52 Responses to Open Thread

  1. sue says:

    Too soon to post on this topic, but here’s a knee-jerk reaction to “Expulsion of Diplomat sends strong signal to Israel.”

    The British government, always covertly hostile to Israel decides to make a grand gesture in a kind of symbiotic analogousness to America’s reprimand.
    Together with his affectionate advances to Muslims and Arabs, Obama, emboldened  by his recent ‘triumph,’ seems ready to risk ditching Israel altogether.

    Parliament TV revealed a sickening chorus of MPs from all sides  demanding gestures of disapproval be extended to everything Israel does.
    The funny bit was their indignation that the BBC got to know about it ages before it was announced in the house. Jeremy Bowen’s got a special relationship with the foreign office.

    The timing of this latest pantomime looks like the government has jumped on the bandwagon of universal condemnation of Israel in order to do something they’ve always wanted to do.

    On a day when the Telegraph leads with “Nuclear Terror risk to Britain from al Qaeda,” doesn’t distancing itself from Israeli intelligence and its specialised expertise seem like a pretty stupid move on the part of the UK government? Cutting off their nose to spite our face. Short term gain, long term pain.

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      James Naughtie revealed the BBC line on Isarel, when dressing down the Israeli politiician on Today:

      “You think your country can do anything if it thinks it’s justified?”

      That’s how so many people think, especially at the BBC.  They even had a WHYS asking if Israel should be allowed to “do whatever it wants”.

         0 likes

  2. George R says:

    “Is BBC pay built on a fairytale?”

    [Extract]:

    “I do not want to enter a personal debate about Lucy Adams, director of people at the BBC; I am sure she brings to the role a breadth of experience. My question is about pay – and why PM has not received any letters regarding the salary level of such a BBC executive. I expect the pay for a top HR [Human Resources] director to be £150,000-£175,000. Am I the only one who feels that pay of £320,000 is bordering on preposterous?”

    http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/03/is-bbc-pay-built-on-a-fairytale.htm

       0 likes

    • rainbow.64 says:

      What does she do? Stand in the lobby at Wood Lane with a signpost? Nothing anywhere near as useful, I suspect.

         0 likes

  3. George R says:

    BBC’s PR for Labour, and its chum GADDAFI, as he releases Jihadists from Libya’s jails.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8583819.stm

      A comment at ‘New English Review’: 

    “Islamists” don’t long stay in prison in Dar al-Islam, whether they “escape” on the way to jail by asking to stop by the mosque for one last prayer and then running out the back door, or having their sentences cut in half every Muslim holiday, or by early-release programs that “cure” their “extremism” by pointing out that Muslims in the government should not be targeted.

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/26641

       0 likes

  4. piggy kosher says:

    Not Britains finest hour Sue..

       0 likes

  5. Cassandra King says:

    The labour party desperate for a distraction story to cover up the stinking smell of corruption emanating from its ranks and the BBC eager for another story to bump the corruption scandal from the front pages.
    Perfect synchronisation between to closely linked groups with a common agenda,common friends,common objectives and a shared common purpose.
    The real BBC at work with the mechanisms revealed for those with eyes to see, a symbiotic relationship between these two wholly parasitical organisations that would disintigrate were it not for their expertise at extracting funding from the larger population, they are the perfect example of a parasitical organism at work, they create nothing by themselves but live on the work of others extracting ever greater amounts of sustenance from the ever weakening host.
    They are the human version of the hook worm!
    We simply cannot afford the luxury of carrying the burden of a morally superior blood sucking passenger intent on being carried while berating and preaching to the very people that carry them, sooner rather than later people are going to shun these parasites and leave them to make their own way, it is this shock of carrying their own weight that will do for these parasites once and for all.

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      Michael Crick is lying low over this story. He did his spin-job for Labour on Monday night’s Newsnight then vanished. The last entry on his blog remains his little joke from Monday about Stephen Byers not having a driving licence.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/michaelcrick

      Last Thursday, when Labour and the BBC teamed up again to make hay with a leak about Lord Ashcroft, there was Crick penning a long, serious post called ‘The true cost of Ashcroft tax debacle’. Now that Labour is in the mire he tells a little joke then does a Macavity act.

         0 likes

  6. Backwoodsman says:

    Craig, quite startling how the story that Ashcroft had an agreement with the authorities over his tax status, could dominate the news bulletins for three or four days and yet the fact that three recent cabinet ministers had been caught blatantly in breach of a variety of regulations, is not newsworthy !!
    The last desperate gamble of a discredited cabal, to protect their inflated lifestyle and their discredited political creed.

