Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms BBC journalism

Is it me or is the painfully tenuous analogy in this video completely pountless:

'Small nuclear' reactors explained using bags of rice - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35868246

Is this a joke? Am I really being explained size with bags of rice or was I hit by a truck on the way home from work today?

Is this Britain's best investigative journalism? Have I passed into the ether.
The BBC must think that the general public have less intelligence than a 3 year old.
Does this pass as an honest days work for a journalist now?

I think the bit where he clarified that you would need more than two bags of rice to make a nuclear reactor was genius. Good to know my licence fee isn't being wasted.

charlestkirby, Yes, I'm afraid this is a perfect example of our "brave new world".
With most, but not all, of the viewing audience having an attention span of about 15 seconds unless it is accompanied by vibrant, child friendly colours and noise, this is what we must expect.
The days of Tomorrows World have long gone along with a reasonable licence fee.

Squillions? How many bags of rice would that be then?

But the item does show how far we've fallen.....years ago Blue Peter would have used bags of Potatoes not rice!

I won't even ask what the weight of the bags was....as it would come back metric and I just wouldn't understand!

A producer will be telling Roger to "keep it simple." The reason for that will be that the producer understands nothing beyond a formula for producing dumbed down TV spots i.e. the producer is simple. It is where we have fallen and the BBC should not be down there with the worst of them. Mostly it isn't but occasionally, in fact too often, there's a lapse.

This also chimes with one of my pet hates; it appears to be against all broadcasting rules nowadays to do any sort of history program on the telly without a bunch of actors (and usually Lucy Worsley) being dragged in to re-enact it all, as we viewers are clearly too moronic to understand things unless they are played out for us.

I've just eaten some rice

Should I be worried ?

As long as you don't start glowing in the dark ...

So glad that when he said "so small you could put it on a truck" he demonstrated by putting a bag of rice on a toy truck.
Ah, now I understand what that meant !
Jeez
Apart from small bags of rice are smaller than a large bag of rice what did it actually tell us?

I watch less and less BBC TV, most of what I do watch is on BBC 2 or BBC 4.
I don't watch their news: it is superficial, the journalism lacks any sign that there has been much of an investigation and it is increasingly sensationalist. For a good news program I watch the Channel 4 News.

Where the BBC excels is cooking programs, I have begun to think that this is where most of its budget goers.

For example, I did watch a rather good science based program last night.

Chef vs Science on BBC 4.

Good TV

Interesting, thought provoking and with some sound science quite well explained.

It seems one now needs an ultrasonic bath to make good chips....!!