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 also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.
General BBC-related comment thread!
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I haven’t seen him on the BBC for at least five minutes. Is he OK?
The irascible J. Humphreys gave the time this morning as 8.10 when it actually was 6.10. He and others did hastily chime in with a correction, rather confusedly I thought. So is he and al-beeb operating in past revisionist tense, or future wishful time? It’s definitely not the present, or the present continuous because we’ve yet to hear a straight, simple, factual news story.
Not appearing on the BBC any time soon:
Financial Crisis: So much for tirades against American greed
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says it is ironic that European banks have turned out to be deeper in debt than their US counterparts.
Over at Guido, the commentators have pointed out that because the Sun has given a glowing front page report on Cameron’s keynote speech, Newsnight decided not to do its usual ‘tomorrow’s headlines’ section. That’s some pretty blatant bias, only showing the papers when they have something good on Labor.
If they only report the polls that have good news then why not only report the papers that favour Labour. Maybe the next move will be to only report news about the Conservatives with evil villain music playing in the background.
I haven’t seen him on the BBC for at least five minutes. Is he OK?
i love vince cable | 02.10.08 – 7:46 am | #
I haven’t:
Seen a weatherman wearing lilac….
Heard a Scottish accent….
Morning Monger: They will be telling us that it’s 1997 next and “things can only get better”
The blatant BBC anti Tory mode needs to be challenged. Why doesn’t the papers ie Mail or Express have a go at them or are they afraid for some reason.
The Mail often has a go.
Why do the Tories themselves not challenge the BBC’s bias when on air so that it can’t be edited out? Are they completely spineless? The best way to do so would be to use mockery or sarcasm in a similar manner to the way Ann Coulter mocked the ‘impartial’ introduction that Paxman gave her prior to her interview on Newsnight. The Tories would get a pleasant outcome because the BBC’s bias is no longer hidden: it’s in-yer-face!
JBB
Generally, Ambrose Evans-Prichard displays all the blind anti-American reflexes of his peers. Best you can say about this article is it’s a day late and a dollar short.
The money quote –‘EU banks took on even more debt leverage than their US counterparts’– shouldn’t come as news to anyone who claims any special knowledge, since it’s been known for years.
At the building soc. level in the UK, N Rock, B&B and A&L were all in deeper, much deeper, than any of their US equivalents, writing long-term liars-loans against against credulous valuations, increasingly using (what genius) short-term commercial paper to finance most of it. All were far more culpable than Countrywide, the only American equivalent to go bust.
Upstairs on the posh floor, at the banking level, leverage in a typical Euroshit bank is often well north of 25x. The recently bust American ‘investment banks’ in the headlines barely made 20x. Most regional US banks don’t even make 12x, and many are lower: 10x is considered ‘very conservative’, even excessively prudent.
Next up: Credit Default Swaps, about which the great Brit public is nearly wholly ignorant. Combine this w/ lousy mortages on grossly inflated residential real estate in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Holland, France and assorted bits of Krautland and Scandland, and, yes, I’d say there’s a date with reality in the near future.
Most of you, especially including the BBC, will blame the Great Satan. Unfortunately for you, in the US we’re already well on the road to fixing our mess, have little to do with your mess and, after repeated snotty rebuffs by clueless European commentators and ministers, no inclination to do anything for Europe aside from sit still and laugh.
Following on from the BBC’s biased set-up of its assessment of Cameron’s speech, Justin Webb, on ‘Today’, predictably continues this BBC bias with his damning comments, and repeated jibes on Palin, in his preview of the VP debate. (Biden is only mentioned in the last minute.):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7647000/7647815.stm
Sharamik 8:20
If the Sun tells its readers that it’s ok to vote Tory the game is up for New Labour, whatever the BBC says is completely irrelevant.
Lemar 8:49
The Mail is still largely sitting on the fence, I believe due to Dacre’s tongue still not being fully extracted from the PMs back orifice (but slowly getting there).
Anyone see the One Show last night?
Probably the first time Ive ever seen a concerted positive peice on America being aired by Al Beeb (curtesy of Steven Fry).