       0 likes

  7. capriole says:

    “Nearly 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8583589.stm

    Another knee-jerk response by the BBC. Shouldn’t that be Israelis?  

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      The BBC always fawns on the “Palestinian refugees”.  Never mentions that hundreds of thousands of Jews have had to leave countries in the Middle East,  often without their property or any compensation.

      And maybe the BBC’s audience would realise how obsessed the BBC is about Gaza etc if they realised that the Arab countries have 800 times a smuch land as Israel,  the whole “Palestinian refugee” business could have been resolved decades ago but for the intransigence of the Arabs and the self-serving interest they and UN agencies have in fomenting endless whining and bleating – and endless anti-semitism in word and deed.

         0 likes

  8. Pounce says:

    The bBC, That Israeli expulsion and there is only one god and his name is Allah.

    Here is the bBCs Middle Eastern editor airing a so called informative piece on why the Uk can expel diplomats but not terrorists,failed asylum seekers and criminals.

    Expulsion of diplomat sends a strong signal to Israel 
    Britain’s foreign secretary David Miliband has taken the decision to expel an Israeli diplomat after the UK’s serious organised crime agency turned up evidence that Israel cloned British passports.The Israeli diplomat is not the ambassador himself, but the expulsion sends a very strong signal to Israel of Britain’s disapproval and anger. The indications are that the person who will go will be the head of the London station of Mossad – Israel’s secret intelligence service. Diplomatic sources say Britain does not have evidence that Mossad murdered senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

    Israel resents Britain’s support for greater clarity in the labelling of products from Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
    And late last year the former Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni – now Israel’s opposition leader – was forced to cancel a trip to Britain at short notice after a warrant was issued for her arrest on war crimes charges. Worldwide, Israel is now under all-round diplomatic pressure from its allies.

    During his first term as prime minister in 1997, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the poisoning of another Hamas official, Khaled Meshaal in Jordan. Mr Meshaal survived and is now the leading political figure in Hamas, living in exile in Damascus. The attempt to kill him was one factor that led to the Israeli public turning against Mr Netanyahu in elections in 1999.

    Mr Netanyahu also had to offer to release the Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin to Jordan to mollify the King, who had recently signed a peace treaty with Israel.

    Sheikh Yassin was a thorn in Israel’s side until he was killed in an air strike in Gaza in 2004.

    It seems that Allahs favourite Abu Bowen writes according to what his mullah unzips in front of him as he bends down and sticks his arse in the air.

    It seems the bBC are more than happy to proclaim their is only one god and his name is allah.

       0 likes

  9. Pounce says:

    That above should read ‘There’ and not their. Sorry.

       0 likes

  10. burbette123 says:

    Have you ever been rattled by al-beeb’s constant use of the mantra “occupied East Jerusalem”.
    It is a united city and the capital of Israel. All its residents are citizens and can vote if they choose. They also have to obey planning laws.
    Before 1967 Jordan illegally annexed the whole West Bank, including “East” Jerusalem. Did al-beeb squawk about that?
    You can of course complain. But al-beeb is not interested in history. Nor do they ever admit that if the Arabs had accepted UN Res 181 in 1948 we wouldn’t have had 62 years of aggro, and the Pale-slimians would have had their very own dictatorship.

       0 likes

  11. sue says:

    On Today Arieh Eldad gave Naughtie as good as he got.
    James Naughtie tried to interrupt about four times, but Mr. Eldad wasn’t having any. Announcing that he’s a surgeon took old Naughtie aback, and Naughtie’s illogical snipe about Iraq backfired I’m pleased to say. I thought it was worth transcribing.

    Naughtie’s intro:

    “Well as we know the government has expelled an Israeli diplomat from London as a token of its anger over the forging of British passports in pursuit of that “Hamas Commander” in Dubai who was assassinated. David Miliband the foreign secretary was pretty direct in saying that there were compelling reasons to accuse Israel and its secret service Mossad of using those innocent British subjects to produce fake cover for the operation, now in Israel there’s been quite a strong reaction to what’s been done here.

    The National Union party, it’s a hardline, minor party in the knesset, it’s got four seats there, has been very critical.

    Arieh Eldad is one of its members of parliament and he told me this morning why he felt so strongly about the British government’s decision.”

