of yesterday’s Daily Express coverage of my Biased BBC story from Tuesday about the BBC’s “disproportionate” Question Time audience that was deliberately packed out with over five-times as many Muslims as a proportion of the British population.
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Click on each thumbnail to see clippings of the Daily Express front page coverage of Biased BBC’s original Question Time audience story. Courtesy Daily Express/PressDisplay.com. |
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Just for good measure, there are a couple of cracking follow-up letters in today’s Daily Express:
Letter of the day
We don’t pay TV licence fees for BBC Muslim bias
THANK you for your excellent and courageous coverage of the BBC’s programme on questions of security (“Fury over BBC’s bias to Muslims”, August 4).
Last week I had an exchange of letters with one of the editors of the Today programme about another biased piece of reporting that was nakedly anti-American. The editor told me the BBC also took issue with British foreign policy.
Where does it enjoin the BBC to take issue with British policy abroad? The Royal Charter lays fown a duty of impartiality. The BBC was found severely wanting by Hutton and is now fighting a shameless rearguard action.
Undermining the credibility of this country, its government and the vast majority of its people seems to be top of the BBC agenda. That this should be done in our name, as licence fee-payers, is nothing short of sickening.
The vast majority of the Muslim community in Britain and the rest of us share a common good. To allow the BBC and others to undermine it is unacceptable.
Professor Rene Weis, London.
and:
Corporation’s PC brigade is slowly killing ‘Auntie’
WITH reference to the diabolical Questions of Security programme screened on BBC TV (“Fury over BBC’s bias to Muslims”, August 4), I am afraid that we have to face an obvious truth – that the corporation is now just a grovelling apology of its former self, infested with politically correct types whose opinions bear no relation whatsoever to the vast majority of the public.
Auntie now resembles a once-magnificent oaken beam, riddled with woodworm and crumbling into its final collapse – like the country it used to so proudly represent.
Andrew Hathaway, East Grinstead, West Sussex.
It’s about damn time the world woke up to the BBC….
They are damn dangerous, and promoting Fascist Islamic Views as “equal” to Democracy…….
They are as Traitorous an institution as it’s possible to be…..I can not find words to describe my disgust with this “Broadcaster”……
I believe they are directly linked to death in Iraq, as they have promoted and encouraged Murdering Terrorist scum to be “equal” to our brave forces who have kept our part of the world Free for the last couple hundred years……
The BBC must be brought down, and if a high price has to be paid…..so be it.
The BBC is vile…..repugnant in every way.
It’s about time.
A moment of nostalgia, December 6, 2001.. toloo loo loo too loo loo loo..:
I don’t usually agree with Melanie Phillips in her newspaper columns, but I think she was very brave for refusing to be bowed by a hostile and really rather ignorant audience. The comments on this page are much more representative of what I consider to be public opinion, and so I really question the programme’s selection processes!
Paul, London.
One more from the same link:
“I was amazed at the audience reaction last night to action against terrorism. It seems that you have created a fringe programme for militants and not one that represents the views of the majority of British people.
D Taylor, Nott’s”
And it isn’t just that there was a greater proportion of Muslims in the audience than exists in the rest of the population, because I bet a random selection of that many Muslims would (mostly) not have had such strong attitudes. It’s the deliberate picking of radical voices, which the BBC does over and over again on these sorts of shows, that is the real problem.
Did anyone dvd the programme? Maybe they could produce some grabs of the racist hate mongers (along with their names and locations of course).
Then send them off to the Commission For Racial Equality asking them to investigate for “hate” crimes. Maybe the BBC should itself be investigated for incitement to racial hatred by giving the Islamo-Terrorist apologists a national platform.
I am assuming, naturally, that all the “hate crimes” legislation produced recently isn’t just aimed at Christians and Jews but also includes Muslims. But, who knows eh?
The corporations PC brigade is not slowly killing Auntie. Auntie is in rude health, has just had another above inflation pay rise and is treating her favourites to big bonuses. She’s never had it so good.
The Cultural tide is turning. History will record that the BBC swallowed whole Political Corrctness, Multiculturalism, Human activity as the cause of climate change and now the Political Aims of Miliitant Islam. Indeed Al Beeb now finds itself in agreement with Ayman al-Zawahri on the causes of terorism in London and elsewhere.
Soon all of these questions will be resolved and found to have caused much damage. Where then The Great BBC?
