129 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. Roland Deschain says:

    Further to my comment yesterday, John Prescott was dragged kicking and screaming invited on speed dial into the Today studios to discuss the heinous matter of unpaid security staff being left under a bridge for two hours. It strikes me as just one big cockup but no, it’s obviously a matter of National Importance that requires Lord P’s megaphone diplomacy to complain about it and how it’s all the fault of the evil Tory government. I waited in vain for Evan to ask him if the Labour Party ever takes on unpaid staff.

    The poor woman brought on to counter Lord Megaphone was obviously left in a cold, urine-soaked telephone box as a penance judging by the quality of the line. Probably for two hours beforehand. No way was she going to be allowed to compete volume-wise.

    Guess who got both the first and last word.

    (Just posted this on the old open Thread, during which time up pops a new one!)

       19 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Oh, good grief, where’s the delete button? As fast as I post comments a new thread pops up and now there’s one on this very subject. 🙁

         3 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        No worries. Repetition for effect.
        The BBC uses it, and they are a ‘world class broadcaster’.
        When the cause is just, the ‘narrative’ can be decided upon centrally and served up from Ceebeebies to Newsnight with the basic ‘omnishambles’/’out of touch’ sound bite core ruthlessly adhered to, but with tweaks to suit the demographics as required.
        Mind you, they might soon give up on the subtle targeting and just dollop a single ‘one snide fits all’ across their entire media estate.
        On the basis of the last few days, Emily Maitless better be worried at Fearne Cotton snapping at her heels.
        Well known, a peroxide-sink and… er… well really that’s all needed now.
        And if Lord Creosote of Hypocrisy is their best go-to guy for outrage then they are, truly, stuffed.
        Plus this story is only now being properly covered, so he may have to, heaven forbid, eat more humble pie.
        If that becomes the case, as far as Aunty will be concerned… moving on…

           13 likes

    • Prescott appearing on Jeremy Vine’s programme today too to talk about this same subject. Go on BBC, ram it down our throats!

         11 likes

  2. Mice Height says:

    The Beeb gets a few mentions in this very good article from across the pond:
    http://pjmedia.com/blog/britains-already-dead/?singlepage=true

       9 likes

    • ROBERT BROWN says:

      Thank you for that link Mice, good article, and the comments were good, erudite in most cases.

         5 likes

  3. Tommy Atkins says:

    Right wing Gov Scot Walker wins his recall election in Wisconsin. Only 4th Recall election won by incumbant in history.
    No mention on Today or the BBC that I heard. Is that because he was anti-organised labour?

       15 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      As I said on the earlier Open Thread – maybe because he is trying to govern on the basis of financial prudence, balancing the books/cutting the deficit, reducing the heavy taxpayer contributions to public-sector pensions. None of the Plan-B let’s spend and borrow our way out of the mess. Anathema to the BBC.

      And Walker won by by wide margin, in a state where Obama won handsomely in 2008. Most agree that the Walker election is a highly significant pointer to November’s Presidential election, it is a fillip to Romney and one in the eye to Team Obama. Plus Wisconsin is now seen as in-play.

      BBC favourite Sarah Palin sums it all up :

      http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/06/06/sarah_palin_on_wisconsin_obamas_goose_is_cooked.html

      The Today programme found time to cover the withdrawal of some US money from some Pakistan TV producer, and gave Thought for The Day to a discussion of Egypt and Mubarak. But failed to report on by far the biggest news in the US. Bias by omission again.

         13 likes

      • George R says:

        ‘Thought for The Day was by the
        ever-present political propagandist for Islam: Mona SIDDIQUI.

           2 likes

  4. Umbongo says:

    I knew (almost) immediately that Scott Walker had won the Wisconsin recall election this morning. How? Because there was not one word concerning the election on Radio 4 news or Today let alone his decisive majority, bigger than his original victory. However, there was an inordinate amount of coverage of the unemployed workers being left under a bridge after the Jubilee celebrations.
    I can just imagine the BBC’s coverage if Barratt – the Democrat – had won: it would have been spun as a clear victory for Obama despite his lacklustre, very late support for Barratt. As I read somewhere on the internet: supporting Barratt at the last moment was a lose-lose for the tactical “genius” Obama. Even if Barratt had won, he would have owed very little to Obama (but he would still have been in the pocket of organised labour).
    Anyway, nothing (yet) from the BBC on the radio (that I have heard) but, there is the expected grudging report on the BBC’s website. And here’s a surprise: the BBC’s Jonny Diamond has decided to spin this one as “big business” buying the election and has put a “warning label” on the result accordingly.
    I look forward to David Preiser’s analysis for the honest appraisal that £3.5 billion doesn’t buy from the BBC.

       16 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Jonny Diamond’s claim that Walker outspent his Democrat opponent by 7 to 1 is an outright lie. It is so blatant that any competent editor at the website would want it checked.

      I bet it stays up. All part of the talking points for Team Obama. The more the wheels come of Team O’s wagon, the more the BBC will cover.

      Oh – and there is nil mention of Bill Clinton’s repeated undermining/sabotage of the Obama campaign. Slick Willy claims innocence, of course, but again these are major headlines in the US that the BBC fails to report.

         13 likes

      • wallygreeninker says:

        I got up early to see if i could watch the transit of Venus and caught the world service news just before hey handed over to R4.
        I’ll swear the newscaster said that the governor had ‘narrowly survived’ a recall attempt. I automatically assumed the results must have been in the same ball park as the London mayor and French presidential elections for some obscure reason.
        There was a further comical incident when the Beeb correspondent discussed the issue with an American journalist. ‘There are a lot of blue collar areas in Wisconsin’ ventured the Beeboid and the US guy concurred -indeed there were. ‘Well, weren’t they opposed to the proposed changes in labour law’ went on the former. ‘Well, no – because the law only affects public sector workers and they tend to be white collar workers: teachers, postal workers, local government office workers etc.’ It was clear the BBC guy had spent too much time being reading Democrat handouts.

           8 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          It was also clear that he gets his information from the BBC. Until yesterday, BBC reporting has been dishonest about that, omitting the “public sector” part and making it appear as if Walker was attacking all union workers everywhere. Today was also the first time the BBC has ever admitted that Walker’s policies have balanced the budget, and they’re still censoring the news that the public school system now has a budget surplus.

          There’s a reason why the majority supported Walker: they understand the need to reign in unaffordable spending and curb the control of public sector unions on government. A lot of people also got turned off by the death threats, vandalism, and violence from last year, which Mark Mardell refers to as “the new dynamism of the Left”.

          The public isn’t always as stupid as the BBC thinks. Still, at least they can’t blame this one on racism.

             4 likes

  5. Guest Who says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18337840
    ‘How free should our free press be?’
    Well Nick, our media should be ‘free’ enough to be paid for via choice rather than compulsion and, in this internet age be free of the conceit of calling a broadcast-only propaganda lecture a ‘blog post’, as you know what opening it up to ‘free speech’ would result in: a BBC ‘early-closing’ after rampant censorship.
    ps: Enjoy yet another long ‘school’ holiday on our tab, you parasite.

       18 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      Tonight on Decision Time on BBC Radio 4 I chair a discussion with a tabloid editor, the former chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, a campaigner for Hacked Off, a former Culture Secretary and a senior mandarin.