    I’m putting Mr. Eldad’s words in bold.

    “Because I feel that England forgot that we share the same war against terrorism; and yesterday’s step was a kind of presentation of hypocrisy toward Israel.”

    “Governments have dealings with each other, and they operate under rules, which may sometimes be a little peculiar but which allow countries to have relationships. I think the Israeli government would be rather angry if a dozen Israeli citizens, ah. were used in this way, by this government, and if the Israeli government  was angry about it I think many people in this country would think they were right to be angry. Why doesn’t it work the other way round?”

    “ I think there are many Israeli citizens who are angry because the Israeli government stole the identity, and there are many people all over the world, and I understand why they were angry.
    But if the MI5 would know, that in order to prevent the next bombing in the London underground you have to steal twelve Israelis’ identity, go ahead and may God bless you”

    “So you think your country can do anything if it thinks it’s justified?”

    “No. But you have to prioritise your needs and your country’s needs, and human beings’ needs. You have to save life, and I’m a physician. I’m a surgeon, I prioritise my goals, and lifesaving is at the top of my list.”

    Cont/

       0 likes

  12. sue says:

    “I see one of your colleagues, a fellow member of the Knesset, Michael Ben Ari, has said  that the British are not loyal to us, i.e. the Israelis, but rather to an antisemitic system, do you believe that?”

    “I would think that the fashion now is to isolate Israel to…” ”do you think that…”  “…delegitimise our war against terrorism, and ..” “but do you think that criticism of the gov…”    “….and it’s very nice when you have to do it, and you kill innocent civilians – unfortunate – you apologise, but you carry on with your war, because there’s no-one in the world to isolate you, and every country that is fighting terrorism is doing much worse things than to forge passports. That’s why I felt it’s it’s hypocrisy to say’’  “ Do you…” “….well this is so severe  – we must punish Israel.”

    “I thought that um you had been in favour of the invasion of Iraq, which many people in this country aren’t”

    “I am in favour, I think you s…”  “Sorry, I don’t understand the complaint” “….I don’t complain about what you do in Iraq. I said this is part of a war; it is understood. I can understand when, as part of a war against terrorism, against tyranny, innocent civilians are killed. I accept it.
    But if I say – if this is illigitimate, to make false certificates,  to steal an identity –  it’s unbearable,  that’s hypocrisy.”

    “Mr. Eldad thank you very much.”

       0 likes

  13. deegee says:

    If the expulsion was hypocritical the immediate acceptance of his replacement was what?

       0 likes

  14. David Preiser (USA) says:

    A small bit of bias regarding China and the Uighurs.  The BBC rarely reports on the situation at all, and when it does, they never show the true picture.  This time it’s about some more Guantanamo inmates being set up in to live free in other countries.  Note the accompanying picture of (oh, the humanity!) padded leather shackles.

    The BBC reports that China isn’t happy about the two Uighurs getting a free ride in Switzerland.

    Switzerland granted the two Uighurs asylum despite protests from China, which is fighting ethnic Uighur separatism and Islamist militancy in its Xinjiang region.

    Yeah, that’s the Chinese perspective.  And they don’t even make it attributed, i.e. “China say they are fighting…”.  Yet the BBC always does that when presenting the Israeli point of view.  But they do use attribution and scare quotes when it’s time to call Uighurs suspected “terrorists”.  If they’re only suspected, why is it necessary to couch the T-word like that?  Silly sub-editor.

    What the BBC forgot – as usual – to tell you is that China has been colonizing the region and trying to ethnically cleanse it for about 250 years.  Even today they’re moving in loads of Han with all the government-funded development, pushing the native Uighurs even further out. Funny how this is different treatment than the BBC’s presentation of Palestinians and Israelis.

    And now for the Spot the Missing Word round.  The two Uighurs were seized at what kind of camp, BBC?

       0 likes

  15. Dan Clucas says:

    Saw this on the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8584665.stm
    Disputed Bay of Bengal island ‘vanishes’ say scientists

    A cursory look around the net reveals this “island” has only been in existence for 30 odd years and is but a few km away from mainland india and bangladesh. This 2M above sea level island has disappeared beneath rising seas yet the coasts of Bangladesh and India have not, fishy if you ask me.

       0 likes

  16. kitty shaw says:

    Oh monstrous crusader zionist conspiracy!

