Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:


Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.

While I’m here, a little plug for my next post coming up in a few minutes. It’s about the BBC’s readiness to entertain a foolish anti-Israeli conspiracy theory about the Entebbe raid. My view is that, given that we have had thirty-plus years of Palestinian terrorism, I would really need rather a lot of evidence to take seriously the claim that what appeared to be Palestinian terrorism was actually a plot concocted in secret alliance with its apparent victims. Unlike the BBC who report this claim seriously ‘cos some guy said it.

I am equally sceptical and for the same reason of the claims made by some commenters below that Alan Johnston must have engineered his own kidnap because he apparently set out to meet his kidnappers. He was trying to get a story. That’s how Daniel Pearl was kidnapped, too. Palestinian/Islamist terrorists kidnapping people is not so rare an event as to require convoluted explanations.

And I’ve banned “the_camp_commandant” for nastiness on this subject unleavened by any trace of legitimate debate.

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278 Responses to Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

  1. archonix says:

    If you’re banning people for nastiness then I’d like to request that you be more evenhanded about it and ban hillhunt as well, for being an odious little shit.

    But, as a great man once said, as you so will it.

       0 likes

  2. hillhunt says:

    Not so much of the little.

       0 likes

  3. Biodegradable says:

    I second archonix’s suggestion.

    Not only is hillhunt odious, he is deliberately disruptive and adds absolutely nothing to debate.

    It’s like a room full of grown-ups trying to talk seriously while a sniggering adolescent in the corner constantly seeks attention.

    There is hardly a thread lately where his comments do not outnumber other commenters, and not one of his comments is worth the bandwidth it occupies.

       0 likes

  4. Horse & Hound says:

    I have to say that I think some of the comments on this blog are quite bizarre, but when you look at who’s posting them then an explanation can be found.

    I mean look at this particular chappie. He has an unusually perverse fascination with genitalia and particularly with his own anus. Here is his blog, but don’t bother looking, it’s quite the silliest blog I think I’ve ever seen and I left a comment to say so. Sad to say for its creator I’m one of only five to leave any comment in its miserable three-month existence.

    http://nothingtodowithhunting.blogspot.com/

    Having singularly failed to light up the blogosphere, the poor deluded fool has decided to visit his class war vitriol on the rest of the blogging world. Who said Dave Spart is no more? Why here he is on Guido Fawke’s blog getting himself into a terrible pickle with several other commentators for demeaning a VC winner, Lord De L’Isle, because he had a title.

    http://www.order-order.com/2006/08/wheels-are-coming-off-epp-climb-down.html

    He really upset the horses that day with this:

    ’Why were de l’Isle and his lunatic fringe so determined that men like Benn, Healey & Callaghan, who also served bravely on the front line, were enemies of freedom?’

    His rant was about the Freedom Association and its ‘lunatic fringe’.

    Whoa there. This lunatic fringe are the McWhirter brothers, one of whom, Ross, was murdered by IRA terrorists in 1975. Some lunatic fringe there, but never fear, the Dave Sparts of this world believe they have carte blanche to smear anyone with their bigoted socialist venom.

    Now lets examine this claim by him:

    ‘…..men like Benn, Healey & Callaghan, who also served bravely on the front line, were enemies of freedom’

    Callaghan?
    He started out in the Royal Navy Patrol Service in 1943 but shortly afterward contracted TB and was invalided out of active service to spend the rest of the war behind a desk in Whitehall as an intelligence officer.

    Healey?
    He did a bit better serving in the Royal Engineers in North Africa and the Italian Campaign, and was at Anzio when Lord De L’Isle won his VC, but not so much of a mention in despatches for young Healey. A ‘former’ communist he became Britain’s most incompetent Chancellor.

    Benn?
    Well now here is the real Dodo. The former 2nd Viscount Stansgate used a recent BBC (where else) Question Time to lay on thick his heroics on bombers. Actually, after joining in 1943, he spent most of his service time as a Pilot Officer in South Africa & Rhodesia.
    But then again he has a name for being economical with the truth. One only has to look at his serial lying over who actually armed Iraq during the Saddam years.

    So here we have hillhunt or whatever making things up whilst all the time berating those around him.

    Got a full day’s hunting to hounds tomorrow so I’m off to get an early night. Who knows I might get lucky and bag a different sort of quarry if the saboteurs are out. If hill whatever is there I might give him a good horsewhipping before setting the dogs on him. However if he’s contrite and repents I do have an opening for a butler.