      Given whom most of the Leveson opprobrium is heaped upon, I wonder who might be the most appropriate tabloid editor to have on this discussion. Ah yes, Bridget Rowe, former editor of the People and Sunday Mirror newspapers.

         6 likes

  6. Nothing really happened. You see it was a unique one-off

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18336641

    That’s right folks the victory for the incumbent Republican Governor of Wisconsin has no correlation to what the chosen one may face in November – so says Jonny Diamond. Mardell had nothing to say on it yet – probably because Obama didn’t show to shout for the Democrat candidate.

    According to Diamond why we shouldn’t put to much stock in the result:

    However, the BBC’s Jonny Dymond in Washington says recall elections are not the same as presidential contests, and the arguments in Wisconsin are peculiar to the state

    The main thrust of his “peculiarity” argument apparently is this opener in the sidebar:

    There should be a good-sized health warning over the result of Wisconsin’s bitterly contested recall election. The lopsided campaign spending – 7-to-1 in favour of the Republicans – was peculiar to this race. The passion was peculiar to the politics that Scott Walker introduced in 2010

    Campaign spending is not peculiar to any election – it’s a common theme, but that isn’t the missing piece.

    The campaign spending issue in Wisconsin has other aspects to it. True, Walker’s campaign outspent his opponent, but there is a reason for that.

    One of the unmentioned “peculiarities” is that as soon as the recall is filed in Wisconsin, the incumbent can begin fundraising, so he probably has been. The challengers however were probably only outspent because they blew all their cash in the campaign to elect his challenger.

    Barrett wasn’t the choice of the big labour unions that had instigated this recall and they spent big on someone else, using cash raised from union members who have no say in where their union dues go. That’s one reason why he only spent $4m. It’s telling in itself how reliant on big union money, Democrats are.

       6 likes

    • Interesting!?

      Jonny Diamond “viewpoint” on the election result:

      There should be a good-sized health warning over the result of Wisconsin’s bitterly contested recall election. The lopsided campaign spending – 7-to-1 in favour of the Republicans – was peculiar to this race. The passion was peculiar to the politics that Scott Walker introduced in 2010.

      Jay Carney quote on the election:

      A race where one side is outspending the other by a ratio of at least 8 to 1 probably won’t tell us much about a future race

      So much for that “opinion”

         4 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        Yes, the BBC parroting Obama’s talking points as usual.

        And the 7 to 1 “ratio” omits all the costs of the trade unions’ work in getting the Democratic vote out, and the scores of millions spent on the Democrat primary that ended only a few weeks ago.

           4 likes

  7. chrisH says:

    Who the hell still calls this bloated oaf “Lord” Prescott?
    He`s the very embodiment of the death of any pretence to Socialism that Labour ever had…and is more toxic that the mouldering corpse of Lord Scanlon…or that of the arch traitor Jack Jones(who at least didn`t queue up for the Lords like the Tub of Hull).
    Everytime the BBC choose to get this turd out of New Labours Champagne jacuzzi…it only serves to remind us that we should have chosen a horse-ANY horse…from the Household Cavalry to shit on our streets with far more dignity that the bulimic bonkbag of Dorneywood.
    What “peculiar to the State” do we as a nation have for not ridding ourselves of that blustering bullshitting cretin?…our BBC in person!

       24 likes

    • Pah says:

      Of course you could say that every time the tub-o-lard gets on the radio he does untold damage to the lefts cause. The man’s a laughing stock; no-one but the BBC takes him seriously.

      The more he’s on the more damage he does? Then lay on MacDuff!

         17 likes

    • Geoff Wisdom says:

      George Orwell must have had someone like him in mind when he wrote Animal Farm.

         8 likes

  8. Pounce_uk says:

    How the bBC promotes Anti-Semitism as news
    Germany and Israel’s ‘special relationship’ in spotlight
    If ever there were two countries with a truly “special relationship”, they are Germany and Israel. For obvious reasons of history, they are bound together. The genocidal madness of a previous generation of the one and the suffering of the victims of a previous generation of the other make them intertwined in a way no other two countries are.
    So according to the bBC, the other two are the only countries who have a special relationship because of their past. I suppose you could say the same for the UK and the slaves, Pakistan and Banglerdesh. America and Vietnam, America and Japan, France and Algeria, Turkey and Greece, Germany and France, Britain and Ireland, Argentina and the Falklands, Turkey and the Armenians . But no according to the bBC only Germany and Israel have a distant past.
    Guenter Grass was among the first to question Germany’s deep-seated support for Israel
    What a former member of the Nazis party vents his spleen and the bBC don’t mention this fact?
    The relationship between Israel and Germany has also surfaced in a report by the magazine Spiegel about submarines which Germany produced (and supplied on very generous terms) for the Israeli navy. The reputable magazine says it has evidence that the submarines can be armed with nuclear warheads – and that the German government knows that.
    And
    As well there might be. A poll conducted by the respected Forsa institute just before the visit indicated rising German unease with Israeli government policy.
    Notice how the bBC inserts adjectives in which to paint the picture that those who comment about Israel can only be whiter than white. Ah yes the respected Forsa institute , you know that respected Forsa institute which has been accused of bias towards a leftwing political party (SPD), or of data manipulation, then there’s the many cases of getting caught out promoting the agenda of the companies that were paying them with rigged results. Makes you wonder who paid Forsa for their Anti-Jewish views…The bBC?
    Drip, by drip, the bBC, is the biggest promoter of racial hatred towards the Jews since the Nazis. Want to know why Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the UK, because the bBC promotes a cause that is dear to its ideological bent .
    The bBC, the traitors in our Midst.

       12 likes

  9. Pounce_uk says:

    The bBC and how it loves to push its child like leftwing bent as news-worthy.

    Have a look at the current bBC have your say. Why am I not surprised at the top article (And has been for days)
    Diamond Jubilee: Avoiding the hype
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/have_your_say/

    Gee, I wonder why the article below about how people enjoyed their Jubilee, contain only picked letters?

    The vast majority of the Uk had no problem with the Queens jubilee yet, according to the much smaller number who did is the bigger story.

    the bBC, the traitors in our Midst.

       15 likes

    • Whitman says:

      And the hours and hours and hours of constant royal coverage counts for nothing?

         1 likes

      • Pounce_uk says:

        So, you don’t know how to listen to the radio, read a book, go for a walk, turn the telly off, hell you don’t even know how to turn to another channel.
        I watched in total around 30 minutes of the Queens jubilee all weekend.

           9 likes

      • Pah says:

        The Jubilee was a public spectacle and the BBC is a public service broadcaster. Of course it should cover the whole thing. That is it’s purpose.

           13 likes

      • Reed says:

        “And the hours and hours and hours of constant royal coverage counts for nothing?”

        It’s quality that counts – not just quantity. I thought that was your main argument in favour of the BBC.

        Yes – they produced many hours of Jubilee coverage, but thay failed to achieve anywhere near the quality of their commercial rivals, who don’t have the guaranteed funding that is the privilege of the BBC.

           3 likes

  10. George R says:

    Compare and contrast, on OBAMA’s drone policy-

    a.)

    Toby HARNDEN, ‘Daily Maail’

    “So much for that Nobel Peace Prize! How anti-war Obama has become Lord High Executioner”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155099/So-Nobel-Peace-Prize-How-anti-war-Obama-Lord-High-Executioner.html#ixzz1x0N641AO

    b.)