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8583585.stm

    Do they not know that the Prophet peace be upon him married one of his wives at 6 and consumated it at 9.

    These apostates must be stopped, praise allah that the IBC does not condone these infidels for campaigning against so called child brides and indicate that there is a division between some irreligious women (who are not worth the same as men anyway) and the worthy elderly clerics.

    The IBC is to be commended that it only points out a couple of points of dispute as hearsay only, but they have been slack in not pointing out that it is just a plot to make the holy Arabian peninsular look bad hatched by the the hated Zionists and the American crusaders with the connivance of their British lackeys who have no understanding of the religion of peace. 

       0 likes

  17. Pounce says:

    Is the bBC stepping up its pro Islam bent prior to the Election?

    Today the bBC tells the story of a victim of the london bombings in july 2005.

    London 7/7 bomber’s mother-in-law speaks about attacks

    The mother-in-law of the ringleader of the 7 July bombers has spoken publicly for the first time about the effect the attack had on her family. Fifty-two people died when four men, including Farida Patel’s son-in-law Mohammed Siddque Khan, bombed London’s transport network on 7 July 2005. Farida Patel, from Dewsbury, told an anti-racism conference in Bradford how police searched her family’s homes. 
    She said her life “came falling down” when armed police knocked on her door. (Nice of the bBC to point out that anti-racism angle. Makes you wonder if her son-in-law had some justification in which to help murder 52 people) 
    But back to the lady in question so her life came falling down when armed police knocked on her door. OH so it wasn’t when she found out the father of her grand children was a mass murderer.

       0 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      Post of the week I believe Pounce!

      We truly live in a perverted world where terrorist supporting scum can spit in the faces of our dead innocent civilians and their families. What kind of nation allows this to happen?

         0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      The whole damn BBC website should be shut down.  Why should we be forced to pay for filth like that ?   Why should we be forced to pay for the emploiymenty of armies of “reporters” and editors at the BBC – when there is no sense of common decency,  no editorial control to stop such arrant rubbish.

      I hope some of the press pick up that article and attack the BBC’s temerity in publishing it.

         0 likes

  18. Millie Tant says:

    So full of spite is the BBC towards the people of this country that it sees nothing wrong in this rubbing of their noses in the horrific deaths and maiming of ordinary people and the demonisation of the police properly doing their job in the aftermath of mass murder and injury.  To cynically harness this to so-called anti-racism is so crass that words seem inadequate response.

       0 likes

  19. Cassandra King says:

    The BBC toady show in association with labour/unite et al brought us the astonishing revelation that the 1984 miners strike is still remembered by those in Yorkshire, they still suffer the consequences of the war mongering Thatcher and her police minions, its a shame that the BBC in its haste to peddle labour hate propaganda that they somehow forgot the reasons for the clamp down on the striking miners, also forgotten is the election of a labour government that simply forgot Yorkshire and the pit towns destroyed by the NUMs class war struggle. Thirteen years of labour and the labour supporting ex miners were left to rot apart from the NUM high command of course who strangely ended up with Ks and lavish pensions and millions in the bank(funny that eh?)
    So why does the BBC toady show choose to revisit the NUM created wastelands now? Why did the toady show class warriors not visit the abandoned working mens clubs closed down by the hundreds as a direct result of labour policies? Why not analyze the reasons behind the NUM refusal to offer a ballot to its rank and file about the offer from the NCB that would have saved the vast bulk of the UKs viable deep mines?
    Why did the toady show fail to ask ill miners what happened to the vast amount of money syphoned off the miners comensation fund much of which funded the NUM leaderships offshore bank accounts and pensions.
    It had to come didnt it? As the election draws near the BBC toady show just has to remind us about how Thatcher had the nerve to try and stop the KGB funded NUM from bringing down a democratic government and thereby stopping an extreme left wing regime taking its place. That Thatcher eh? If it were not for the milk snatching strike smashing Thatcher we would all live a Marxist workers paradise run by the USSR.

    Look forward to much more Marxist deconstructionism of history, look forward to the moving plight of pit villages laid waste by the evil Thatcher and her police minions, aint class war politics great eh comrades?

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      The BBC has given NIL coverage of the stories about leading members of the UNITE union – mostly Marxists – emailing each other about how they will be able to take over the Labour Party and really get the class war going again.  Strange,  that – the BBC plays up a tendentious interpretation of something in the past – but cannot see the parallels right now.

