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Liverpool in the media

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#1 ·
This thread is for representations of Liverpool in the media and any issues raised by how the city is represented.

As I write, there is a piece on Radio 4's Today programme about the UNESCO visit to Liverpool, and the danger of the city losing its WHS if it goes ahead with the museum.

The key narrative appears to be: Can the city remain faithful to its past whilst growing?

I have to say that it is an informed, balanced piece.

It ended with a statement to the effect that if UNESCO doesn't accept the arguments by LCC, EH, CABE, Liverpool might have to contemplate pulling out of the WHS club.

What do you think?
 
#5,781 ·
Now that the BBC has established "the scouser" as an all-purpose bad guy ethnicity for dramas set in the present day as well even before the word scouser existed, rather as Jews used to be from ******* to Fagin, we can now look forward to villainous scousers turning up in programmes set in Ancient Rome or maybe even on alien planets in galaxies far, far way.
Yes, it is classic demonisation, and at our expense. A billion pounds invested by the BBC in Manchester has done NOTHING to reduce anti-Liverpool bias, indeed, I do wonder if it's actually made the matter worse. This type of thing makes a mockery of the rationale for the whole BBC North project (which was supposedly around building trust), as the corporation still systematically and regularly stigmatises two million people simply because of the part of the part of the North they pay their licence fee from.

Please, please, please, people of Greater Liverpool....form a "we won't pay for this" movement and force that horrible organisation to its knees. They've never faced a mass boycott from within Britain before. The BBC should be driven out of Liverpool.
 
#5,783 ·
Yes, it is classic demonisation, and at our expense. A billion pounds invested by the BBC in Manchester has done NOTHING to reduce anti-Liverpool bias, indeed, I do wonder if it's actually made the matter worse.
I suppose to be fair, BBC Scotland's Waterloo Road criminal scouse scumbag family and the incredible time-travelling Victorian criminal scouse scumbag in Ripper Street can't be pinned on BBC Salford specifically as different parts of the corporation are responsible for both series.

But yes Media City has obviously done nothing positive for the Liverpool metropolitan area. Now like before the BBC will be close enough to bomb down the motorway if there is anything bad to report (or bad to report nationally for which they can pull out Liverpool as an example) while neglecting the area just as previously when it comes to any positive coverage.

Complain about the BBC's lack of coverage from the BBC and they'll point out the number of (actually negative) news items carried on Northwest Tonight and the existance of the Scouse McScummigan family on Waterloo Road.
 
#5,784 ·
It's OK, they're going.
I wonder how many licence fees are paid in the full city region though. Maybe half a million, but probably not three quarters of a million. At how much each? They must be raking in up to a billion quid every decade from the Liverpool area, and Liverpool could spend that money on its own media far better. A billion pounds a decade to be insulted, denigrated and abused? Bizarre. But the people of Liverpool put up with it. Time and time again. Liverpool can't have any of the jobs or opportunities, they all have to go to other cities; it can't have any of the positive promotion and coverage that media can provide, that all has to go to other cities; it can only get unfair and denegratory attacks. It's a malign form of colonisation.
 
#5,785 ·
I suppose to be fair, BBC Scotland's Waterloo Road criminal scouse scumbag family and the incredible time-travelling Victorian criminal scouse scumbag in Ripper Street can't be pinned on BBC Salford specifically as different parts of the corporation are responsible for both series.

But yes Media City has obviously done nothing positive for the Liverpool metropolitan area. Now like before the BBC will be close enough to bomb down the motorway if there is anything bad to report (or bad to report nationally for which they can pull out Liverpool as an example) while neglecting the area just as previously when it comes to any positive coverage.

Complain about the BBC's lack of coverage from the BBC and they'll point out the number of (actually negative) news items carried on Northwest Tonight and the existance of the Scouse McScummigan family on Waterloo Road.
They are corporately place-hating. Anti-scouse and Anti-Liverpool sentiments are tolerated and flourish throughout the BBC, in a way that racist or sexist or homophobic or anti-Arab or anti-Jewish sentiment would not be. We are of course the only big British city subjected to this. The BBC as a whole is intrinsically and systemically biased against Liverpool, without the different parts of it even being aware of that. That is one reason it's time to close it down, because it's entirely detached from the real nation and its real cities and communities. It creates fantasy bubbles of reality which it then tries to reflect, and hoped the billion quid it blew on Salford would somehow sort it out with "the North". Of course it didn't.
 