    Mark MARDELL (who doesn’t mention ex-President Bush in this slight piece)

    “Obama’s drone policy dilemma”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18335889

       4 likes

    • deegee says:

      What could Obama possibly put up as evidence for his Peace Prize? Israel/Palestine? Syria? Iran?

         2 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        That He’s not George Bush and was the blank slate onto which everyone could project their Hope. The Nobel committee has given out prizes to others as a slap at George Bush as well: Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Paul Krugman, for example.

           4 likes

  11. George R says:

    More on BBC Director General applicant, Labour-supporting, and creative accountant, Ed RICHARDS –

    “BBC director general hopeful accused of overspending in Ofcom role”

    http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/06/06/bbc-hopeful-accused-overspending-ofcom-role

       4 likes

    • George R says:

      A predictable supportive piece from the ‘Guardian’-NUJ-Labour-BBC political axis:

      “Ed Richards is optimistic if he thinks Tories will let a Labour man head BBC”

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/03/ed-richards-optimistic-tories-bbc

         4 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Given that Drum story, the unimpressive aspects seem more in what the Guardian has failed to spot that might be more germane to his suitability.

           2 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Having tried to involve OFCOM in a telecom company dispute involving vast abuse, I can also testify that as a public representative, he heads up the biggest pile of expensive oxygen thievery this side of the BBC.
        So he is perfectly qualified to squander £4Bpa as much as he has whatever his current fiefdom pisses away.

           6 likes

        • Fred Bloggs says:

          Does Patten have the cojones to put an out and out Gov placeman(woman) in post? I can’t see it happening.

             2 likes

  12. Umbongo says:

    Did anyone notice the fawning deference given by Naughtie to Michel Barnier, the EU commissioner for the internal market and services, on Today? It was quite like a return to the 50s “thank you minister for your gracious refusal to say anything of remote interest and I hope you noticed that I didn’t ask any awkward questions”. The BBC certainly recognises (and approves) the direction of the wind of authority and, currently, it’s blowing from Brussels where our real rulers sit.

       18 likes

  13. tonyel says:

    Interesting coverage of the visit of Vladimir Putin to Brussels. Of the 3 “all powerful” people shown in discussion ,only Putin has faced an election for his job. Our Masters, von Rumpoy and Barosso have evaded such tiresome nonsense!

       9 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      I don’t think you could consider what Putin faced as an “election” in any meaningful understanding of the word. However, he felt that going through the (pre-ordained) motions was necessary for some kind of legitimacy. OTOH – as you say – our real masters don’t feel the need (and are not legally required) even to go through the motions.

         4 likes

    • chrisH says:

      You`re right tonyel.
      And even if his election was rigged…as it was…then at least he still had one and has been seen walking across Red Square, as opposed to hiding in a Daimler.
      Unlike von Rumpy and Borso…unelected by anybody and pay no taxes.
      Anybody signed off on those EU accounts yet.?…I`d rather trust Ken Dodd to do them these days.

         8 likes

  14. pounce_uk says:

    The bBc and how it has become the propaganda mouthpiece for the Taliban

    Two attacks in Afghanistan this morning;
    1. A couple of suicide attacks in Kandhar killing 22 civilians and injuring 50
    2. An air strike carried out on the behalf of the Afghan army who have surround a house filled with Taliban who instead of putting down their guns and surrendering decide to shoot anything that moves outside killing 18 people

    So guess which incident the bBC declares as ‘deadly’ and guess which story the bBC lead with on their lunch time news.

    Now the bBC claim they have the word of a local, yet according to the bBC, Afghan forces had the house surrounded, if so, how does the local know how many people were killed, when as I know only too well, the site will be classed as a crime scene and nobody is allowed to enter until everything has been searched and checked usually by sending in ATO in first. But that doesn’t stop the bBC promoting the POV of the Taliban as the word of Allah.

    The bBC, the propaganda mouth piece for the Taliban in the Uk

       11 likes

    • chrisH says:

      And wasn` there a story about the US using a drone to kill some Al Queda number 2…aren`t they all?
      Seems the Pakistanis feel it was a violation of national sovereignty, and this is what the BBC trumpet…even though the Blessed Obama was shooting hoops at this time.
      Oh those naughty Americans….hardly a fair fight and a sign of being harsh-not risking the Marines to kill the noble savage.
      That`a another poet gone then…
      Who`ll be their Wilfrid Owen now ?…Sarah Montague to report on this soon?

         8 likes

    • Andrew Johnson says:

      Honestly, I really can’t understand how the BBC get away with this. It’s a sad commentary on just how timid our politicans have become.

         7 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:

      We must need some more Taliban poetry to ‘understand’ their minds.
      🙄

         4 likes

  15. Guest Who says:

    HuffPost UK ‏@HuffPostUK
    The Labour Party has suspended a councillor after he called a fellow local politician a ‘shirt lifting gender bender’ http://huff.to/JW8xOA

    HuffPo has its uses then. I presume Mehdi still sleeping off the effects of the Jubilee parties?
    Cue massive shark frenzy across entire (well, some may be quieter, or find there’s no space to ‘fit’ key details) MSM.
    I imagine certain cherry vultures may be more minded to stay on perches too.

       11 likes

  16. Louis Robinson says:

    Jonny Dymond in his “analysis” on the Scott Walker recall election victory says “The lopsided campaign spending – 7-to-1 in favour of the Republicans – was peculiar to this race”.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18336641

    He provides no evidence for this statement. It’s called whistling in the dark – or more crudely, pissing into the wind. The Democrats (Union bosses) flooded the state with out of town people and cash – remember the Occupy Movement smashing up the place? Yet they couldn’t win in the battle of ideas.
    Walker like Paul Ryan have decided to confront the fiscal problems which stem from public spending now – and not kick the can down the road. They do not want the US to become yet another welfare state with an economic crisis.
    Furthermore, any headline that reads “Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker SURVIVES recall” is misleading. Walker won with a bigger majority than the first time. A BIGGER MAJORITY. He did not simply “survive”.
    This is all bed news for Caligula. He did not visit the state to support the Democrat candidate because he must have know this result was on the cards. If Scott Walker won by demonstrating political courage and a willingness to fight his corner, the “Prezzy of the United Steezy” did not. There’ll be a lot of fingers pointed in Democratic circles…expect to hear more from Bill Clinton who is already softening up the party behind the scenes for an Obama loss and a candidacy by his wife for 2016.
    Now here’s a little something the BBC will not report. In San Diego, CA last night voters decided 66% to 34% to implement the switching of new city hires from a government pension system to a 401(k) style retirement plan (except police officers). It also mandates proposes a five-year pay freeze on the pensionable pay of current employees. In other words, public sector workers must pay into their own pensions….wow! A breakthrough. AND THIS IS IN A HEAVILY DEMOCRATIC STATE. It seems the message is getting through.
    No matter what spin Mardell puts on these results in the coming days, it is very bad news for him and his President.
    Roll on November!