And yet in http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_4740000/newsid_4748000/4748011.stm
Roger Mosey, exiting Head of BBC Television News has the gall to say “But there should also be concern about the strident noises being made by broadcasters like Fox News in the United States and the erosion of common standards by axe-grinders worldwide.
I have never doubted Fox’s enlivening effect on a torpid American market, but it would be a disaster for the US and for the wider world if Fox’s version of the words “fair and balanced” became the norm.
Partisanship from left or from right is fine in its place, but it never provides the whole picture: the BBC’s values of trust and independence and impartiality matter more today than ever, precisely because there are those who seek to undermine them for reasons of commercial advantage or ideological spite. “
Don’t have a DVD of it but the programme is still downloadable – just incase anyone missed it.
Questions of Security: A BBC News Special
“Huw Edwards hosted a debate which allowed the public to voice their concerns following the bombings in London.”
http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?q=question+time+Huw+Edwards&scope=newsukfs_av&tab=news_av&x=72&y=16
What does Fox News have to do with the BBC? Why should people at the BBC need to criticise other broadcasters – especially ones in other countries! – it is a public organisation, not a private one. I would expect the Sun to have a go at the Mirror and vice versa, but here this is the telly taxpayer paying for the hard left to have free airtime denied to the rest of the political spectrum.
Incidentally, I’ve just received my new TV license. The letter grandly says “You are now allowed to watch television for another year”. How very kind.
And another thing, he says
“there are those who seek to undermine [the BBC’s values] for reasons of [..] ideological spite.”
Which can only be a problem if the BBC has an ideology itself others find unacceptable. Which we know it does.
Interesting:
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/24331
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2825
What do people here think?
Blair vows hard line on fanatics
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4747573.stm
“The Hizb ut Tahrir organisation and Al-Muhajiroun – or its successor group – are to be banned, Mr Blair announced.”
That’s these guys:
http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/english/english.html
Banning Hizb ut-Tahrir? I assume Tony has cleared that with Cherie?
Lords to rule on Muslim clothes
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1706148,00.html
If you read the small print, you can see what Tony & Cherie have agreed.
From the article above:
“Anyone affected by the new powers would have the right to appeal or have the case reviewed by a High Court judge.”
So, Tony gets to tough on terrorism whilst his wife Cherie and her chums in the judiciary get to make the final decision/and make a pretty buck out of the whole process at the same time.
How depressing.
Re”….Roger Mosey, exiting Head of BBC Television News has the gall to say “But there should also be concern about the strident noises being made by broadcasters like Fox News in the United States and the erosion of common standards by axe-grinders worldwide…….”
What I find really disturbing about Mosey’s comments is the perception from someone in his position that Fox makes “strident noises….” Although occasionally OTT most of Fox’s output is far more in step with British public opinion than Today’s, Newsnight’s self indugent pandering.
If Bill O’Reilly is ‘strident’ how would Mr Mosey describe the recent outpouring of bile from Newsnights recent interviewees. The Beeboids just don’t get it! Extremists get a totally free ride thereby giving all of us (including Muslims) the idea that these sick views are the ‘norm'(they aren’t are they?)- even the word ‘moderate’ has been corupted.
Suggestion: Could Bill O’Reilly and / or Neil Cevuto take the Newnight slot for a week from Jeremy and Kirstie? (Relax Roger – just a thought)
This is brilliant. Looking at all these posts restores my faith in the cynical, common-sense British intellect.
It’s time to reclaim legitimate right wing politics from the clutches of the ideological left and the equally ideological BNP.
The BBC purports to be a moral norm, by which all detractors are then seen as abnormal. Racism is one such point: if you’re not BBCPC, then you’re an abnormal racist pig. The Right have difficulty maintaining legitimacy in this climate.
Slightly OT but on Radio 4 this morning was a trailer for a program about the dropping of the Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki “which America claims shortened the war.” Those last six words were actually broadcast.
With the passing of those who fought in the far east in WW2, their testimony will disappear leaving the BBc free to disseminate lies and falsehoods about the campaigns fought by the US. Dare I say that we’ll hear of how the US would not take Japanese troops prisoner, or of cruelties by the USMC in Iwo Jima etc. This is just a foretaste of what is to come, unless they’re opposed.
If you go the BBC website you can suggest a discussion subject for the ‘Have Your Say’ section.
Maybe…
Is George Galloway vile?
How does the BBC decide what represents the ‘balance of opinion’ on its ‘Have your Say’ site?
Where does the BBC select its audiences and from where?
Go on….
