OLIVER’S ARMY

I see the BBC is doing everything possible to big up Jamie Oliver given Andrew Lansley’s polite but accurate observation that the Nanny State is not our friend and that Oliver’s army of dinner ladies serving his “healthy” meals was less than successful.

HARDto take

Israel’s image is being buried by an avalanche of negative reporting, which spans the whole gamut from the severe to the subliminal.

The wholesale acceptance of the so-called Palestinian narrative, and near total rejection of the Israeli one, questioning Israel’s right to exist, the interminable, repetitive reiteration of the number of Palestinian casualties compared with what they apparently regard as pitifully few Israeli ones that’s tacked on to almost every article. All told this makes the rehabilitation of Israel in the eyes of the world seem hopeless.

Palestinian grievances cast a sort of white noise, which surrounds the subject and blots out everything else. Any smidgeon of favourable news that does manage to penetrate this auditory barrier is met with cynicism and suspicion and dismissed as propaganda.

The BBC, under an obligation to be impartial, has taken many years to skew the balance-point. Perceived impartiality, which is in the eye of the beholder, has come to rest way off centre. To stay within the BBC charter, the goal posts have been moved a mile.

Sarah Montague, who often lets her personal left-wing anti-Israel leanings hang out, was an odd choice to interview Ken O’Keefe on HARDtalk. She probably landed the job after a rare interview she did while suddenly overcome by common sense. Overwhelming evidence had finally emerged about the truth behind the flotilla, and she grilled the female peace activist Sarah Colborne till she was toast.

Did the HARDtalk producer choose to pit her against O’Keefe hoping for a bit of controversy and sensation, the one BBC interviewer who would get sparks flying?
So she grilled him, but lightly; and the sparks flew, but not on the programme.

Hundreds of websites were ignited by HARDtalk, furious over what they saw as their hero’s interrogation by that BBC Zionist whore.
The ratio of supporters to critics of our deranged peace activist – is about …..hundreds to three. Hundreds love him, and about three people think he’s nuts.
Tattooed peace activist O’Keefe is a self-styled one-man provocateur, inciter, manipulator, self promoter, instigator of human shield activism, and US traitor. Bizarrely, he seems to have had something to do with CBeeBIES at one time. Not sure what, exactly. Just the man to entertain the kiddies.

People who are incensed if Israel even gets a mention on the air in any capacity other than as the spawn of Satan, people who regard balance as a matter of allocating wall-to-wall air-time to Palestinian victimhood and hardship, while depriving Israel of the oxygen of publicity altogether – these are the people who complain that the BBC is pro-Israel. They are the ones who tip the balance right off the scale, allowing the BBC to tell itself they’ve got it about right.
‘we get complaints from both sides, so we must be doing something right. ‘ they declare, in their complacent ignorance.

O’Keefe is clearly mentally unbalanced, and if anyone should be deprived of the oxygen of publicity, it’s him. Or as the late Linda Smith once said of someone equally repulsive, “ He shouldn’t even be given the oxygen of oxygen.”

HAMAS HUMANITARIAN TARGETED

As spotted by a B-BBC readers..

BBC headline  “Israeli air strike kills Palestinian man” Sounds like the Israelis have once again targeted andkilled an innocent man, who was just minding his own business. Most likely a humanitarian? Nasty Israelis. Only read a bit further- they targetted militants who hadjust fired a rocket into Israel.  Why does the headline not read “Israeli airstrikekills Palestinian terrorist” ? We all know why, don’t we?

CARS

I recall when Labour introduced the car scrappage scheme. The BBC were to the fore in promoting how enlightened this idea was. This morning I listened to this item on the BBC in which it suggested that the car scrappage scheme was not a good idea. The BBC dances both sides of the argument to suit its OWN political bias. When Labour did things they were good, if the Coalition seeks to emulate any aspect of these things, it is bad. Simple meme.

KEN IS THEIR DARLING

Well, it was inevitable that the BBC would start cooing when Ken Clarke takes the same line that has been pushed for years by the likes of the Howard League. The “Prison doesn’t work” meme is recurrent and now that there is a Conservative Justice Secretary with uber-liberal values, we can expect him to get an easy ride. I note that David Green from Civitas got an outing to dispute the Clarke roll-over just before 9am – when listener-ship numbers tumble.

CRACKED RECORD…

Richard Black continues his distinguished record today of unbiased reporting. His theme is to give his wholehearted support to lunatic calls made by climate alarmist-in-chief Lord Adair Turner that would de-industrialise Britain, hobble our economy and force millions into fuel poverty. Mr Black faithfully reports the Committee on Climate Change’s calls for more electric cars (insanely expensive and with the range of a hobbled llama), “clean” energy (technology that is not practical and will add billions to the cost of generation)and for farmers to use fertilisers more efficiently (thereby vastly reducing crop yields and forcing them into bankruptcy). For “balance”, he has comments from government eco-fanatic Chris Huhne and a chap from the Green Council, who,surprise surprise, agree (or want even more drastic measures).

Strangely, Mr Black doesn’t see fit to mention this hugely relevant story; it shows the real consequences of the green policies of the sort Mr Black so ardently advocates. Britain’s first green energy area, the island of Eigg, off Scotland, has been forced to introduce severe power cuts and electricity rationing because of a lack of rainfall and wind. When will Black and his cronies deal with the real facts?

Update: Today carried an item on the Eigg farce, but completely devoid of context.

PAR FOR THE COURSE….

Sadly, I haven’t time to dissect properly last night’s Panorama stitch-up about climate change, but it should not go without mention. James Delingpole does a wonderful job here. Suffice it to say that Panorama reporter Tom Heap – laughingly believing he was being objective – deliberately distorted the statements from the “sceptics” he spoke to. In other words, par for the course.

Whassup?

James Naughtie is baffled. Some bad men have attacked a children’s’ UN summer camp in Gaza. He asks Jon Donnison if he knows anything. “Could it be something to do with Hamas?” he speculates. “Only, it’s the second time this has happened.”
“Why do you suppose Hamas don’t like the UN summer camps?” He wonders.
“They’re jealous, because their own summer camps are rubbish. Also, they don’t like girls cavorting on the beach.”

“oh; well that’s understandable then.” “We’ll be talking to someone from the UN in a minute.”
Can’t wait to see how they explain this one away. Maybe it was Israel’s fault. The illegal blockade, probably

No, you prat. It’s because Hamas is an Islamist outfit who think nothing of tying people up and throwing them off tall buildings, and they aren’t too keen on anything much, especially women’s lib, and fun. You know, a bit like those bad Taliwhassisnames that our brave boys are fighting in Affie.

Update: Surprise surprise. They got our friend, Israel hating John Ging to speak for the UN. “It’s the fault of the conditions Gazans have to live in.” (Israel’s fault.)
I’ll add links ASAP.