Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may be moderated
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Good to see Newsnight taking a closer look at Ken Leninspart last night. Long overdue. What a shame they had to be embarrassed into doing something by Channel 4’s Dispatches.
This site spends a lot of time dissecting the various biases on the news. But what about the other output?
Anything the BBC produces is filled the sort of trendy left-wing policies that get talked about in Islington restaurants. Ever analysed Doctor Who? What about the absolutely awful Torchwood?
Leaving aside Torchwood’s poly-sexual agenda, which always has me in fits of laughter, it’s politics are sooo unsound. There is barely a character in Torchwood that is not a stereotype – a stereotype from the left-wing stereotype manual.
Men are single-minded, chauvinistic and patriarchal. People can only make a living by being dishonest wide-boys. Only the working class in public service are any good.
And so it goes on and on. Fortunately, Torchwood is so badly written that the agenda has minimal impact.
The BBC’s leftwing bias is all over almost all the output, which would be OK if it wasn’t all funded by a compulsory poll tax.
The best television is made in the US. And it’s all funded privately. Suck on that beeboids.
PaulT | 08.02.08 – 10:45 am |
Couldn’t agree more about Torchwood. Like Robin Hood it is a good idea ruined by PC shackles and lazy mix-n-match writing.
This weeks offering had an whale-like alien that was been harvested for meat and became a cash-cow for unscrupulous gangsters, who despite being brothers had wildly different accents – obviously not enough b-string Welsh actors out there. But at least they weren’t middle-class or Americans – the stock BBC villains.
BTW if the alien was constantly growing where was it getting it’s physical mass from – they weren’t feeding it …
I believe that the danger in the BBC’s bias is not in it’s parlous & partial news coverage but in it’s every-day programmes. Programmes which run on an unquestioned PC agenda.
DAVID VANCE, COWARD:
We’re still waiting for answers to last week’s quiz: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/5317609803633089194/#383528
How does a British subject who has no criminal record, get himself detained indefinitely on the say-so of a foreign government with no evidence presented make him “scum” and any conversations with him can be freely bugged including privileged ones to his MP?
How does this constitute UK Independence, democracy, the rule of law or anything else, AND how do you justify defaming a man for no reason other than he’s a Moslem and has a brown skin and under the fascist principles that you support, is clearly guilty of whatever this foreign government says he has done? What if the foreign government was France or Turkey and the accused, white? What then?
Stop running away and start answering the questions.
Aussie Bystander | 08.02.08 – 11:11 am | #
You are a troll and I hereby claim my 10 pounds – now fuck of back to your burrow/rat hole. I’m sick of having to skip past your bullshit to read germane and interesting commentary.
Aussie Bystander
You make extremely serious accusations against David Vance of cowardice, defamation, fascism and racism.
Please note that just because this is a blog you are not protected from legal action, you may wish to reconsider this post.
I invite BaggieJonathan to tell us all any evidence that I have defamed David Vance for calling him racist, fascist and defamatory, as well as a coward for not answering some very straightforward questions that you, “Anonymous”, “onanthebarbarian” and other idiots seems unable to answer which is REAL defamation.
Because unlike Vance, I have evidence of my claims and he and you have dick squat.
Now back to Vance:
Answer the questions – we’re still waiting: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/5317609803633089194/#383528
Aussie Bystander | 08.02.08 – 11:29 am |
Because unlike Vance, I have evidence of my claims and he and you have dick squat.
Dick Squat?? Does he play for Chelsea?
Aussie Bystander
Its David Vance you accuse of cowardice, defamation, fascism and racism, not me, and his reaction is up to him, I was warning you of its serious nature.
However I know if you made such accusation against me I would unhesitatingly action you, does that cover it?
Aussie Bystander: “I invite BaggieJonathan to tell us all any evidence…”
Actually, in court it would be up to you to prove that what you’re saying is true. Otherwise the comments are clearly libelous.
BaggieJ
Some trolls can be very mouthy. Wonder why they can’t just carry on as bystanders.
Arsenal?
Where is Vance?
Here’s those questions again: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/5317609803633089194/#383528
How does he justify imprisonment without trial on the say-so of a foreign government who provides no evidence, and whose every conversation is bugged including ones that are supposed to be privileged. How would he like it if it was him and the foreign government was France or Turkey?
How does he justify defamation of a man who has no criminal record and no evidence to challenge him? Because he’s a Moslem? Has brown skin?
Stop running and start answering Vance.
“However I know if you made such accusation against me I would unhesitatingly action you, does that cover it?”
Bring it on. You’d be laughed out of any Australian court.
“You’d be laughed out of any Australian court.”
How so?
Aussie Bystander | 08.02.08 – 11:45 am | #
I think you are wanted back at the sheep-dip.
Aussie bystander,
“no evidence”? Prove that one!
“on the say so of a foreign government”? I presume you mean our closest ally in the war on terror?
Are you out of your tiny dhimmi mind?
