Check out this great trailer for the new official Monty Python channel on YouTube.
They’re appealing for people who enjoy the channel to buy their stuff. Would you show your appreciation of good YouTube content by paying out for the products?
You know, I think I just might. Visit the channel here and laugh your tits off.
Thank you to Media Monkey for this stunner from the archives. May I present to you, appearing on the brilliant GamesMaster, the one and only Simon Amstell:
Fantastic. Thankfully Simon dropped his geeky exterior and became possibly the funniest presenter on TV, no?
I like him. I still think he’s a bit stupid, but I like the fact that, if he’s honest with himself, he knows he was a bit stupid too.
Best of luck to you, Adam.
EDIT: If you were wondering about the copy that got filed that fateful night, you can read it here. It has been removed from the Mail’s site, but thanks to the wonders of Google we can still read the cached version.
One night a little while ago I sang an awful karaoke attempt of Heal the World and, in a less than sober state, duly lapped up the moment while being recorded on a friend’s mobile. I woke up dreading what could appear on Facebook the next day.
Today I feel decidedly less stupid. Imagine waking up and remembering doing this?
Oh dear. Here we are, then, this reporter, the Birmingham Mail’s Adam Smith, who is clearly (and the brummies might say) “off his tits”.
Journalists being drunk isn’t a new craze by any means (hurrah!), but what Adam’s done is a tad more serious. He’s noted the fact that he’s gone — on the Mail’s payroll, let’s not forget EDIT: It was a voluntary trip — to Miami to report the election. By his own admission, Miami wasn’t really an exciting place to be. Everyone knew it would end up going Democrat, as always.
He was there because it was “where the party is”. And, he admits, he can’t get enough of the women. He’s clearly doing a great job of attracting said women while he sits on a bench in the dead of night writing away on his laptop. Hardly the Diet Coke man.
But sadly for Adam, that’s not it. He openly delves into his journalistic technique of copying and pasting from the BBC website. He acknowledges the flaw of what he’s doing, saying that while history is being made, the B’ham Mail readers are merely getting his take on history and, well, he’s bladdered. He may have even started the first paragraph with something like “You know what readers, you’re my best mate. I bloody love you.”
He finishes on a high. He resigns. “Fuck you,” he says, flicking a v-sign at the camera. And in an instant, a journalism career is ruined.
Fool. His copy was, I’m guessing, originally here, but it has since been wisely removed.
[via Hold the Front Page]
EDIT: The journalist has made some comments via YouTube:
Right, the thing is, right I’ve just woke up. And seen this video, which I don’t really remember. I’ve been told to phone the Birmingham Mail because I am in trouble. I was off duty, I am on official holiday working at the South Beach Miami Barack Obama campaign where I had just done a 18-hour shift trying to make the world a better place. Please check every BBC News outlet and see if I have cut and pasted anything. I have not, it was a joke and should be taken in the spirit it was said.”
And then later:
Thanks for the kind comments, it has meant a lot to get the backing of so many people I respect. I’m currently in hiding at the Gansevoort South hotel in Miami tryin to come to terms what’s happened whilst sipping rum and coke at the pool. I guess I’m going to have to face the music when I get back.
Adam Smith, aka Steve Zacharanda
Technically, still a Birmingham Mail reporter.
But definitely editor and founder of Goggle-eye magazine and Cheeky Media.
Cheeky Media indeed!
Yesterday’s shocking events in Finland brought the debate about media censorship to the fore once again.
Peter Horrocks, head of the BBC newsroom, has gone on record on the BBC Editors’ Blog to explains the BBC’s stance on the killer’s YouTube clip:
Our competitors chose to run the full footage of Matti Juhnai Saari issuing his threat “You will die next”, followed by him firing towards the camera and the explosion of pieces of fruit across the lens as his bullets found their target. The BBC chose only to run the verbal thereat, but not the firing or the splattered fruit.
All well and good, you’d think, except this is a lie.
The BBC DID show the full footage, including the firing at the camera. I know this because I saw it. And I know I haven’t made a mistake because of two reasons. Firstly, since I went to university, my Dad cut down our Virgin Media TV package so that the only news channel we receive is the BBC News Channel. Secondly, the news was breaking yesterday at the same time I was doing my blog post about coverage of Brown’s speech. If you read that you’ll see that I was watching the BBC feed for that time.
The shots were shown. I was shocked by them. By the time the six o’clock news had come on, they had censored the clips. But for Mr Horrocks to claim the BBC took some sort of moral high-ground in not showing the clips is simply not true.