    Toodle pip everyone and please just ignore the class-war twit.

       0 likes

  5. Biodegradable says:

    Please Natalie!

    He’s already contaminated this thread and started in on the latest!

    http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/7732521461450178885/#358129

       0 likes

  6. Oscar says:

    The test result is probably less conclusive than the programme-makers would have wished

    Guess we will have to watch to find out the outcome the programme-makers wanted.
    will | 02.06.07 – 3:42 pm | #

    Well the BBC might have thought the results were “inconclusive” – I think everyone else would be perfectly able to conclude these guys are liars. And stupid liars – given they participated in the programme. Even tho’ C4 tried to whitewash them with some smokescreen about their ‘torture’ in Gitmo confusing them.

       0 likes

  7. Anonymous says:

    I hope kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston alright.
    But I have no hope that the Palestinians or much of the middle east will move into the civilized world anytime soon.

    PS. No point in boycotting Palestinian goods since they produce nothing.

       0 likes

  8. Anonymous says:

    PS. No point in boycotting Palestinian goods since they produce nothing.

    Suicide bomb belts? Kassam rocket assemblers/operators? Er, that appears to be it.

       0 likes

  9. hillhunt says:

    Horse & Hound:

    If hill whatever is there I might give him a good horsewhipping before setting the dogs on him. However if he’s contrite and repents I do have an opening for a butler.

    Toodle pip everyone and please just ignore the class-war twit.

    No danger of the comments on this blog looking quite bizarre when you’re around.

    Let’s just tally up.

    pounce promised something so horrible we’re not allowed to talk about it.

    disillusioned german offers a full IDF welcome.

    biodegradababble comes over all Die Hard with a sort of Israeli ju-jitsu without rules. Apparently my dentist will be busy for some weeks afterwards.

    Now Country Life unsheathes a horsewhip.

    Biased BBC: Straw Dogs Lite.
    .

       0 likes

  10. bijan daneshmand says:

    Natalie

    You miss the point on the Johnston “kidnapping” I and other here are not alleging that

    “Alan Johnston must have engineered his own kidnap because he apparently set out to meet his kidnappers.”

    what we assert is that as this story is being drawn out it is uncovering the deep underlying relationship that exists between the BBC, the “kidnappers” and the Hamas go between.

    Examine the evidence to date:

    (1) Neiter Fatah or Hamas has alleged Mossad involvment to date. that is extraordinary and means that those parties in charge in Gaza know who is holding Johnston.

    (2) The principle beneficiary of the hostage taking is Hamas. Since the kidnapping. Hamas has gone from being a proscribed terrorist organisation to one which can now meet with UK government representatives, and have its spokesman tour the UK to spread its propaganda aimed at supplanting Fatah and breaking the International Embargo.

    (3) No one to date has addressed the question of the incriminating 27 seconds of the tape containing the “BBC has refused message to the family” this slide must mean that the hostage takers are to some extent acting in a co-ordinated way with the BBC. They are just not sophisticated enough to hide this fact and occasional as was the case with the video this is uncovered.

    (4) The involvment of the Daghmouche clan/Army of Islam is a complete red herring – in effect its plausible deniability for Hamas which are behind this whole venture.

    (5) The question remains who put this idea into Hamas’ head. Or at the very least who expressed to Hamas unofficially that this type of action would not be condenmed by the British. I believe that there is a very strong porobability that MI6 & FO elements that are favourable to radical Islam and Hamas and are looking to break the international embargo of Hamas simply suggested that they take and keep safe a British hostage and then arrange his release. In relation to this simply google Alistair Crooke and also look at his ties to those sponsoring Ghazi Hamad’s appearence at the Guardian Hay of Wye Festival.

    Johnston as a “friend of the Palestinian cause” was an excellent choice of hostage … he could appear eloquently on any released tape … and as the palestnian public out pouring of support for him took place, this meant that Hamas could have its propaganda cake and eat it in terms of not damaging British public goodwill for the Palestinian cause.

    (6) Johnston himself is simply a willing or at the very least a not too unwilling accomplice to this whole stunt. Knowing his longstanding views the “hostage takers” knew that he would play along with them in a way that the FOX crew wouldnt.

    This theory is not a conspiracy theory but the most likely scenario given the various participants past behaviour (Hamas, BBC, FO, MI6) and the usual discrepancies that have appeared to date in this case.

