News values

Hilary reports a most interesting media "non-event" in her post A Hypothetical Prize Fight. She sums it up thus:
Let me be clear: a famous leftist politician and a famous conservative expert debate on a subject that is interesting because people are getting killed over it around the world, in one of the most important cities in the western world; all the media is present and after it is over, there is no coverage.
It was Ken Livingstone and Daniel Pipes, debating "A World Civilisation or Clash of Civilisations?" Since there is no coverage elsewhere, let me help you out (courtesy of Hilary) just in case you want to supplement the rich diet of balanced and impartial information that is supplied by our mainstream media.

Adloyada: Daniel Pipes survives Livingstone's Lions' Den

Sharon Chadha: Clash of Civilisations?

David Pryce-Jones: Debating Clash

Oliver Kamm: Livingstone's Follies

Harry's Place: A very civilised clash

And someone who has a distaste for the politics of Pipes and thinks Livingstone the best of a bunch of bad choices:

Pickled Politics: The mayor, Daniel Pipes, Salma Yaqoob and others
(This guy has a button on his sidebar saying "I believe in the BBC"!)

As Hilary says,
If the media shows up prepared for a fight and at the end of it shrugs and goes home, who won the fight?

The wrong contender, obviously.

Well, we'll never know because if a thing has not been reported by the BBC, it never really happened anyway.
Be informed - ditch the telly! (Did I say that before somewhere?)

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