    Source: Election Results: Prop. B | NBC San Diego

       5 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      and the city of San Jose in California voted the same way as San Diego

         1 likes

  17. As I See It says:

    Did anyone here notice the BBC dip its big toe into the rather deep and dangerous (for social engineering-minded lefties) pool that is the debate over grammar schools?
    Last night BBC4 screened The Grammar School: A Secret History. (-‘Secret’?? …..No, me neither!).
    Anyway this was part one of two, and while it was long on personal reminiscence and quaintness it was fairly short on polemic – but a glimpse at the contributors that ran the full and wide gamut of society from north country Labour voters to David Attenborough to Joan Bakewell to former BBC employees – is perhaps is a hint as to how the debate over the demise of the grammar schools may be handled in part two.
    I’m guessing at something along the lines of ‘pull the ladder up Jack, they’ll be alright , let’s all pay to have a lift put in’.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0192q6y

    One point at which my ears did prick was a post-war department of education propaganda film which contained the line ‘…..We can afford anything when we are buying the future of our children….’

    Nice slogan but think about that for a moment. It would update nicely to ‘We can afford anything, when we are spending on ourselves and passing the bill on to our children….’

       5 likes

    • Deborah says:

      I heard something on the BBC just last week (could this have been a repeat you heard As I See It?) which sounded for someone only half listening pro grammar schools (on the BBC? I thought), then realised that at present the BBC would call ‘black’, ‘white’ if it meant they could attack the government for it.

         4 likes

  18. The General says:

    The BBC must be tearing their hair out with frustration.
    David Cameron calling for an immediate plan to resolve the euro-region debt crisis, adding to pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ease the way to a deal. What a field day they should be having with that ! You can just hear them :-
    ” Just who does he think he is to presume to lecture the German Chancellor?”

    But David Cameron has sought an ally in his demands, none other than the BBC’s favourite son Obama !!
    How can they call Cameron out on this one now ?
    A clever touch there I think.

       7 likes

  19. Stan Arnold says:

    Richard Black continues to push the appalling AGW agenda – latest unsupported figures – 3 deg C rise in global temperatures by 2100. However, as the CO2 driven global warming campaign hits the buffers and teh liars are exposed, it’s interesting to notice a new tactic – including AGW in a list of environmental conditions which may well be true. Here’s Black’s cunning plan which, I’m sure he hopes will prolong his lucrative deal with the odious BBC for a few years longer. Talking about some farcical UN report he writes:

    Among the report’s “low-lights” are:

    Air pollution indoors and outdoors is probably causing more than six million premature deaths each year.
    Greenhouse gas emissions are on track to warm the world by at least 3C on average by 2100.
    Most river basins contain places where drinking water standards are below World Health Organization standards.
    Only 1.6% of the world’s oceans are protected.

    What a creep!

       8 likes

    • Bob Nelson says:

      It has been noticeable that recent Black articles do not allow comments. Wonder why.

         1 likes

  20. Reed says:

    Off topic, but here’s some footage posted by ITV News…

    The Jubilee flypast – cockpits views – well worth a look…

       4 likes

  21. Pounce_uk says:

    Last Friday after prayers at the local mosque in Smallheath Birmingham 2 gangs had a set to. (rumour has it Somali and Pakistani) Well while the bBC were really fast in which to point out that a man had been attacked outside a mosque
    (It was headline news) As time progressed the story started to slip away from the public eye. Oh we heard a 15 year old lad had been nicked for deadly assault with a baseball Bat. But otherwise nothing more. (media blackout??) Anyway the man who was attacked has died and from the bBC…Nothing.

    Now if as the bBC presumed that this was a Muslim attacked by a whiteman outside a mosque they would be playing the racist card, yet and a big yet a man has died and the bBC remain silent.

    The bBC, the traitors in our Midst</b.

       15 likes

    • Earls Court says:

      The Cultural Marxists want the muslims to be their new foot soldiers. But don’t realise Islam is against everything the left stands for. When they have used the muslims and dump them, the muslims won’t be happy. I’d stay the Cultural Marxists will be in for a very rude awakening from the religion of peace.

         5 likes

      • RCE says:

        Are the left using Islam or Islam using the left?

           0 likes

        • Earls Court says:

          The left think they are using Islam but Islam is using them. It will be interesting to see Islam turn nasty on the cultural marxists. If the left thinks they can dump Islam like they did with the British white and middle classes in this country and nothing will happen. They are in for a very nasy shock.
          Hopefully the Muslims will leave everyone else alone.

             1 likes

    • David Gregory says:

      There’s no “media blackout” it’s just the law. An arrest and charges have been made. The proceedings are now active and that means reporting restrictions are in place. Up until this point we had reported this story in some detail. Things will now go quiet until the trial itself. This is all perfectly normal.
      The one caveat I will mention though is the age of the person charged. Since he’s apparently 15 there may be further restrictions on reporting because he could be considered a child in the eyes of the law. I’d imagine the judge will have something to say about that when the trial starts.

         0 likes

  22. Justin Casey says:

    On a lighter note…. Let`s look back at a nice BBC commisioned Harry Enfield sketch …. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEEx3oUuiII
    For some reason this isn`t available on thier iPlayer site….

       3 likes

  23. Teddy Bear says:

    There have been several protests and some acts of violence against illegal immigrants from Africa by Israelis in recent weeks. There is reckoned to be about 60,000 in the country who crossed illegally through Egypt into Israel from countries like Eritrea and Sudan. It is reckoned that many of these migrants are Muslims, and one has first to question why would they cross a Muslim country like Egypt to enter a predominantly Jewish one if their purpose wasn’t suspect. Besides the demographic concerns imposed on Israel by their arrival there is also the financial cost of dealing with these people until their status or disposition can be determined. So it’s understandable that some Israelis will be hostile to the presence of these people on their society.

    It should also be clarified that it is not ‘racism’ as such that causes this reaction by these Israelis, but suspicion and resentment. Since the 1970’s Israel not only supported, but actively helped Jews from Ethiopia, which borders Sudan, to immigrate there. There is now well over 120,000 living there as a fully integrated part of society.

    There are several issues with the way the BBC have reported the attacks on these illegal immigrants however.

    First is that they have reported them at all.
    We have posted hundreds of examples where Muslims have attacked Christians throughout the Islamic world yet the BBC have chosen not to cover it. Where they have, they invariably make it appear like it was a tit for tat conflict or incident, and certainly have never made the accusation that the Muslims concerned were racists.

    In the beginning of this post I provided some context to understand what was behind these attacks, and why strictly speaking it was not racism that motivated it.
    Yet the BBC do their best in their articles to convey the ‘racism of Israelis’ responsible for these acts. Here’s a few examples:
    African migrants hurt in Jerusalem ‘arson attack’
    Israel ‘denies migrants’ rights’
    Migrants fear Israeli border plan
    (Remember that these people are not migrants – but people with no legal right to enter or stay in the country)
    Israel to begin migrant deportation amid rising hostility
    Israel denies African migrants’ rights, says US

    Unless one is really familiar with the elements involved in these incidents which I covered briefly above, it is unlikely one could discern them from the way the BBC has outlined them in any of their articles on the subject. Check any of them yourselves and see what impression you think they are trying to convey.

       0 likes

  24. Reed says:

    Why doesn’t this twit defect to the LibDems or something…I bet the BBC loves this kind of thing – pro-EU Tory attacks right-wing Euro-skeptic Tories….fight!