    If I am correct at some point Hamas will broker an understanding, Johnston will be released, the FO and MI6 agenst involved will be graciously thanked, Johnston will come out as a “hero journalist” (who by the way was due to quit Gaza in any case. And a new set of arrangments and relationships between Hamas and its allies within the European establishment will have been created, to the detriment of Fatah and Israel.

    Natalie if you are going to question this account of the media manipulation that is going on then at least ensure that you give an accurate account of what is being stated claimed – dont mis-represent what I am stating.

    In light of the various participants in the “Qana Massacre” hoax nothing that I have stated here is controversial let alone conspitorial.

       0 likes

  11. Anonymous says:

    The BBC will at some point be brought to face the truth that these Palestinian Terrorists, who want to destroy Israel, hate the BBC and the West too; better to learn that lesson now, rather than later. Hint: the reason for their hatred is not Western oppression or imperialism or Zionism, but an ideology generating from their side.

       0 likes

  12. Ultraviolets says:

    Ooo, Anonymous has posted a Politically Blasphemous comment.

    “(1) Neiter Fatah or Hamas has alleged Mossad involvment to date. that is extraordinary and means that those parties in charge in Gaza know who is holding Johnston.”

    I was just skim reading through but that made me chuckle.

    Existential Uncertainty = Mossad

       0 likes

  13. dave t says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6714087.stm

    I sent the following to the EIS at the weekend.

    “As a former member of the Armed Forces I was saddened to read the proposal for the AGM by the Edinburgh Branch that military recruitment should be banned from schools and colleges. I know of many ex Forces personnel male and female who are teaching or training as such. Indeed my school has a high proportion of Forces students whose parents put themselves at risk voluntarily. What a slap in the face from people who obviously have no idea of the sacrifices we and our families made and continue to make to ensure that Edinburgh Branch can safely show themselves up without fear of being dragged off to a dismal fate. May I conclude that Fire, Police and NHS recruitment will also be banned on the same grounds, namely that they are dangerous occupations?

    Kindly cancel my membership immediately. I will look for guidance and support elsewhere as is my democratic right which continues to be upheld and protected by the same Armed Forces that Edinburgh Branch would disparage. Thank you.”

    The BBC repeats a claim by the Edinburgh Branch loony that “Most teachers” support a ban – rubbish! Most teachers DO NOT support such a ban in my school ! What part of volunteer Armed Forces do they not understand? Typical lefties – treat grown men and women as kids when it suits them. You can’t let them get married, drive, drink smoke etc before or at the age when they are allowed on operations and then turn round and say you are trying to protect the kids! If that is so then make the drinking smoking marriage and driving age etc 21!

       0 likes

  14. Ultraviolets says:

    Oh and prohibit them from leaving school until age 18.

    Can you believe that it was once age 15?

       0 likes

  15. dave t says:

    My son joined up at 15.5, served in Kosovo during the invasion aged 18 and a few days. We had lots of lads in my unit who flew to NI on their 18th birthdays and started patrolling after midnight that day. The point is that we used to have 15 year old junior soldiers (most of the RSMs in the Army were ex juniors until recently)who were treated like young men not kids and in the main they responded well and matured a lot quicker than their civilian peers. Some of my S4/S5 students (16/17 years old) behave like wee bairns every day; others are mature beyond their years. Pity most of the latter are girls and the former are boys! I am tempted to buy the lads ‘Scouting for Boys’ or something similar!

    Anyway who the hell do these teachers think they are claiming to speak for the rest of us, and how patronising are they? ‘Don’t worry little boy, we will stop the nasty Army man coming to school to drag you off to Iraq’. You would not believe how many in the Army HAVE NOT yet served over there yet! (Infantry tend to do repeat tours because it is an infantry-based battlefield.) If the teachers think their students are incapable of making their own minds up then we certainly don’t need such recruits in the Armed Forces! We only have to look at Arthur Batchelor and his crying, upset at losing his IPod and wanting Mummy hugs from Faye whilst held in Iran to see an example of one such student!