         0 likes

  20. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Robert Peston may have an excellent grasp of the inner mechanisms of banking and finance, but his political bias makes him advocate for certain policies, and the most tragically wrong ones at that.  In his latest two blog posts, he actually complains that Lloyds and RBS aren’t meeting their lending targets, should really be lending more, and that Darling is wrong not to have stricter enforcement of it in the latest budget.

    In his first post, Peston doesn’t like the “excuse” the banks have given for not lending so much:

    Now the excuse of the banks is that demand from creditworthy borrowers just wasn’t there – which is not wholly inconsistent with the complaint of their critics which is that they have become too averse to risk and have deprived valuable businesses of essential finance.

    Peston goes on to complain that lending is too low, and even that the targets set for them are too low!  He repeats the banks’ (sensible) position that they won’t lend to just anybody, but only so he can smash it down again as being too mean and that Darling should enforce it on threat of paycuts (there’s that populism again) and not “move the goalposts” for them.

    What’s so ridiculous about this is that lending to people who can’t pay it back is exactly what got us all into this mess in the first place.  Has he forgotten what sub-prime mortgages are?  Peston used frown at such practices – his posts on this stuff during the banking collapse are full of criticism – but that was before his Gordon Brown was in trouble with an election coming up.  Now he’s advocating terrible policy, and playing the faux populist to grab his audience’s attention.

    His second post is more of the same populist nonsense, with the added twist of criticizing their claims of return on the taxpayers’ investment in them.  Even worse, he says this:

    And the reason it’s implausible is that the Treasury didn’t choose to invest in Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland because it looked like a tasty money-making opportunity; taxpayers took those stakes to prevent the banks from collapsing and exacerbating the mess they’d already made of the economy through their reckless lending.

    No, Robert, it wasn’t the Treasury who chose to invest in Lloyds and RBS.  Gordon Brown basically forced Lloyds into buying HBOS, which is why they had to get bailed out last year.  It’s his fault, not a Darling choice.  Mr. Brown’s fingerprint is also all over RBS.  But Peston must always try to protect his biography subject.  Who’s advocating reckless lending now, eh?

       0 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      Robert Peston is upto his neck in the decaying moral swamp that is newlabour, his position has always been to protect and cover newlabour and Brown in particular with his seriously weird speech impediment of drawn out and contracted vowels’N’consonants.
      Peston is like Robinson, they are part of the team around newlabour that have protected newlabour and persecuted its enemies, they will forever be remembered in the history books as an integral part of the planned destrution of British civic life and democtratic values.

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I know I’m pretty much alone here in this opinion, but I think Robinson isn’t partisan and dishonest like Peston is.  Robinson may be compromised as an honest news broker due to his reflexive defense of all politicians, but he’s not partisan in the way that Peston is, nor does he flip-flop on issues whenver it suits his emotional state.

           0 likes

  21. NRG says:

    http://inotify.blogspot.com/2010/03/sinking-tories-subtle-adverts.html

    The subtle little changes the BBC makes:

    “Tory MP caught fiddling expenses”
    vs
    “Government minister suspected in expenses claim issue”

    Notice the association of the Tory brand with a negative message versus the vagueness of the second message that doesn’t associated the negativity of the message with any political party?

    An trick regularly used by the BBC.

       0 likes

  22. Paddy says:

    Just a wee thought,
    Imagine if an ex Mossad agent took over the Times. Just imagine the Beeb reaction.

    Imagine a CIA agent took over the telegraph there woud be hell on yet a ex KGB personal friend of Putin buys the independant and not a word of disquiet, not a bloody peep.

    Maybe auntie cohorts are hoping one of Vlads dodgy mates will rescue them if the tories decide to disband them?

       0 likes

  23. David Preiser (USA) says:

    More double standards at the BBC.  After the recent ObamaCare vote, a few Democrats have been threatened.  The BBC dutifully reports it in ominous tones.

    Funny how they never, ever did that when Bush was in charge.  You know, like when a local Republican office was vandalized, or somebody shot at Bush-Cheney campaign offices.  Little things like that.  Not a word from the BBC about any of that.  Never mind the seemingly endless stream of posters with death threats at anti-Bush protests (which the BBC always celebrated).  Of course, I’m not going to expect honesty from a news organization that had a Bushitler poster on the walls of the newsroom.

    The BBC quotes Democrat bigwig Steny Hoyer, who has apparently been getting some heat.  Funny how he wasn’t so concerned when President Obamessiah threatened bankers with mob violence:


    “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen.  The public isn’t buying that.  My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing betweeen you and the pitchforks.

