General BBC-related comment thread:

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may be moderated.

Bookmark the permalink.

349 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread:

  1. pounce says:

    The BBC its hatred of America and Black oppression.

    US police defend brush shooting
    New York police have said they acted within guidelines when they shot dead a mentally ill teenager brandishing what turned out to be a hairbrush. Police arrived outside Khiel Coppin’s apartment on Monday night after receiving a call from his mother, who believed he wanted to commit suicide. Officers mistook the 18-year-old’s brush for a gun and shot him 20 times, police chief Ray Kelly said.
    ………………..
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7093839.stm

    According to the BBC this was just another just another controversial shooting of a unarmed Blackman by the US police.

    And here is the News from New York
    http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/11/14/graf_shoot11_14.gif

    and the full story.
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/11/14/2007-11-14_teen_khiel_coppin_said_he_was_prepared_t-2.html

    Strange how the BBC quotes Police Commissioner Kelly as saying they shot him 20 times. No BBC here is what Police Commissioner Kelly said;
    http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyshot1114-wn,0,5450037.worldnowvideo

    07.36 into the video PC Kelly quotes “A total of 20 rounds were fired striking Khiel. 8 times.” Not 20 as the BBC says but 8.

    The BBC its hatred of America and Black oppression.

       0 likes

  2. pounce says:

    The BBC, how it defends Islamic terrorism and still half a story.

    Survivors recall Baghlan bomb horror
    The lane leading to the Baghlan sugar factory is lined with trees. All of them have been painted white at the base, but one is now blackened.

    This is where a suicide bomber detonated explosives last week.

    In all, around 70 people died here. More than 100 people were injured.
    The bomb, laced with ball bearings, targeted a delegation of MPs, but most of the victims were schoolboys, there to welcome the visiting dignitaries. In the confusion after the blast, bodyguards working for the MPs opened fire.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7094434.stm

    The BBC still doesn’t tell you just how many school children were murdered by their friends(59). But they do go out of their way in which to blame everybody but the taliban.

    The BBC, how it defends Islamic terrorism and still half a story.

       0 likes

  3. pounce says:

    The BBC. Resettling refugees and half a story.

    Ministers win Darfur court appeal
    Ministers have won an appeal against a court ruling which could have widened the grounds for being given asylum. The Law Lords upheld Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s complaint about the Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn a tribunal ruling.
    The tribunal said sending refugees to camps in the Sudanese region of Darfur was not “unduly harsh” resettlement.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7094141.stm

    The BBC informs the reader that this government is returning refugees to Darfur.
    Here is what really transpired ;
    “The House of Lords has ruled that the government can deport Darfuri asylum seekers to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, overturning an earlier court of appeal decision.”

    It seems the BBC can’t distinguish between western Darfur and Khartoum which is around 500 miles away.

    The BBC. Resettling refugees and half a story.

       0 likes

  4. pounce says:

    Silly me the link
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,,2210692,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11

       0 likes

  5. david C says:

    How much is the Bill Oddie program costing?
    It is completly out of touch with the countryside.Their reporting is by people who view with rose tinted publicity.
    Why do they sit in the studio with gloves and hats on?
    A complete waste of the tax we pay to watch television.
    David C

       0 likes

  6. David Gregory (BBC) says:

    David C

    They wear gloves because they start the show outside. And it’s bloody freezing tonight!
    You may not enjoy it, but last night it was the second most popular programme on TV.

       0 likes

  7. Anonymous says:

    David Gregory,

    How can it be “Bloody Freezing” when the BBC constantly tells us the planet is boiling in its own juices due to climate change

       0 likes

  8. David Gregory (BBC) says:

    Anonymous (another plea for names…) Anyway… you’re confusing weather with climate change.

       0 likes

  9. Lurker in a Burqua says:

    Suffer The Children

    Funding ‘may bring BBC monopoly’

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7095032.stm

       0 likes

  10. Lurker in a Burqua says:

    Another stupid and crass question from HYS.

    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=3819&edition=1&ttl=20071115015448

       0 likes

  11. Stephanie clague says:

    David Gregory,

    “You are confusing weather with climate change”. World mean temperatures are falling and the world is entering a cooling phase BUT CO2 levels are rising! That doesnt fit with the BBC narrative at all, a very inconvenient fact I think. The BBC propaganda machine would have us believe that CO2 is directly linked to WARMING! No wonder then that the BBC have been so keen to keep world temperature data from 2000/2007 out of sight.
    I look forward to seeing how the BBC get out of the AGW hole they have so eagerly dug for themselves!
    The first clue to the about turn is the subtle change from “global warming to “climate change”, but rememeber the BBC mantra, “increased CO2 is DIRECTLY linked to rising temperatures”! Keep digging that hole Eh?.