       0 likes

  16. archduke says:

    interesting difference in reporting..

    have a look at this bbc report on the US cruise missile strikes in somalia

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6714473.stm

    now , have a look at the NY Times article:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/world/africa/03somalia.html?em&ex=1180929600&en=a5f9b2e1610d4fe5&ei=5087

    in the NY Times:
    “Mr. Dahir also said three American Special Operations soldiers were on the ground, helping Somali security forces.”

    and also

    “Three Americans came into the mountains with us,” Mr. Dahir said. “They are counterterrorism experts and they are investigating the computers that the militants were carrying.”

    note how this is never conveyed in the BBC report. the fact of the matter is , is that Puntland is having a problem with islamists and they just asked for help. the U.S. gladly obliged.

    but reading the BBC report, you’d think that it was just yet more “U.S. agression”…

       0 likes

  17. archduke says:

    dave t -> but the resistance to british army recruiting in Scotland could be influenced by rising Scottish nationalism.

    which is a fair point i have to say. why go off and fight for a foreign power, if you are a nationalist and believe in an independent Scotland?

    it’d be a different matter if the teachers union was based in England.

       0 likes

  18. Ultraviolets says:

    Nothing like death, madness, and existential fear to focus your mind.

    I know some lads who are 22 years old who drive around in crappy chavback cars who like to scare cyclists off their bikes. It happened to me. They of course think it’s funny.

    22 years old.

       0 likes

  19. Glauca says:

    I wonder if the BBC is going to report on this story?

    GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – An Islamic group threatened to behead female TV broadcasters if they don’t wear strict Islamic dress, frightening reporters and signaling a further shift toward extremism in the Gaza Strip.

    The threat to “cut throats from vein to vein” was delivered by the Swords of Truth, a fanatical group that has previously claimed responsibility for bombing Internet cafes and music shops. The new threat was the first time the organization targeted a specific group of people. …

    Most of the 15 women broadcasters on government-run Palestine TV wear headscarves. But they also wear makeup and Western clothing — not considered strictly observant by extremists.

    The Swords of Truth issued the statement Friday in an e-mail to news organizations. “We will cut throats, and from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and moral of this nation,” the statement said. The group also accused the women broadcasters of being “without any … shame or morals.”

    Prior to the statement, some women broadcasters said they had received personal threats through their mobile phones. It was not clear if the threats were from the same group.

       0 likes

  20. Glauca says:

    PA officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that the presence of the extremist groups in the Gaza Strip would “eventually lead to the transformation of the Palestinian territories into a Taliban-style entity.”

    According to one official, “The day will come when we will miss Hamas. These are extremely dangerous groups that are trying to take Palestinian society back to the Dark Ages.

    Now, when that happen, it will put the BBC in a great dilemma? Or will they be able to find a way to blame Israel?
    I am scratching my head.

       0 likes

  21. Glauca says:

    #1468 – Graduation Ceremony at the Islamic Association in Gaza on Hamas TV

    http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1468#

       0 likes

  22. Glauca says:

    And……
    Turkish leader plan Muslim Europe

    The BBC’s dream

    http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=1&subID=1348

       0 likes

  23. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    #6 IN A SERIES OF ADMISSIONS OF THE BBC’S INSTITUTIONAL BIAS FROM BBC STAFF AND ITS LEFTWING ALLIES:

    COPY AND PASTE INTO NEW DOC AND KEEP HANDY FOR REFERENCE IN FUTURE EXCHANGES WITH BBC BIGOTS

    Anyone who watches or listens to the BBC has the organisation’s bias thrust in front of them almost 24 hours a day. It is clear that the corporation has a distinct agenda in its coverage of politics: anything emanating from the Conservatives is treated as irrelevant or ludicrous: anything from Labour granted abject obeisance.
    I hold no brief for the Tories. I have only ever voted Labour and will do so again this time. But I am appalled by what we are witnessing: the emasculation of the BBC by a Government determined to shape it to its own requirements. A BBC, furthermore, that has a proud history of unbiased reporting and whose Charter requires it to be impartial.

    Labour-supporting Stephen Pollard (Daily Mail, 15 February 2005)

       0 likes

  24. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    I’ve just stumbled across a BBC report from a couple of weeks ago that I think ought not to pass by without at least some discussion. I’ve checked: it was picked up and commented on by Anonymous in an earlier open thread, but no one, including me, took it forward:

    US detainee ‘mentally tortured’
    A Pakistani-born US resident detained at Guantanamo Bay has said he was “mentally tortured” there, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon. Majid Khan, who has been accused of planning to blow up petrol stations in the US, also described how he tried to commit suicide by chewing on an artery.
    Mr Khan presented a Statement of Torture to the US military tribunal reviewing his “enemy combatant” status. He was among 14 “high-value” detainees moved to Guantanamo Bay in September. The men were previously held in secret CIA prisons but are now being detained in a maximum security wing at the base in Cuba.

