Iain Dale spoke very passionately and interestingly about the new media advancements, in particular his own online TV site 18 Doughty Street. The lecture centred on the very interesting subject of how left-wing media coverage of politics has become. In Cardiff the odds of finding a copy of The Times are less than Elvis crashing a UFO into the Lochness monster eating a Yeti.
The fear of offending any group, especially religions, has turned news coverage into a spineless jelly of reporting.
The notion of a free speech television network was particularly appealing when you look at how pathetically safe and non-offensive all news TV has become with the possible exception of some features on Channel 4 News.
However I feel his obvious slight bias towards Cameron, and in particular his Video Blog, which has attracted so much media attention recently, did come through when discussing this point. Just because a politician, especially the head of the opposition party, takes up the idea of a webcast video, does not mean we should instantly respect it.
It would not have been difficult for Cameron and his PR people to realise that the overly cynical public would immediately reject his video as nothing more than PR exercise. It would have been a far better idea to make the video a little less 'homely' and a little more 'intellectual' because let's face it, we don't see politicians as the same as us, whether they wash-up or not. They put themselves in a job which leaves them open to ridicule, press invasion, scrutiny and rumour, for a job people have little or no respect for anymore and nothing resembling a major financial reward.
Despite this it was refreshing to hear someone willing to voice opinions that people would not immediately agree with let alone not immediately disagree with.
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