:
Quote from Peter Allen on R5L yesterday:
“We’ve always got time for Kevin Maguire“.
You don’t say. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he has his own bed somewhere at the BBC.
Update: And a predictable comment from Kojo, a Beeboid Bozo who’s never heard of ‘whois‘.
writes Anthony Reuben, a BBC Views Online Business Reporter, of the recently deceased Dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, including this wonderfully astute observation:
The very idea of a commercially run business being set up to benefit anyone other than shareholders was a new one.
And I thought that any commercially run business sets out to benefit its customers through the provision of goods and services freely purchased.
Perhaps its due to the unique way the BBC is funded that British tellytaxpayers receive the benefit of such top-notch Beeboid wisdom, not freely purchased!
Thank you to Biased BBC reader Ryan Stephenson for the quote.
P.S. Our Beeboid ‘business reporter’ also overlooks many benevolent and socially responsible commercial employers from generations past in his rush to praise Dame Anita.
Please use this thread for BBC-related comments and analysis. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not (and never has been) an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or use as a chat forum. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.
reports the Grauniad:
Listeners outraged by a BBC Radio Five Live debate on Madeleine McCann forced the station to change a phone-vote on her disappearance.
Victoria Derbyshire’s morning phone-in today asked listeners to vote on whether they still had sympathy for Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate after they were officially made suspects in the case by Portuguese police on Friday.
Dozens of listeners contacted the programme to say they did not think it was a suitable subject for debate while the legal process was still ongoing.
And the BBC head of TV news, Peter Horrocks, who was interviewed by Derbyshire, also appeared to question the station’s coverage of the McCann story.
The weight of the negative reaction was such that producers were forced to change the vote to whether the station should be discussing the case at all – and listeners voted by 68% to 32% that it should not be.
Good old BBC. Tasteless and inappropriate, whatever one’s feelings about Gerry and Kate McCann and the fate of poor Madeleine. And just yesterday one of our resident Beeboids was holding forth about the BBC’s need to be careful about prejudicing legal proceedings!
Thank you to Maureen of A View from England for the link.
, BBC Views Online reported that Conservatives Mercer and Bercow to advise Brown.
Co-incidentally, of the seventeen paragraphs in an article about both politicians, BBC Views Online spent five paragraphs, in the middle of course, rehashing the ‘Mercer is a racist’ meme the BBC so gleefully promulgated back in March.
One line would have been enough of a reminder, if it was needed at all, given that the original I am not a racist, says sacked Tory article was linked to as a ‘See also’ anyway.
P.S. Patrick, you need to update the BBC’s photo of you – that ‘Chinny’ Hill look is awful. No wonder they picked it.
:
According to employment law firm Peninsula, 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees “wasting time” on social networking.
The study – based on a survey of 3,500 UK companies – concluded that businesses need to take firm action on the use of social networks at work.
The Bivings Report: The BBC is invading Facebook:
As of this posting, the British Broadcasting Corporation facebook network has 14,726 members. For an imperfect comparison’s sake, I’ve checked the CNN network, and it only has a 311 members while the Turner Broadcasting (CNN’s group in the AOL TimeWarner empire) network has 1,843 members.
Back on June 6th, Richard Sambrook, the social media savvy and friendly Director of BBC Global News, wrote on his personal blog SacredFacts that “[t]here are over 10,000 members of the BBC group (for which you have to have a bbc email) alone. That’s about half the entire organsiation”. The BBC has invaded facebook!
All thanks to the unique way the BBC is funded. How heartwarming.
“Not one call has been aired suggesting that there might, just might, be some improvement as a result of the surge.
And that’s absolutely not because that’s the view that all callers to the programme have taken. I know that for a fact – because I called in to redress the balance. And have I been put on air? Of course not.
It is thus an editorial decision to air only calls which say nothing is improving and the Americans are lying.
We pay our license fee for this.”
An aside: it could be just an accident of wordplay, but I did admire the BBC’s chutzpah in putting on their front page simultaneous to their “surge ‘working'” headline (which was just quoting Petraeus), this article, Al-Qaeda resurgent six years on? (highlight mine; thanks to commenter Heron for the Pollard link).
Reflecting on the BBC’s current coverage of Iraq and the Petraeus report which is due today, I was led to have a nostalgic look at the much-missed LastNight’sBBCNEWS blog, which gave panoramas of Panorama and other BBC programmes during its existence. Here’s an interesting post.