Even the hosts didnt step in to “correct” him once as he spewed forth his love of Apple Pie and guns :0
See, miracles do happen! 🙂
Mailman
For information of BBC’s Justin Webb:
” Joe Biden jokes ”
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/joebiden/a/joe-biden-jokes.htm
mailman: But isn’t Fry in the tank for Osama?
Lemar | 02.10.08 – 8:49 am:
The blatant BBC anti Tory mode needs to be challenged. Why doesn’t the papers ie Mail or Express have a go at them or are they afraid for some reason.
As Hugh rightly pointed out, the Mail often has a go at the Beeb. So does the Telegraph, Times, Express and Sun. But it’s a mistake to think of newspapers – indeed, any news organisation – as a unified homogeneous entity.
Most news journalists are left-inclined, including those working on conservative papers. The Mail and Mail on Sunday have a few non-leftwing investigative reporters, and the Sunday Telegraph has a couple, but in the main the only difference between the political makeup of the various newspapers are their columnists and editor.
To give just two examples, the Observer’s political editor Gaby Hinsliff originated from the Daily Mail, whereas the Guardian website’s senior political reporter Andrew Sparrow migrated from the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.
Furthermore, given the BBC’s colossal, suffocating presence, any journalist with aspirations of crossing the divide into broadcast work will surely be mindful of where their bread may be buttered in the future. Do you think the BBC would ever broadcast anything by Martin Durkin, of the most excellent BBC-bashing “The Great Global Warming Swindle” ? Not a chance in Hell.
These are among the reasons we need a Fox News Channel in Britain – to really shake up the system.
Trust the BBC to try to make Boris’s speech out to be something it wasn’t.
Why didn’t they pick the bit where he said Ken Livingstone had been “Terminated?”
That was really funny.
BBC wankers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7641550.stm
mailman:
Anyone see the One Show last night?
Probably the first time Ive ever seen a concerted positive peice on America being aired by Al Beeb (curtesy of Steven Fry).
Even the hosts didnt step in to “correct” him once as he spewed forth his love of Apple Pie and guns :0
See, miracles do happen!
Mailman
mailman | 02.10.08 – 9:29 am | #
Even the Beeboid nutters haven’t got the balls to do that. He’d roast them!
knacker | 02.10.08 – 9:08 am:
Interesting post – though I know Ambrose Evans-Pritchard personally and he’s most certainly not anti-U.S. He’s not a great fan of Bill Clinton, though.
As Newsnight has cropped up…
Close Newsnight, save millions
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/iain_martin/blog/2008/10/02/close_newsnight_save_millions?from_comment=true&message=WW91ciBjb21tZW50IGhhcyBub3cgYmVlbiBtYWRlIHB1YmxpYyE=
Correction to my 09.51 post:
I stated:
But it’s a mistake to think of newspapers – indeed, any news organisation – as a unified homogeneous entity.
I make an exception in the case of BBC News & Current affairs.
I just have to report a gem by one Stephen Sucker on his ‘programme’ HALDTALK,
The premise was, ‘shouldnt all the available science money go to fighting global warming’ of course the space scientist did his best to defend his position but it was a bit like the cat and the mouse type deal!
The gem came in the form of Suckurs statement that it was now possible to “cleanse carbon from the air now”
Er, Stephen you retarded dummy(I hope you read this)taking out carbon, even if that were possible, from the atmosphere would kill all life on earth!Did you hear that, deafened as you are by your ignorance of even basic science?ALL life gone,dead,extinguished and no more! The less C02 in the atmosphere the less biomass and the less biomass the less animal life including us, carbon dioxide is the key to life on earth, ALL life and if it goes then so do we!
The interview was a naked attempt to push the global warming lies as are all the so called science reports churned out by the BBC and they are getting whackier and more stupid by the day!
THE BBC: ANY LIE WILL DO WHEN IT SERVES THE AGENDA! AFTER ALL, YOU TAXSLAVES ARE SO STUPID WE COULD TELL YOU THAT THE MOON IS MADE OF CHEESE AND YOU WOULD LAP IT UP, HA HA HA HA!
