Originally Posted by fivelive

BBC Radio Five Live is doing a piece on Afghanistan in the next couple of weeks. We're looking for someone who served out there recently, but has since left the military. If we go through the Ministry of Defence, we'll get the party line. We want to know what life is like when you're there, how much you get paid for being there and whether you felt like you made a difference.

If you're interested, drop me an e-mail - edwin.mitson@bbc.co.uk

Edwin, you lazy Hoon,

Programmes like yours simply swap the MoD "party line" for the BBC "party line", which is just as useless.

I know you're probably just a young researcher and have been ordered to do this by the pointless pr1ck who has been asked to come up with a cheap Afghan programme on a budget of at least several pence, but you've probably torpedoed the whole project by posting on arrse like this.

It just show how little you know about how the military works and how ex-soldiers might like to be treated.

I know producers who have tried time and time again to get Five Live and R4 to do a serious story about Afghanistan. I've heard them begging for the chance to go out there and see for themselves.

But the answer is always the same; it's a big 'no', unless there's some spurious 'diversity' plug they can attach to the programme.

This project is just a cheesy way for Five Live to 'cover' the story without spending any money.

As has been said here, the BBC agenda is already there for us all to see. 'Life there is, like, really shite. And squaddies are badly paid, they are losing the war cos their Land Rovers are crepe and they all come home with psychiatric disorders. And now the sport and weather prospects brought to you by another pointless cretin'.

It's a pathetic way to report a war.

Rant over

Out

I just went on 5 Live's website to take the pss but it does in fact have a few good stories on there are news leaders - MPs second homes and big corporates making huge profits. Both are topical. Not sure how good the items are as I'm too busy to look.
As Ord Sgt says there isn't much really good reporting going on from Afghanistan. At least we get some but alot of it is dross. Probably not hard-hitting enough but then I can see the govt wishes to avoid the public back-lash which the Vietnamese claim was one of the top 5 reasons American failed to win that conflict -( for you historians - the rest where things like not making the best use of arial bombing resources, not massing resources in one spot and spreading too thin etc etc. )

Originally Posted by Mr_Deputy

I just went on 5 Live's website to take the pss but it does in fact have a few good stories on there are news leaders - MPs second homes and big corporates making huge profits. Both are topical. Not sure how good the items are as I'm too busy to look.
As Ord Sgt says there isn't much really good reporting going on from Afghanistan. At least we get some but alot of it is dross. Probably not hard-hitting enough but then I can see the govt wishes to avoid the public back-lash which the Vietnamese claim was one of the top 5 reasons American failed to win that conflict -( for you historians - the rest where things like not making the best use of arial bombing resources, not massing resources in one spot and spreading too thin etc etc. )

I think you'll find they're cut and pasted from the BBC News website and dumbed down a bit for mongs (you own good self exempted).

Oh so it might end up being Martin Tyler out of his depth talking about this and ending up going a bit Alan Partridge talking to the Geordie blerk from the hoootel?

Theres precious little good reporting coming out of the wars, Audrey Gillan being a notable exception. Most on here have heard of her, if you haven't read any of her work it's time well spent.

Originally Posted by Mr_Deputy

Oh so it might end up being Martin Tyler out of his depth talking about this and ending up going a bit Alan Partridge talking to the Geordie blerk from the hoootel?

Aye. And as for the poorly remunerated 'squaddies' who take part - they'll get the usual £30 fee for their trouble if they're lucky. Shoddy.

Originally Posted by Ord_Sgt

Theres precious little good reporting coming out of the wars, Audrey Gillan being a notable exception. Most on here have heard of her, if you haven't read any of her work it's time well spent.

Absolutely. I would add the BBC's Allan Little and the Sunday Times's Christina Lamb to the list, OS, but there aren't many others.

Most of the BBC's offerings are of the 'I sat by the window (of my well protected hotel, sipping a gin and tonic) while the night sky was lit up by tracer fire (I had to ask the guard what all the fireworks were).

Five Live will probably get Ian Pannell in Kabul to do a quick package and then edit a complete mess of military contributions back in White City, without ever properly checking them.

The edit will be done to the usual standard. Cut out what doesn't agree with the thesis and make sure the mix is gender and diversity friendly.

Originally Posted by King_of_the_Burpas

Originally Posted by Ord_Sgt

Theres precious little good reporting coming out of the wars, Audrey Gillan being a notable exception. Most on here have heard of her, if you haven't read any of her work it's time well spent.

