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It's an Athens Olympics broadcasting bonanza -- an...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-03T15:56:06Z

It's an Athens Olympics broadcasting bonanza -- and while our colleagues at NBC are stocking up with coffee, we'll be weighed down with teabags.

Returning to this posting -- and for anyone else w...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-03T11:26:29Z

Returning to this posting -- and for anyone else worried about the imminent collapse of civilisation -- Alex recommends this website.

It's not just the sporting powerhouses who are get...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-03T09:48:20Z

It's not just the sporting powerhouses who are getting excited about the Olympics.

BBC News Online reports on the preparations of one of the smallest Olympic nations -- the Pacific nation of Kiribati.

The website of the Kiribati National Olympic Committee is here.

I need help! A number of people have e-mailed m...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-03T09:13:25Z

I need help!

A number of people have e-mailed me over the past few days asking why I haven't got the comments feature enabled.

It's because the template was written for me -- and I don't know how to include a comments option (although I do have a discussion board.)

If anyone has the necessary HTML skills to incorporate comments, please drop me a line and I'll send you the current template code.

Alleged child murderer Sion Jenkins is released fr...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-02T21:24:19Z

Alleged child murderer Sion Jenkins is released from Belmarsh Prison ahead of his re-trial -- on the condition that he live in Aberystwyth.

Belmarsh seems tempting.

"Political Blogs -- Craze or Convention?" is the q...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-02T10:24:54Z

"Political Blogs -- Craze or Convention?" is the question raised in a Hansard Society report that landed on my doormat this morning.

The authors asked a "citizen jury" to monitor eight political blogs for a month -- and then discuss whether they felt the blogs enhanced their sense of involvement in the political process.

While recognising the potential of blogs as a "new media resource that can increase the transparency and accessibility of parliamentarians," the report's conclusions will make rather disappointing reading for the e-vangelists:

"The vast majority of jurors said that they would not return to the blog they were monitoring. More worrying still, not a single juror felt that his or her political participation and awareness had been enhanced by the blogs."

IT BLEEDS -- BUT IT DOESN'T LEAD On tonight's m...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-01T21:18:32Z

IT BLEEDS -- BUT IT DOESN'T LEAD

On tonight's main evening TV news, a story about an unmarried secretary having affairs with two unmarried men led the bulletin over a despatch from the Chad-Sudan border on the mass murder and displacement taking place in Darfur.

Miserable news judgement.

The New York Times analyses the debate surrounding...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-01T16:28:56Z

The New York Times analyses the debate surrounding the transmission by news broadcasters of terrorist kidnap videos.

However, the central question raised by the article -- "At what point does a media organization become a tool of war?" -- is a naive one.

Media organizations have always been tools of war, subject to manipulation both overt and covert by all sides.

One quote, by CNN boss Chris Cramer, stands out however -- and highlights the fickle nature of modern broadcast news.

Even videos of western hostages pleading for their life or being beheaded by terrorists are slipping down the running orders.

"Because of the number of incidents we have been forced to report, sadly, in recent weeks, we are less likely to show that kind of extract again," Cramer admits.

Floridian columnist Dave Taylor watches British te...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-08-01T16:12:02Z

Floridian columnist Dave Taylor watches British television news -- and likes what he sees.

"It was a rather refreshing way to watch the news and reminded me of the old days when news organizations just delivered the news and the talking heads were kept to a minimum," he says.

My accreditation for the Olympics has come thr...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-07-31T14:50:20Z

My accreditation for the Olympics has come through -- and now an assignment that seemed way off in the distance for so long suddenly feels imminent.

A week from now I'll be in Athens, reporting on the Olympic build-up.

Another great Doonesbury strip today which rings t...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-07-29T21:48:13Z

Another great Doonesbury strip today which rings true for all of us amps who have had to weigh up between a new prosthesis and a new car (or in the case of the Cambodian deminer I met last year, a herd of cows.)

THE KERRY CONVENTION VIDEO IN FULL Tonight's Ke...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-07-29T21:25:26Z

THE KERRY CONVENTION VIDEO IN FULL

Tonight's Kerry documentary "A Remarkable Promise", which will be shown prior to his speech to the DNC, will open with narrator Morgan Freeman reaching back to Kerry's birth at Fitzsimmonds Military hospital in December 1943.

“John was a good big brother," his sister Diana will say.

After touching on his early years, the video will reveal that he joined a rock band called the Electras. "You know it was a great way to meet girls. We made a little record," Kerry will say (the record is available here.)

"There's talk of a reunion," he'll quip.

The film will then turn to Kerry military record in Vietnam, with fellow veterans relating their war stories.

"I am alive today through the grace of a higher being," Kerry will say. "Everyday is extra and that reassures you in taking on a risk or standing up for the truth or doing something that is difficult."

The documentary will show an extract from Kerry's appearance in 1971 before the Foreign Relations Committee before moving on to his career as a senator and his family.

"I decided to run for president because I was frustrated," Kerry will say.

"I'm confident I can make America safer and I want it safer for my kids, for the world, for the future."

The film will close with Morgan Freeman saying that "Time and again John Kerry has been there for our nation.

"A soldier who understands the importance of peace, a leader who knows how to listen, a father dedicated to the children of our nation, and a man devoted to our country's remarkable promise."

The John Kerry smear campaign is stepping up a...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-07-29T15:21:16Z

The John Kerry smear campaign is stepping up a gear with the planned launch of a hatchet job on his military record by right-wing publishing house Regnery -- home of moderate voices of reason such as Ann Coulter, NRA boss Wayne LaPierre and redneck rocker Ted Nugent, author of the best-sellers God, Guns and Rock'n'Roll and Kill It and Grill It: A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish.

Read more about the Republican connections of the book's author, John E. O'Neill, here, here and here.

Despite what he says on his website, I can report ...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-07-28T16:02:06Z

Despite what he says on his website, I can report that Michael Moore will NOT be attending the showing of Fahrenheit 9/11 in Crawford, Texas.

Moore will put out a statement later, in which he will say that he wants the film, and not himself, to be the media's and the public's focus.

Is there a difference between the two?

I may not be one of the Convention Bloggers, b...

Stuart Hughes — 2004-07-28T15:12:16Z

I may not be one of the Convention Bloggers, but here's what I'm hearing about Senator John Edwards's preparations for his Big Speech. (By the way, can anyone convince me that the convention bloggers are producing anything of lasting interest?)

Here's the word from Boston:

Senator Edwards is spending the day secluded in his hotel suite at the Park Plaza Hotel. His voice is still a little strained.

Edwards's speech, which he's been working on since the day he was named as Kerry's running mate, is complete. He wrote it himself, then worked with speechwriters to shape it into the final version. It's about 20 minutes in duration -- but will be longer with applause.

Edwards camp sources say the speech won't focus on attacking Bush or what's wrong with his administration. "It will be almost entirely positive," they say. Senator Edwards isn't expected to mention Bush or Cheney by name -- although he may well allude to them.

He will talk, as he did throughout the primaries, of the problems of "two Americas" -- and talk about how to form "one America."