(now pay up you prole scum we have our gold plated pensions to top up)
Poor beeboids – despite their best efforts, guess who was voted worst UK post-war PM in their poll?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7647383.stm
The proles just will just not be told, eh guys? You must all try harder
Allan@Oslo | 02.10.08 – 8:59 am
Why do the Tories themselves not challenge the BBC’s bias when on air so that it can’t be edited out?
I have long thought that Cameron should make a declaration that the Conservative Party was to be called just that and that use of the term “Tory” was to be considered as an unfriendly act.
It would be interesting to see whether the beeb complied as wholeheartedly as they did with labour’s change of name to “new labour”.
Their level of compliance would be unambiguous and therefore easily quantifiable.
Over on Guido : http://www.order-order.com/2008/10/sun-shines-on-dave.html
where a lot of comments are being posted about the blatant BBC bias against the Conservative conference coverage and Cameron’s speech, someone suggested that if the Conservatives complain about BBC bias against them it would then become a Conservative v BBC issue which could detract from the Conservative v Labour debate.
Close Newsnight, save millions
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/iain_martin/blog/2008/10/02/close_newsnight_save_millions
Given the fact that the BBC is openly displaying it’s anti Cameron bias now is a good time to get writing -not emailing -to your MP and encouraging others to do so. it will not achieve immediate results but may very well lay a good foundation for the future.
To mailman re:
Anyone see the One Show last night?
Probably the first time Ive ever seen a concerted positive peice on America being aired by Al Beeb (curtesy of Steven Fry).
And did anyone listen to the shrill and idiotic Victoria Derbyshire earlier ythis week. One of her contributors mentioned the fact that he found New Yorkers very friendly and welcoming… and la De=byshire simply couldn’t tolerate it. She started spitting with rage, deriding his observations as “cliches”. Really aggressive stuff.
What a stupid, ignorant bitch. No wonder she’s a Beeboid starlet.
I find Victoria Derbyshire practically unlistenable to. Normally after about 15 minutes of her hmmms, relentlessly poor presentational skills and obvious bias I have to turn over to Vaness Feltz or Jon Gaunt!
Yes, she really is vile. And so STUPID.
I reckon there have been quite a few new names commenting here recently.
Is this an indication that the bias of the BBC is becoming more widely noticed as they become more brazen about it?
The Beeb’s bias on war in Sri Lanka’s too well known & documented to warrant further comment. You may be interested to know how Sri Lankans view the BBC’s reporting on the recent UK financial crisis:
“Guys,
Do not panic about UK banks, for the most part the underlying financials and economics are good. The tip is put your money in diversifed banks such as HSBC, Lloyds TSB, RBS, Barclays rather than one trick pony banks such as B&B, Northern Rock etc. £50,000 gaurantee is on the cards but not set in stone.
To be honest, even Northern Rock financials were good, it went down not due to exposure to sub prime (for the most part), but rather due to the dwindling access to cash to fund their mortgage lending. Northern Rock funded mortgage customers with borrowed money, i.e. credit to fund credit. The traditional banks fund the credit from depositors cash (for the most part), Northern Rock’s business model was sound in the good times, but when the money dried up (due to the credit crunch), it went down. However, the biggest cause for their collapse was the BBC and other media, they made a big deal out of their predicament, then the depositors withdrew the cash due to the panic created by the media. For Northern Rock to have gone down, every single one of their Mortgage customers would have to default and every single property that the mortgage covered would have to have a value of zero, the likelihood of the above two happening is nil. So basically, blame the BBC for the UK’s financial troubles.”
http://tinyurl.co.uk/1vyv
Radio 5 live with Mayo. Just had a piece about Palin and Biden. So for “balance” Mayo interviews a journalist from the Washington Post who’s a Democrat, then he asks some asshole (Harry Shearer) who is another Liberal.
So that’s BBC fair and balanced is it? Two liberals.
NotaSheep: Don’t forget those sighs she does when someone give s anon leftist view as well.
She’s also the dopey bag who moaned live on air when it was announced they were off to Salford!