#5,786 ·
Yes, it is classic demonisation, and at our expense. A billion pounds invested by the BBC in Manchester has done NOTHING to reduce anti-Liverpool bias, indeed, I do wonder if it's actually made the matter worse.
Really, for things like huge plantations of state media, if it's not going to be in Liverpool (or at least its Bay Area), then the further away it is from Liverpool the better. Purely because of geography and the size of the place relative to Liverpool*, Manchester is perhaps the worst place on the planet for something like Media City. It's close enough to pretty much undermine any attempt at creating a decent media sector in Liverpool, whilst being distant enough not to give the city any direct benefit. They go on about it providing careers for Liverpolitans. Maybe, but would you do the commute? Maybe at first, but I know that if it was me and probably most people would be the same, I'd end up relocating. How's that beneficial to Liverpool?

*as opposed to it being because all Mancunians are villainous scoundels, to avoid any potential shitstorm.

Please, please, please, people of Greater Liverpool....form a "we won't pay for this" movement and force that horrible organisation to its knees. They've never faced a mass boycott from within Britain before. The BBC should be driven out of Liverpool.
I've actually thought about this before. The thing is, most people don't care enough. Yes, a lot of people find it bizarre that Liverpool's local news on both BBC and ITV is from Manchester but to a lot of people it's a weird quirk and not something that rains on their life too much. Likewise, Media City is virtually invisible to most people in Liverpool. A great many people have never heared of it. Okay, CBBC is in Manchester, but most people don't know that or care even if they do. The silly scouser stereotypes mobilize people more so but most people are now too scared of the "whinging scousers" slur being thrown at them or don't believe they can do anything to change it.
 
#5,793 ·
The McScummigans (or whatever they're called) in Waterloo Road is old fashioned racist stereotyping of the exact sort that the Irish would get, before incitement to racial hatred was outlawed that is. The stereotyped characteristics are in fact exactly the the same even down to the patronising promise that these feckless no marks will have likeable characteristics once we get to know them. Like the charming stage Irishman of old who'd roll into town, pilfer your watch, get plastered and charm his way out of trouble before charming the bloomers of the local sculliery maid. Quite quaint really.

The knowing replacement of the evil figure of Fagin, referred to throughout Oliver Twist as "the Jew", with straight swap of a equivalent character with the same role called "the scouser" is something both more subtle and a lot more wicked.

The writer knows well why he can't have a Jewish Fagin today so does he decide not to have one with an identifiable "ethnicity"? Just make this new "Fagin" bad cos he's bad, not as a walking personification of some dreadful, predatory "other".

No, disturbingly he seeks another hated group in his eyes, one that can replace "the Jew". One that he can get away with. And as a writer, riffing on that obscure writer Dickens for Pete's sake and with the decades of analysis and condemnation of Oliver Twist's period, and quite horrifying, anti-Semitism - dirty Fagin squatting in his filthy rookery and compared in appearance to a reptile or a rat, we were to see the same imaginery in German propagana films of the 30s - he KNOWS what he is doing.

Fucking hell!
 
#5,794 ·
From The Western Australia: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/travel/a/-/travel/15778299/beatles-country/
Beatles country

Once the richest port in the British Empire, by the 1980s Liverpool wallowed in dilapidated housing and high unemployment and discontent.

But three decades on, Liverpool is buzzing with a reputation as one of Europe's best city breaks.

Liverpool ONE, a mammoth open-air mall that sprawls across the formerly scrappy city centre is central to the rejuvenation, with more than 150 shops, 20 bars and restaurants, a multi-screen cinema, a park and chic apartments.

But for me, it is along the banks of the Mersey that Liverpool excels.

The Mercantile Maritime City, a pedestrian-friendly waterfront zone, is UNESCO World Heritage-listed and its latest addition is the Museum of Liverpool. It's free to enter and tells Liverpool's engaging story with a section on the city's most famous export, the Beatles, and displays on the city's near-religious zeal for football: Merseyside is home to Liverpool and Everton, where Socceroo Tim Cahill became a cult hero.