    A few days ago, The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP said on Radio 4:
    “A referendum on our membership of the EU is an irrelevance. It is the demand of a few Right-wing journalists and a few extreme nationalist politicians. I cannot think of anything sillier to do than to hold a referendum.”
    http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=cd87abaa476ddb40d85de000d&id=40f7f4b491&e=df4cc20d3c

       3 likes

  25. Teddy Bear says:

    (While waiting for original post with links to be moderated – here’s the one without links)

    There have been several protests and some acts of violence against illegal immigrants from Africa by Israelis in recent weeks. There is reckoned to be about 60,000 in the country who crossed illegally through Egypt into Israel from countries like Eritrea and Sudan. It is reckoned that many of these migrants are Muslims, and one has first to question why would they cross a Muslim country like Egypt to enter a predominantly Jewish one if their purpose wasn’t suspect. Besides the demographic concerns imposed on Israel by their arrival there is also the financial cost of dealing with these people until their status or disposition can be determined. So it’s understandable that some Israelis will be hostile to the presence of these people on their society.

    It should also be clarified that it is not ‘racism’ as such that causes this reaction by these Israelis, but suspicion and resentment. Since the 1970′s Israel not only supported, but actively helped Jews from Ethiopia, which borders Sudan, to immigrate there. There is now well over 120,000 living there as a fully integrated part of society.

    There are several issues with the way the BBC have reported the attacks on these illegal immigrants however.

    First is that they have reported them at all.
    We have posted hundreds of examples where Muslims have attacked Christians throughout the Islamic world yet the BBC have chosen not to cover it. Where they have, they invariably make it appear like it was a tit for tat conflict or incident, and certainly have never made the accusation that the Muslims concerned were racists.

    In the beginning of this post I provided some context to understand what was behind these attacks, and why strictly speaking it was not racism that motivated it.
    Yet the BBC do their best in their articles to convey the ‘racism of Israelis’ responsible for these acts. Here’s a few examples:
    African migrants hurt in Jerusalem ‘arson attack’
    Israel ‘denies migrants’ rights’
    Migrants fear Israeli border plan

    (Remember that these people are not migrants – but people with no legal right to enter or stay in the country)
    Israel to begin migrant deportation amid rising hostility
    Israel denies African migrants’ rights, says US

    Unless one is really familiar with the elements involved in these incidents which I covered briefly above, it is unlikely one could discern them from the way the BBC has outlined them in any of their articles on the subject. Check any of them yourselves and see what impression you think they are trying to convey.

       6 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:

      Has the BBC reported lately on the sufferings these people experience as they pass through Egypt?

      “Every year, thousands of refugees, mostly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan, attempt the dangerous journey from their war-torn countries to Israel in search of economic prosperity and stability.

      Very few make it, and the results of the failed migration can be seen in the morgue of the central hospital in the Egyptian port town of El Arish.

      On any given day, the morgue will be packed with the bodies of African refugees who died trying to make it to Israel.”

      http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/little-context-on-israeli-racism.html

      As usual the Beeboids apply impossibly high standards to Israel -and to her neighbours they apply no standards at all.

         11 likes

  26. Teddy Bear says:

    Jihad Watch and the Daily Mail draw attention to an incident where a Turkish man in Berlin, Germany, cut off his wife’s head in front of their 6 children and threw it off of a 5 storey roof while shouting Allahu Akbar (God is great).

    A man is under arrest in Germany after killing his wife in front of his six young children and cutting her into pieces.

    Orhan Sircasi then ran on to the roof of his apartment building clutching her severed head in one hand and a butcher’s knife in the other.

    The 32-year-old killer of Turkish origin fought off police as they tried to seize him early this morning by lunging at them with the knife and swinging the head like a club.

    This was reported 2 days ago. Why do you think the BBC haven’t covered it?

       10 likes

  27. Dave s says:

    I hope the general lambasting the BBC has received over it’s poor coverage of the Jubilee is the beginning of a more general realisation that the quality of the staff in particular is just not good enough. The BBC’s own fault of course for recruiting in a very narrow gene pool of the like minded. Overpaid and over indulged by courtesy of a complaisant ,up till now, tax payer base. The BBC would be ill advised to continue as if nothing has occured. My own MP is absurdly supportive of the BBC and even he has begun to have reservations.

       14 likes

  28. Chilli says:

    Anyone catch the last report on Newsnight 6/6/12 ? An ‘amusing’ round-up of negative news reports on the jubilee from around the world (incl. an RT report saying it was just a diversion from the “cuts”). All ridiculing the celebrations. Then at the end of they briefly mentioned the viewer complaints about the BBC coverage and showed a quick clip of the Cotto-Paloma jubilee sick-bag incident. A clear attempt to excuse their appalling coverage by saying “Look: various foreign left-wing and/or anti-UK broadcasters also thought the jubilee was shite. So we got our coverage ‘about right (TM)'” . Sickening.

       10 likes

  29. Doyle says:

    Tossing and turning … can’t get any sleep … still thinking of the BBC’s jubilee coverage … anger rising… To top it off we had a ‘debate’ on Europe last night between Ming Campbell and Daniel Hannan. Mong argued that it wasn’t the right time for a referendum (it never is), that we couldn’t have a relationship with Europe like the Swiss and the Norweigians do (why not?) and that laughably we have more international influence as part of Europe. Hannan was pretty good and countered saying that bigger markets now lie outside of Europe. Despite the Scottish harridan’s continual interruptions Hannan got his point across and made Mong look like the befuddled old fool that he is. I think Wark sensed that Ming the Unmerciless needed a bit of help so she never allowed Hannan to answer any of Ming’s absurd assertions, one being that we don’t know what life outside Europe would be. Here’s an idea Ming, rewind to 1975 to a Britain without Polish plumbers and Gypsy pickpockets and you’ll have an idea or how about opening a history book and reading about our glorious independent history. Jesus, these liberals are morons. Afterwards there was the story about those poor security guards … zzzzzz … and (click) off to bed.

       9 likes

  30. Daphne Anson says:

    The BBC pimps a report by Amnesty and as usual the Israeli viewpoint brings up the rear, in this case “Mark Regev says…”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18348198

    btw, I’ve had another little kick at ’em:
    http://daphneanson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/bbc-meets-its-waterloo-but-puts.html

       2 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      But it’s about a footballer. Don’t you realise the added celebrity status of a footbller gives the story a huge importance?
      As in: footballer collapses during game and is revived and the whole country is obsessed with it.
      Any other ordinary bloke pegging out would be ignored.

         2 likes

  31. Guest Who says:

    SKY just had on some GP who is upset at being held to account for her performance.
    Didn’t go well, as the anchor muttered ‘well it’s not like some can just switch over if it’s no good, like TV channels (bit of a Jubilee dig there?’. Of course, being unaccountable and untouchable, everyone would still have to pay for the dire service no one wants anyway.
    I see her getting a welcome berth chez Aunty, for whom such a concept might even seem comforting.
    But they may need to be careful, because she made some other, perhaps inadvertent points which, to less credulous ears might also not help, such as most of her practice being now over-stretched by new patients arriving, most of whom don’t speak English.
    And, just for good measure, she claimed that it was all so unfair to be held to account by middle class types who could use the internet and speak English…. and that was tantamount…. to BULLYING! (“Quango to aisle Whine. Quango to aisle Whine!”).
    It’s an interesting logic that may catch on.
    By finding fault with the BBC, who is crumbling under the pressure of its own excesses, inefficiencies and daft systems, CECUTT can soon accuse any complaining of bullying, in an… ‘English, middle-class’… way, simply for pointing out when such a powerful entity needs to account for stuffing up so badly, so often.
    Unique.