I note that you are very good with the insults and mudslinging(like all good leftists) but when it comes to detailed information you seem come up short?
If you would like to stick up for terrorist vermin over law abiding people then thats your right but why not take your pro Islamist garbage to another blog and leave us in peace?
Ulan Bator Ladies Rugby second eleven?
Poor old BBC. They really are wetting thier knickers over this Sharia Law story.
They don’t know which way to turn. Don’ you just love it when the BBC can’t spin a story the way it wants?
Grimley Squeamish: Was it that negative about Red Ken? I haven’t watched it yet, but If their attempt to smear Channel 4 over the Terror Mosques which was pathetic and rather sad I won’t hold my breath.
PaulT. Re Dr Poo. Written by Russell T Davis a sad litlte man full of hatred for Thatcher. This view runs right through the crap Dr Poo and his other shows.
Richard Curtis is another of these limp wristed leftie trendies that seem to blag many jobs at the BBC.
PaulT
…..The BBC’s leftwing bias is all over almost all the output, which would be OK if it wasn’t all funded by a compulsory poll tax.
PaulT | 08.02.08 – 10:45 am | #
Yes and they know it too.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1942948.ece
Richard Curtis? St Richard Curtis?
“The Vicar of Dibley” was about as funny as a burst boil.
The only genuinely funny thing he ever wrote was the last episode of “Blackadder” which took the p*ss out of lefty sentimentalisation of history pretty comprehensively.
“The only genuinely funny thing he ever wrote was the last episode of “Blackadder” ”
what about all the other episodes of Blackadder? Or most of them anyway.
I love this line from that BBC Bias report
‘It goes on to highlight a “Roneo mentality” where staff ape each other’s common liberal values.’
how true.
Nice one, Anonymous!
“Roneo mentality” eh?
“Roneo, Roneo, wherefore art thou Roneo?” – the question this blog’s all about.
Aussie Bystander,
You appear to think I am interested in the drivel you post. I’m not. I suggest a lie-down in a dark room for you – and watch the language on any thread I post or you’ll be moderated. Debate is fine, vulgarity isn’t. Got it?
“what about all the other episodes of Blackadder? Or most of them anyway.”
Didn’t do anything for me, I’m afraid, I sat through some of them as stony-faced as I did at the last showing of “Monty Python”.
It was a one joke show – anachronism with a trowel – which just got irritating. Had it had the depth of characterisation of say “Bilko” or “Yes Minister” it might have been better. Or even “Top Cat”.
Funnily enough co-author Ben Elton was the nephew of a genuinely great (if sometimes unreadable) historian. I always wondered whether Elton had some vaguely Oedipal agenda with “Blackadder”.
PaulT
Absolutely! I think the most damaging thing about the vile BBC is the way is undermines dramatic creativity in Britain. You are quite right to compare the pathetic drivel served up by BBC drama (where the pathetic Poliakoff is hailed as a genius??! Ha!!) and compare it with the excellent and varied output produced by the Americans (everything from Family Guy to The Sopranos).
And why is that? Because in the USA people live or die by their talent, their output, and the public response. Here, you just have to be an approved Beeboid to get on (and of course, live in N London).
Vile, disgusting organisation.
Phil | 08.02.08 – 12:34 pm |
Blackadder not funny? Well I suppose one man’s comedian is another’s Aussie Bystander. 😉
Personally I think Blackadder is one of the funniest things the BBC has ever done, that and Red Dwarf.
TFC:
Well, you pays your money and you take what they choose to give you. That’s the problem.
The best telly comedy ever was of course “Steptoe” which explored timeless and universal truths as experienced in a Hammersmith junkyard. There were scenes in that that Shakespeare wouldn’t have minded having written.
Dunno about Aussie Bystander, I find him/her quite funny in a Gramsci-meets-Sheila’s-Wheels sort of way.
Phil | 08.02.08 – 1:02 pm |
Dunno about Aussie Bystander, I find him/her quite funny in a Gramsci-meets-Sheila’s-Wheels sort of way.
Sort of my point but then one must not mock the afflicted.
As to Steptoe it is so long since I saw an episode I couldn’t comment. Now Dad’s Army …
Hello everyone, according to the latest beeboid troll incarnation, Hillhunt, we’re all narrow minded and blah , blah, blah. Nice to know they care !
Steptoe’s worth re-visiting. Harry H Corbett was a proper (and bloody good) actor, which in part is what gave the programme so much of its power.
I think after 40 years Dad’s Army’s gone beyond being just a comedy. Those guys are now part of our national myth, like Falstaff or Elizabeth Bennet or Lucky Jim. Heightened versions of the people we are (apart from the Welsh one, that is).
“Bring it on. You’d be laughed out of any Australian court.
Aussie Bystander | 08.02.08 – 11:45 am”
http://www.caslon.com.au/defamationprofile2.htm
“There has since been acceptance – with explicit recognition in section 206 of the federal Broadcasting Services Act 1992 – that broadcasting is publication of matter in a permanent form.”