Absolutely. I would add the BBC's Allan Little and the Sunday Times's Christina Lamb to the list, OS, but there aren't many others.

Most of the BBC's offerings are of the 'I sat by the window (of my well protected hotel, sipping a gin and tonic) while the night sky was lit up by tracer fire (I had to ask the guard what all the fireworks were).

Five Live will probably get Ian Pannell in Kabul to do a quick package and then edit a complete mess of military contributions back in White City, without ever properly checking them.

The edit will be done to the usual standard. Cut out what doesn't agree with the thesis and make sure the mix is gender and diversity friendly.

Complete b@lls I'm afraid old stick.

These are some of the people I’ve known/worked with that have not come home:

Mathew Brace, BBC killed Croatia
Kate Peyton, BBC killed Mogadishu
Frank Gardner, BBC crippled for life by AlQaeda , Saudi
Simon Cumbers BBC cameraman shot dead by AlQaeda, Saudi
Nasteh Dahir Farah, BBC killed in Somalia
Terry Lloyd, ITN – killed in Iraq
Hussein Osman, ITN - killed in Iraq
Fred Nerac, cameraman ITN – killed in Iraq
Paul Douglas, UK freelance camera killed in Iraq
James Brolan, UK freelance sound, killed in Iraq (ex RGJ)

Plus of course these two:

Alan Johnston,BBC kidnapped, released
Abdul Samad Rohani,BBC kidnapped and killed.

RIP chaps.

Originally Posted by bigeye

Originally Posted by King_of_the_Burpas

Originally Posted by Ord_Sgt

Theres precious little good reporting coming out of the wars, Audrey Gillan being a notable exception. Most on here have heard of her, if you haven't read any of her work it's time well spent.

Absolutely. I would add the BBC's Allan Little and the Sunday Times's Christina Lamb to the list, OS, but there aren't many others.

Most of the BBC's offerings are of the 'I sat by the window (of my well protected hotel, sipping a gin and tonic) while the night sky was lit up by tracer fire (I had to ask the guard what all the fireworks were).

Five Live will probably get Ian Pannell in Kabul to do a quick package and then edit a complete mess of military contributions back in White City, without ever properly checking them.

The edit will be done to the usual standard. Cut out what doesn't agree with the thesis and make sure the mix is gender and diversity friendly.

Complete b@lls I'm afraid old stick.

These are some of the people I’ve known/worked with that have not come home:

Mathew Brace, BBC killed Croatia
Kate Peyton, BBC killed Mogadishu
Frank Gardner, BBC crippled for life by AlQaeda , Saudi
Simon Cumbers BBC cameraman shot dead by AlQaeda, Saudi
Nasteh Dahir Farah, BBC killed in Somalia
Terry Lloyd, ITN – killed in Iraq
Hussein Osman, ITN - killed in Iraq
Fred Nerac, cameraman ITN – killed in Iraq
Paul Douglas, UK freelance camera killed in Iraq
James Brolan, UK freelance sound, killed in Iraq (ex RGJ)

Plus of course these two:

Alan Johnston,BBC kidnapped, released
Abdul Samad Rohani,BBC kidnapped and killed.

RIP chaps.

And these are good reporters because they have been killed, wounded, captured or released? Or because you have "known / worked with them"?

There are precious few good war reporters around today, regardless of their condition; whether they've retired to Wiltshire or been made redundant in the Value for Money cuts, to make room for more crappy programmes on Five Live.

A good reporter has to have alot of endurance as he or she will have to get given a lot of spin to eat and they still need to be hungry enough to go and find the actual story.
You know that people INSIDE the Presidential US campaign for example (same story with W Bush and with Obama) know less about the campaigns as a whole than colleagues who are outside of it - they get run about 24 hrs a day fed information and are too tired to find out much else apart from what they get given. Day after day, long flight or coach journey after another.
In war zones you are fighting to one day get permission to go where you want, hoping, while you need to play the game, be seen as a reliable reporter, see what people want you to see and that only. Etc - you know the story.

Its a hard fight. One probably worth fighting in my opinion. but then again, what would you get? Tales of misery and woe - poor, often very decent people being dicked about by one lot then another.

It'd be interesteing to hear more of the Taliban story. But unlikely.

I'd like a serious expose on the Halliburton set up for example. Right down the line from board room to bomb bay. (there has been one which started off hard but ended up like a PR film for them.)