    Mr Khan moved to the US in the late 1990s, where he went to high school in Baltimore. The US government says that, on his return to Pakistan, family members introduced him to senior al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He is also accused of having links with fellow Guantanamo detainee Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, and of passing money to the Islamist militant group, Jemaah Islamiah (JI). “I am not an enemy combatant,” he asserted. “I am not an extremist.” “I have never been to Afghanistan and I have never met Osama bin Laden.”

    Afterwards, Mr Khan’s personal representative read out a written statement, in which he alleged psychological torture. “I swear to God this place in some sense worst than CIA jails. I am being mentally torture here,” he said. “There is extensive torture even for the smallest of infractions.” Mr Khan complained about how US guards had taken away pictures of his daughter, given him new glasses with the wrong prescription, shaved his beard off, forcibly fed him when he went on hunger strike, and denied him the opportunity for recreation. This led him to attempt to chew through his artery twice, Mr Khan said.

    Later, Mr Khan produced a list of further examples of psychological torture, which included the provision of “cheap, branded, unscented soap”, the prison newsletter, noisy fans and half-inflated balls in the recreation room that “hardly bounce”.

    This is beyond parody! “Cheap, unbranded, scented soap”? “Half-inflated balls”? FFS! Clearly, such allegations, emanating as they do from a person who demonstrates great antipathy towards the U.S. authorities, actually belie the general Guardian/BBC line on Gitmo “torture”.

    So where is the BBC exposé of the falseness of the other serious allegations, using this man’s allegations as a starting point? Doesn’t the BBC realise that the U.S. is an ally of the U.K.? Or is the political war that the BBC prosecutes over the world’s airwaves of such importance that lies must always take precedence over truth?

    Why is the BBC content for the disinformation about Gitmo to remain unexamined and unchecked?

       0 likes

  25. will says:

    Live Earth concerts, with which the BBC is anxious to be closely identified –

    Jana Bennett, Director of BBC Vision, said: “The BBC is proud to be the host broadcaster of this important event which organisers hope will raise awareness about climate change.

    comes in for some criticism in The Sunday Times

    Matt Bellamy, front man of the rock band Muse, labelled it “private jets for climate change”.

    Gore has admitted that the concerts will consume a vast amount of electricity. To combat criticism of their own damaging effect on the environment, the organisers will pay at least £1m in carbon credits (are carbon credits just created from actions which would have taken place anyway, like planting a new commercial forest?)

    The event at Wembley on July 7 will be headlined by Madonna, who green campaigners say used 440 tons of CO2 in four months on her Confessions tour last year.

    http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article1875538.ece

       0 likes

  26. Biodegradable says:

    ROTFL!

    Anti-conformist anarchists riot against… something:
    http://drinksoakedtrotsforwar.blogspot.com/2007/06/hoodie-manufacturers-profits-up.html

    I’m so glad that my mother, who lived through WW2, always forbade me from wearing anything black because she associated it with Oswald Moslely and Hitler’s blackshirts. I have never worn anything black, except at funerals, and never will.

       0 likes

  27. Anonymous says:

    A chilling terrorist plot to blow up a fuel pipeline that feeds JFK Airport – that its four Muslim schemers hoped would be so large that “even the Twin Towers can’t touch it” – has been stopped dead in its tracks with the arrest of the men behind it..

    4 charged in plot to blow up NYC airport
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070603/ap_on_re_us/terrorism_plot;_ylt=A0WTUfaDpWJGIV0A7Aes0NUE

       0 likes

  28. will says:

    The BBC want to leave us in no doubt where “responsibility” lays for the security shortcomings at Birmingham Airport

    A documentary is to reveal what it calls “serious security lapses” at Birmingham International Airport (BIA).

    A six-month project looked at the work of ICTS UK, one of the security firms used by BIA.

    ICTS UK is contracted by BIA to supply security staff to a number of airlines operating out of the airport

    BIA said the allegations related solely to ICTS UK

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6716187.stm

    So ICTS is contracted by BIA, who then it seems, pay no attention to ICTS’s performance.

    The BBC report shows no inclination to press BIA on their washing their hands of responsibility.

    BIA is of course 49% owned by the West Midland local authorities. ICTS could be an evil private company.

