UK AND US NOW TO BLAME

Been busy all day but tuned into the PM programme on Radio 4. Was intrigued to hear a debate on WHY UK and US foreign policy is to blame for the riots in Egypt. Great delusional stuff – but please, surely Palin is also to blame? And the Jews, of course. Good old BBC – cheering on the soon-to-be Islamic Republic of Egypt (copyright Khomeni, 1979)
 

WISHING AND HOPING…

It is rather disappointing, but James Delingpole and Lord Monckton have both been apparently duped into getting involved in tonight’s BBC Four hatchet job on climate change scepticism. I have been saying for years now that anyone who takes part in a BBC programme about anything that does not accord with the corporation’s worldview does so at their own risk; documentary producers – especially – long since abandoned any pretence of objectivity because they are on a mission. At core, everyone (Lord M and Mr Delingpole clearly included) somehow naively hopes and believes that the BBC will once, just once, be balanced, accurate and truthful, and that somehow, the truth will prevail. The sad reality is that it never will – Auntie is rotten to the core. The documentary tonight and the equally squalid Keith Nurse programme last week provide compelling evidence for this; this is now a full-scale propaganda campaign.

US TO BLAME FOR EGYPT

Well,  this one was coming. On Today this morning. John Humphyrs coldly asked US official Michele Dunne just how much GUILT did the US have on its hands for what is happening in Egypt. Yes, the USA is to blame. Tomorrow, can we look forward to the BBC blaming Sarah Palin, or Israel…? I’ll post the link once they publish it.

WHEN BANTER IS RELATIVE

This past week saw the BBC jihad against Richard Keyes and Andy Gray. The outrage at their (stupid but off-air) comments was visceral and god help anyone who dared suggest that it was all a bit over the top. So, you might find the in-print comments of the BBC’s Perry Grove’s interesting;

In an article published in The Sun newspaper last year, Groves wrote: “I know a lot of women and they’re not consistent from hour to hour. Footballers want the rules to be applied consistently and this wouldn’t happen with women refs. “It’s hard enough for male refs to earn respect from players. With a woman in charge, players will be thinking: ‘You know nothing about football’. “Also, let’s face it, women have periods and we all know how hormones affect them. Would women refs be banned during their ‘time of the month’ because they might be more emotional, depressed or aggressive?

Perry appears regularly on BBC 5 Live.

The BBC response?

A BBC spokesman said: “If you know Perry, yes he does give an analysis of the game but he is also a light-hearted foil to Colin Murray and that’s the kind of attitude and style that they have. “I don’t think Perry would stand by that as a serious analysis of women’s refereeing standards. As a regular on Fighting Talk he has a stock in trade of banter and fun and this is indicative of the kind of place he goes.”

Offside!!!!

Meet the Propagandists

As some of you have already pointed out in the comments, the BBC is broadcasting another documentary about climate sceptics on Monday. This film (once again made by a true believer and funded by the licence fee) will be broadcast under the banner of BBC 4’s Storyville. I’ve found a promo, presumably for its theatrical release (a couple of right-on documentary film festivals and a green conference would be my guess). Try not to laugh during the opening narration:

“This is a story about the world of climate scepticism and my journey as I put aside my environmental beliefs, rid myself of any bias, and try to really understand why some people think that our carbon dioxide emissions are not a problem.”

It looks like a cross between Michael Moore’s style of carefully spliced hit-piece propaganda (complete with gun-toting rednecks) and some sub-Louis Theroux faux empathy (“Was I becoming one of them?” Oh come on now, you’re not kidding anybody with that bullshit.)

Can you imagine the BBC funding a film by a climate sceptic in which the likes of George Monbiot and various BBC environment journalists are challenged about all the contradictory nonsense they’ve produced over the years?

If “Meet the Climate Sceptics” is as tendentious as last week’s Horizon effort on the same subject (and the evidence of this promo suggests it could be) it may be fair to assume that our state broadcaster has now decided that its role is not merely to uphold climate alarmist orthodoxy but to use whatever means possible to attack those who dare oppose “the consensus”.

I’m sure I’m not alone in finding that somewhat sinister.

(Then again, perhaps film-maker Rupert Murray really does end up on the sceptical side. I’m willing to bet 500,000 Czech carbon allowances that’s not the case, though.)