The interviewer on this am’s Today programme continues the BBC’s (& others) obsession with wanting statements of a link between the Iraq war & the London bombs.
She interviewed Galloway who claimed al-Qaeda was (partly) born out of the 1991 war with Iraq.
She then interviewed Liam Fox & asked him about the link to the 2003 war. Fox reminded her of Galloway’s words.
Undetered she repeatedly sought to get an admission of a link from Fox. He very elegantly sought to frustrate her. A gem.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/
8.10am (ie prime spot to Galloway again)
That clip seems to have disappeared Dan…
Is it April 1st?
Outgoing Head of BBC Television News, Roger Mosey takes a pop at FOX News.
The dominant medium of the age
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_4740000/newsid_4748000/4748011.stm
A couple of choice quotes…
“All this reflects a collective enterprise in BBC Television News, which is full of people of talent and creativity – who also happen to be great fun to work with.”
“collective enterprise”? More like “massive guaranteed government subsidy”
“But there should also be concern about the strident noises being made by broadcasters like Fox News in the United States and the erosion of common standards by axe-grinders worldwide.
I have never doubted Fox’s enlivening effect on a torpid American market, but it would be a disaster for the US and for the wider world if Fox’s version of the words “fair and balanced” became the norm.
Partisanship from left or from right is fine in its place, but it never provides the whole picture: the BBC’s values of trust and independence and impartiality matter more today than ever, precisely because there are those who seek to undermine them for reasons of commercial advantage or ideological spite.
“erosion of common standards by axe-grinders worldwide.”?
Methinks us bloggers have touched a raw nerve at the monopoly of thought that is the BBC.
It’s interesting how he hits out at FOX and not say “The Guardian” whom R4 Today often quote. Both are partisan private broadcasters, one left (Guardian) one right (Fox). As both are private broadcasters and their customers can choose to buy their wares or not, why does BBC hit out at Fox and not the Guardian?
Answer: Because the Guardian (left wing) holds same world view as BBC.
Classic example of BBC bias. They just don’t see it.
The culture of the liberal left metropolitan elite is so ingrained in the workings of the BBC, and their hand-wringing, New-Labour loving managers so cut off from real people (who they actively seek to avoid – they despise them) that any member of staff who doesn’t share these views would never dare say so, for fear of being sidelined.
The problem with the BBC is that it has become a culture all of its own, a mini-country with a population of drones all instilled with right on-ness, all worshiping at the altar of political correctness and despising the “Great Satan”, the “hideously white” (to paraphrase a former BBC boss) middle classes, and above all hating anything which reinforces the culture and historic past of Great Britain.
So a kind of BBC New-speak has developed where certain subjects, people and words simply don’t exist anymore, while others are propagated as mainstream “truth”.
So, while the mantra of “impartiality” is trumpeted daily, their news is only impartial as seen from the lofty heights of BBC-Land; other observers down in the real world may view things differently.
D Burbage,
Shame on you! You’ve gifted 126 GBP to your enemy.
Oh dear.
BBC digital radio loses listeners
http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,12636,1542740,00.html
(may need to register (free))
“Every one of the BBC’s five digital radio stations has lost listeners over the second quarter of this year, despite the corporation ploughing more than £70m into the services.”
Ah, that’ll be the “collective enterprise” of BBC staff in action that Roger Mosey has been telling us about.
Why am I forced to pay (on pain of imprisonment) for upteen BBC digital Radio Channels launched at the whim of the PC BBC???
“With the exception of Sports Extra, Mr Gardam said the remit for each of the services should be “redrafted to reflect more accurately the points of distinctiveness from their commercial counterparts”.
Too right. If there’s commercial radio channels already providing the goods, the BBC should stay well clear and give me back some of my money!
From an earlier post…
”Blair vows hard line on fanatics”
If the BBC’s Have you say is anything to go by so does Joe Public
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4748277.stm
Not one dissenting voice so far
Poor old Beeb
yoy,
Have you also noticed that the “Have Your Say” link has now been moved to a sub page and not the main page? The main page link has been replaced by “Experts” opinion. Could this be because the majority of the reply’s have been normal “At last!” comments???
Also,
On the “Blair extremism measures: reaction”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4748963.stm
If you remove the Party leaders, these are the contributors that are left.
