Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire and though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all (The Beatles)

SWMBO and I recently watched The Newsroom Season 3 on SKY TV (Soho has a nifty box set thing going on the weekend where they play a season of a show back to back throughout the day).

I particularly loved it because it was intelligent, funny, smart, post-modern, quick, and bright.

Yes three of those adjectives mean the same thing.

SWMBO found it exhausting - I can see why - they pack A LOT into each episode.

I loved it so much I bought box sets of Season 1 and 2 (the completist in me). We are watching Season 1 this week. The pilot took a while to get going but episode 2 and 3 have been superb.

I can't help reflect on and bemoan the state of our news services as a result. Yes I know I've mentioned this before - I remember banning the news in the house a few years ago because of its pandering and fluff and wall to wall focus on lowest common denominator stories.

SWMBO likes to watch the news so we often watch TV One news. It's shockingly bad. But no more shockingly bad than the rest.

The only news I can actually tolerate are the BBC News channel and Al Jazeera. The rest are piffle.

Oh for a Charlie Skinner, a Don Quixote, and a Will and Sloan and Jim and Mac to stand up for what they believe in. No ratings whore. No pandering to popularity. No acquiescence to the advertising dollar.

The reboot of the news in the first season of the show was to follow these three 'i's: 1 Is this information we need in the voting booth? 2 Is this the best possible form of the argument? and 3 Is the story in historical context?

Wow!

I think Al Jazeera and BBC News (the versions we have access to on Sky TV in NZ anyway) are the closest at following these guidelines. Bravo!

The rest? get with the Newsroom 2.0 programme.

Love and peace - Wozza