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The Guardian (from ASBOS to Sleater-Kinney and the ExxonMobil/Bush relationship)


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Guest pop-notmyface

Does anyone else ever read the newspaper and cant help smiling at the fact of what an interesting and stupid world we live in? Well, I did so with yesterdays edition of The Guardian.

Having read the very informative "Dude, Wheres My Country?" i was delighted at reading that papers from the white house have now turned up papers (through some public information rights act) that seem to clearly suggest a close between the Bush administration and the worlds biggest oil company ExxonMobil. The particular issue being covered here is that the company is said to have had an active involvement against Americas signing to the Kyoto Protocol. Coincidence that the worlds biggest greenhouse gas-emitting country would be unwilling for an agreement to try to reduce their emission, based on advice of the biggest oil supplier? Maybe, maybe not.

Then there was a big 1 page article about Sleater-Kinney, WA based all-girl-threesome. Which I think is surprising because they are not that widely know, have had their fair bit of success though. Thye talked about their past and recording of their seventh album (i think) The Woods.

Finally, there was a very interesting article about Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs), and how they were used as a cheap and quick means of prosecution. If you live in Manchester, you really have to watch yourself because its the place where you are most likely to get your ASBO if you behave inappropriately. A younf woman was given one for answering the frontdoor in her underwear. She may face jail if she is caught in her underwear answering the frontdoor again or at the window. Neighbours now keeping "ASBO Diaries"... Is anyone else thinking "perverts"? Then there was a suicidal woman banned from bridges, railway lines and parking houses. She repeatedly tried to kill herself, found three times hanging from the River Avon "by her fingertips". She has also been seen loitering about on multi-storey car parks. What this woman needs is councelling, not an anti-social behaviour order.

So, whats your favourite paper?

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Guest tv tanned

used to read the Guardian all the time as it has some of the ebst foreign news coverage, and was invaluable while I was studying French and Italian politics. It also only cost me 10p as a student.

don't read it as much now, will have to maybe get back into the habit.

Steve Bell cartoons are also outstanding!

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I used to read the guardian but got something started to irk me about it. I read a few too many articles about standardised left wing dogma and got completely disenchanted. It just seemed that with old labour gone they should atleast try and change some things, but everyday was just moaning about Blair and yet you know they are just going to vote labour anyway. Plus The independent sold me with Robert Fisk and the compact edition.

The new sleater kinney album is awesome.

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I really like the guardian, although the coverage is a tad to the left it's still a pretty informative paper and as tanned said, as a student you get it ultra-cheap (20p now). Although i will say that my favourite part of the paper is the G2 suppliment, the stories are far more interesting.

Back on topic, i haven't read the "Dude, where's my country" article because i'm on campus about once a week in the hollidays..

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It did not come as a surprise reading that Exxon Mobil influenced the White House considerably regarding Kyoto when it has been well established that Enron essentially wrote the Bush Administrations energy policy at the beginning of Bushs first term in office.

Regarding newspapers, The Guardian is my favourite. With writers such as, Jonathan Freedland, Jonathan Steele, and Roy Greensdale it is far superior in comparison to the other papers that are on offer.

It is sad, though, that the number of people who read newspapers has decreased significantly; especially people, who read quality newspapers, like The Guardian and The Independent. Unfortunately, in todays society, people would rather read about the sex life of a nobody than about an upheaval in Bolivia or Ethiopia, which has a significance in the entire World, unlike the bedroom activities of a C-list celebrity.

On a different topic, did anyone see Question Time last night? Awful, awful, awful!

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With news articles being available online newpaper reading is bound to decrease. I do like reading newspapers' date=' but i find websites like bbc.co.uk can provide far wider coverage and sometimes more interesting articels.[/quote']

Very true. I read a vast amount of different news and political websites too: ranging from Zmag to the Von Mises Institute. However, I do not think that the availability of free news on the Internet is the foremost cause for the decline in newspaper sales. I believe the reason is because we live in a tabloid age: an age where celebrity and hyperbolic rhetoric sells. That is the reason why such intellectually stimulating magazines such as Heat have seen their sales go through the roof and borderline neo-nazi papers like The Sun and The Daily Mail continue to have steady sales.

In the long term, the decline of reading informative newspapers is going have a perverse impact on our society because people will not be informed on the issues of the day. This will ultimately lead to people relying on corporate news organisations, who have their own agenda, for their views.

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I used to get The Guardian but we changed to The Independent for various reasons such as Robert Frisk being one of the few Journalists who genuinely report from outside the 'green zone' in Iraq and the compact edition is more convenient to read in a small space than trying to fold up a broadsheet in unpractical ways, in an attempt to see the far side of it. I still do occasionally buy The Guardian and I often go onto their website.

I do not think the availability of free Internet news has had any great impact on the sales of quality newspapers.

What Mr Shankly has to say about 'the tabloid age' is very true. I believe a lot of people's brains have effectively turned to mush with the popularity of such TV shows as 'big brother' and 'celebrity love Island'.

I think such people as Mr Shankly and myself are maybe just part of some articulate middle-class group (correct me if I am wrong). Most people in the UK do not fit into this group and therefore do not take any real interest in British politics.

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Guest tv tanned
Very true. I read a vast amount of different news and political websites too: ranging from Zmag to the Von Mises Institute. However' date=' I do not think that the availability of free news on the Internet is the foremost cause for the decline in newspaper sales. I believe the reason is because we live in a tabloid age: an age where celebrity and hyperbolic rhetoric sells. That is the reason why such intellectually stimulating magazines such as Heat have seen their sales go through the roof and borderline neo-nazi papers like The Sun and The Daily Mail continue to have steady sales.

In the long term, the decline of reading informative newspapers is going have a perverse impact on our society because people will not be informed on the issues of the day. This will ultimately lead to people relying on corporate news organisations, who have their own agenda, for their views.[/quote']

It is also worth noting that the Sun force people to take subscriptions in order to access online copy from the archives.

Thus ensuring that they make money no matter what medium people use.

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I also get the Guardian. Its Saturday edition rocks! The listings mag is funny and very on the ball, the sport section is good, there's a literary supplement which has writers from Tom Pauiln to Irvine Welsh, and the job section has a graduate section too. In the paper itself Mark Lawson does a column. What's not to like?

As for papers producing drivel, the sad thing is that people buy it. Market forces prevail, so if mags like "Heat" are selling by the shedload, then the sun etc do more and more "celebrity" dross. It's not a conspiracy but it is an indictment of the culture we live in.

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