Some may remember that I’ve posted in the past about the very liberal bias of Simon Mayo. I also predicted that HE would start to wheel out a list of endless left wing anti Bush liberals
Well now we have Harry Shearer another hate filled left wing twat.
Don’t bother to wait for balance.
Victoria Derbyshire knows who to blame for the bizarre nazi-style initiaion ceremony at Gloucestershire University – apparently it was Eton-educated types … now who may she have in mind there … ?
Horrible woman, increasingly horrible programme.
GBA: Agreed. She is vile.
I hear that David cameron made a speech yesterday. Hard to find on BBC website although finally found next to a giant picture of Brown!
Well I was in Berlin yesterday and David Camerons speech was covered extensively and repeatedly on Sky News who gave it and comment on it equal billing for several hours with the Senate Debate on the Paulson Rescue Plan. The speech was also covered, although without as much prominance on CNN. BBC World – almost non existent.
I return to London and look at the BBC web site, or the world news feed on the Heathrow Express and nothing. No not quite nothing, if you drill down form the headlines to the politics page and then follow a link you eventually get to a comment on what the BBC see as an unimortant event
Last week Gordon was still front page news days after his ‘big’ speech.
Whatever happened to that great defender of the BBC John Reith, I suspect even he is no longer brazen enough to try to defend the BBC.
The sooner the BBC is privatised and made into a subscription service with no taxpayer support the better.
The moderator of tonight’s Vice-Presidential debate, Gwen Ifill, has been reading the BBC Today programme playbook.
http://jimtreacher.com/archives/001643.html
Classic BBC On Radio5 Simon Mayo is interviewing that political heavyweight Will Young (yes that Will Young)
Some bird rings in who is ther Producer of Question Time ot invite Young onto Questiontime.
Now what might prompt that you ask? Need I say? liberal leftie?
Regarding the Newsnight Prime Minister poll and Gordon Brown, the instructions are: “Click on the name of each former prime minister to find out more about them.”
Do they know something we don’t?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7647383.stm
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says it is ironic that European banks have turned out to be deeper in debt than their US counterparts.
Jonathan Boyd Hunt | Homepage | 02.10.08 – 7:56 am |
I saw that just before I went to bed last night (7 hours behind you) and had to chuckle.
About a week ago we had some fat-arsed BBC slapper standing infront of the UN when Gordon was there with Armadinnerjacket. She announced that that this was a US created financial crisis.
So much for the BBC’s ability to analyse financial issues since Jeff Randall departed.
Dhimmi BBC annoys some Muslims:
“BBC inundated with complaints after EastEnders shows Muslim snacking during Ramadan”
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/17344
breaking news ! ( if you rely on the bbc)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7648451.stm
OR,if you read the daily mail or telegraph then it’s a story that’s 10 days old.
Others above have pointed out the ‘Close Newsnight, Save Millions’ article in the Telegraph.
For those that haven’t looked at it, this lift from it articulates all we believe:
Why does Newsnight do this? Surely it is not stuffed full of Communists? On the evidence of last night, it seems there is not a soul on the programme (or if there is he was off last night) who can comprehend conservative arguments. And why should they be able to? In certain parts of the BBC are people who never encounter anything which is at odds with their liberal-left orthodox world view. If you were one of those people, you would really have had no idea what Cameron was going on about for most of his speech.
And that would be absolutely fine, if they went out on their own, launched a liberal-left TV channel called, say, Newsnight, and found advertisers or subscribers to cover their costs. But why should the rest of us pay for it via our license fee?’
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/iain_martin/blog/2008/10/02/close_newsnight_save_millions?com_num=20&com_pg=2
“…but he took power too late to help the Labour Party avoid the backlash to the Iraq war…”
You just to love the BBC for trying to re-write history. Broon was Bliar’s BIGGEST backer of the Iraq war. He wrote the cheques, or rather he wrote the bare minimum which led to the death of many of our soldiers.
Sky and BBC News 24. Compare and contract the way they are handling the resignation of Ian Blair.
On Sky it’s more good riddance for bad rubbish. On the BBC it’s the loss of another great Socialist soldier.