First, Rottweiler Puppy has taken up the story of the Beeb’s failings over Iran, and produced a very good post on the subject on his new site. It’s ironic in the light of this that the BBC is reporting experiencing Persian censorship. Why, when they’re doing such a good job (for the Mullahs)? Maybe it’s a case of treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen (just like the women).
The second notable thing I have to mention is the Beeb’s surprise that people are actually optimistic in Iraq and Afghanistan– much more so than those in, say, France, for example, which is only topped in the pessimism stakes by Bob Mugabe’s unhappy citizens (those still around to give their opinions). As Zooblogger says, the explanation is that ‘Them Beebs are out of touch with reality’ (link supplied by jim-jams media)
Sorry, new post – OT
Just listened to 5Live news and the story of “G Bush refuses to give details of Katrina documents”
I cant find this in the Google News catch or Yahoo.
What the *uck is going on?
Maybe he can’t and Congress can. There’s testimony going on.
I shall once again post my e-mail exchange related to coverage of Nazanin’s hanging given that it is now on topic (the original message is under the reply).
O/T
The BBC webpage is critical of Google ‘agreeing to censor itself’ for the Chinese authorities. That wdn’t be the self-righteous BBC that censors ITSELF 24 hrs a day on Islamic ‘extremism’ wd it?
Re: second point, there’s a strong argument that Iraqi and Afghani results are pretty poor given that respondents are effectively being asked whether their economies are improving from a war/sanctions/Saddam/Taliban ravaged wreck and significant minorities apparently think not.
Surely the bigger story though is the pessimism of US respondents given the importance of US consumer confidence on the global opinion. The Beeb seems to have completely ignored this point.
the nazanin case seems to be spreading on google news. there’s a lot more sites reporting it than a few days ago
http://www.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=nazanin&btnG=Search+News
iranian authorities have started to block access to the BBC Persian website:
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5454
Saudi Arabia has a pretty firewall too – no doubt someone can by-pass it by tunnelling but I suppose they have been busy selling them filters as in China and Saudi Arabia to keep them in the dark
Cockney — You know better that that. Lots of dataseries monitor consumer confidence in the US, many more than you’ll ever hear about on the BBC.
The main issue, the great big elephant in the living room, is when will the next recession arrive? Americans, being realists, are well aware that it will.
Only G Brown and kin, evidently including yourself, are happier mired in denial, hoping it will all go away. It won’t.
As usual, the realists are best prepared and will come out best after it all hits the fan. You can be sure the British left will flail around in search of the next scapegoat. Beats looking into the mirror. Thet would never do, would it?
“The main issue, the great big elephant in the living room, is when will the next recession arrive”
when the iran war breaks out?
“Iranian official: UN sanctions may lead us to seal off Persian Gulf”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/674159.html
Thanks Thomas- got to run, so I’ll update the post later. Good work!
Anon, you’ve got more confidence in US economic policy than I have but I certainly share your concern about ours.