I have been invited by my CIPR diploma leader Heather Yaxley to join her in London today to speak about blogging to the motor industry, her specialised area.
Interestingly, Heather’s recent post mentions Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear blog, he wants your views on the programme. And, true to form, he doesn’t mince his words?
“You may say that, as a public service broadcaster, we shouldn’t care about viewing figures; and it’s true – we shouldn’t. We can take them to the lavatory for a little moment of pleasure, but we can’t skew programmes to make them as big as possible or we’d end up with Jade Goody and The Hamiltons being loaded into the cars before they were pushed out of the transport plane…
“Anyway, although we won’t chase figures, we still have to give the audience something you want and like. Which means we should make Top Gear an entertainment show featuring cars, rather than a car show, that isn’t as boring as your wife and kids feared.
“Or have I got that all wrong? I’m stuck on this one and would love to hear your views. “
I’ll be joined today by Geoff and am looking forward to meeting Simon Wakeman.
This is the whole problem with Public Service Broadcasting . You cannot make everyone pay for minority interest viewing even if you justify it by saying it is a cultural necessity. If on the other hand you appeal to the masses then there is no good reason for Public Service Broadcasting at all. Why , should we be obliged to part with our money to pay for Jonathan Ross and the sea of drivel he floats on . If such stuff cannot pay for itself ten it has no right to exists. That is the problem JC has( and some car bores get confused about which JC ). The tax payer has been fooled into believing he gets more out than he puts in by the trick of numbers and passing time much as the middle classes were with the Welfare state. Could you do without R 4 they say. You wouldn’t have to and in the market it would be better not worse funded . The BBC is as flabby and wasteful, as the rest of the Public Sector . Jeremy Clarkson is in fact politically a Liberal despite his posturing as you would expect considering who pays him. His supposition that there is happy rationale for state theft on a grand scale is false. There is not. Incidentally I have read his book and he is more Esther Rantzen than PJ O` Rourke . Amiable but no more .
The truth is that there really any reasons for the BBC to continue to exists and it only does because of the vested interest involved. I hardly like to start but for a Party like the Conservative Party who believe in a small state ( some of us do anyway !) the fact of a having the news agenda set by a lickle spit state teat sucking Liberal intelligentsia soi disant is a running sore that grates with every passing day of misinformation. It isn`t so much the news and current affairs but the drama and light content that is informed by this universal skew against the interest of the English. I will never forgive the BBC for referring to our troops and the British and they have done nothing since to recommend themselves
So this is a good opportunity to call for the end of the BBC. I was reading how Chamberlain fell following the Norway Debacle when Lloyds George said “ In the name of God Go “ that is what I would like to say to the BBC and all its demonic cohorts .
BTW the picture of the house on the climactic day Chamberlain was mortally wounded making way for Churchill is instructive as to how we have degraded our Constitution by turning it over the time serving yes people .The fatal blow was struck by a Naval hero in full Uniform known to have personally committed famous acts of gallantry in the first war. When he stood to simply tell the house the Navy had lost confidence in the PM people listened. Browne will cling on and there is no-one to speak for the Navy to tell him to go .
Are you getting to drive a fast car Ellee? Watch that carbon footprint now… 😉
Hi Elle!
Thanks for coming to the MIPAA event today and sharing your experiences. I hope you enjoy video-blogging,
Best wishes,
Sheila
Well, I feel nothing but resentment towards “Top Gear” as it has replaced “Doctors” on BBC World! [I don’t drive and it bores me to tears.] Hope you have a good day, though.
Welshcakes you don`t have to drive to appreciate the dangreous beauty of a high performance steed.
(Prefer motorbikes myself)
Ellee, hope you had a good day and looked after Geoff well for me 🙂
The programme is not bland like some cars. One hears the truth.
Newmania, I would like to be a fly on the wall when you tell Jeremy Clarkson about his likeness to Esther Rantzen.
I believe Sheila Rainger told me today she is a fan of motorbikes too. I used to hang out with Barry Sheene for a while while he lived in the UK, btw. Not sure if you have heard of him.
I had the pleasure today of meeting Paddy Hopkirk who won a race at Monte Carlo in the 1960s, he was one of the delegates, but admitted he had never seen a blog before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Hopkirk
Sally, Geoff was great, very smart in a suit and even a pair of shoes, and he made a very informative Powerpoint presentation. It was a very interesting day and I enjoyed meeting everyone from the motoring PR industry, though they do seem to have reservations about blogging, their lack of control over content.
wow Ellee, i didnt know you were a fan of Barry Sheene..i used to go watch him race alot when i was younger. and thats why my favourite number is number 7.
Sally, A group of us used to go out clubbing together, he was so very, very nice, and his family too. I’m full of surprises, aren’t I? 😉
this was all going so well to the mention of bikers. I can’t stand them or their machines!
Hope you had a good day though, PR for the motor industry at the moment must be a challenge…
God I love motor bikes I only have a little one but an upgrade is forthcoming. I `m thinking a brutally designed 500 in black. What are you here for CU a good time or a long time !
I love cars….(as Jim will tell you). the faster the better… I love the power and feel of a big v8 as it howls and screams in protest at maximum revs….
I love to tinker on them, and maintain them ( even my landcruiser) and am very fussy…..
Anyway:-
I love the show, and I love that they do not “pussy foot” around with the tests as if they are puppets of the manufacturers..
There are a lot of cars that are rubbish including very expensive ones…..
SAdly this week, my carbon foot print has blown out…. I have taken a 6litre V8 Monaro coupe as a drive car…..
12litres per hundred…. but do not worry I have planted some new trees…
Jim
You and your damn carbon footprint. I suppose your an Al “Enviro Nazi” Gore lover.
[…] Auto blogging today […]
I like Jeremy Clarkson, but just how the hell did the BBC afford to build a rocket an launch a Robin Reliant on the back of it space shuttle style ???
As for the BBC being publicly funded and obligated to produce cultural material – good. I do feel, however that it has a leftist agenda. Commercial TV isn’t self-supporting you know, Newmania – we pay for it dearly with every advertised item we purchase and it would be interesting to work out how this compares in value to the licence fee.
My answer to the original question: Yes I like Top Gear but I do want to know about products in my price range. I am no petrol-head by the way.
Cityunslicker – any grounds for your prejudice against bikers? Without motorcycle couriers, the City would grind to a halt.
Sheila
(Biker since 1996)
Sheila, maybe you would like to write a guest post for my blog on women motorcyclists, it would make a great article.
[…] Meet Sheila and her dream machine By Ellee Guest post by Sheila Rainger who I met at the auto blogging day last month. She prefers two wheels to four and rides a powerful Triumph Adventurer 900cc, she loves the “elegance” of it, and this is her story: […]