Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 195 posts

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#121

Post by fsloth »

WilTimSon wrote: post #2

It's astonishing to me that people will just buy into any success story that involves crypto and NFTs. People don't question why poorly drawn pictures are being bought for thousands of dollars, don't question why there are hundreds of altcoins on the market and some "cryptocurrency experts" are supposedly "offering free tips" on investment. The whole space is rife with scams and embellishments and yet there are so ma…

People never stop buying tulips. There is always a new breed that create a new self-propelling market rush of doom.

Crypto assets have one rational thing behind them - as an asset class their value seems to fluctuate more or less randomly, hence (as long as the value fluctuates above zero) they provide a nice asset class that is detached from every other asset class - which means they are a nice way to pad an investment portfolio.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#123

Post by rchaud »

globular-toast wrote: post #119
blfr wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People question it all the time. And a house has obvious utility. It's also kind of a share in the city's future. It can be mispriced but it's not entirely based on hype.

I'm not talking about the houses, though. I'm talking about mortgages. Have you ever wondered why you can't just save up for a house and buy it with cash? Why do you need to first acquire this thing called a mortgage? What part is the bank actually playing in this transaction? You'll pay tax to them for 30 years but what exactly are you getting in return? These are the questions that need to be asked.

Houses are acquired in cash all the time. There is no legal requirement to tie oneself to a mortgage, if you already have the means to pay the price in full.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#124

Post by dmix »

wongarsu wrote: post #4
antihero wrote: post #3

> The Guardian asked the BBC if it was confident in his claimed financial returns and questioned why the programme’s promotional material did not mention that Hassan’s cryptocurrency Orfano was abruptly shut down in October, with many unhappy investors claiming they were left out of pocket as a result. I feel like this is the key thing. He probably made the money with a scamcoin and the BBC nearly aired something tha…

> it was one of the channel’s headline commissions for its new regional television news show We Are England. This new show replaced the long-running Inside Out regional current affairs series, which was cancelled as part of BBC funding cuts in a decision that resulted in many investigative journalists based outside London losing their jobs. > Continuing cuts to BBC budgets and deep job cuts, caused by successive lice…

Basic due diligence is not a lot to ask. It's their job.

This was a documentary + major written piece. Not a quickly copied press release pumped out for clickbait.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#125

Post by monkeynotes »

avianlyric wrote: post #106
monkeynotes wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure what this comment is meant to convey, but it sounds to me that you are alluding to BoJo gutting the BBC for his own political gain. I think the reality is the license fee is overwhelmingly unpopular, has been for decades. The BBC has not evolved its business model to keep up with democratized broadcast and if BoJo is the one to do what is inevitable then who can blame him to use the opportunity to be th…

The relationship between the licence fee and the BBC isn’t that simple. You must pay the TV licence fee if you receive any broadcast television generally available to the public, regardless of if it’s BBC content or not. If you only watch Channel Four, and never BBC, you must still pay the licence fee. Your viewing habits are completely irrelevant. The TV licence comes from law, and the government happens to delegate…

> It’s unfair to criticise an organisation for failing to change something it has no legal ability to change

The BBC is the government one way or another. So given the ministers are effectively the CEO then they are the ones who should be adapting as they have the control and report to the citizens who are analogous to shareholders. So yeah I can criticize the BBC for failing to adapt and do things that the people in control are able to do.

A government controlled corporation should be held accountable to the people, and the people obviously don't think the license fee is fair given the modern avenues of entertainment consumption. I mean charging a license fee for watching YouTube is absolutely insane. The government did not produce any of that content, individuals did, it's not even their infrastructure. Essentially the government could charge a fee for you emailing a family video to a friend.

It's archaic, unfair, and unsustainable. Make it a real tax, allow advertising, monetize BBC content on other platforms, charge subscription fees. I mean the options are wide open, behave like a competitive corporation or tax it. All of this is under control of the people who ultimately operate the BBC.

So yeah, first step is to wake up and abolish the license fee as it's just loopy so as much as I dislike BoJo, objectively he's making a bold and inevitable move which is perhaps motivated by his desire to stay in power.

