can rely upon only being advised of the biggest international stories mixed with a swill of local chest-heaving, tear jerking, eye popping bilge. Favourite among these items are school children gone missing, run over or perhaps killing each other, corpses of young molested women found, would-be paedophiles caught downloading child porn from the internet, and cases of family incest, all exposed in titillating but never too graphic detail to the gawping, open mouthed throng. Celebs soliciting in public toilets and teens on a gun rampage are welcome supplements to this ‘news’ blanket that we are all so cosily wrapped in.

Naturally these stories engender deep feelings of shock and revulsion, but of course in no way fuel the imaginations of certain marginal members of our society, creating a never ending, vicious circle of cause and effect. Of course not!

And who would have thought that the BBC, that icon of dispassionate and relevant broadcasting would fall prey to these cheap tabloid tactics? But it has. Items are repeated for up to three days and even it’s ‘NEWS 24’ channel in no way provides the viewer with anything like a full picture of what, in true news terms, is going on in the world.

But as one door closes, another opens. I have been amazed by how many of us have caught the same notion and watch ‘Russia Today’, ‘Aljazeera’, Europe News, and China News.

This is not satisfactory. These foreign outlets have their own agenda and are specifically tailored to address the English speaking peoples, not their own people, but under the circumstances it is better than nothing. It may also persuade our own national media to broaden their broadcast horizons beyond a ratings quest, or indeed to find a way of popularising more pertinent and broad-based information.

I am not an academic or a politician, but I am a free and moderately intelligent person who likes to know what is going on in the world. Now, if you don’t know that since Barack Obama’s breakthrough meeting in London with Dimitry Medvedev stalled talks between Russia and Iraq have been reinstated promising Russian assistance to their oil production facilities and a knock-on effect on Iran, you are missing out on the new train of events which are now in motion. The only reason I know about it is thanks to ‘Russia Today’.

They talk about a glass being half empty or half full, which is a philosophical consideration. When it is fully empty the consideration is more matter-of-fact. You can run your wetted finger around its rim and produce a strong, ringing tone, but you can’t get a drink out of it to save your life. The parallel is as grave as it sounds.   

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