**ERIC METCALFE, OF HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP JUSTICE
**KEN JONES, CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOCIATION OF CHIEF POLICE OFFICERS AND CHIEF CONSTABLE OF SUSSEX POLICE
**IMRAN WAHEED, SPOKESMAN FOR HIZB UT TAHRIR BRITAIN
**SIR IQBAL SACRANIE, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN
Nicely balanced views then…
The Beeb eagerly anticipates the annual Bush bashing extravaganza of the left-wing “comedians” at the Edinburgh festival. BBC scouts will be out looking for new “talent” for the 6.30pm R4 comedy slots.
Terror brings politics to comedy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4748725.stm
Interstingly, some of the idiots, sorry “comedians”, have realised that their anti-american diatribe is naive…..
“Comedian Stewart Lee said he had to re-write his act after the bombings in London.
He said: “On 7 July, I was sitting trying to get my Edinburgh show together – and then the news started, and obviously everything changed.
“All of the material I used last year about the attitudes to Islam in the West, I couldn’t use any more.
“It would seem naively optimistic and forgiving in the way everything has changed into a feeling of paranoia and fear.”
How often in history do the left need to be proved wrong for them to “get with the program”?
I can still remember when the BBC was impartial, when it maintained a very high standard of impartiality.
A key element of impartiality is skepticism.
Yet whereas the BBC is aggressively skeptical towards anything American (and indeed Americans), it is jaw-droppingly uncritical of Muslims.
Most odious is the BBC’s support of New Labour’s multicultural social agenda. Thus the BBC openly supports an ideological viewpoint.
BTW Regarding comedians, I recall a cartoonist once said something to the effect that the satirist’s job is to point out the emperor has no clothes, regardless of who that emperor is.
A truly professional comedian should mock both right and left with equal venom.
re fox and the bbc
somebody should point out to roger mosey that “strident” fox pays its way in the market-place whereas the parasitic bbc forces britons to pay or go to prison.
The racist BBC have decided that you don’t need to know that the alleged murderer of Richard Wheeler was black.
Can you imaging the BBC producing such a limp report if the murder had been white on black?
Man arrested over stabbing on bus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4749135.stm
Both murders were horrific, both murders happened on Friday 30 July, the murderers in both cases were of different colour than the victims.
Not that you’d know from the BBCs reporting though as not only to the Beeb plaster “racist” all over the Anthony Walker story, but they don’t even tell you the colour of skin of the Richard Wheeler murderer, never mind if there was racism involved or not. The BBC have decided, black on white is irrelevant and you don’t need to know about it.
ANd if anyone thinks that the impression we have that the the BBC gets foamy at the mouth at a “racism” story (as long as it’s white on black) is in our imagination, compare the journo resources applied to each story: remember both horrific murders happened one week ago, Friday 20 July. Since then:
4 stories on the Richard Wheelan murder
http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=newsukfs&tab=news&q=Richard+Whelan&go.x=15&go.y=16
14 stories on the Anthony Walker murder
http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?go.x=34&tab=news&q=Anthony+Walker&go.y=21&scope=newsukfs&start=1
It appears that the Beeb DOES call people terrorists (without inverted commas!) even in Israel… as long as the “terrorists” are Jewish!
Talk about bias… (“one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” — except when that other man is Jewish…)
For two BBC News Online articles referring to Jewish terrorists without inverted commas, see:
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/israel_at_50/profiles/81305.stm
This report contains the sentence: “Under Begin’s command, the underground terrorist group Irgun carried out numerous acts of violence.”
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2486589.stm
This report contains the following sentences:
“After 1945, as the facts and consequences of Hitler’s death camps became evident, the Jewish underground intensified the terror campaign…”
“By the middle of 1949 up to 700,000 of about 900,000 Palestinian Arabs had left the affected region, forced out by a combination of Jewish/Israeli terror tactics…”
to roger mosey:
“Through all these events, BBC Television News has faced ever greater competition – and we fight on many fronts.
The big BBC One bulletins face the ITN operation on ITV1, while Breakfast takes on GMTV.
News 24’s main rival is Sky News, and Newsnight squares up against Channel 4 News. BBC World is the principal competitor for CNN.
No Roger, you dont ‘compete’ with any of those guys because you are a monopoly provider who I have to pay £126 every year or you will send me to jail. The operators you mention sink or swim according their ability to provide a product that the market wants.
Don’t indulge yourself that you compete with them. The day you give up your massive subsidy & go voluntary subscription, then you can compete and we’ll see how you get on.
I just love how you approvingly quote letters to the express, letters that include this classic:
“Where does it enjoin the BBC to take issue with British policy abroad?”