       0 likes

  12. David Preiser says:

    pounce | 14.11.07 – 6:55 pm |

    Exactly right. The Narrative this year is that the US is too racist to elect a black president. That tiresome canard had a brief life during the first couple months Obama flexed the muscles of his candidacy. It didn’t work too well, and for reasons besides that the (alleged) African-American Community didn’t snap monolithically to his side. Turns out he’s not black enough for many African Americans (bet the BBC don’t tell you that, guv). It’s gotten so bad his wife had to make a threatening statement the other day that they (black people) needed to start thinking seriously about voting based on race. Fortunately, they are not Jews.

    But the BBC is still flogging that original Narrative (Matt Frei has already made an unsuccessful stab at it), and will do for some time.

    Naturally, once Hillary secures the nomination (for real, instead of in everyone’s hearts and minds), that Narrative will fade away to be replaced with how evil we are if we don’t vote for a woman plus we must take an anti-Republican stance. But for now, we’re all racists.

    As for the actual (seriously) unfortunate incident with the teenager (not a “man”, but a boy) who was just shot up by the police, this is one of a series of really awful incidents in which a mentally disturbed individual successfully attempts suicide by cop. That’s how the cops were quoted in the NYC papers today, and that’s pretty much how the victim’s own mother describes it.

    This kind of thing happens all too frequently in many places, but surprise, surprise, surprise, the BBC picked up this one and ran with it.

    I wonder if this story only got the attention of BBC editors via a breathless phone call from Frei himself.

       0 likes

  13. Tomski says:

    “Anyway… you’re confusing weather with climate change.” – Yeah… Right… You (BBC) have no room to talk. Like the BBC have never done that before.

    Every single new storm, flood etc etc is put down to climate change according to the BBC.

       0 likes

  14. Chris says:

    Following on from Stephanie Claque, the Solar minimum is now upon us and as she says world temperatures are falling with the southern hemisphere having had a hard winter with record sea ice maximums, snow in Brazil, people dying of cold in South Africa.
    The Met. office have shown that October was only ranked 294th warmest out of 349, and that following on from a cool summer.
    The first snow fell in Austria in September and the Ski slopes opened on the 10th of November, with widespread heavy falls through the Black Forest, Switzerland and Austria this week.
    See here http://www.panoramablick.com
    Last year the Slopes in Austria did not open until January.
    All this while Carbon Dioxide is still rising, perhaps this is the reason
    http://personal.inet.fi/tiede/tilmari/sunspots.html#alert
    As someone said “Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get”
    It will be interesting to see how the BBC and other media explain the cooling when they keep saying we should be warming

       0 likes

  15. Nep Nederlander says:

    David Gregory (BBC):
    Anonymous (another plea for names…) Anyway… you’re confusing weather with climate change.
    David Gregory (BBC) | 15.11.07 – 1:38 am |

    Which the BBC does all the time… any weather event which can support their “narrative” is put down to “climate change” (the heads I win tails you lose version of “global warming”), and any weather event which does not support it is just simply “weather”.

    Remember during the hot, dry summer of 2006, the BBC continually told us “due to climate change we can expect more summers like this, there is no doubt”, and after the cold wet summer of this year we have been told “due to climate change we can expect more summers like this, there is no doubt”. Two polar opposites, both explained by the same theory (how very Marxist). Cognitive dissonance or what?

    However, both the 2006 and 2007 summers were simply WEATHER

       0 likes

  16. David H says:

    There is a court case going on in Paris over the faked new report of the death of Al Durah at the hands of Israel. The report was put out by all major news organizations including the BBC as a true event when it was nothing of the sort. The direct result of publishing this as truth, was the death of many Israelis.

    I have not seen any details of this on the BBC website. This is a very important case where we the public have to question the trust, what we have left of it in the Media.

    Where is the report by the BBC especially the one detailing the fact that France 2 is hiding evidence and more importantly what will the BBC say and at what level when the footage is proved to be fake.

    Will Mr Simpson make a public apology to Israel for peddling propaganda, I doubt it.

    The failure to verify this footage was perhaps the most important and disgusting act of bias by the BBC and others.

       0 likes

  17. David H says:

    Sorry just located it on the BBC, strange title:

    “Gaza media battle in French court”, I would have thought using the name Al Durah would have been more logical?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7092262.stm

    The report by the BBC missed out a couple of key aspects, most notably that Enderlin said that they did not show him dying as it was too distressing, but this part of the film never existed, they said this to prevent people scrutinising it.

