bleungberg.com

So, ITV’s relinquished coverage of Formula 1 half-way through a five-year contract to divert funds to keep the Champions League football, allowing the BBC to regain the rights they last held in 1996. What this says is that for ITV, only football matters. It doesn’t matter that F1 is currently enjoying a huge revival due to the Lewis Hamilton effect; if the sport doesn’t deliver in terms of ratings, then it’s no use to the commercial broadcaster. That says a lot about its commitment to sports broadcasting, and that other sports such as the Boat Race and Rugby World Cup should be aware that as soon as they fail to deliver in viewing figures, they’ll be dropped - no matter how popular they are.

Bleungberg has long been a fan of Delia Smith, the most influential British cookery writer. We were fans of almost all of her tv shows - from Delia’s ‘How to Cook’, to ‘Delia’s Christmas collection’, as well as all the seasonal specials. We were therefore looking forward to her eponymous new show on BBC2, in which she uses ready-made food to create classic dishes, such as tinned minced-meat or grated gruyere cheese.

We’ve watched two editions now, and our problem with the show is not with dishes but the ingredients. Delia’s aim is to give people who have no confidence in the kitchen to cook classic dishes, using ready-made ingredients. The only problem with that is that some of the ready-made ingredients are not necessary, such as grated cheese or minced meat. How difficult is it to grate cheese or cook a bit of minced beef? We haven’t quite worked out what she’s trying to achieve here, and we reckon she’s gone a bit too far this time. We were also immensely disturbed with footage showing her at a Holy Eucharist on Monday’s episode in which she extolled the virtues of God whilst hanging out with Sister Wendy….

Hmm, at this rate, she won’t just frighten off the hard-core foodies, but also agnostic hard-core foodies!

Five years on from Shock and Awe, and President Bush continues to live in denial, and happily tells the world (bar a few tears at the end of the speech) that the world is now a safer place to live.

Thank God then for Osama to put out a tape within hours of that, suggesting that Europe is going to pay for publishing those Prophet Mohammed cartoons and that the Pope is leading a crusade against the Muslim world (surprise surprise).

Of course, what bin Laden said is utter bollocks - that man will say anything to rally his supporters and to get someone to do the dirty work on his behalf. But at least his direct threat against Europe totally undermines Bush’s naive assessment of the world.

Osama 1 - 0 Bush.

Bleungberg’s always had a soft spot for the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, from her stance on environmental issues to standing up to the Americans and that nasty frog, Sarkozy over everything including EU politics and economic issues. She prefers substance before style, and comes across as a competent leader in an increasingly difficult period of time for the German economy, so we admire her for that.

This week, she paid a historic visit to Israel, and has become the first-ever German leader to publicly and sincerely apologise for her country’s role in the Holocaust. For an East German to say that, given how many Nazi sympathisers remain in that part of German, shows courage and great leadership on the international stage.

“The Shoah fills us Germans with shame,” she said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. “I bow to the victims. I bow to all those who helped the survivors.”

Of course, some Jews protested at her presence in the Knesset but thankfully they were in a minority! This woman was born a full nine years after Hitler shot himself in the head. She’s not responsible for her predecessor’s wrongs and deserves praise for this landmark apology.

Tibet’s back in the news again, and  it makes us at Bleungberg wonder one thing: how come the Dalai Lama’s still alive?

We don’t mind him here but we are just a little suprised that he hasn’t died yet. We don’t mean old age, but given his position and the threat he poses to Chinese unity, you would’ve thought the Chinese would’ve done anything by now to at least bump him off. Dissenters are regularly rounded up and ‘disappear’ under Chinese rule, and whilst the Dalai Lama’s not set foot on Chinese soil for decades, surely they could’ve colluded with the communist government in neighbouring Nepal or rogue elements in North-eastern India to bump off the Lama. I’m just astonished that they haven’t done it yet, and with international support firmly behind the spiritual leader, it makes the task even harder and improbable now.

Deng Xiaoping or even Chairman Mao should’ve done it years ago and killed them all off once and for all. Instead, the Lama faces a much more realistic threat - from Osama bin Laden! Yes, OBL! The bin doesn’t like the Lama’s ‘pagan Buddhism’ and wants him dead.

Looks like the race is on!

The Royal Court of Justice in Central London has seen some immense action inside and outside over the past few days: there’s the on-going Diana inquest which continues to make headlines. Meanwhile, the Heather Mills-Paul McCartney divorce settlement came to a superb climax, which was then followed by the most humiliating climbdown ever by a British newspaper group to a couple who’d milked as much as cash and attention as possible out of the disapperance of their four-year-old daughter.

