First hour News Review: with Lancashire Post journalist Henry Widdas - Covid 19 lockdowns; attempt to arrest a black man in St Pauls, Bristol - Arrest of man in St Pauls was correct and proportionate, police say. The officer assaulted has a triple fracture of his cheekbone. Police chiefs and key community figures have agreed that the actions of police officers who arrested a man following an assault in Bristol last week was correct and proportionate. Further meetings have taken place between police and community leaders following the incident on Friday evening, which saw a teenager assaulted by a baseball bat in a disturbance, and a 30-year-old man was arrested by police. Video footage of the aftermath of that arrest was shared widely on social media, and showed a crowd gathered around the police at the scene. Community leaders, including the mayor Marvin Rees, spent time in the St Pauls area of the city where the incident took place, to talk to local people, and have held a series of meetings with senior police officers to assess what happened, view videos of the incident, including the body-worn cameras carried by the police officers involved...Â
Black Lives Matter demonstrations; Where are Black Lives Matter protests taking place across the West Country this weekend? A number of Black Lives Matter protests and marches are set to take place across the West Country this weekend. Those taking part in protests are encouraged to wear a mask, and social distance as much as possible. This week has seen Worldwide protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in America. Public buildings across the region were lit up in purple to show support for the people of Minneapolis...
Bristol Energy Report cost £198,000: City council paid consultants £198K for Bristol Energy report, as Mayor Marvin Rees clashes with opposition during angry meeting. Bristol City Council is to sell the debt-ridden company. Mayor Marvin Rees clashed angrily with opposition councillors over Bristol Energy, as it emerged consultants were paid almost £200,000 for a report recommending its sale. A row erupted during the public forum at a city council cabinet meeting before members went into exempt session where they agreed to sell the debt-ridden company. Insults were hurled and both sides of the political divide pinned the blame on each other for the businessâs âfailureâ. The Labour mayor singled out Tory Cllr Geoff Gollop, who was cabinet lead for finance in 2015 when the decision was made under former mayor George Ferguson to create Bristol Energy. Mr Rees said it was âreprehensibleâ the Conservative had âtotally ignored the part you played in putting this city in this situationâ. Cllr Gollop hit back, branding Mr Rees a âdictatorâ. Bristol Energy has soaked up £36.5million of council taxpayersâ money since it was formed but has posted losses to date of £32.5million. Earlier this year, Bristol City Council commissioned consultants Ernst & Young (EY) to conduct a full assessment of the firmâs structure and future viability. It confirmed on Wednesday (June 3) that it paid the company £198,000 for the report (£165,000 plus VAT) that was discussed behind closed doors because of commercial confidentiality at cabinet the night before, where it was agreed to seek a buyer for the energy business...
Interview with Henry Widdas, Chair of NW Lancashire Branch of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and reporter for the Lancashire Post: how Covid 19 has affected journalism; civil liberties issues with lockdown; mandatory vaccination; Black Lives Matter protests; Contact Tracing using military software; US Presidential election; SAGE encouraging media to increase sense of risk of Covid 19;
Simon Dolan â the science behind the lockdown. Government faces legal action over refusal to publish Sage minutes. Businessman Simon Dolan says ministers must disclose science behind lockdown. A millionaire businessman is launching legal action against the government after it refused to disclose minutes of the Sage meetings that informed its decision to impose the coronavirus lockdown. Simon Dolan, who owns Jota Aviation, said he received an unsatisfactory response to his challenge over the legality of the lockdown in a âletter before actionâ sent two weeks ago. He and his lawyers intend to go to the high court to seek permission for an urgent judicial review of the background to the lockdown imposed on 23 March. He had sought to obtain minutes from meetings of the governmentâs Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE)...
AI writing stories; lockdown and surveillance state;Â Microsoft sacks journalists to replace them with robots. Users of the homepages of the MSN website and Edge browser will now see news stories generated by AI. Dozens of journalists have been sacked after Microsoft decided to replace them with artificial intelligence software. Staff who maintain the news homepages on Microsoftâs MSN website and its Edge browser â used by millions of Britons every day â have been told that they will be no longer be required because robots can now do their jobs. Around 27 individuals employed by PA Media â formerly the Press Association â were told on Thursday that they would lose their jobs in a monthâs time after Microsoft decided to stop employing humans to select, edit and curate news articles on its homepages. Employees were told Microsoftâs decision to end the contract with PA Media was taken at short notice as part of a global shift away from humans in favour of automated updates for news. One staff member who worked on the team said: âI spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs, and here I am â AI has taken my job.â..
US billionaires richer cos of lockdown American billionaires got $434 billion richer during the pandemic @ROBTFRANK - Amazons Jeff Bezos and Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg had the biggest gains.Bezos added $34.6 billion to his wealth and Zuckerberg picked up $25 billion.;
Covid 19 around in Dec 2019; lockdown politicised â Unions against easing lockdown; Bill Gates subject of conspiracy theorists -Â Coronavirus: why Bill Gates is the bogeyman of conspiracy theorists. Dozens of anti-Gates rumours have circulated online since start of Covid-19 crisis. One popular theory is that Gates wants to eliminate 15 per cent of the global population. False claims targeting billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates are gaining traction online since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, with experts warning they could hamper efforts to curb the virus. Doctored photos and fabricated news articles crafted by conspiracy theorists â shared thousands of times on social media platforms and messaging apps, in various languages â have gone as far as accusing the Microsoft founder of creating the outbreak. Gates, who has pledged US$250 million to efforts to fight the pandemic, is the latest in a string of online targets despite the World Health Organisationâs efforts to fight what it called an âinfodemicâ â misinformation fanned by panic and confusion about the virus...
Kath Viner, Editor of The Guardian, on The Media Show, saying she will never take Seamas Milne back - Making the news free to the world, or marketing pretending to be news? - BBC Radio 4 - The Media Show - Katharine Viner is editor in chief of The Guardian. In this extended interview with Amol Rajan she talks about her mission to build one of the worlds leading "progressive news organisations", why The Guardian is "not a Labour paper" and reveals the backstory to their Dominic Cummings exclusive...
Examples of TV/Radio media just repeating a press release from Amazon -Â US local news stations air segments on Amazon penned by companys PR team
At least 11 stations present story offering âglimpse insideâ Amazon, after company apparently sent material to reporters. Nearly a dozen local US TV channels aired segments about Amazon that included footage and a script produced by the retailerâs public relations team. The segments, which, according to the news outlet Courier, appeared on at least 11 local news stations, praised Amazonâs response to the coronavirus pandemic ahead of the companyâs shareholder meeting on Wednesday. The meeting takes place following weeks of controversy over the companyâs handling of the Covid-19 crisis. Amazon has been accused of denying workers sick leave, failing to provide adequate protection in warehouses, and retaliating against workers who speak out against these conditions. It appears the language and footage in the segment were part of a pre-written story Amazon sent around to some reporters in the US. Zach Rael, a reporter at the Oklahoma City station KOCO, tweeted on Sunday that he had received an email containing footage of Amazon facilities and a script for the news anchor, which included phrases praising Amazon, including: âFor the first time, weâre getting a glimpse inside Amazonâs fulfilment centres to see just how the company is keeping its employees safe and healthy.â Courier found at least 11 local news stations had used the Amazon script verbatim, including outlets in West Virginia, Miami, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia. A Courier video shows anchors at the stations repeating the same phrases, including âthe company is keeping its employees safe and healthyâ...
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