       0 likes

  24. George R says:

    “BBC presenter Humphrys backs Murdoch’s paywall strategy”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/mar/26/john-humphrys-charging-for-content

    Note final sentence:

    “Then again, the BBC’s news website is likely to be the greatest beneficiary if papers charge for access.”

       0 likes

  25. David Preiser (USA) says:

    BBC Middle East bureau producer and useful Jew Gili Kleiman went with the press contingent covering Netanyahu’s visit to the US.  It’s mostly yet another grim depiction of the poor state of the relationship between Israel and the US.

    Kleiman depicts the waiting around for any announcement about results from the meeting, and how exhausted everyone was, in order to emphasize the grimness of the situation.  In the end, there was no result, only disappointment.

    Of course, since this is a BBC report about Israel, the US, and The Obamessiah, there’s something they don’t want you to know:

    Obama refuses to dine with Jewish Leader

    I’m not sure how this is evidence of that brilliant, thoughtful diplomacy Matt Frei and Justin Webb promised me. I guess they’re really ecstatic at the BBC now that US foreign policy is no longer controlled by AIPAC and the dreaded Jewish Lobby, right?  Too bad they can’t be honest about how the President is pressuring Israel.

       0 likes

  26. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The World Service just finished a segment celebrating organic gardening in Gaza.

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      Strangely, that’s both irritating and funny!
      Is there no angle the BBC won’t cover when it comes to Gaza or the West Bank? Bagpipers, fish farms, now organic gardening!

         0 likes

    • deegee says:

      Not yet on the website so I haven’t heard it.

      I wonder if the BBC mentioned these two points
      1. Gaza was the centre of Israeli organic agriculture until 2005 when the farmers were forced out by the Israeli Government.
      2. Greenhouses, left behind for Palestinian farmers to form their own organic agriculture were immediately destroyed as soon as the Isrealis left.

         0 likes

  27. David Preiser (USA) says:

    More violence and death threats against US political figures, but the BBC doesn’t want you to know about these because it doesn’t fit the Narrative:

    Leftist Issues Death Threats Against Palin and Family on Twitter

    Rep. Michelle Bachmann Says Her Property Was Vandalized & She Received Threats

       0 likes

  28. George R says:

    European Union becomes a Superstate: a small detail, unmentioned by Labour and BBC:

    “EU draws up plans for single ‘economic government’ to prevent crisis “


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/7521434/EU-draws-up-plans-for-single-economic-government-to-prevent-crisis.html




       0 likes

  29. Will says:

    David, re death threats. A UK broadcaster did however  find time to report this matter

    “Sarah Palin’s gun sight-riddled campaign map is so militant that it’s even lost her the support of “The View” co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who called Palin’s behavior “despicable.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/26/elizabeth-hasselbeck-sara_n_514561.html

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      If it’s in the HuffingtonPost, chances are it will show up in tomorrow’s blog post from Mark Mardell about Sarah Palin’s visit to Arizona.

         0 likes

  30. Paddy says:

    Rob ‘the knob’ Peston is banging on about ofcom v Sky and how sky has been abusing its monopolistic position. Also he insinuates that the only reason Murduch Jnr has changed his allegiance to the tories is their intention to rid us of ofcom.

    OFCON has totally failed to regulate the beeb. When Jerry Springer the Opera was broadcast it did nothing when Brand and Ross bullied a pensioner it did very little and it hasnt tackeled the obvious takeover of our national broadcaster by a politically motivated clique.

    Its a toothless quango that rather than tackle the big problem would rather fuss over who gets premiership football. The quicker it goes the way of all flesh the better.

    Anyway Pestons argument over Sky/news ints support of the Tories could just as easiy be ponted at labour and the beeb.

    The beeb want labour to win because they will continue to pander to them as long as they spout their propoganda. Which is more corrupt?

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      And they like Ofcom because it’s run by fellow travelers who never get too interested in looking into the BBC’s unfair advantages over commercial broadcasters, or the way it’s squeezing out local news outlets.  Or how Beeboids – such as their famed business editor – use their position to support Labour while complaining about how Sky supports the Tories.

         0 likes

  31. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The BBC has a slightly honest report about the latest bit of military violence in Gaza, although really it’s one step forward and two steps backward.

