The Culture, Media and Sport select committee has stated that a new industry body should be set up to protect children from harmful content on YouTube.

This misses the point for me.

Firstly, you can find quite horrible content all over the Internet.  So if an under age individual wants to find pornographic, drugs related or Manchester United content, it is there unless blocked.  And even if blocked it can surely be found one way or another.

For me on YouTube it is not the video as much as the comments that need to be looked at.  The countless racist, bigoted, hate filled diatribes are not well policed by YouTube.  And there are links back to the YouTube pages of the authors of the quotes.  Well, if you want to hook up with a neo-Nazi it is not too hard.

Some of the YouTube pages for users are truly shocking and frightening and if in print form in the UK would surely be flagged up and dealt with, or you would hope so.

While “saving the children”, why not just save everyone from individuals exploiting YouTube’s blind spot?

Following on from my ethical stance or rather attack on that inflated epithet, I have another illustration, from a slightly different angle from rock and roll comic George Carlin. 

He said it all on all those hollow tags we give ourselves, in some part created by marketing and PR professionals.

For a little dig at pomposity see George Carlin’s rant on the modern man that will entertain click above.

I get a little sick of businesses claiming that they are “ethical” as their selling point.

It seems to me to imply that all their other competitors are less than upfront and decent or not quite up to their Sir Bob standard.

And more dangerous for them, they have to scrupulously and comprehensively establish and maintain standards that meet their self-imposed Persil white credentials.

One company that seems to have failed the test is the self styled “ethical” fish restaurant chain Loch Fyne.  Allegedly it does not even pay the minimum wage, but makes up for the shortfall through tips.

It is actually legal but ethical, many would say not.

Such corporate self congratulation starts to work against it:

“(Loch Fyne) is an enterprise with respect for animals, people and ecology”.

“In everything we do, be it building a new restaurant, hiring staff or cooking the food we take huge pride in doing it to the best standard possible.”

If you are ethical describe your actions.  If you act ethically you do not need to say it, it  is there to see.

Let’s get “back to basics,” if you say you are morally and professionally superior you had better prove it or be prepared to head for a fall.

Anyway using the term “ethical” strikes me as a bit jaded  if nothing else.

Sepp Blatter has once again made a mess of his communications. On occasions in the past he has claimed to be “misinterpreted.”

The latest piece of brilliance came when he compared Ronaldo’s current situation trying to escape the pernicious grip of Manchester United to “modern slavery.”

Where do I begin?

Anyway apart from out of touch imbeciles destroying football there are glimmers of those that can communicate well, can charm and are in touch or at least make a good impression that they might be. Roll on Big Phil Scolari, view here.

I am starting to hear this criticism being levelled at the media, as though any financial difficulties can be attributed solely to some irresponsible journalists.

If that is true, surely any upturn can be attributed to those same guys. So if your house has trebled in value you should be thanking your friendly local business journalist. Go on treat them to an expensive meal out at the very least.

It is true that confidence is everything. And of course the media has a strong influence here. But the fickle ebbing and flow of that precious feel good factor has more to it than the media wallowing in doom ridden scenarios, if we take away some ridiculous articles: one such piece in a national today claimed that the property market will not recover for 20 years. Who are you Mystic Meg or whatever she was called before the lottery. About as reliable.

The fact is the banks over lent, credit card companies over lent, mortgage companies over lent. We want our money back: Credit Crunch. I don’t have an economics degree I know but it didn’t help the lenders, so.

The media has power, it can influence, but somewhere, at least here, it is for the most part reporting the mistakes of others.

If you want to blame someone there are much more credible targets and some of them unfortunately include ourselves.