Monthly Archives: January 2009

A LITTLE HOUSE KEEPING

  By David Vance | January 31, 2009 - 3:03 pm | ,
Comments Off

Hi all. Just to say that I have been thinking in recent days about how we make this as pleasant and welcoming a site for people as possible and have decided upon the following. I have asked people not to swear (unless it’s for laughs)! and in future, if I am around and see crudity without value, I will delete it. I will also remove any comments which appear gratuitously abusive. If someone chooses to continually resort to ad hominem abuse, I will warn them once and then ban them. I do this to make this a good space for you all. I am no prude and hate having to dictate but this must be done and I am prepared to do it. So, be witty, be incisive, be acerbic, be on topic and you will have no hassle from me. We’re finishing January with great traffic, record levels of comment and I sincerely want to do the right thing here to keep things growing and I hope you will support my aim.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

STRIKE.

  By David Vance | January 31, 2009 - 10:27 am | , , ,
Comments Off

It is very interesting to observe how the BBC covers the growing restlessness amongst the UK workforce as more and more precious jobs are lost to non-nationals. It has to be a tricky one for the multiculti-EU loving BBC and true to form I see that the line currently being peddled is to place all responsibility with the management of those companies concerned but this obscures the central fact that the companies are lawfully employing EU citizens, it just so happens this is in preference to UK citizens. So the issue is not UK management, it is the provisions of EU legislation that have created circumstances that are now leading, slowly, inexorably, to widespread civil unrest. As I pointed out at the time, when Brown talked about British jobs for British workers, he was lying through his teeth. When the workers in some sectors rose up against the Thatcher government, the BBC were with the comrades all the way but now..ah, it’s a lot more difficult…watch this space.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

DON’T MENTION THE WAR!

  By David Vance | January 31, 2009 - 10:15 am | , ,
Comments Off

The BBC casually reports that a “Gaza rocket hits south Israel.” Oh really? Isn’t that a wonderfully innocuous way of revealing that Hamas is still trying to murder those pesky Jews, even during a so-called “cease-fire” (Hudna). The BBC is quick to add that both sides have “violated” the cease-fires, so suggesting an equivalence where none such exists. Hamas has shown bad faith, as one might expect, and is still enthusiastically targeting innocent Israeli people and when Israel dares to respond to this it is then declared to be as bad as Hamas.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

AYATOL

  By David Vance | January 31, 2009 - 9:59 am |
Comments Off

LAH THEY WERE BIASED!

Anyone else catch the abomination that is John Simpson fondly recollecting his travel adventures with Iranian Mad Mullan Ayatollah Khomeini on “Today” earlier this morning? In Simpson’s world-view, the Shah carried primary responsibility for the return to Iran of Khomeini and naturally Jimmy Carter and the French were absolved of any responsibility! From the sounds of the interview, Simpson admired the Ayatollah.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

UNAPPEALING.

  By David Vance | January 30, 2009 - 9:06 pm |
Comments Off

What fun it is to watch the BBC continue to present itself as a martyr to neutrality! In this report, it gushes that £3m has been raised for the DEC appeal for Hamastan even though it (and Sky) refuse to carry the advertising! Oh brave Auntie. It goes on to report that despite 170 MPs demanding the Gazan ad be heard, and even though there is a threat of legal action being taken to force the deed, the brave BBC still won’t do as required. My heroes! Has there ever been a less biased media organisation? The BBC is building faux kudos here which it will remorselessly use to try and disarm those of us who can point to it’s relentless shilling for the shelling Gazans.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

General BBC-related comment thread!

  By David Vance | January 30, 2009 - 9:05 pm |
Comments Off

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 also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

QUESTION TIME LIVE

  By David Vance | January 28, 2009 - 11:35 pm |
Comments Off


Just a reminder that we go live again here on Biased BBC tomorrow night and this time I will have another moderator to help me so let’s make this the biggest and best liveblog yet. Here’s the panel for tomorrow night!
David Dimbleby, Iain Gray, Michael Gove, Jo Swinson, Nicola Sturgeon and Hardeep Singh Kohli

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

SEND IN THE CLOWNS…

  By David Vance | January 28, 2009 - 7:47 am | ,
Comments Off

I see that my old pal George Mitchell and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana are in the Middle East to help “bring peace.” You can expect to see the BBC give the efforts of this pair of jokers a sympathetic hearing – they have always been kind to Senator Mitchell following his work in Northern Ireland. Now that Obama has recycled this Clintonian bagman him into this role I am certain that the BBC will use the Northern Ireland peace process as the preferred template for creating stability in this region. On News 24 last night I heard someone insist that Israel would “have to” talk to Hamas, just like the British government “had to” talk to the IRA. It’s a completely misleading analogy but the BBC are wedded to it and you can be sure that Israel will be cast as the intransigent villains if they do not set down and enter dialogue with the genocidal Islamic savages in Hamas. The BBC coverage of the brutal murder of an Israeli soldier by Hamas should have re-assured everyone that BBC faux protestations about its’ much vaunted “impartiality”on this issue are as shallow as they are insubstantial. Once again the narrative is that “both sides” have broken their cease-fires and so Hamas get a pass for their act of murderous aggression.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

MORAL DEPRAVITY DEFENDED.