       5 likes

  32. Steve says:

    Make no mistakes, if it was up to me, I would abolish or at least privatise The BBC in a heartbeat, but last night’s BBC 2 programme on Deptford High Street was truly fantastic, the best thing I’ve seen on The BBC all year, television at or near its best.
    If you missed it, you really should try and watch it, wonderful television.

       4 likes

    • Daphne Anson says:

      That’s the thing about the BBC – its news and current affairs outlets seem corrupted by leftism to their core, yet the Corporation is such a leviathan-like organisation that it is still capable of greatness. Its costume dramas are, of course, second to none, and when it’s not propagandising or has no opportunity for so doing owing to the subject matter, so are its documentaries.

         2 likes

    • As I See It says:

      I wholeheartedly agree about this programme. For once I heard the voices ordinary British people given a platform to criticise the follies of the we-know-better-than-you experts, the post-war town planners and social engineers. Very unusual for the BBC.

         5 likes

      • Steve says:

        Agree, although I’m sure this folly will be rectified in future episodes of this series.

           0 likes

    • Andy S. says:

      I saw the programme about Deptford High Street and was amazed that the programme survived the BBC’s censors. Although the end of the programme seemed to have had a “multicultural” strand tacked on, it couldn’t disguise the overall critical tone of the disaster that was left wing social engineering in the fifties and sixties. The bitterness of the interviewees having had their family lives and communities destroyed by “progressive housing policies” was palpable. There was also barely concealed criticism of mass immigration from those who were born and bred in the area.

      The ultimate kick in the teeth for those who had their “slums compulsory purchased” was the recent release of council documents that showed that the building and health inspectors could find nothing wrong with the homes that small scale renovation wouldn’t fix. That the Greater London Council ignored the reports and demolished the homes anyway was very telling.

      This programme seemed to go against all of the Beeb’s progressive ideology .

         3 likes

  33. As I See It says:

    ‘…everthing is commercialised these days, Rigsby….’
    So said Philip in the ‘Love Wood’ episode of Rising damp.

    We know Dame Nicky and the 5 Live team are fiercely neutral on the monarchy/republican issue (that’s what they’ve been telling us recently).

    Now what about the Olympics?
    I have previously pointed to the fact that the BBC have a very different corporate attitude to the Olympics than to the Jubilee. ‘Institutional pro-Olympianism’?
    Will the Beeboids ever question the tax payer millions going into this state sponsored white elephant? The gift, lets bear in mind, of Livingstone/Blair. Of course not. Far better fitted to the BBC anti-capitalist agenda is to ask a rather different question to the one that British people may have on their mind. So what does Gameshow ask: ‘Has commercialism hijacked the Olympics?’
    Grrr….. nasty Coke Cola….evil Nike…..why spoil our pristine Olympics? Why can’t you leave us British tax payers to foot the entire burdon?

       6 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      The BBC has never mentioned (in my hearing) that the Jubilee celebrations were essentially free in that they were substantially paid for by corporate and private contributions and manned by willing volunteers (the 2-hour wait slaves atrocity © apart). The Olympics (£10 billion and rising) is being paid for by the UK taxpayers and London council taxpayers backed up by a raft of legislation to support the freeloaders of the sporting world and keep the public at a distance.
      Naturally, being on a life support system provided by the UK taxpayer under compulsion of law, the BBC enthuses about any manifestation, no matter how grisly, of the Olympics nonsense and grudgingly covered the Jubilee.

         6 likes

    • DJ says:

      Hey, be fair now. Who didn’t love the five minute spot on the Today program looking back at the magic of the 1912 Stockholm Olympics?

      Apparently, the Jubillee was an embarassing anarchronism, but you can never show too much deference to the IOC’s travelling circus.

         2 likes

  34. Umbongo says:

    Terry Smith of Tullett Prebon summed up his contribution to a discussion on the euro on Today this morning by opining that whatever happens in Spain or in Berlin today the eurofanatics in the UK have been proved comprehensively wrong on the clear evidence provided by what has occurred (and is occurring) to the euro and the eurozone. Evan couldn’t let him finish and talked across him by stating blandly that perhaps the euronutters (not his words) are currently “getting the worst of the argument” ie in Evan’s (and the BBC’s) world there’s still a viable argument for the UK to join the eurozone.

       4 likes

  35. jimbola says:

    Couple of things for you.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jt9bv/The_Secret_History_of_Our_Streets_Deptford_High_Street/

    This was overall a great programme, and will make you mad to watch it. All that is missing from this otherwise decent documentary is any reference to the Labour party and their fantasy of soviet social housing. This doc is really tear to the eyes stuff.

    And http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jms1g/Rolf_Paints…_The_Diamond_Jubilee/
    This I found quite unwatchable. So much wrong I barely know where to start. Selected ethnics and intellectuals in an urban style setting, juxtaposed with Union Jack bunting. We must claim Britain as multicultural of course. And every few minutes we cut to historical images and narrative which is basically just left-wing tory bashing propaganda. Watch it if you dare.

    Rolf needs pensioning off quick smart.

       5 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      Credit to the BBC on this one and, as you say, at times it was almost unwatchable. One thought I had was that the mentality of the Lewisham ex-councillor who provided the “it was all for the best” counter-point to the programme’s drift, is exactly that of the present-day proponents of the CAGW and “sustainability” scams as well as the euronutters. In other words, forget the evidence before your eyes and keep asserting the contrary and maybe the facts will change.
      I suspect he was a Labour councillor. First because the documentary did not, I think, mention his political allegiance (which is always the BBC marker where somebody from one of their favourite client-communities has done something either criminal or stupid or both) and secondly that, apart from a few years in the late 60s the council has been Labour controlled. There was a reorganisation in early 60s that did away with the Boroughs of Deptford and (old) Lewisham. However, since the mindset of the political parties (and this particular councillor) even before that reorganisation was to tear down the housing and give the working class what their betters considered was good for them (cf present day Liverpool) it really doesn’t make much difference to the facts of the tragedy portrayed in the programme.

         4 likes

      • jimbola says:

        Yes the absense of the words Labour arty were glaring by their omission, otherwise a good documentary and a very sad expose of the mindset of the reformers. You know if they could have blamed the Tories they would.

        It was the Rolf Harris programe that I was referring to as unwatchable though. The Rolf Harris programme was a total crime.

           2 likes

        • Umbongo says:

          Sorry about that misreading but the programmes were obviously unwatchable for different reasons!
          I’m old enough to remember Rolf when he first appeared on TV in the early 50s. Even then his vacuous enthusiasm about anything and everything (no matter how banal and inconsequential) was unwatchable and unbearable.
          I remember my mother, who was sitting with me viewing Rolf all those years ago, asking me exasperatedly how I could watch such rubbish (and moving to turn the set off). I seem to recall agreeing with her about Rolf being rubbish but pleading with her successfully to leave the TV on because something better must have been coming up soon.

             2 likes

          • jimbola says:

            Thats ok, I have enough trouble concentrating myself, my posts are slapdash at best.

            I used to like Rolf s and his drawings. I don’t hate Rolf, he’s just a hapless beneficiary of the beeb. I doubt he considered what he was involved in in a political sense. Having said that I don’t know, he could be a rabid leftist.

