Even I, a sometime news addict – am stepping back from TV and radio news, following the news from the US and the prospect of a second Trump presidency.
I may have to endure some BBC Radio 6 Music updates but I can’t handle repeated bulletins or interviews on, for instance, Radio 4’s Today programme or, my favourite and I admit I’m biased but it is the best, Channel 4 News.
No, it’s Spotify and cassette tapes and CDs for me for the time being. I’m going to try living in the present, dealing with friends and family and what’s right in front of me in terms of work, much as some of that is affected by domestic and world events, and much of which involves social media.
But the news was already profoundly depressing and, for my own mental wellbeing, I feel I must limit my exposure to it. So many friends who don’t work in the media have been doing this for a while.
In other news
Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. Possibly because the news has been so grim, I’m more excited about Christmas this year than I’ve been for a few years. At times, I think it would be nice to go to a hotel and have Christmas lunch cooked for me, but I always end up making a virtue of the shopping, prepping, cooking and – most of all – the eating of the many feasts over the Christmas period.
It’s going to be a busy end to a year that started slowly, and which I know from friends and colleagues in the creative industries, has had several ups and downs. Just like every year, in fact.
Opposition to James Harding’s Tortoise Media’s plans to buy The Observer continues to grow, although the paper’s former editor Roger Alton has come out and said the takeover would be a good thing for The Observer.
More reasons, if you needed them, to support the BBC although even I, a staunch supporter who is stuck in my ways, think the licence fee needs reform. Some students just aren’t consuming BBC content, I can tell you, and hence should not pay the licence fee if they cannot afford to pay.
This week BBC chairman Samir Shah said the fight is on to preserve British programme making.
This was funny and, for me, very on the money about what’s acceptable behaviour in an office. Now we’re going back to more in person days – which I am resisting; two days a month is plenty for me, for reasons that will become clear – this writer observes that there are now four different generations of people working together in offices, sharing Ubers and mixing at in-person events.
Harassment is clearly in a class of its own, but the occasional f-bomb, or dirty cup, or late appearance at a meeting should not be an actionable offence with the HR department. I particularly liked his line about younger people: “Younger people think their social justice activism spreads enlightenment throughout the office and is appreciated by their co-workers.” LOL, as I believe some people say.
This was instructive, about how the still-new Labour government cocked up a press release about more freeports, which few of us understand, and which was actually supposed to be about new customs sites within existing freeports. To understand more, you’ll have to read the article but seems to have been a cut and paste error that went all the way through to a distributed government press release. Oops.
That’s it for November. Just one more update before the Christmas break. Let’s hang in there.
Lucy Rouse PR Blog 