    Israel and Hamas forces ‘clash on Gaza border’

    It seems that two Israeli soldiers were killed with no apparent Hamas casualties.  What happened, then?

    The sources they go for are AP and Reuters quotes from Hamas.  The only contact with Israeli authorities is to get them to corroborate the Hamas point of view that Israel was the aggressor.  Naturally, Hamas was only acting in “defence”. So just like always, the BBC takes the Palestinian faction at its word, and reports it without corroboration.  Funny how the Beeboids generally wait for confirmation when it’s about things they don’t like, or just don’t report it at all if it’s not substantiated to their satisfaction.

    The one bit of improved honesty is that the BBC states – at last, after how many complaints? – that Gaza is under an “Israeli-led blockade”.  Hooray for the qualifier.  Not perfect, I know, but at long last there’s an acknowledgement that somebody else might possibly be involved, and it’s not just a unilateral “Israeli siege”.  Too bad they can’t be honest enough to mention Egypt every time, but I’ll take what I can get.  Hopefully this is a sign of a small but significant change in BBC editorial policy.

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      UPDATE:  The BBC has made significant updates to the report since I commented a few minutes ago.  It’s no longer simply from Hamas’s point of view.

      They finally report the truth, which is the opposite of the initial version with Hamas’s statement that it was Israel who crossed over.  But the BBC initially went with that anyway before corroborating it, because it fit their expectations.  Unfortunately, they leave in the Hamas statement that they acted “in defense”, and Beeboid Paul Wood suggests that there will most likely be “a further Israeli military response”.

      Because News Sniffer seems to be dead, I can’t prove the stealth edit.  My comment above is the only evidence now.

         0 likes

  32. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The BBC has completely rewritten the report I commented on above.  Now they’re back to blaming Israel for starting it, according to “local sources”.  Translation:  we’re taking Hamas’s word for it.

    Even more biased is the accompanying video clip.  It’s from inside Gaza, showing, among other things, a wounded or dead Hamas soldier…er…militant being taken out of an ambulance.  As always, everything is from the Palestinian perspective, designed to show them in a sympathetic light, with their word taken as gospel.

    One small bit of credit where due:  the mention of an “Israeli-led blockade” still remains, and for once the Beeboids actually last year’s Cast Lead assault without bringing up the biased, ghoulish body count.  Maybe there’s finally been a glimmer of understanding among BBC News Online editors.

       0 likes

  33. George R says:

    Teeenage gang killing in Victoria station, London.

    ‘Daily Mail’ mentions: (extracts)-

    “Several schoolgirls are to be questioned over the horrific mob stabbing of a 15-year-old boy at a major railway station in the middle of the rush hour.
    The girls were spotted by witnesses as part of a gang, many in school uniform, who chased their victim into a ticket hall before cornering and killing him as terrified commuters looked on.
    He was named last night as London-born Sofyen Ghailan, a pupil at the Henry Compton School in Fulham.
    Twenty boys aged 14 to 17 were being held over the stabbing at Victoria Tube station in central London. ” […]

    “Detective Superintendent Ashley Croft, of British Transport Police (BTP), who is leading the inquiry, said it was a ‘reckless act of violence’ and said there was no evidence the victim knew his killers.
    Last night a witness described how he saw a schoolboy thug brandishing a 10in screwdriver leading at least 15 black youths into Victoria.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1261045/Victoria-tube-station-murder-Teenage-girls-face-quiz-stabbing-terrified-commuters.html#ixzz0jK9ASGkw

    BBC gives no hint of ethnicity of perpetrator(s), but mentions victim was 15 year old boy (of north African descent).

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8588604.stm

       0 likes

    • Simon Fay says:

      This story was touched upon during BBC News 24’s 23.30 round-up of Saturday’s front pages. The reviewer was a smiley chubby-ish jacket-over-tshirt self-described ‘liberal’ whose name I didn’t catch but whose face I’d like to punch, sort of Michael MacIntyre with a perm. He had been caught up in the delays resulting from the fatal scrap in Victoria but saw the main significance of the matter as how the tabloids would cover it. He was also on-message over Obama’s treaty breakthrough which we are assured means his agenda for change we can believe in is back on track etc etc

         0 likes

  34. George R says:

    Not a report for BBC:

    “Gang of ten”[Muslims?] “attacks goths in Blackburn”

    http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/news/5197910.Gang_of_ten_attacks_goths_in_Blackburn/

       0 likes