Category: Media

TV, Internet news, Web 2.0 and anything that doesn’t fit into the other categories.

Unbelievable

~ Inquisitor

There are currently, in most cities, two bookseller chains – Ottakars and Waterstones (the latter owned by HMV.) There are also the supermarkets, who undercut everyone but only sell a Top 40 and Dan Brown, Amazon, who most people use, and local bookshops, who are totally outgunned. By allowing Waterstones to buy Ottakars, most people's choice will reduce to zero; it's Waterstones, Amazon or the supermarkets. New authors won't have a chance.

Yip, you guessed it, the Competition Commission have just approved said merger. Unbelievable.

Fake sheikh a go-go

~ Inquisitor

Could this possibly be the first worthwhile thing George Galloway has ever done? I generally can't stand him, but by busting Mazier Mahmood he's provided an immense public service to every poor sod who's been screwed over by him and the News of the World.

Does it make up for supporting Saddam, being a bit dodgy, keeping some very bad company, or going on Celebrity Big Brother whilst elected as an MP? Not quite, but it's a start.

Embrace picked for England World Cup song

~ Inquisitor ~ 8 Comments

So once again, barring either hell freezing over or the second coming of Jesus, the only decent official England football song will remain World in Motion – which was an accident anyway.

No surprises there, but they could at least have picked someone like the Kaiser Chiefs who would hopefully have produced something fun. Even the awful pun ("World At Your Feet") suggests it's going to be a toecurler, but we can only live in hope that one of the unofficial singles is bearable. Especially since England, as usual, will probably survive to the quarter finals and then get knocked out on penalties, meaning for prolonged exposure to the song.

But then, football in Britain is wrong, and has been for a long time – concerned only about itself and not about the people that blindly fund it. And when they look at things pop-cultural, it invariably gets it wrong – and how (backing something completely unmemorable against Three Lions in 1996, just as the most obvious example.) There are many more important things to complain about in British football – like how our ticket prices are a lot higher than continental Europe's – but this is just the most obvious example. Oh, New Order, where art thou?