At the Pier Head section of Liverpool's waterfront you can take the famous ferry across the Mersey, as immortalised in the hit tune by Gerry and the Pacemakers.

The terminal faces the Three Graces - a trio of magnificent Edwardian edifices built at the height of Liverpool's global power. The Royal Liver Building has a striking clock tower, studded with two giant copper Liver birds, mythical half-eagle, half-cormorant creatures said to be Liverpool's protectors. Local lore says that should the birds flee, the whole place would crumble.

Of the myriad stories about Liverpool, one of the more believable suggests the locals are called Scousers and speak the Scouse dialect because of a stew called lobscouse, brought here by Nordic sailors.

Scouse melds with a plethora of accents as I enter the Albert Dock, north of Pier Head, where buskers are often strumming I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Yesterday in front of the restored colonnade of cast-iron columns and warehouses which host lively cafes and restaurants.

Albert Dock houses the Tate Liverpool with its quirky selection of modern art and the odd classic. The International Slavery Museum exposes Liverpool's past when the port was part of a triangle that linked England, Africa and the Americas, dealing in human traffic as well as commodities such as sugar, rum, tobacco and raw cotton (picked by the slaves and their descendants).

Also at Albert Dock, the Beatles Story is an interactive subterranean museum telling the rags-to-riches story of John, Paul, George and Ringo. You can also get a ticket to ride the Magical Mystery Tour - a technicoloured bus takes passengers to Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and the childhood homes of Lennon and McCartney. The commentary is laced with intriguing and moving stories and plenty of Scouse humour.

Another key spot on the Beatles trail is the Cavern Club, a replica of the venue in which the band played more than 200 gigs in the 60s (the original Cavern was knocked down in the 70s). Perfect for beer, kitsch and a nostalgic sing-song, the Cavern is on Mathew Street, a hub of the Cavern Quarter which hosts an annual music festival. Around the corner, Hard Days Night is a Beatles- themed hotel.

The lively Hope Street is another party spot where you'll find wine bars, cafes and bistros, and hip spots to catch some sleep - like my base, Hope Street Hotel. The boutique offering melds exposed brickwork and cast-iron pillars with sleek, contemporary trappings and fits in with the buoyant and optimistic mood of a city on the rise.

Steve McKenna was a guest of Visit Liverpool.

FACT FILE

Hope Street Hotel has 89 well-appointed rooms. Double rooms, with breakfast, are priced from £109 a night ($169); hopestreethotel.co.uk.

For more information on Liverpool and Britain, see visitliverpool.com and visitbritain.com.
 
#5,795 ·
Complain about the BBC's lack of coverage from the BBC and they'll point out the number of (actually negative) news items carried on Northwest Tonight and the existance of the Scouse McScummigan family on Waterloo Road.
Thanks for contacting us regarding BBC One’s ‘Waterloo Road’ broadcast on 3rd January 2013.

We understand you felt the programme portrayed a negative stereotype of a family from Liverpool.

For the sake of authenticity the production team working on the programme have carried out meticulous research into the habits and lifestyles of the real-life counterparts of the characters in the programme.

It is, however, very difficult to produce a programme which ties in with everyone's image or recollection of life, particularly as it is a fictional drama series which will inevitably involve an element of dramatic licence.
 
#5,797 ·
(This was in the 'Official Liverpool Thread' too, but it makes to sense to also post it here.)

Liverpool is classed as one of CNN's '10 Hottest European Destinations for 2013'. It said the following:

Liverpool, England

If you've heard Liverpool mentioned only in reference to its football club, you're missing out.

Besides London, it's arguably the most exciting destination in England at the moment, offering plenty of reasons to party well into the New Year.

Having just celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' first record -- the Fab Four formed here in 1960 -- Liverpudlians are looking forward to another installment of International Beatle Week in August, commemorating the music and lives of one of the most influential pop groups of all time.

The festivities continue at the freshly minted Museum of Liverpool, where a new theater (opening in early 2013) will host music and drama events alongside insightful exhibitions and film screenings, many of them free.
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/04/travel/europe-top-destinations/index.html?hpt=hp_bn10
 
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