       0 likes

  29. Anonymous says:

    CARIBBEAN TERROR

    All four apparently are Muslims, although authorities were quick to point out that they had no known ties to al-Qadea or other Islamist organizations.
    That is, they were freelancers – a chilling development indeed.
    http://www.nypost.com/seven/06032007/postopinion/editorials/caribbean_terror_editorials_.htm

       0 likes

  30. archduke says:

    Matt Bellamy, front man of the rock band Muse, labelled it “private jets for climate change“.

    that made me laugh!

    i would love to buy a t-shirt with that slogan on it.

       0 likes

  31. hillhunt says:

    will:

    The BBC report shows no inclination to press BIA on their washing their hands of responsibility.

    BIA is of course 49% owned by the West Midland local authorities. ICTS could be an evil private company.

    It’s a news report summarisimg an ITV investigation. It’s not the BBC doing the investigating.

    Even so, it contains five paragraphs summarising BIA’s reaction to the ITV investigation.

    If a contractor fails to deliver, most reasonable people would seek answers from the contractor, not the client.

    Apart from that, an ideal stick to beat the BBC over the head with.
    .

       0 likes

  32. Horse & Hound says:

    I see that any form of humour is totally lost on the likes of that hill whatever chappie.

    hillhunt | 02.06.07 – 9:30 pm |

    Still it took him two hours to come up with his little diatribe.

       0 likes

  33. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    The BBC and its biased reporting of Railtrack (owned by nasty cigar-smoking capitalists) vs Network Rail (owned by the peepul)

    —-RAILTRACK—-
    Potters Bar victim seeks prosecution:
    Novelist Nina Bawden, who was severely injured in the Potters Bar train crash, is demanding that those responsible for the accident be prosecuted for manslaughter. Mrs Bawden lost her husband, BBC executive Austin Kark, in the disaster which was blamed on faulty points. In a special end of the year essay for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she says corporate manslaughter charges should be brought.

    —-NETWORK RAIL—-
    Google search #1:
    Web Results 1 – 10 of about 31 from news.bbc.co.uk for:
    “Network Rail” track maintenance derailed train death Virgin Cumbria

    Google search #2:
    Your search – site:news.bbc.co.uk “Corporate manslaughter” “Network Rail” track maintenance derailed train death Virgin Cumbria
    did not match any documents.

       0 likes

  34. Horse & Hound says:

    I do so love this man’s articles:

    Save the planet, eat a vegan

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article1874673.ece

    Especially when he provokes outraged hysteria from the proletariat.

       0 likes

  35. will says:

    The Observer’s editorial finds fault in the actions of UK academics & journalists who are seeking the boycott of Israel.

    This is not the first such vote by a British trade union. University lecturers debated a similar move last year. Last month, the National Union of Journalists voted for a boycott of everything Israeli, an absurd gesture since, if implemented, it would make reporting from Jerusalem impossible. All that motion achieved was to send a signal worldwide that, collectively, British journalists take a partisan view of Middle East news.

    http://observer.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,2094171,00.html

    The BBC is usually eager to have one of its various editors comment on the passing scene. Perhaps Hillhunt can point me to where the BBC have distanced themselves from the NUJ proposals, which relate directly to the BBC’s activities. (I can’t even find a BBC news report on the NUJ action)

       0 likes

  36. Biodegradable says:

    Save the planet, eat a vegan
    Horse & Hound | 03.06.07 – 2:08 pm

    Is hillhunt a vegan?

       0 likes

  37. Biodegradable says:

    Have your say
    Debate on the 1967 war. LIVE NOW.

    How best to resolve the legacy of 1967 war? Are the problems too much to be solved by politics? We are discussing this on our global phone-in programme, Have Your Say on Sunday 3rd June.
    We are joined by Israeli Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog with former Israeli Ambassador to the US, Zalman Shoval, in Jerusalem, Palestinian Information minister, Mustafa Barghouti in Ramallah and Christian Aid spokeswoman, Janet Symes in London.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_6710000/newsid_6716200?redirect=6716243.stm&news=1&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1

       0 likes

  38. Tropical Lurker says:

    Current second story on the BBC News site is subtitled:
    “Lebanese forces shell militant positions deep within the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, in a bid to force a surrender.”
    If the Israelis had been carrying out this bombing, they no doubt would have replaced “militant positions” with “civilian areas”.

       0 likes

  39. Tropical Lurker says:

    Clarification:
    If the Israelis had been carrying out this bombing, the BBC no doubt would have replaced “militant positions” with “civilian areas”.