UPDATE 9pm. Interesting, isn’t it, that film-makers like Ann McIlhenny and Phelim McAleer never get Storyville editor Nick Fraser’s seal of approval (and therefore BBC cash)?

UPDATE 9.20pm. BBC4 Storyville editor Nick Fraser writes in today’s Observer:

No single organisation in Britain outside the BBC can set out to challenge the drift of culture, and appear to do so successfully. The Sundance Institute survives by means of donations from sponsors and donors such as the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Institute, with a budget of $25m a year. Within the next 10 years it aims to extend its reach globally. Isn’t it time for our own Sundance?

I guess we won’t be seeing an expanded version of this film on the BBC, then:

Quite apart from offering an unwelcome challenge – in BBC terms – to “the drift of culture” it would upset Mr Redford, and that would never do if Nick Fraser wants to continue visiting Park City, Utah, every year.

SAVE THE WORLD SERVICE, FEED THE WORLD…

BBC executives are trying to raid Government funds intended to tackle world poverty in an attempt to lessen the impact of cuts on the World Service.

Had to laugh at this desperation…

BBC executives are trying to raid Government funds intended to tackle world poverty in an attempt to lessen the impact of cuts on the World Service. A secret memo leaked to the Telegraph shows that the state-funded broadcaster has lobbied ministers to divert £25 million out of the budget of the Department for International Development (DfID) and into its own finances. The corporation claims that the move would be justified because World Service broadcasts can “contribute to the stabilisation of Pakistan and Afghanistan”.

Look, Pakistan and Afghanistan have enough to concern themselves with than endure the toxic output of the BBC. 

THAT MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MOMENT….

As we have been commenting for the past several days, “ace” BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen has been going out of his way to allay any fears the British public may have concerning the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood should Mubarak fall in Egypt. The question is – WHY would Bowen (and his employer) seek to convey this impression? Well, here is one suggestion..

“The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the main reasons why official Israel seems to support Mubarak so keenly. It is considered the most popular political movement in Egypt, and its position regarding the peace treaty with Israel is clear: They want it revoked immediately. “Democracy is something beautiful,” said Eli Shaked, who was Israel’s ambassador to Cairo from 2003 to 2005 “Nevertheless, it is very much in the interests of Israel, the United States and Europe that Mubarak remains in power.”

“If regime change occurs in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would take the helm, and that would have incalculable consequences for the region,” says Shaked. What Israel fears more than a — somewhat unlikely — armed conflict with Egypt is an alliance between an Islamist regime in Cairo and Hamas, which considers itself an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. An Egyptian regime that opened the border with Gaza for arms deliveries would pose a serious danger to Israel. Shaked considers the West’s demands for more openness and democracy in Egypt to be a fatal mistake. “It is an illusion to believe that the dictator Mubarak could be replaced by a democracy,” he says. “Egypt is still not capable of democracy,” he adds, pointing out that the illiteracy rate is over 20 percent, to give just one example. The Muslim Brotherhood is the only real alternative, he opines, which would have devastating consequences for the West. “They will not change their anti-Western attitude when they come to power. That has not happened (with Islamist movements) anywhere: neither in Sudan, Iran nor Afghanistan.”

Israel’s threat is Al Bowen’s opportunity? Surely not….

THE BIG QUESTIONS WATCH

The BBC must have been kicking themselves after a former Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins took a decidedly anti-left wing perspective when on Question Time discussing the issue of the sacking of those Sky Sports presenters the other night. So on Nicky Campbell’s inane “Big Question” up popped another former Apprentice contestant to take men to task for their sexism. (Mind you, she looked quite glamorous, nice make up). She was backed up in her onslaught against the male population by a charming feminist who looked very mannish – oddly enough. On the panel were dripping wet “Conservative” Ester McVey, and Imam (natch, 4% of the UK population but always on the Big Question) and a self-hating pro-feminist retired Church of England cleric. Just the usual dross that Campbell posits as a balanced panel each week.There was a further discussion “Is it right to rent a womb” featuring two gay men who have started a family of their own and now have five children by getting host wombs and egg donators. All very normal in the BBC world-view. There is also the irony of one discussion highlighting the sexism of men followed by a discussion of the “right” gay men have to rent wombs.