  By David Vance | January 28, 2009 - 7:35 am |
Comments Off

In my book “Unionism Decayed”, there is a section on how the UK government used the media, and the BBC in particular, to advance it’s’ own appeasement agenda at all costs. In particular, I point to how an accidentally leaked memo by a senior civil servant, Tom Kelly, made clear that certain high profile individuals had been identified as “champions” for the government view. One of the named individuals was Lord Eames - the same man who has co-authored the current proposals to pay the families of terrorists the same amount of money as their victims. The BBC is VERY sympathetic to Lord Eames, as you can read here. Ever wonder where that manipulative Mr Kelly came from? That’s right – the BBC. Ever wonder where he went to after the deal was done to institutionalise terrorism? That’s right – Tony Blair’s press office. It’s a funny old world watching those from the BBC effortlessly melt into the heart of government propaganda. I guess their on the job training is very good?

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

BIAS WITH A SMILING FACE

  By David Vance | January 28, 2009 - 7:14 am | , ,
Comments Off

Ordinarily, I will tune in to Radio 4 “Today” or else check out the BBC main news portal as a means of assessing the presentation of news by the State broadcaster. But this morning, I am in London on business and I can only watch the TV news in my hotel room. So, for a change, I tuned in to the “Breakfast” programme on BBC1. It’s an eye-opener because it too has a rampant bias which is ever so subtle and aimed at the wider audience watching at this time in the morning. In that regard one could argue it is all the more dangerous in terms of its’ malign influence.

The lead story was concerning how people are being aggressively pursued by debt collection agencies. And who did the BBC choose to interview about this? A lady, clad in full Niqab gear, who claimed she was the victim of identity confusion. The fact that we could not even see her face because she chose to wear Islamic garb seemed an irony lost on the BBC. Cut to fluffy dog story – and then we had a story about Lord Rumba of Rio’s bail-out to the UK car industry, with an touching human interest interview with an ever so grateful car industry worker. Good ol’ Mandy – he’s providing much needed job security. Cue more feel good news about the octuplets. Then a story about rising child care costs in GB which are, thank goodness, being obviated at least in some areas by progressive local Councils and our wise government. It’s the proverbial curate’s egg, inane in some bits, toxic in others!

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

The usual suspects.

  By Natalie | January 27, 2009 - 6:49 pm |
Comments Off

Robin Horbury made this comment a few days ago:

BBC drama once led the world. Today, it is little more than political correctness and pantomime agitprop.

Did anyone see the latest BBC1 example, Hunter? (Sunday and last night 9pm). The plot was that a group of Pro-Lifers (natural BBC villains because they don’t support sexual free-for-all)were so incensed that they decided to start killing children unless the BBC showed footage of a post-24 week abortion.

It was license for some horrendous images of the Pro-Lifers abducting and injecting innocent children with various lethal drugs – sequences that were so graphic that they would not have been shown on terrestrial television a few years back. And of course to portray the villains as heartless, callous, evil scum.

I have combed the internet to see if Pro-Life groups have ever done anything remotely like this. I found a few nastly examples of intimidation and violence in the US where staff of clinics have been targeted.

But – tell me if I’m wrong – there’s not one example anywhere in the world of a Pro-Lifer killing children, under any circumstances.

So Hunter looks to me to have been an example of a BBC coterie sitting down somewhere and deciding how they could find new ways tovillify a group that the corporation hates. Any passing resemblance to something called reality was abandoned in favour of the political need.

I personally do not support a lot of what Pro-Lifers want. But I do support their right to say and camapign for their goals – and not to be attacked in this wholly ridiculous way by the BBC.

The other ludicrous element of the plot was that the Pro-Lifers believed that exposure on BBC news bulletins would change attitudes. Of course, that was yet another reflection of the puffed up self-importance of BBC types.

A commenter called Tom replied,

I seem to remember the first of BBC’s Spooks (or the first I ever saw) had a similar plot – pro-lifers as terrorists.

They’re clearly into recycling their rubbish.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

General BBC-related comment thread!

  By Ed Thomas | January 26, 2009 - 9:37 pm |
2 Comments

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 also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.