It reminded me of the old BBC line that the trouble with Iraq was “the Sunni insurgency… a nationalistic struggle against foreigners”. That was yesterday’s despair.
Now, I also note that the BBC have chosen to present their own news ahead of Gen. Petraeus’ remarks today, revealing what their busy-beaver, wholly impartial and fully trained Iraqi pollsters have found about Iraqis’ views on “the surge”. I don’t know how big the Iraqi media’s coverage of “the surge” has been- but I doubt whether this represents a distinct difference for Iraqis. A few more American occupiers around in Baghdad and the West of the country. So what? Well, the BBC thinks it fits nicely with the ground they’ve been preparing for Petraeus’ report.
But what I said about yesterday’s worries is relevant, extremely so. For what the BBC forget is that yesterday’s enemies have become today’s allies- in Al Anbar and the Sunni triangle. The minority that the BBC saw as a nationalistic resistance is now replaced in terms of threat by the majority Shia with its factional interests and Iranian involvement. So a poll that interviews proportionately may well reflect the fact that the US is no longer seen as a wholly backed subsidiary of the majority interest.
This might be seen as good news from Iraq, but ah, I see those distant goal posts being shifted yet again. No goal! No goal!
Here are four recent news reports, reproduced in full. Can you spot the relevant fact omitted from one of them:
First, BBC Views Online:
Man in court faces terror charges
A man has appeared in court accused of preparing acts of terrorism in his home town in South Yorkshire.
Nicholas Roddis, of Reedham Drive, Bramley, Rotherham, appeared at London’s Old Bailey on Friday by video link from custody.
The 22-year-old was remanded in custody for a plea and case management hearing on 21 November.
At his next court appearance, the charge of preparing acts of terrorism will be put to him.
Second, Teletext:
A Muslim convert from Rotherham has appeared at the Old Bailey accused of preparing acts of terrorism. Nicholas Roddis, 22, of Reedham Drive, Bramley, appeared for the short hearing on a video link from prison. Roddis was remanded in police custody for a plea and case management hearing on November 21, when an indictment will be put to him.
Can you guess what it is yet?
Third, The Star (from South Yorkshire):
Rotherham man faces terror trial
A WHITE Muslim convert has appeared in court accused of plotting to bomb his hometown of Rotherham.
Nicholas Roddis, aged 22, allegedly kept a list for attacking Rotherham, along with chemicals for making explosives and bomb-making recipes.Counter terrorism police claim he also kept extremist propaganda including beheadings at his then home during a two-and-a-half year period. The property was searched on May 8, this year.
He was yesterday charged with 13 offences under the 2000 and 2006 Terrorism Acts.
Roddis, of Reedham Drive, Bramley, spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth during a 10-minute hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London. He appeared in custody wearing a white prison-issue tracksuit and goatee beard.
District Judge Nicholas Evans declined jurisdiction and committed the case for trial at the Old Bailey. He will appear for a preliminary hearing on September 7. Judge Evans said: “This is a case in which the Terrorist Protocol applies.”
No bail application was made and there was no indication of his plea.
You must be getting close by now!
Fourth, CourtNewsUK:
A white Muslim convert accused of plotting to bomb his home town appeared at the Old Bailey today (fri). Nicholas Roddis, 22, allegedly kept a ‘To Do’ list for attacking his hometown of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, along with chemicals for making explosives and bomb-making recipes.
Got it yet?
Here’s a clue: it’s the thing that probably inspired the alleged acts.
Good old BBC. All the news, all the time (except when it’s some of the news, some of the time).
Update (Sunday):
Apologies to those who have found this Biased BBC Compare & Contrast Quiz too easy. It would have been tougher with the addition of reports from the Hawick News, the Bridlington Free Press and the Buxton Advertiser, all with this Press Association report:
Convert in court on terror charges
A Muslim convert from Rotherham has appeared at the Old Bailey accused of preparing acts of terrorism in his home town.
Nicholas Roddis, 22, of Reedham Drive, Bramley, appeared for the short hearing on a video link from prison.
He was remanded in custody for a plea and case management hearing on November 21, when an indictment will be put to him.
Thank you to pounce for the BBC and Teletext links. Good spot.