The clips were shown. So why lie?
I hate the ‘ThisIs’ series of websites. I hate the name. I hate the designs. Urg urg urg. Many of these local sites would benefit greatly from just having all the rubbish whipped out and replaced with a simple publishing platform that everyone in the newsroom could operate. That’s what we’re doing at Whitireia, and that’s what should be happening pretty much everywhere.
And for heaven’s sake, stop calling them ‘This Is’. It’s annoying. Thisishullandeastriding.co.uk?! What a jumble. What on earth is wrong with just HullDailyMail.co.uk?
Anyway, Dan Ionescu, my successor on The Linc, has written a brilliant critique about the ThisIsLincolnshire website. Although it uses Lincolnshire as the example, the comments could be applied to pretty much all of the ‘ThisIs’ sites. Apart from maybe Hull, which is getting better, but their video content is still pretty shoddy. What is the point of a video clip that just films the newspaper pages…? Go and take a look. It’s getting better though, so hats off to the Hull Daily Mail.
Anyway, Dan’s advice is really terrific. The most insightful nugget for me is this:
* Asking users to make the page their home page (top, left) is quite 90s style, taking in consideration that Echo offers RSS feeds. They should be placed somewhere higher on the page, with a bigger emphasis. Also, Echo does not offer full RSS feeds, but does it in the old school BBC style, with snippets, redirecting to the article’s page. Wrong decision, as nowadays RSS feeds can be monetised easily, and their visitor stats can be effortlessly monitored;
And…
* Geotagging, for a more comprehensive local reporting, together with interactive maps and graphs.
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The greatness of social media (with the help of 8 Minute Abs)
June 1st, 2009If you read media blogs in order to learn something new, or find the next big thing, then I’d advise you skip this post. It won’t be worth it.
What I’m about to tell you is neither new or surprising. We all know about it. But, just as my Dad is often compelled to marvel at the mobile telephone, I often find myself thinking “Wow. Social media really very clever”.
The last time it happened was at Euston Station. Or to be a little more accurate, a couple of days after a trip to Euston Station. Read that little anecdote here.
Moving on. Readers, I’m getting a little fat. Since passing my driving test, and getting a job, I’ve spent more time sat on my arse than ever. As a result, I’ve got a bit porky. Now I know what you’re thinking — “Blogger in overweight shocker” — but I don’t like to be a bloater.
So I’ve taken a few measures to sort this out. First: lots of walking. Second: LESS CHIPS. Third: 8 Minute Abs.
8 Minute Abs, you ask? Ah! It’s my secret weapon:
Cheesier than a Westlife ballad. But I tell you what — it’s a bloody good workout. So there’s social media triumph number 1: the fact I found it in the first place after searching for ‘fitness’.
Triumph number 2: thanks to the ‘Related videos’ I now know that as well as 8 Minute Abs, there is 8 Minute Arms, 8 Minute Legs and a few others. Great! I’m sticking to the abs right now, but boy, can’t wait to see what the cool fella has in store for me next.
And he is a cool fella indeed. How do I know? Well, another user has posted this little chat with him on YouTube too.
But here’s where the fun begins. A search on YT for 8 Minute Abs brings up a fans. A couple of remixes — this is my favourite — and then this gem:
Haha! Now, those folk on the floor aren’t just a bunch of fatties. How dare you! They’re actually in a band called Combichrist. Of course, at this point I could take the route into social media and find out all about Combichrist. But let’s stick with abs for a time being.
Here’s Rachel, doing the routine, filmed by, I assume, her college roommate. Not the best video you’ll ever see, but check out those comments! Look who it is! It’s THE BLOKE IN THE CLIP. AHHHHHHHH!! I haven’t been this excited since I bumped into Bill Bailey in a lift the other week.
And here’s a — ohhhh! — clip of a bloke who — ohhhh! – is completely — ohhhh! — off his — ohhhhh! — face (confused? Just watch the clip). In an unexpected twist, turns out he’s a born again Christian.
Then on to Facebook. There are, as expected, tons of groups celebrating the brilliance of the clip. And with Twitter I find another load of people sharing their enjoyment too.
The quesiton is whether all this extra knowledge is pointless. Well I’d argue it isn’t. Through social media I’ve not only found the clip, but I’ve found tips and information about it and I’ve found a community (yes, it’s a community) of people who appreciate it like I do.
I quite like that. If the man in the video, Jaime Brenkus, was talking to social media, I’m sure he’d say: “Woo, you’re doing a great job!”
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