VIDEO | NEW! BBC Newsnight Podcast: the week's top stories in broadband

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This is a GREAT new BBC service that allows you to take the best of the week's BBC Newsnight video reports with you on your iPod or laptop computer!
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From the BBC's program description:

• Mark Urban's report on Thursday's police announcement that a major terrorist plot to blow up transatlantic flights has been thwarted.
• Tim Whewell's analysis of the storm over doctored Middle East pictures, including an interview with the photographer at the centre of the row.
• We also have a picture of happier times in the region, with extraordinary archive footage of Lebanon and Israel in the 1960s by the British film-maker Harold Baim.
• Finally, our Ethical Man went camping... at an ethical festival... with naked people... But rest assured, Justin Rowlatt kept his suit on.
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The "Happier Times in Beruit" segment is a real jaw-dropper; it's incredible to see how cosmopolitan and beautiful Lebanon was in the early 60's, long before all the trouble started. The environmental/solar/alternative power festival is kind of like Woodstock, all operated on wind and solar power. (I didn't know it was possible to run a clothes washer by pedaling a cycle. Did you?)

PARENT ALERT: Watch out for graphic content in the Middle East pictures report, and nudity in the report on the environmental/solar/alternative power festival.

DOWNLOADING INSTRUCTIONS

I played the program in full screen mode in Quicktime Player, but many other video players support MP4 files like this one. Quality is the equivalent of about 400K/sec broadband.

The file is about a 70 MB MP4 prior download to your computer. Download links are below; if you download from BBC's web page, remember to RIGHT-CLICK and select "Download Linked File" from your popup menu, otherwise you'll get a screen full of garbage text in your browser window.

Web page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5204778.stm

Direct download link:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/bbc2/newsnightvideopodcast/newsnightvideopodcast_20060811-1600_40_st.mp4

PS: If you like this show, pass it around. BBC News seems to be aware that many of us are fed up with U.S. TV news censorship and are now watching their broadcasts online instead. They opened their Friday regular episode of Newsnight by saying "Good evening and welcome to our viewers in Britain and also to viewers joining us live from the other side of the Atlantic."

[AlamoDemoc]

1. Bookmarked. Thanks

[redacted]

2. You're welcome Alamo

Let me know how it plays for you and if you need any "tech support."

[iamthebandfanman]

3. its not THAT suprising

i mean, Beruit has been called the Paris of the middle east for a long time now.

but thanks for the video! it is pretty.

[Triana]

4. Thank Dog for BBC. At least there is one major news outlet

where we can get real news and some semblance of truth instead of just propaganda and lies. More and more over the past 5 years or so I've relied on them for news about what's going on in the US and worldwide. Because we just don't get the (real) story from any US-based news organizations.

[redacted]

9. Triana, there's also Channel4.com/news

which can now play all the reports from their nightly news in broadband as clips, as well as sequentially and without commercial interruption. You might want to check that out; I plan to post about this as well on DU in the next few days. (No podcast yet, however, it's all broadband streams.)

[NJCher]

5. More BBC!

This is terrific! Thanks for the info, redacted.

While I can't watch it now (on a hotel computer with no speakers), I'll catch it tomorrow when I get home. During my trip to the midwest, I've been telling anyone who I can get to listen that the American media is propaganda and to go to the BBC, Asia Times, and other foreign newspapers and sources for the news. It is exciting to see the BBC expand their services!

Re the above comment you posted from the BBC re Lebanon prior to the violence ("We also have a picture of happier times in the region, with extraordinary archive footage of Lebanon and Israel in the 1960s by the British film-maker Harold Baim "), it made me think of a speaker a teacher brought in when I was in grad school back in the early 90s. The speaker was Lebanese and told us about life in Beirut, even after the violence was going on. He told of what a cosmopolitan city it was and how people went on living their lives, despite the terrorism and attacks. Just the way he talked about it, I could see the joie de vivre. I so often think about this individual these days, wondering what he is feeling, thinking...




Cher

[redacted]

6. You're welcome Cher

My calculus TA when I was a freshman in college was from Beirut. We could never understand his French accent. I've been wondering about him and his wiife a lot these days, too.

[redacted]

10. BTW Cher, where in the Midwest tonight? Chicago?

Just curious because I grew up in the Midwest. And sometimes I can get sound from a hotel computer by plugging in my Sony Walkman headphones I use on the flight.

[davidwparker]

7. thanks. I just bookmarked it to my Safari menubar

[redacted]

8. Thanks David; I do that too

I have it along with some other video and RSS feeds in my Safari menubar. Great browser feature.

[Armstead]

11. The difference in tone is startl,ing

Desoite some creeping American influences in their style, Newsnight is a no bullshit news program that shows just how adolescent CNN and the rest of the US Nets are.

Compare Kyra Philips of CNN to the woman anchor on Newsnight. The difference in depth and gravity is sobering.

[redacted]

12. Kirsty Wark Bio

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/news/kirstywark.shtml

Kirsty Wark joined BBC TWO's Newsnight in October 1993. She presents the BBC TWO flagship current affairs programme alongside Jeremy Paxman and Gavin Esler.

Kirsty also regularly presents Newsnight Review.

Kirsty began her BBC career at BBC Radio Scotland in 1976 as a graduate researcher, going on to become a producer in radio current affairs.

After a spell on BBC Radio 4's The World At One, Kirsty moved to television in 1983 - working as a producer on Reporting Scotland and later producing and presenting the current affairs weekly Seven Days.

Kirsty has interviewed many top politicians including Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Her most memorable interview was in 1990 when she conducted a headline-making interview with the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Kirsty has presented Scotland's General Election coverage since 1987 and several major OBs including the opening of the Tate Modern and the Opening of the Scottish Parliament.

From 1990 to 1993 she presented the arts programme The Late Show and in 1993 fronted the popular BBC heritage series One Foot In The Past - a role she continued into 2000.

Kirsty also presents an occasional series of interviews for BBC FOUR with guests as wide ranging as Toni Morrison, Hanan Ashrawi and Woody Allen, and presents the prestigious Booker literary awards for BBC TWO and BBC FOUR.

More at link...
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EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY FOUR
OR FIVE PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED
NEWS SOURCE PER DU RULES.

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15. Final kick for this episode