       0 likes

  40. Jon says:

    “To combat criticism of their own damaging effect on the environment, the organisers will pay at least £1m in carbon credits”

    No doubt the money will go into Al Gores company.

    “But it turns out he pays for his extra-large carbon footprint through Generation Investment Management, a London-based company with offices in Washington, D.C., for which he serves as chairman. The company was established to take financial advantage of new technologies and solutions related to combating “global warming,” reports blogger Bill Hobbs.”

    http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54528

       0 likes

  41. Abandon Ship! says:

    Oh dear.

    http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2094286,00.html

    Welcome to the real world Beeboids.

    They could save a bit of money by not providing tissues for Barbara Plett and stop providing scary face masks for Orla Guerin.

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  42. Oscar says:

    Abandon Ship
    Oh dear.
    Senior executives are currently deciding which jobs will go, but one source said: ‘Many hundreds of jobs are under threat in news and there are serious questions over whether the quality of programmes like Newsnight and The 10 O’Clock News can be maintained.

    Hmmm – what about the quality of bias?

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  43. Oscar says:

    But I am appalled by what we are witnessing: the emasculation of the BBC by a Government determined to shape it to its own requirements. .

    How’s this for “emasculation” in the face of Big Brother Brown? What a truly Orwellian headline.
    Brown pledge to protect liberties

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6716865.stm

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  44. John Reith says:

    will | 03.06.07 – 2:19 pm |

    Perhaps Hillhunt can point me to where the BBC have distanced themselves from the NUJ proposals

    Dunno about hh, but I can.

    BBC journalists were first out of the traps to fight the proposal.

    See Trades Union Friends of Israel:

    BBC journalists lead bid against union’s Israel boycott

    http://www.tufi.org.uk/2007/04/bbc_journalists_lead_bid_again.html

    BBC TV correspondent starts blog against NUJ Israel boycott

    BBC technology and business correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones is using a blog to spearhead a rebellion against National Union of Journalists (NUJ) plans to boycott Israeli goods…..

    http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story3324.shtml

    http://stopnujboycott.blogspot.com/

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  45. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    John Reith | 03.06.07 – 6:48 pm:

    BBC technology and business correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones is using a blog to spearhead a rebellion against National Union of Journalists (NUJ) plans to boycott Israeli goods…..

    Another one from Robin Aiken’s cricket team? Looks like to me…

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  46. Abandon Ship! says:

    A bit like Charles Moore’s article yesterday in the Telegraph, this BBC report from Lebanon would never have been written like this if it was the IDF taking on Islamists in Gaza etc. Just try it for yourself – replace “soldiers” or “Army troops” with “Israeli forces” and you soon see how different it is…..and what they don’t add in with this report, as Lebanon is not the Little Satan.

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  47. bodo says:

    As Oscar’s link above shows, the BBC seems besotted with Gordon Brown – they have been breathlessly reporting what Brown is ‘considering’ wrt terror laws – top story ALL day.
    Its all put in a positive terms. The BBC simply regurgitating the press release.

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  48. will says:

    Thank you JR, but my point was that the BBC itself appears to be silent on the prospect of their NUJ members having to be less than even handed when reporting from the ME.

    You haven’t supplied links to a BBC report. BBC journalists opposing the NUJ policy is good, but shouldn’t the management reassure the audience of the BBC’s determination to continue its impartial coverage?

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  49. Jon says:

    Will US greenhouse gas targets work?

    “The tone of these comments further confirms what I already know is the case: “Global Warming” has zero to do with science or the environment. It’s simply agitprop for the anti-West/anti US, anti global economy income redistribution rapid left. Other than announcing that the USA were reverting to a pre 1780 plantation economy, nothing would please those whose agendas have hijacked both science and rational discussion of what might even be a serious subject.”
    http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/bbc/threads/show/6477

    Why was this censored? It is on subject, it is not rude in any way.

    But its censored.

    This one wasn’t

    “Should we be listening to any advice from a man who thinks that “Intelligent Design” is a credible scientific theory?

    Matthew Mason, United Kingdom ”
    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=6477&edition=1&ttl=20070603193714&#paginator

    I was going to complain about this post, but whats the point.

    This is George Bush on “Intellegent Design”.

    “”Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about,” he said, according to an official transcript of the session. Bush added: “Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought. . . . You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes.”
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201686.html

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