Bleungberg cannot recall a time where he’d wanted to drop a bigger bomb on the Royal Court of Justice then during this past week. This quintet of hideousness - The Express Newspaper group, Maddie’s parents, McCartney, the one-legged bitch and Mohammed Fayed (no ‘al’ - that would makes him more royal!) - represent everything that is bad about Britain: greedy, grubby, sordid and attention-seeking. If I had it my way, I would prefer all five to emerge out of their indivual court battles battered and brusied.

Instead, only the Egyptian, the one-legged bitch - dubbed Pornocchio by The Sun for making things up in court - and the Express group come off worse, whilst that smug McCartney and those irresponsible parents survive with their reputations largely in tact. Fayed, Mills and Express got what they deserved: Fayed - who insisted that Prince Philip wanted Diana dead - and one-legged bitch are a pair of fantasists, whilst the Express group are just a scumbag newspaper group with an unhealthy habit of telling lies on a daily basis. But Bleungberg is annoyed that McCartney has emerged unscathed from the divorce of the century. We were particularly taken by the ex-hardcore porn star’s allegation sof domestic violence and use of viagra and would’ve preferred the opportunity to know more about the Beatles frontman. Oh well, guess he’ll have to marry another witch and see if the next divorce will ruin his holier-than-thou image once and for all.

On the issue of the Maddie McCann disappearance, how a newspaper can print over 100 fabricated stories on the same subject is beyond me. It’s not a question of how, but why?

Having said, there’s something ironic about the McCanns suing the Express group for libel, since the said newspapers did most of the work on behalf of the couple by keeping Maddie in the limelight - long after most oftheir rivals had given up, or rather, found better things to do. Of course it was an editorial judgement by being so irresponsibly gung-ho about a missing little girl. What made it despicable was how low they were willing to sink in order to create an eye-catching front-page. Their fault, and now their readers won’t trust what they read, and hopefully the paper’s circulation will fall dramatically.

It says a lot about his fame that John McCririck’s demotion to part-time betting pundit on Channel 4 Racing has caused a bit of ripple in the British media, with many expressing surprise at his demotion to a part-timer.

I don’t know the guy, and from what I hear from people who’ve previosuly worked with him, he’s a nasty man. However, the vast majority of racing fans admire him not just for his arm-waving and eccentric manner, but for his passion for the sport, and for speaking up on behalf of punters in matters ranging from betting to the rules of the turf.

Channel 4’s head of sport, Andrew Thompson was said to have been behind the decision to partially banish McCririck from our screens - not the racing editor at the production company, Highflyer. This extraordinary interference was apparently based on the belief that McCririck now has too high a profile and is overshadowing the sport and fellow presenters.

That doesn’t wash with Bleungberg: McCririck’s input in the programme is, whilst essential, limited. Much of the time is devoted to the racing itself or the pre-parade, so by saying McCririck’s presence on screen detracts from the product itself or his colleagues simply do not wash.

Besides, there’s a bad smell of hypocrisy in Thompson’s statement that McCririck’s fame is a contributory factor in his downfall: isn’t Channel 4 primarily responsible for building his fame, not just through Channel 4 Racing, but also via Celebrity Big Brother, the Paul O’Grady Show and The Priory? An intriguing subplot is that Thompson is married to Alison Sharman, head of daytime TV over at ITV, and doesn’t take kindly to McCririck’s chauvinistic opinions. Could she have had a say in Big Mac’s demotion? After all, it’s only been a month or so since Big Mac was asked to leave the stage during a rant on the Alan Titchmarch Show on, you’ve guessed it, ITV, broadcast at 3pm, and overseen by….Mrs Thompson!

Whatever the reasons behind the demotion, this is somebody who’s just had an outstanding Cheltenham Festival, knows the game inside out, has true journalistic integrity and, in all honesty, doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment so close to retirement. You either retire/sack him completely, or you keep the status quo. McCririck has not held back in his criticisms for his boss, and I just wonder if that’s made his position untenable, and could in fact, give Thompson the perfect excuse to get rid of him completely.

Just 14 hours to go before the tape goes up for the Cheltenham Festival, here’s the sneak preview of what we might expect:

Oh sorry, wrong picture. Nevermind, she’s running somewhere hairy, I think….

Leona Lewis, ‘talented singer-songwriter’. Otherwise knows as Simon Cowell’s bitch.

Here she is - before and after - make-up, that is. She probably looked nicer before she was famous!

Hurricane-force wind, the worst winter storm this year, rain lashing down on Devon and Cornwall, severe flooding, felled trees…..all these could only mean one thing: American-style on-location reporting by over-eager/zealous/enthusiastic news correspondents standing by the sea, shouting into their microphones, battling against the elements, risking their lives. Except, you can’t hear what they’re saying, and wonder why they do it.

You only need to look at hurricane coverage on American news channels to see why reporters here have copied their US counterparts: you’re guaranteed exposure on network TV and instant fame.

Despicable.

The old adage that the news is the story and not the people who report on them clearly doesn’t apply anymore.