Kitten Rescued!

[reportmonkey]

A cute fluffy Kitten was rescued today from having a nasty fall from a tree.  The Kitten was said to have been mewing in the tree for some time before being rescued by a good natured passer by.  The Kitten is said to be 'shaken' but in a stable condition and drank half a bowl of nice milk earlier.  The kittens owner Mrs Hobart of Dunningham Close said in a statement given today "I'm so pleased ginger is safe, theres not enough nice news these days and i'm so pleased to see something else happening apart from explosions, bombings, brutal assaults, murders, war and kidnappings."

[Andy008]

Thanks. And the question is?

[reportmonkey]

Is there enough nice news these days

[VINNY100_2]

Nice little story reportmonkey.....(:)it made me Smile(:)

[Gevs1966]

Not being a killjoy here but nice news is generally not interesting and nobody cares about it. You always get those stupid little stories at the end of news programmes about some family pet that can tell the time in japenese or something ridiculous like that. News should be informative and these such articles are not news but just there to take the edge of the real news which may depress people.

Point proved above.

[jno]

wasn't there some BBC newsreader (Martyn Lewis??) a few years ago who wondered aloud why 'news' invariably meant bad news? He got jeered at a lot for implying that news broadcasts/newspapers should be full of stories like Mrs Hobart's. But I think he had a point. If you look at the front page of the Daily Mail, it's always Disaster, Crisis, Outrage, Shock, Horror. No wonder people feel they are living in a world about to implode. They're completely unaware that anything good ever happens because the Mail doesn't want them to know, and they go around perpetually convinced that the country is about to be taken over by Gypsies/illegal immigrants/bogus asylum seekers/ demonic socialists/whatever. I do wish someone would bring a little sunshine into their lives. So my answer is no, reportmonkey, there isn't enough.

[eupraxia]

I think thats why so many read the papers like the Sun or the Star. They don't want shock, horror, probe. The front page of these papers invariably has news on which soap star just used the loo and stuff like that.

[smudge]

Yes that was a lovely story reportmonkey.

[Octavius]

But a kitten being rescued is NOT news, is it.  Unless you live in a place where faff all happens and you have no contact with the outside world.

[acw]

It was a lovely story indeed. 

I do agree that it's the sort of news that belongs in the local papers, not the 6 o'clock news headlines, but sometimes it is nice to be reminded that there are good things going on in the world too.  Cheesy as it is, the beginning and end of 'Love... Actually' make a good point. 

I don't have a TV at the moment (I know I've said this before on AB) but I must say I don't miss in the slightest the summer silly season that we usually get on the news.  Although I suppose this summer there hasn't been much space for silliness with all the horrible stuff going on.  And perhaps that's the greatest tragedy from terrorism, that people, whether directly or indirectly affected, lose a little joy because of all the fear.

Argh - I got all heavy didn't I!?!  Sorry!  Umm - a monkey has escaped from the zoo and been seen cycling down the High Street eating a banana.  The National Union of Clowns and other Amusing Entertainers (NUCAE) have also just announced that they're have a nice party for everyone and there will be jelly and ice cream and comedy balloon animals.  This will also include a clown free zone for the people that get creeped out by clowns. 

Andy008 - please stop postig that question/answer repeatedly.  You can just report questions if you don't have a sense of humour and don't think that other people should be allowed one either. 

[acw]

Ah but in CB no-one would get the point.  Which surely was to lighten the mood after all the heavy debates going on in news.  Relative to the usual "shall I have two sugars or three?" questions in CB, it wouldn't really have the same impact! :-p :-D

[reportmonkey]

To switch to a serious note, the story obviously belongs on local news papers, however the 'over niceness' of the story is an exaggeration to illustrate a point.  I have heard nothing of great achievements or scientific breakthroughs or the ingenuity of man recently.  A traveller to this Earth would consider the Human Race to be a violent and primitive species if they simply watched the news.  I think a breakthrough cure for cancer or a story of someone overcoming adversity (like Lance Armstrong) is frontpage news and is ignored in favour of a demoralising stream of propaganda which does nothing to make the public feel secure.

During the Blitz lots of bad news was filtered, mainly because you knew about bombs before your read about or heard of it on the news.  Casulties on the opponents side were exaggerated while ours were played down.  Much as I dislike censorship I think that reporting on these stories as well as the good stories and giving them just as much profile is vital to maintain morale during this difficult period for Londoners especially.  I have noticed a stream of programs like 'the new al-Qaeda' and interviews with extremists on news night which get set to creepy music and seem to cultivate a sense of fear in people. 

I think journalism has become irresponsible in the way it reports information and fails to think about the consequences of 'sensationalist reporting' and the portrait it paints of our country, not just to us but to the rest of the world.

One last note to illustrate the point, the Daily Mail published an article a while back which slammed the government saying that a Bird Flu epidemic was immenant and we were not prepared.  The result would be many deaths etc etc... 

[georgit79]

Has anyone looked at the links down the right-hand side of the screen? 'Understanding your cat'- how many different ways can you interpret a miaow?!

[acw]

reportmonkey - your last post was particularly brilliant - well said! :-)

I got an advert for buying pets on EBay.  Sounds a bit dodgy to me! :-p

[jno]

ah, bird flu, does that make it difficult to swallow? Or is it just coz I is pigeon-chested? There are good news stories about, of course - Irishwomen winning �75 million, England winning (briefly) at cricket and so on. But the general tendency is to think that crime and horror are better for sales.

Still, it's August, the traditional 'silly season' where not so much happens and lighter stories fill the pages and the airwaves, so there's hope for lost kittens yet.

[Andy008]

I do have a fantastic sense of humour, albeit a very dry one, but I've never, ever been criticised for calling a spade a spade.

[acw]

But why the need for the repeated sarcastic comments when other people are clearly enjoying these sorts of threads at the moment?  It just seemed a bit sour-puss to me. 

I'm sure you have a wonderful sense of humour, your thread about national service demonstrates that beautifully. 

[justineo]

4600 couples got married in South Korea yesterday, in a gym.  I bet the toaster manufacturers are having a field day :)

[acw]

justineo - bit of a bummer for the country's export figures though.  I thought most toasters were made in the country - seems a pity that they won't be making the usual trip round the world! :-p

I wonder how they all agreed on what hymns to have?! :-)