It's also worth noting the UK govt' spent $5.1bn on the BBC last year, in contrast Sky operated on $5.2bn in revenue. There are clearly some huge inefficiencies at the BBC that can be remedied internally without government approval. Bemoaning $5.1bn as not being enough is garbage. I mean, ITV operates on $2.1bn in revenue. Cutting back the waste seems appropriate to me.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#127

Post by anon1385 »

avianlyric wrote: post #106
monkeynotes wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure what this comment is meant to convey, but it sounds to me that you are alluding to BoJo gutting the BBC for his own political gain. I think the reality is the license fee is overwhelmingly unpopular, has been for decades. The BBC has not evolved its business model to keep up with democratized broadcast and if BoJo is the one to do what is inevitable then who can blame him to use the opportunity to be th…

The relationship between the licence fee and the BBC isn’t that simple. You must pay the TV licence fee if you receive any broadcast television generally available to the public, regardless of if it’s BBC content or not. If you only watch Channel Four, and never BBC, you must still pay the licence fee. Your viewing habits are completely irrelevant. The TV licence comes from law, and the government happens to delegate…

I would have agreed with you in the past. And I still do when it comes to defending a lot of the BBC content that doesn't come from the news department.

But BBC News is just so bad and utterly corrosive that I'd abolish the entire institution just to get rid of it. Yes I know other UK media is all as bad or worse, but none of them have the public standing or institutional power that the BBC has. I don't think there's any way of reforming the news department at this point. It's not just a matter of a few bad shows or bad 'journalists'. The entire ethos/mission of BBC News is fundamentally broken. They don't know how to do journalism as a public broadcaster, and I don't think they could ever learn how. Certainly not within the current media culture in the UK.

This incident isn't a one off. It's typical. The only unusual thing is the program got cancelled and they actually deleted the article - usually they double down for weeks and refuse to admit fault. I'm guessing that's only because crypto isn't (yet) a partisan culture war issue in the UK media.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#128

Post by rchaud »

loceng wrote: post #16
WilTimSon wrote: post #2

It's astonishing to me that people will just buy into any success story that involves crypto and NFTs. People don't question why poorly drawn pictures are being bought for thousands of dollars, don't question why there are hundreds of altcoins on the market and some "cryptocurrency experts" are supposedly "offering free tips" on investment. The whole space is rife with scams and embellishments and yet there are so ma…

It could also have been more of a "hit piece" by the BBC on crypto/NFTs, and perhaps the controllers are financially incentivized/aligned with Bitcoin et al's success - so they pulled it? A possibility exists in the direction opposite to what you suggest.

Did you read the article. Absolutely nothing says it was a 'hit piece'. In fact, it appears to have been pulled because of poor editorial oversight. The documentary as filmed made no mention of the fact that this guy set up his own coin and crypto fund, which was shut down and left investors in the lurch.

> The Guardian asked the BBC if it was confident in his claimed financial returns and questioned why the programme’s promotional material did not mention that Hassan’s cryptocurrency Orfano was abruptly shut down in October, with many unhappy investors claiming they were left out of pocket as a result.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#129

Post by ID1452319 »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #47
ID1452319 wrote: post #44

People talk about misinformation on Facebook, but the British media are guilty of promoting criminals and fraudsters via news stories about their "success". For example, my local newspaper published a number of articles about a "successful" trader who was offering training programmes. Last month he was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud. There are numerous examples of this and even "reality" TV shows promot…

Stories of success are meaningless if you don't know how many people failed... If you listen to lottery winners, investing in lottery tickets is the best way to earn money,... somehow noone makes documentaries about millions of people who buy tickets and get nothing.

This isn't even a story of success though. What due diligence did the BBC do to ensure he actually made that money and that he was using the methods claimed?

There are lots of people in social media who pose in front of expensive cars and with designer bag in order to sell their crypto or forex trading training courses. Most of course don't make their money from trading, but from commissions paid by platforms for winding in suckers.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#130

Post by gitfan86 »

Hamuko wrote: post #113
gitfan86 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most of these people the NFT is the valuable part. If Twitter verifies your opensea nft and let's you put it on your Twitter profile that is the value.

Wouldn't displaying an NFT where you do not own the underlying image technically be copyright violation?

Technically violations are determined by a court. If no one has accused you of a violation and no court has found you in violation then you are not in violation.

A separate question is would the copyright holder win a lawsuit or DMCA takedown request? I don't know

Post reply on HN