    Also not pointed out in th report was the the film was 27 minutes intotal and Enderlin has only shown 18 minutes in court, come on BBC, report that bit!!!

       0 likes

  18. David Gregory (BBC) says:

    Climate Change: Well it was the reason I first posted here and I think I’ve already taken up far too much space on this blog about it. But just to say… I’m the Science Correspondent and I’m interested in explaining what Scientists are saying about this to viewers. Would I do a report on a piece of research that didn’t fit the narrative? You betcha! Does anyone tell me what to do or say so it fits in with some kind of BBC grand scheme? No.
    And hey, because of the nice warm summer two years ago we’re going to have a fantastic year for holly berries! http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/today_in_your_garden/christmas_wreath1.shtml

       0 likes

  19. Allan@Oslo says:

    David H is correct that the France 2 case is of great importance. It will be very interseting to see how the BBC chooses to report this. I reckon that it will not be broadcast on peak hour TV because the BBC was as enthusiastic about the ‘original’ depicting Israelis murdering children as it will be reluctant to be seen being wrong, and wilfully wrong.

    The footage of the ‘shooting’ is unquestionably staged and fake as can be seen from this link.

    http://www.seconddraft.org/movies.php

       0 likes

  20. Nep Nederlander says:

    David, why do we always hear then that the Antarctic is melting, when in fact there is plenty of actual research which states that the net ice balance of the Antarctic as a whole is positive to the tune of many tens of gigatons of ice a year?

    Why do we hear that the Antarctic is getting warmer when its temperature trend as measured by satellites is -0.07 degrees per decade? I.e. cooling? The only part of the continent of Antarctica which is warming is the tiny peninsula which actually extends north of the Antarctic Circle, and yet this is reported as if it is true for the whole of Antarctica, which it isn’t.

       0 likes

  21. David H says:

    David Gregory (BBC) as you are looking have a good long look atthis presentation, this is science.

    http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/another_inconvenient_truth_about_the_global_warming_fraud/

       0 likes

  22. David H says:

    One of the best blogs I have come across has analysed the BBC report on the Al Durah case and really picks so many holes in the report produced by the BBC.

    http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2007/11/13/bbc-tries-al-durah-again-c-generous-on-a-curve-it-is-the-bbc/

    I hope that if this is found to be a lie then the BBC and others should make it their first story on their most important emission to show the importance of the truth and the failure of France 2 to verify it resulted in the world media pushing blatent propaganda.

    With the pro-Palestinian bias in the BBC I doubt it, but if the BBC wants to be seen as a impartial voice then stand up for the truth.

       0 likes

  23. Richard says:

    I think this is my first post here, so apologies if this isn’t entirely appropriate however I noticed this:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7093356.stm

    on the news website, which was originaly reported here:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6986554.stm

    but also i beleive mentioned on the radio etc.

    I appreciate that the new information has been provided, however at the time the figure given of 17% seemed exceptionally high, yet the bbc still accepted it clearly without any investigation. If you read the latest article the bbc states:

    ” But because the data on which the StopIt study was based has never been published, and nor has the study itself, it is impossible to say exactly how it was done. Attempts to obtain it or to talk to the lead researcher have gone unanswered.

    Once the number was out, politicians were certainly not about to exercise any scientifically-minded reservations about its reliability. The story became political as much as medical. ”

    However arn’t the BBC just as guilty of failing to excercise “scientifically-minded reservations “. I’m not a die hard smoking advocate either btw, however i can’t help but feel that had the evidence been the other way it would have attracted rather more consideration?

       0 likes

  24. Anat says:

    Alan@Oslo,
    Concerning the Al Durah affair:

    Having practically ignored the debate for years, the BBC have in the past week put up two separate articles in this matter on their website, the first sympathetic to France2 but the second relatively neutral.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7083129.stm
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7092262.stm

    I get the impression that they may be preparing the ground for all eventualities. If the al-Durah story is finally disproven they will claim to have been misled. But will they then re-examine the whole policy of their Mid East coverage? This remains to be seen.

       0 likes

  25. Anonymous says:

    David Gregory (BBC):
    Anonymous (another plea for names…)
    David Gregory (BBC) | 15.11.07 – 1:38 am

    John Reith is his real name?

       0 likes

  26. Sarah-Jane says:

    David wrote ‘name’ not ‘real name’. I very much doubt that ‘Socialism is necrotizing’ has that on his or her birth certificate but at least we can follow their posts consistently.

       0 likes

  27. Lee Moore says:

    An interesting opinion piece in the BBC Magazine

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7093356.stm

    from which the penultimate sentence is particularly pertinent.