               2 likes

            • Umbongo says:

              I’ve nothing personal against Rolf it’s just that I don’t enjoy what he does and never did. I understand that there may be a lot of people out there who like his act and appreciate his art (although the valuation of £50,000 for one of his oils on Antiques Roadshow tells me that something’s serious askew in the art market) and that’s fine with me. I don’t expect that everyone in the country should appreciate my tastes in art or comedy either.
              Coming back to your original point, almost nothing the BBC puts in front of us is unnuanced: there’s almost always a message of some sort whether it’s multi-culti or environmental doom or whatever. Rolf (rabid lefty or not) would not get near the studio unless he was willing to spout every BBC piety going. He may or may not believe in it but he’s shrewd enough to know on which side his bread’s buttered.

                 2 likes

  36. Harry says:

    ‘Furious’ Jewish leader blasts BBC for ‘sensationalising’ documentary about anti-Semitism in Poland

    Jonathan Ornstein said he was ‘exploited’ during the interview for the Panorama programme

    Claimed BBC ‘completely disregarded anything positive said and aired only comments critical of Poland’

    A Jewish leader has furiously accused the BBC of sensationalising a documentary about anti-Semitism in Poland.

    Jonathan Ornstein, director of Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, gave an interview for the Panorama programme entitled ‘Stadiums of Hate’ investigating racism at the upcoming Euro 2012 venues.

    Strong words: Jonathan Ornstein, director of Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, said he was ‘exploited’ during the interview

    But Mr Ornstein says he was ‘exploited’ during the hour-long interview with the corporation as it ‘completely disregarded anything positive said and aired only comments critical of Poland’.

    Mr Ornstein, an American-born Jew who has lived in Poland for 11 years, says the images used were also selective and other contributors misrepresented.
    He also alleges his suggestion that the broadcasters interviewed two Israeli footballers, who play for local team Wisla Krakow, about their positive experiences were rejected after being told ‘it didn’t fit their story’.

    ‘I am furious at the way the BBC has exploited me as a source’, he said.

    Mr Ornstein says the documentary misrepresented the views of two Israeli footballers who play for local team Wisla Krakow

    ‘The interview lasted approximately one hour during which I emphasized that the small number of football fans in Poland engaging in anti-Semitic and racist behaviour do not represent Polish society as a whole.

    ‘The organization used me and others to manipulate the serious subject of anti-Semitism for its own sensationalist agenda; in doing so, the BBC has insulted all Polish people and done a disservice to the growing, thriving Jewish community of Poland.’

    John Godson, one of Poland’s two black MPs, has also criticised the documentary, which first aired on May 28 and is repeated on the BBC News Channel, in a Polish magazine.

    He said: ‘I believe that Poland is a tolerant country. Very much on this matter has changed and continues to change for the better.

    ‘Poles have ever more opportunity to come into contact with foreigners – such as dark-skinned people – and that is better for them. Recall that in the [Polish General} Election 30,000 people voted for me. Do you need any other proof of the tolerance of Poles.’

    A BBC spokesman said: ‘Panorama strongly refutes Mr Ornstein’s allegation that it misrepresented his interview in the programme, Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate.
    ‘It was made clear to Mr Ornstein that the interview was being carried out in the context of football related racism and anti-Semitism in Poland and his contribution was clearly placed in this context in the film. The programme stated in commentary that he believes that most Poles happily accept other faiths but that football hooligans are yet to catch up with wider Polish society.

    ‘Both the programme’s producer and reporter deny refusing the offer to interview two Israeli footballers player in Poland because it did not fit the story, in fact they would have jumped at the chance of interviewing them.’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155680/Furious-Jewish-leader-blasts-BBC-sensationalising-documentary-anti-Semitism-Poland.html#ixzz1x64gy8dV

       5 likes

  37. Dave s says:

    Once in a while I listen to Thought for the Day. Not really thoughts so much as approved thoughts from the left. Today we had a thought on the parable of the labourers in the vineyard. The one where those that come late get paid the same. Now I always assumed this to have a meaning quite unconnected with fair pay and labour exploitation. Wrong of course. Christ was actually an early trade union agitator standing up for the oppressed working class. What makes them do it? These revisionist clerics from the liberal left? Are they mad of just plain thick? What ever the reason the BBC loves them all.

       6 likes

    • DJ says:

      Yes, indeed. In Beebotopia, if you think Christianity has anything to say about abortion or gay marriage, you’re a religious nut, but suggesting that the true message of the Bible is that Jesus hates ‘At Will’ employment laws makes perfect sense.

         2 likes

  38. Roland Deschain says:

    It was made clear to Mr Ornstein that the interview was being carried out in the context of football related racism and anti-Semitism in Poland and his contribution was clearly placed in this context in the film.

    Or, to rephrase, “We came with a preconceived agenda and tailored the quotes to fit”.

       5 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      That was a reply to Harry. Don’t know how it ended up all on its ownsome.

         0 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      The little I know about the mechanics of making TV documentaries tells me that it is very difficult – although not completely impossible – to make a documentary (a la the Panorama thread) without preconceived opinions. Generally speaking there is a timetable/plan for the “taking of evidence” bit and, very early on, the commentary which attaches loosely to that plan is sketched in. The plan also involves the time (and money) to be spent on getting the vox pop and expert opinion in place and the consequent editing and tailoring of the programme to fill the whole 29 or so minutes.
      I suspect that – certainly for the BBC – Panorama-type programmes are “sold” on the basis of very strict criteria which conform to the BBC Narrative. In other words the “investigative” journalists confine their investigations to those aspects of the subject which align with their (very considerable and obvious) prejudices. The idea that a Panorama programme would reveal or investigate disinterestedly, for instance, the shenanigans at the UEA, the murderous evil of Hamas or the rampant dishonesty and corruption at the heart of the EU is almost inconceivable. Such investigations could not be “sold” internally at the BBC. Unlike, for instance, investigations into commercial corruption, sex abuse in the Catholic Church or police action vis-a-vis the G20 rioters (but nothing AFAIAA on the Occupy thugs) which were, I reckon, given a go-ahead without much discussion.
      True, Panorama has been criticised from the left, particularly I think concerning its programme on the Gaza flotilla. Of course, such criticisms (as most from the left) resolve into a demand that nothing opposing the bien pensant view (eg CAGW scepticism) be mentioned, not that the facts screened were inaccurate. But such criticism does allow Panorama and the BBC to make the increasingly threadbare claim that they “get it about right”.

         6 likes

  39. As I See It says:

    ‘BBC pundit Alan Hansen was subjected to ridicule on social networking sites after appearing to predict three teams from the same group would make the Euro 2012 semi-finals’

    http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/hansen-mocked-impossible-prediction-130517296.html

    ‘The former Liverpool star, who reportedly earned £40,000 for each episode of Match of the Day last season, listed Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal as his semi-final tips for the tournament in an article posted on the BBC’s website.’

    ‘Match of the Day host Gary Lineker took to Twitter to defend his colleague and blamed the website for the error and not Hansen.’

    “Alan Hansen’s not as daft as some of you were hoping. They were his top four contenders, not his four semi-finalists,” he tweeted.’

    Interesting. The Beeboid experts are blaming BBC web site minions.

    I wonder if Moll Flanders has thought of that excuse for repeatedly predicting the rescue of the Greek Euro?

       5 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘The Beeboid experts are blaming BBC web site minions.
      At the moment, half the BBC seems to be blaming the other half of the BBC for everything, with the net result that the entire BBC is accepting they are stuffing up everywhere and only have themselves to blame.
      Funny really. Tragic though. If unique.

