The BBC has always led the way in pioneering newsgathering and broadcast.  It’s most recent innovation  -  ‘Pop-Up’ news  is  exemplary  of journalistic endeavour at its best. As news broadcast succumbs to extraenous constraints - reducing stories to head-line grabbing visuals,  perinniel concerns about the links between paymasters and editorial freedoms nibble away at the margins. The  resignation  a few months ago of a high-profile staff-writer at the Daily Telegraph , and his reasons, give credence to such concerns.

No matter, Pop-Up news to the rescue. Other news corporations carry something similar, and the format provides a refreshing alternative to the formulae-driven visual format of TV, Internet and other digital media. The stories covered are people-centred and  events are covered with intelligent analysis and commentary.  Did you know there are undiscovered communities in the Mid-West US who only recognise the colour green? In the upper reaches of Alberta (Canada), there is an abandoned settlement which archeologists think may be the location of Glen Miller’s remains - excavations are underway. Such stories would not make it into the Editorial room of the major corporations and monopolistic newspaper Empires. The verification of such ‘extreme’ stories, such as the examples above, highlight the precarious relationship between investigative journalism and bottom-line budgets. Much like the music industry, commercially successful material does not necessarily equate to what could - and should - be produced. If the Editor is being compromised by those holding the budgets, our worlds can so easily be manipulated by sanitized, safe, status-quo ‘news’.  Without an independent press, we would never know of the strange and bizarre, undiscovered worlds which the mainstream media (largely) chooses to ignore.

Did you know, for example that in Central America (East Side), the equinoxes are celebrated by 100s of diverse tribes, in a mesmeric ritual. Representing some 10,000 peoples, one person is chosen to sit, naked, in a pre-chosen location, for 2-weeks. He - or she - holds a golden arrow, pointing to the precise spot where the rising sun will hit at the point of the equinox? And in the remotest part of the Hindu Kush, a small kiosk sells Kendal Mint cake which is used as fuel for tractors?  Further, did you know that, in pre-Roman Celtic Europe, an encrypted vocal postal-service communicated news across mountain ranges- literally, the human voice was projected across valleys and lakes - take that, broadband! If it were not for journalistic innovation, none of the above would have slotted into our human knowledge-bank.

….and if you think they are strange, outlandish and unbelievable facts,  take a good, long re-look at the title of this column…..next month, all will be revealed….