    As for the flurry of excitable headlines, what appeared to be hard medical evidence now looks more like over-hasty and over-confident research, coupled with wishful political thinking and uncritical journalism.

    A lot of the complaints about BBC bias would fade away if their journalists could manage to be a bit more sceptical about stories whose contents they like (such as the instantly wonderful results of smoking bans.) Scepticism is well within the average BBC journalist’s range of talents, it’s just that it is currently deployed selectively – on stories whose contents the journalist doesn’t like and not on stories whose contents the journalist does like.

       0 likes

  28. Sarah-Jane says:

    Michael Blastland is an excellent journalist, and I think many people here would find a lot to agree with in his articles.

    Particularly the occasional blogs he writes for the College of Journalism along the lines of this one. Which of course you don’t get to see…

       0 likes

  29. Abandon Ship! says:

    Lee Moore

    Good point. From the BBC article:

    “Few questioned the research when it was revealed two months ago. Politicians trumpeted the numbers as vindication of a policy introduced a year earlier than in England. Journalists obediently followed suit.”

    Being a research scientist myself, I remember thinking that someting felt wrong about this piece of research, and the way in which the numpty sock-puppets at the BBC promote such findings (because it’s good for us). Indeed I remember remarking so in the comments on this site, and the way in which the Today programme promoted the findings without critical comment.

       0 likes

  30. Allan@Oslo says:

    The Al-Dura affair and the entire matter of news control and distortion by ‘palestinians’ and hizbollah as aided and abetted by western journalists is worthy of an investigative report by Panaroma. There is certainly enough material and it is readily available from links such as EUReferendum amongst others. It is improbable that the now dumbed-down Panorama or any of the remains of the BBC’s investigative sections would wish to touch this because they are incapable and it goes against their political alignment.

       0 likes

  31. Abandon Ship! says:

    And you thought Bush was the focus of all evil in the Beeboid brain? Well you were wrong – it’s plastic bags.

    I have now heard two articles in two days on the BBC about the evils of using plastic bags. What gives? OK, so it might be better to use fewer of them, but it sounds like crusdade time in Beeboid land, now that the smoking ban in Scotland is not the panacea that the BBC assumed it was.

    But why is it that the BBC immediately comes down on the “plastic bags are evil” side of the argument? Its just assumed that all right-thinking people will hate them, just as all right-thinking people hate George bush and Margaret Thatcher. I find plastic bags very useful, but I doubt that my point of view will figure when there’s the world to save from plastic bagation.

       0 likes

  32. Abandon Ship! says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7093356.stm

    “The facts in the way of a good story”

    My prediction: In a few years such an article will appear on the BBC website with regard to Man-made Global warming.

       0 likes

  33. David Gregory (BBC) says:

    Abandon Ship!
    Now isn’t that funny… I’m just setting up a plastic bag story! Why now? Well a very interesting company is doing very well at making cotton alternatives and secondly we’re being contacted by plenty of towns and villages who want to go plastic bag free. So it’s a story, we’re going to report it.
    Of course getting rid of plastic bags is an idea of the right…
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=PZ24SIWZ550MJQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/opinion/2007/11/15/do1501.xml

       0 likes

  34. Dave Coren says:

    The BBC’s at it again dodging a freedom of information request. Waendel Journal is reporting the story…..

    http://tonysharp.blogspot.com/2007/11/accountability-bbc-style.html

       0 likes

  35. Abandon Ship! says:

    Hello David

    Points taken, but of course the BBC promote it (at the level of, say, the Today programme) as an idea of the environmentalist left (Monbiot).

    “we’re being contacted by plenty of towns and villages who want to go plastic bag free”.

    Or just certain members of such towns and villages, such as the ones who make up your average Question Time or News Quiz audience?

       0 likes

  36. Ben says:

    Absolutely, I think we all know that a spate of articles on plastic bags illustrate the wider truth within the BBC

       0 likes

  37. Stephanie clague says:

    Dear David,

    “Would I do a report on a piece of
    research that didnt fit the narrative? you betcha!”
    Brave words my friend, you can ‘talk the talk’ but can you ‘walk the walk’?
    How many articles have you written for the BBC(aired) that conflicted with the AGW/MMCC narrative? I suggest to you that the number of critical articles that you have had aired is slightly less than one but not more than nothing!
    I further suggest that hell might just freeze over first?

       0 likes

  38. Anonymous says:

    David Gregory,

    “Would I do a report on a piece of research that didn’t fit the narrative? You betcha!”

    Lets have it then. Put your money where your mouth is and walk the talk.

