bleungberg.com

Whilst we are on the subject of the dumbing down of news, Bleungberg had the chance to catch the beautiful Laurence Ferrari in action on TF1 in France a couple of weeks back whilst holidaying in Belgium.

Ferrari took over from the pompous Patrick Poivre d’Avor as anchorman last summer on the commerical network and whilst we have no views on her credentials as a journalist or whether TF1’s news is now better - we think not on both counts and assume France 2’s 20.00 Journal to be the more informative and less biased of the two - we’ll agree that she’s far nicer to watch, and of course, infinitely prettier than the ultra-vain, hair-transplanted PPDA.

A few thoughts on the Tour de France.

Alberto Contador is superb. Yes, the winner acts like a bit of a cunt but there’s no denying that he is in a league of his own at the moment. It will be interesting how he’ll do - and what his domestiques will be like - next year in a new team.

Armstrong is also superb. More humbled, but no less determined. He stayed in touch with his fierce rival and teammate which should make next year’s race even more fun. A little bit sad that his form in time-trial has dropped somewhat but still an amazing feat to finish third overall at the age of 37.

Andreas Kloden is a super domestique. Time and time again, the German has proved his worth as an unselfish and highly effective teammate - from Jan Ullrich to the Armstrong years and now acting as a conduit for both Armstrong and Contador. He’s getting on a bit so his chances of winning the race outright are now probably zero. Would love to see him on the podium next year again.

Bradley Wiggins - ’nuff said about this highly popular, and deeply underrated sportsman. A shining British example to us all. Likewise Mark Carvendish.

Nico Roche - someone to look out for in the next decade.

Andy & Frank Schleck - could be like the new Schumachers…except the young one wins all the time.

Will hope to see them all when they trundle through Belgium next year!

Thanks to Gawker’s advanced warning back in June, longtime CBS newsman Walter Cronkite’s sad passing aged 92 two weeks ago didn’t come as a huge surprise to Bleungberg.

We had long admired Cronkite’s achievements not just as a superb and fair journalist, but also with as a witness to world history - World War II, the Korean War, the McCarthy witch hunt, the Kennedy and MLK assassinations, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the moon landing, civil rights march, the Vietnam War, Watergate, numerous disasters all the way up to the Iran hostage crisis and Reagen’s administration.

Along with Huntley and Brinkley over at NBC, as well as the equally-great, late Peter Jennings at ABC, these men helped define what news broadcasts should be over the course of five decades, and that is the broadcasting of news: straight-up, unspun, educational and impartial. Jennings, for example, made it his duty to increase foreign news coverage to an audience that is notoriously ignorant on world matters.

Now though, you rarely get news which is agenda-free, with correspondents who are only too happy to offer their own opinions on a whole variety of topics - however banal it may be.

This coincided with the unfortunate rise of 24-hour news channels which basically means a lot (A LOT) of (dead) airtime to fill. Hence, the surge in opinionated journalism.

Opinions are fine in print or online journalism, but not in broadcast news on networks which are supposed to be unbiased.

America is particularly guilty of this, but it is fast becoming fashionable amongst the British broadcasters, too.

Retired BBC presenter Peter Sissons - he of the old school - certainly felt aggrieved by these new trends and fumed that standards have dropped to a level which is now deemed unacceptable, and we would agree with him.

Thankfully, Britain still has some way to go before they become ‘unwatchable’ like cable news in America. And with the venerable NBC news brand (through MSNBC) now being reduced to going ‘left-wing’ on primetime in order to counter the highly-rated and superbly biased Fox News, then you know the TV news media is no longer doing what it’s supposed to do.

With the leaking of a secret memorandum supposedly between Fox and NBC executives (including Murdoch) ordering their troops to stop on-air sniping at one another, we guess the situation has really hit rock-bottom and is unlikely to improve anytime soon.

Ratings rule!

Normally, when a famous sportsman is found to have failed a drugs test, it usually signifies the beginning of a struggle to clear his/her name, or in most cases, the beginning of the end of a career - give or take a few weeks before the B-sample comes out.

And very rarely does something positive come out of it.

Step forward then, Bleungberg’s favourite tennis players (admittedly, one of many!): French star, Richard Gasquet.

When Gasquet was suspended by the ATP after traces of cocaine were found in his urine sample back in the spring, we’d feared that this was the end for a one of the most prodigious and under-achieved talents in men’s tennis.

From the age of nine, Gasquet has been mercilessly pressured by the French media for repeatedly failing to live up to his talent, and actually looked on the wane after reaching a career-high of getting to the last eight at Wimbledon in 2008 when he squandered a two-set to one lead against Andy Murray.

Since then, he hasn’t done a great deal. Instead, he had to spend more time countering allegations of a gay affair with his big boss, Arnaud Lagardère.

So, Gasquet must have been mightily relieved that not only was the level of cocaine minimal - and would therefore have had no effects upon his performance on-court whatsoever, thus acquitting him of doping - but with the release to the media of how the cocaine got into his blood stream in the first place: he ‘French-kissed’ a girl named Pamela at a Miami night club that is notorious for the availability of recreational drugs.

It got better….

Not only did he kiss this girl “at least seven times, each kiss lasting about five to ten seconds”, he kissed her again after she had “spent a longer time in the toilet than expected” when they went to a nearby strip-club. She’s now suing him for defamation!

So, in a stroke, Gasquet was publicly cleared of being a drug cheat, and outed as a ‘heterosexual’ through snogging Pamela AND in a strip joint.

He did get rapped for “exposing himself” to such dangers, but we are pretty certain that Gasquet doesn’t mind that at all, and can now go back to conducting his love affair with you know who….

Whilst watching the various obituaries of former Philippine president Cori Aquino on TV (it certainly brings back memories seeing her in that yellow dress again), Bleungberg couldn’t help but think that rather than inform and educate the general public, Britain’s news channels have actually gone and misled their audience into thinking Aquino was some kind of modern day political messiah or whatever.

Yes, she showed Stoicism in standing by her jailed husband right through to his subsequent killing on the tarmac of Manila airport (later renamed in his honour, and high time they tore it down..).

Yes, she showed political courage in standing for the presidency against the evil Ferdinand Marcos.

And yes, she gave the Pinoys hopes for democracy after years of military dictatorship, martial law and poverty.

But you only had to live in SE Asia at the time to remember that instability and the Philippines went side-by-side in a never-ending cycle of gloom.

And, really, have things improved since?

No.

The country is still dirt-poor, where nothing seems to work. Added to that, political corruption and cronyism are still rife, with President Arroyo doing her utmost to cling onto power despite widespread unpopularity.

The fact that it was Arroyo - the same woman that Mrs Aquino was trying to oust in tandem with another dodgy-looking former President Estrada just a couple of years ago  - who led the tributes to ‘Cori’ tells us everything we need to know about the legacy of Asia’s first female president.