         5 likes

  40. #88 says:

    As footnote to the London Bridge Forced Labour Camp story that the BBC led on yesterday (with Lard Prescott opening the batting, and Evan Davis approaching orgasm), I see that DWP have now made a formal complain about ‘Today’s’ misleading and exagerated coverage.

    With all of these complaints, expect BBC Job-ads for Complaint Handlers to soon appear in the Guardian (Reporting to Ms Boaden….must be able to hit a waste-paper bin from 10 yards)

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Arf.
      I wonder of they will tell the DWP they have checked and are comfy in their rectitude, so for having taken them to task one public sector outfit will now ban another one from contact.
      This really is worth more popcorn.

         3 likes

  41. Guest Who says:

    I stay mostly with SKY on broadcast, as it’s the least agenda driven (if a bit ratings addicted).
    Just saw a report by the lovely Holly (Though Aussie-tinged Mandarin is, while impressive, not easy on the ear) of treatment of Chinese dissident friends & family, even when the focal person has gone.
    It merely serves to highlight the two-faced politico-media selectivity that exists on ‘rights’, especially pre-Olympics.
    Given what they throw their full weight behind in critique, vs. what they ignore or cover up as it suits, the BBC’s ‘impartial’ genetic mutants should be vilified.

       1 likes

  42. George R says:

    More on Mr RICHARDS ,BBC D.G candidate –

    “‘Arrogance and dubious accounts’ of quangocrat who is frontrunner to run BBC”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155147/BBC-director-general-frontrunner-Ed-Richards-accused-arrogant-dubious-quangocrat.html#ixzz1x6pOSZH2

       1 likes

  43. George R says:

    Labour and BBC-NUJ U-turn on ENGLAND?

    Labour and BBC-NUJ has politically campaigned for millions of immigrants into England, for ‘multiculturalism’, for Islamisation, and for an E.U superstate, for decades.

    Now, Miliband, with BBC-NUJ on his shirt-tails, sees English nationalism, opportunistically, as a vote winner!

    “Ed Miliband: Labour ‘too reluctant’ to talk about English national identity”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18344832

    Counterpoint:

    Melanie Phillips (2010) –

    “At last we know the truth: Labour despises anyone who loves Britain, its values and its history”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1253295/MELANIE-PHILLIPS-At-know-truth-Labour-despises-loves-Britain-values-history.html#ixzz1x6tLaVgJ

       2 likes

    • As I See It says:

      The Labour Party, the BBC. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.

      ‘Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
      As black as a tar-barrel;
      Which frightened both the heroes so,
      They quite forgot their quarrel’.

      Nice to see Norman “But the Labour Party say” Smith backing up Miliband’s comments and explaining for us what it is that Miliband is trying to get across. Odd that it is so short on ‘balance’.

         2 likes

  44. +james says:

    Another bizarre misleading headline from the BBC

    Small Heath mosque attack victim dies in hospital

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-18348164

    I wonder what this means?

       4 likes

    • RCE says:

      No mention of the race of the victim… According to form that means he’s white.

         2 likes

  45. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ: will it now reverse its political support for RIOTERS of summer 2011?

    “Birmingham riots gang jailed for up to 30 years over police shootings.
    “Six members of a gang who shot at police officers during riots in Birmingham last August were jailed today for up to 30 years.”

    Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/901356-birmingham-riots-gang-jailed-for-up-to-30-years-over-police-shootings#ixzz1x7UukK2D

    BBC-NUJ’s bland headline-

    “Birmingham riots: Men jailed over police shooting”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-18349992

    Sky News headline:

    “Riot Gang Members Jailed For Up To 30 Years”

    http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16243113

       3 likes

  46. As I See It says:

    The Beeboid Twitter-happy echo-chamber crowd are not simply left wing, they are stupid and left-wing.

    http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17397222

    Mario Cacciottolo knocks up an article : Punks of 77: Still angry after all these years.

    ‘Back in the early summer of 1977, British punks snarled their protest against the establishment as the nation prepared for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. So how do those same punks feel about the Royal Family now?’

    [Tell yer what, Mario, ask yer Twitter mates…..]

    ‘Louise Bolotin is a 50-year-old writer living in Manchester, who in 1977 was a 15-year-old living in Edinburgh.’

    [BTW her Twitter icon reads ‘Save the BBC from Tories…’]

    ‘I know the government say we need something to cheer us up, but I’d rather they saved the money for the celebrations and didn’t carry out swingeing public sector cuts.”

    [Ouch swingeing. I’m not sure that the Jubilee cost us tax payers that much. Anyway the cost is dwafed by the cost of the Olympics. I guess Beeboids and lefties would call that ‘investment’]

    “There are definitely parallels between the national mood in 1977 and now. Both had rising unemployment, a hardline government, a screwed economy, and there was general restlessness and anger.”

    [1977 Hardline Government? What Labour PM ‘Lucky’ Jim Callaghan – hard line?]

    To be fair to fair Louise it is not clear whether that silly quote is from her or from this guy,

    ‘Author Jon Savage has documented the history of the punk movement and says punks in 1977 were “super-heated” about the Jubilee being “vaguely fascist, and a return to a past that had never really existed”.

    [Ah that past that never really existed, perhaps that was when there was that hardline Government in 1977?]

       3 likes

  47. George R says:

    Will BBC-NUJ campaign as vigorously against forced marriage as it campaigns for homosexual ‘marriage’?

    “Forced marriage expected to become a crime”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9315181/Forced-marriage-expected-to-become-a-crime.html

    And will BBC-NUJ dare to state that forced marriage is overwhelmingly an Islamic practice?

    “Married off at five years old — in northern England”
    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/04/married-off-at-five-years-old—-in-northern-england.html

    Ed West mentions crucial importance of mass immigration too:

    “Forced marriage will be a problem for as long as we have mass migration ”

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100163358/forced-marriage-will-be-a-problem-for-as-long-as-we-have-mass-migration/

       3 likes

  48. David Preiser (USA) says:

    This isn’t about BBC bias, but since Paul Krugman was recently doing the rounds to post his book, I though some may find amusement with this anyway:

    President Of Estonia Slams Paul Krugman: ‘Smug, Overbearing & Patronizing’

    The president of Estonia chewed out Paul Krugman on Wednesday, using Twitter to call the Nobel Prize-winning economist “smug, overbearing & patronizing,” in response to a short post on Estonia’s economic recovery.

    “We’re just dumb & silly East Europeans. Unenlightened. Someday we too will understand,” he tweeted. “Guess a Nobel in trade means you can pontificate on fiscal matters & declare my country a “wasteland”. Must be a Princeton vs Columbia thing.”

    And my favorite:

    Let’s sh*t on East Europeans: their English is bad, won’t respond & actually do what they’ve agreed to & reelect govts that are responsible.

       3 likes

  49. Reed says:

    Well written essay here…

    The cameras of the BBC, usually anxious to present a picture of multiracial harmony, and whose coverage of the events has been broadly panned as inane, clearly struggled in desperation to find non-white faces in the crowds.

    Their failure to do so was even more stark as they linked to outside broadcasts of commemorative street parties up and down the country, particularly in places like Luton, where it was patently evident that wherever the English were in the minority only the English were doing any celebrating at all.

    Where were the others? Our fellow “Britons”?

    http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/mess-of-pottage.html

       4 likes