Toppling Tyrants

Throughout the uprisings in Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen, and of course Egypt, the BBC has avoided raising the alarm over the danger, some say inevitability, that when repressive dictatorships topple, there’s a vacuum, and in Muslim lands, Islamists are waiting in the wings, poised and raring to go. The BBC aint bovvered.
Political turmoil in Lebanon poses a serious threat to the stability of the region, but in an erratic tribute to impartiality, the BBC reports the utterances of Hassan Nasrallah, being scrupulously careful to avoid taking sides.
Kevin Connolly thinks the appointment of a pro-Hezbollah PM is a way out of Lebanon’s immediate political crisis, with the caveat:

“It is an uncomfortable outcome for the US, which denounces Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation and reflects the growing regional influence of the movement’s sponsors, Iran and Syria.”

The Syria/Iran infiltration of Lebanon may not worry the BBC, but then they wouldn’t be worried by the content of this article by Michael J Totten.

“Hezbollah had 10,000 rockets before the war in 2006. Now it has between 40,000 and 50,000. Some are stored in warehouses. Others are hidden away a few at a time in private homes.”

Hezbollah positions itself amongst houses and mosques because they know the Israelis cannot retaliate without killing civilians.

“Its fighters and officers wear no uniforms. Only rarely do they carry guns out in the open.”

The BBC should be very alarmed at what is happening in Lebanon, not complacently telling us that the political crisis is over.

The Foreign Office is reported as stating that they have no objection to dictators being overthrown, but they’d prefer it if they were replaced by secular rather than religious governments. For example, “democratically,” as in Lebanon. What? Are my ears deceiving me?

Does this mean that the Foreign Office thinks that Hezbollah, having murdered the Lebanese Prime Minister, refused to accept responsibility for the murder, promised to cut off the hand of any accuser, embedded a massive stockpile of arms within civilian areas and in mosques, not to mention being dedicated to the destruction of Israel – does the foreign office or a spokesperson thereof, really hold Hezbollah’s roughshod trampling over the Lebanese government as an example of democracy, desirable for Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen et al ? And to add insult to that salty wound William Hague has gone off to suck up to Syria.
I wrote here about the BBC’s decisive action over a film produced by Christopher Mitchell. They abandoned it.

Professor Paul Rogers, author of “Why We’re Losing the War on Terror” has been on BBC discussing Rachid Ghannouchi’s return to Tunisia. “He’s anti American, but a moderate.” he reassures us casually.
Rachid Ghannouchi a moderate?
Christopher Hitchins begs to differ. He visited Tunis University:

“to talk to a female professor of theology named Mongia Souahi. She is the author of a serious scholarly work explaining why the veil has no authority in the Quran. One response had come from an exiled Tunisian Islamist named Rachid al-Ghannouchi, who declared her to be a kuffar, or unbeliever. This, as everybody knows, is the prelude to declaring her life to be forfeit as an apostate. I was slightly alarmed to see Ghannouchi and his organization, Hizb al-Nahda, described in Sunday’s New York Times as “progressive,” and to learn that he is on his way home from London.”

The BBC may be hoping Rachid Ghannouchi is a moderate, but didn’t blink an eye at his being “anti American.” To them that’s a trivial detail. The Ghannouchi daughter, or is that daughters, contribute to the Guardian and the BBC. Yusra Khreeji was on Broadcasting House a week ago, and Soumaya Ghannouchi is a regular contributor to the Guardian, and attends anti-Israel rallies, unleashing a mean impersonation of Lauren Booth.
Paul Rogers thinks we mishandle Islamists, driving them towards likes of Al Qaeda. Terrorism is our fault, we’re too hard line.

This morning we were treated to the oily reassurances of the odious Tariq Ramadan, another professor who has insinuated himself into the BBC’s speed dial directory.
We’ve seen John Kerry, he of the cylindrical head and massive chin, evidently fresh from overdosing on PaliLeaks, advising Israel to make concessions and stop oppressing the Palestinians.
“Israel is worried”, someone is saying now, on the BBC.
Abdul Bari Atwan, another speed dial buddy: “Illegal set-telments under internationallaw” he screeched, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. “Yes” said Polly Toynbee, also high on the Guardian’s deceitful spin on the PaliLeaks.“It’s all Israel’s fault.”

Everyone is rooting for the Egyptian protesters. “Look at the chaos! Whatever next?”
Whatever next indeed.