“Australian courts, building on case and statute law regarding defamation using telegraphy, have recognised that defamation can occur online. The landmark Rindos decision of 1993, discussed later in this profile, for example confirmed that publication includes a news item on an electronic bulletin board. The plaintiff was awarded substantial damages. The net is thus not a zone that is exempt from defamation action.”
Got a qualification in Australian law?
No, I didn’t think so.
Phil | 08.02.08 – 1:19 pm |
Yes, poor old Talfryn Thomas (RIP), always destined to stumble over his lines as the disreputable Welshman, no matter which part he played. Good in Survivors though – the exception proves the rule STS.
Incidently Survivors is being remade by the BBC. What are the chances it will be a PC pile of poo. Evens anyone?
Odds on! Reduced to doing remakes of stuff produced by the private sector, eh? Whatever happened to cutting-edge creativity?
The Talfryn Thomas part was just badly under-written, almost as an afterthought. Thought the bloke did the best he could with the material he was given.
^^ regarding the Vicar of Dibley, I found it to be relatively funny, though it’s not a personal favourite. But do you recall how the resident village arsehole (David Horton) was not just a Conservative voter, but the Chairman of the local association, and at one point I think he was a Parliamentary candidate too. And of, of course, nobody else in a sleepy rural village came anywhere close to sharing similar views to his. No, people in the country all vote Labour.
With regards to Aussie bystander.If you scramble the letters around in his name then rearrange them you get ‘yes u arse bandits’…..allegedly !
Never quite lasted that long to see him. I prefer my fat priestesses to appear on anthropology documentaries. Not that they ever do.
Aussie
You sure you ain’t John Reith in disguise? You ARE him aren’t you?
I’ve never seen an episode of Torchwood, but – and I’ve mentioned it before, I think, but it might’ve been back in the good old days when about 80% of my comments got deleted – I saw the trailers for the Christmas special and it’s the special effects that would prevent me from watching it. I’m not sure how much of BBC’s loot they get doled out, but you’d’ve thought they could manage effects which were better than mid-nineties, TV movies.
Oh, and they have courts in Australia? I assumed justice was arrived at by dingo wrestling or something.
The only people that deny the liberal bias at the BBC, are the BBC themselves.
Most media outlets are liberal, I don’t care about that except that the BBC is funded by a massive tax.
For example, the Theatre is subsidised by the national Lottery and I keep hearing people that play the lotery moan that something for the rich liberal “tofts” is subsidised by the Lottery.
I don’t give a shit as I don’t buy lottery tickets, never have, never will do. So I don’t care if money is given to one legged lesbians or Islamic terror groups.
However, with the BBC I do care as I’m paying for it.
Please MR Moderator please please come back, it helps our cause so much when you are away, but I cannot take the ‘comedy’ any more. Us beeboids will have to run the risk of all of the comments being well written and evidenced, but it is a price I, at least, am willing to pay.
You will have to start by editing most of David Vance’s posts of course, but think of the invective you will be sparing the world.
Sarah Jane,
Thanks for the endorsement, I also can’t take the comedy of Beeboids feeling oh-so-offended.
That last para should be
…of course.
But think of…
I wouldn’t want anyone else to feel left out.
Apologies to anyone who writes moderate, researched comments and is interested in disucssion rather than name-calling. We know this is a diverse place!
David – you don’t offend me. You might press the odd button when you generalise about ‘BBC shills’ but I am sure your remarks are well calculated and I am not going to allow you the pleasure.
In fact without having seen or heard you on-air I am reasonably certain that you are also an opinionated and interesting contributor and that is why we like having you back. The BBC tries as hard as it can to be biased against being boring.
However, I think if you are going to comment on BBC bias within the context of this blog, then you need to express yourself more moderately rather than just write what you would write on your own blog.
The article on Williams is a perfect example of that.
Richard Curtis is a legend!
Okay, so Dibley was, er, mediocre but he is the man who brought us Blackadder, Four Weddings and Notting Hill, all of which I will happily watch ad infinitum.
He is also the man who has, indirectly, done much to destroy this sorry excuse for a prime minister’s reputation, thanks to his unfunniest (imho) creation: in the eyes of millions, Gordon Brown will forever be Mr Bean.
To Curtis, we owe a debt of thanks.
Thank God for Today – without it we’d never know what the real threat is caused by climate change. At about 8:50am on Today Tom Fielden reports claims that the IPCC is understating the clear and present danger of anthropomorphic CC. The Today webpage tells us that “thinkers in the climate change debate suggest that scientists may have underestimated the likely magnitude of global warming.”
The trump card in this educational and informative (but hardly entertaining) item is played by Naughtie who interviews (=massages ego of) the well-known liar, charlatan and all-round crapola merchant James (sorry, “Jim” to Naughtie) Hansen to provide an “impartial” take on this trumped up controversy within the on-going scare story.
Hi Everybody,
I haven’t been here for quite a long time. What happened to Andrew and who is Mr Vance.
Thanks,
Grimer