What is happening with Baz? Should we be worried too?

http://translate.google.ch/translate...en-US:official

Could you re-check the link? I see many different topics on that page... just nzz.ch in english.

Ops, sorry (this is still how I actually read it)! Here is the right link:

http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schwei...1.8389620.html

Cheers!

My first thought was that politicians shouldn't have too much media power. The company of SVP leader Blocher as BAZ advisors looks a bit fishy too me. But then, how 'neutral' and 'objective' is the media world overall? I'm doubtfull that even respectable news-channels/papers are completely free of political usage.

I wish I knew it earlier, from now on I believe I won't spend so much time reading it!

Not at all. None of it. From the biggest international broadcasting organisation to the smallest blog, everything you read and hear is biased. It is biased by the choice of content, by the use of photographs, by the inclusion and exclusion of details, by clever adjectives and weasel words. The best thing is that most of the time, even the authors have no idea that they're biased. They just are, because they're human and a product of a particular culture at a particular time in history.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. But it's always worth remembering it when you look at the news.


They're the worst, because people take them seriously.

That's why I read the Daily Mail.

The sad answer is YES. I for decades was a reader for Weltwoche and for years had a subscription to that once splendid weekly paper. But it then was taken over by the Blocherites and became a SVP journal. I stopped my subscription and stopped reading it. The same fate may come to the BAZ. If the Blocherites pull their agenda through, I hope that some modern-minded Basler will get into an alliance with the Tages-Anzeiger group and start a new middle-ground Basel-newspaper. True, Blocher is a shrewd businessman and so possibly will allow the BAZ to continue an independent path. But the way in which he has acted in the past few days hints to the contrary. I rather expect some "cleaning" to take place among the BAZ journalists soon, with all dissidents to the new line being ousted (not sent to Siberia, only to Zurich )

I was also a bit concerned to see the SVP popping up in the Reka magazine

Amongst others, right?

Nope.

The Daily Mail is blatantly a load of bollocks.

I stopped reading the "serious" press in 1999, after the bombardment of Belgrade and Novi Sad, with the ever increasing hysteria of the editorial and analysis pages and the slightly dubious practice of putting some news on the front page, and other news on page 16, depending on who the (presumed) perpetrators were...

Spending several years working with asylum seekers and refugees didn't help change my mind one bit. There's what the news tells you, then there's what actual people who were there tell you. Of course, they might be lying, too, but at least they don't pretend to be unbiased.

Why bother reading anything? It's a waste of time if you know it's 'a load of bollocks'. Just to get an idea what's going on in the world?

I often only read headlines and short abstracts, from time to time a 'serious' newspaper and/or news. But this is because all the misery in the world is making me sick and there's nothing one can do about it.

Amusement, more than anything else. You can read about serious stuff, too, but you have to keep your brain awake for that, to read between the lines and work out where the author is coming from. That's much easier with a trashy paper than one that purports to be serious and unbiased.


Most of us can do nothing about most of the misery, but that's not to say that we cannot do anything about any of it. The trick is to stay small, stay local, keep emotion out of it and do what you're best at. Getting upset at stuff that's happening 6000 miles away isn't going to get you - or the victims - anywhere. There's plenty to be done on your own doorstep, though, or on the doorsteps of people you know personally.

Unless you're prepared to give everything up and open an orphanage in Bangladesh, of course, in which case I wish you all the best!

an almost equally cruel sentence

The prospect of the »BAZ« declining in the way the »Weltwoche« has has prompted us to cancel our subscription after more 25 years. We are now looking for replacement. We suspect that the »Basellandschaftliche Zeitung« might be more provincial, which would be ok, but otherwise ... what`s the score on »AZ Medien« ?
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First the Leckerli House, then the BAZ, what next ... Basel zoo?

To admit it frankly, I until these days did not even know that something like the "Basellandschaftliche Zeitung" exists, BUT the present development might give that paper the chance to develop into THE independent alternative in Basel, somehow along to line of the Tages Anzeiger who caters for both city-dwellers in Zürich and Winterthur as well as for inhabitants of more rural areas around Zurich. I am shocked nevertheless as until recently the BAZ in Switzerland was just the third of three CH papers of relevance (LeTemps is not relevant in German speaking CH). But many BAZ journalists may go into exile to the BLZ rather then "emigrating" to Zurich or Munich (Süddeutsche) !

Has anyone ever actually looked at both BAZ and Tagi websites - they are almost identical, apart from some minor differences...

Are they actually part of one house already?? If so, would the appointment of Blocher as "advisor" have an effect on the Tagi, too?

Just curious...

Oh the irony of you asking this of DB.

The way I understand the whole story is slightly different from the posts so far: Everybody knows that media is biased - all media. But: They are "transparently" biased. I know how to understand things if they are in the NZZ vs. the Tagesanzeiger. The problem with the BAZ is that it is a relatively new joint venture of two former papers - one conservative and one progressive. This happened because Basel is apparently not big enough to support two independent local newspapers. When they merged they agreed on a "middle" strategy, the paper should cover both prior views and limit the extremes on both sides.

Then the publisher and new owner of the merged paper decided on a new chief editor - an SVP "kader" from the most extreme wing the party has on offer - he agrees to Blocher 100% according to his own words. This gentleman has then together with the publisher hired a consultancy which coincidentally happens to be owned by Blocher. They are supposed to consult on how to position the newspaper (!) in the future and how to reduce costs - a.k.a. who from the current staff should get fired.

So
- the employees are upset as they fear to lose their jobs if they do not change their position - against all former agreements.
- half the readers are a bit shocked on the fast change of bias for their newspaper.

"Transparently biased". I like that phrase. Sums up perfectly what I wanted to say.

The Tages Anzeiger is no longer the fine newspaper it used to be either. They've cut down on editorial staff and are buying in more articles in, especially for the international news, and the journalists they do have seem to do more research on the internet than out in the field. The quality is changing accordingly. This makes me doubt whether the present TA management are still interested in good journalism or just want to make the maximum money for the minimum investment. The only newspaper that still has some self respect these days and actually believes in what it is doing (if you look away from the occasional political bias) IMHO is the NZZ.