Let me get this straight. The BBC SHOULDN’T be investigating British foreign policy and SHOULDN’T be taking issue with matters of controversy within this investigative field?
Pumkinsboy:
Correct. The BBC should report the news. That’s all. Private broadcasters (eg The Guardian, Fox News) are there to give people the slant they are willing to pay for.
So when Paxman is interviewing a politican on Newsnight who presents an unconvincing case, he shouldn’t point out the errors and contradictions?
thanks to goose for the roger mosey posting.
mr mosey writes of “ideological spite”
please check out the spite shown by the bbc on a report of lord wakeham’s on global warming.they did a hatchet job on him because he had the temerity to challenge their ideology.
bbc report 6/7/2005 “wakeham sees upside from warming”
I also recall David Bellamy on the BBC’s Daily Politics show just recently doing an extended presentation on his opinion that global warming was a myth.
Happy for Paxo to question as long as he challenges each sides argument equally. For example get John Reid and George Galloway on with Paxo handling the debate.
What tends to happen with the Beeb though is lop-sided leftism. If an environmentalist is invited on the Today prog he gets thrown ‘soft balls’ like “What’s you’re view?” or ‘summary’ questions eg “so what you’re saying is, if the government doesn’t do something, were all going to die?”
Then they “hard-ball” the ‘bad guy’ (in their eyes).
They should be asking enviros “What’s your evidence for your claim?” “What would your proposal mean for the average man in the street – Petrol at £4 a litre?”
And I don’t have the time or patience to go into how the BBC have handled the Iraq issue – better posters than me have covered examples here many times.
So yes, I have no probs with the BBC asking tough questions, but if they can’t do it even handedly, then they should just report news.
Every time I see Galloway on the BBC he gets hammered by the interviewer.
d burbage on bbc ideology 12.04 posting.
thanks .my thoughts exactly
pumkinsboy and david bellamy.
compare that to the bbc’s overwhelming and ott coverage of global warming.their continuous abuse of america for not signing kyoto.their sneering comments whenever kyoto and america are discussed.
Miam: head of the comedian thought police.
Get with who’s program? Yours? The New Labour government’s?
Perhaps the BBC should only cover comedy events that will bolster the nation’s morale and produce appropriate responses to support the government’s War on Terror?
Or will you respond with a desire to see `balance?`. Well, actually, I agree…surely there’s a popular pro-war right-wing comedy festival somewhere…
Or the beeb could just show something from their stockpile of Jim Davidson tapes.
”Every time I see Galloway on the BBC he gets hammered by the interviewer”
What about he other points raised by Anonymous?
When was the last time you saw an enviroloony getting a good well deserved verbal kicking on the Beeb
or a Muslim representative being asked ‘So what is it about Women’s Rights/Jews/Democracy etc that you find so objectionable?
Richard, you mention “the bbc’s overwhelming and ott coverage of global warming”
I agree.
I think they do this because of the overwhelming evidence supporting the fact that global warming is happening.
But to be fair, I’d like to see more of Bellamy on the beeb, and his ilk. Ther way Monbiot succinctly took him apart on the Daily Politics proved that he (Bellamy) is the worst enemy the global warming sceptic movement has.
Actually, I agree the BBC tip toes around confronting Muslim extremism.
One reason for this is that if it airs a debate in which Islamic extemists air their views, it’ll be a Question Time response from the Daily Hate, and questions as to whether the beeb is the `new Al Jazeera`.
Oh yeah, global warming is happening, and if fact has happened several times in the earth’s history – as has global cooling. Even more interestingly *Mars* is also warming up – darn those Mars rovers!
The debate is not about warming as such but about its cause. There is excellent evidence that periodic warming and cooling is normal and natural and has much more to do with solar cycles than with Human activity.
Pumkinsboy
“Let me get this straight. The BBC SHOULDN’T be investigating British foreign policy and SHOULDN’T be taking issue with matters of controversy within this investigative field?”
Whether you think it’s within the BBC’s remit to engage in these activities or not isn’t the point. What this Blog demonstrates is that the BEEB takes issue from a consistently extreme perspective, where it’s centre of gravity is far to the left of any credible politician. (Unless your position is that Galloway / Benn are credible representatives) Moreover it does this in a dishonest, self serving manner that ignores the fact that it’s funded by us and that its charter to operate demands impartiality. If you think that’s being too subjective examples please of hmmm.. lets say a Tory or US Republican given the same free rides reserved for George and Wedgie.