       0 likes

  39. Steve E. says:

    Not to be seen on the Beeb anytime soon:

    Coalition special forces, Al-Qaeda fight major battle in Tarmiyah

    http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/11/coalition_special_fo.php

    Good news, it’s not what the licence fee is for…

       0 likes

  40. Chris says:

    David Gregory(BBC)
    “Climate Change: Well it was the reason I first posted here and I think I’ve already taken up far too much space on this blog about it.”
    I think that’s the answer to the question I posed earlier, the BBC will just ignore the bits that don’t fit and change the subject.

       0 likes

  41. Nep Nederlander says:

    Okay then David Gregory, here are some things to report:

    Antarctic ice sheet gaining 27 plusminus 29 gigatons of ice a year: http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V9/N45/C2.jsp

    Antarctic sea ice at record high this year: http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/09/antarctic-sea-ice-at-record-high.html

    And even this from NASA in 2002, satellites over all show increase in Antarctic sea ice: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020820southseaice.html

    Now, your mission if you choose to accept it, is to present this evidence as a counter to all hysterical “Arctic sea ice at lowest extent ever” which has been doing the rounds this year.

       0 likes

  42. Nep Nederlander says:

    And the graph of the data:

    http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/current.area.south.jpg

    Note that the peak in 2007 is higher than any other. That would make it a record. Is a record low is news in the Arctic, surely a record high is equally news in the Antarctic?

       0 likes

  43. Nep Nederlander says:

    Come on, David,6 o’clock news tomorrow, a report on the record high ice area in Antarctica with an explanation of why this has not yet been prominently reported reported, in contrast to the opposite situation in the Arctic, and how it legitimately brings into question one of the key tenets of anthropogenic global warming theory (notably that, according to the models, the Antarctic should be warming the fastest).

    You’ve been called, so do it pretty please

       0 likes

  44. Matthew says:

    BBC has its favourite ‘police are evil’ story:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7095875.stm

    This time it’s the Canadian police.

    “Video footage has been released in Canada showing the last moments of an immigrant who died after being stunned with a Taser by police. ”

    It’s unclear why they mention that he is an immigrant (from Poland as it happens) in the opening paragraph, it seems to be intended to imply that was the reason for the brutality.

       0 likes

  45. David H says:

    David Gregory (BBC) Why don’t you or someone in the BBC interview that Australian scientist who did that presentation I linked to earlier, he did deep sea core analysis which he refers to, but the first part of the presentation is devestating.

    I showed that presentation to three friends who believed that warming was real, all three now think otherwise…

       0 likes

  46. John Reith says:

    Since no-one here has raised the matter, I will:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7091026.stm

    What do you think? At a time when Newsnight’s budget is being cut, does the BBC really need a ‘tri-media Gaelic service’?

    Discuss.

    (davet – you’d probably know if anyone wants this sort of thing up there in the highlands and islands……)

       0 likes

  47. Dr R says:

    John
    I welcome anything that makes the BBC appear even more ridiculous than it already is.

       0 likes

  48. Tomski says:

    “What do you think? At a time when Newsnight’s budget is being cut, does the BBC really need a ‘tri-media Gaelic service’?”

    What is wrong John? Are you scared that your big fat BBC salary will be cut?

       0 likes

  49. David H says:

    So we have propaganda shown as news in the Al Durah incident, I refer to an excellent presentation by an Australian scientist refuting global warming and suggest that you interview him and you turn round and say ‘tri-media Gaelic service’, anyone would think you are trying to divert attention?

       0 likes

  50. BM says:

    “What do you think? At a time when Newsnight’s budget is being cut, does the BBC really need a ‘tri-media Gaelic service’?”
    John Reith | 15.11.07 – 3:19 pm | #

    It’s not about what the BBC needs, it’s about what the public needs. More accutely, this particular issue concerns what the law demands. The law demands, quite rightly, that Gaelic and English be treated equally, as they are equal languages. That is the principle. Gaelic is a language without limit in its use, with equal status to English.

    Is there a public demand for it? In the Gaelic speaking regions there is. In fact, even beyond there is demand. More people watch current Gaelic broadcasts than speak or understand Gaelic. I might even go so far as to say Gaelic television is worth watching. Eorpa is the only current affairs programme which looks at European politics on a weekly basis. Tir is Teanga had breathtaking scenery, some great folklore, and interesting chats about where placenames in the highlands come from and what they mean.

    Is it something another broadcaster is doing? No. And isn’t that what the BBC should be doing? What the others won’t?

    (As an aside, the argument of priorities isn’t a very useful one. What’s important to you isn’t important to me, and vice-versa. I couldn’t give a toss about BBC3/4, and would gladly see them gone to have Gaelic television; but chance would be a fine thing…)

       0 likes