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 also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

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78 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread!

  1. Will Jones says:

    7:30 here in Pennsylvania. Land of bitter gun toting religious nutters. Chris Mathews of MSNBC set down his champagne glass to declare Obama the winner of the election, after exit polling his colleagues.

    Just two more months till the start of the 2012 campaign. As another contributor says “it’s all too much”.

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  2. Martin says:

    I someone going to start a thread for the BBC election coverage?

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  3. disillusioned_german says:

    Obamamania on Radio One’s Newsbeat now… They love him to bits.

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  4. disillusioned_german says:

    Still on Newsbeat: They’re back talking about Iraq and have managed to find the widow of a soldier who votes for Obama and wants immediate withdrawal.

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  5. GCooper says:

    I am deeply puzzled. Judging from the images used by the BBC to illustrate the US elections, the vast and overwhelming majority of the US population appears to be of African descent.

    Have I been wrong all these years? I always imagined the USA had at least a few white and Hispanic people in its population.

    Or is it that they don’t matter?

    Perhaps a passing Beeboid could explain?

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  6. Martin says:

    Radio 5 and Simon Mayo in the tank for Obama BIG TIME.

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  7. Chuffer says:

    Clarkson’s lorry driver comments getting plenty of coverage on the BBC – almost as if it’s meant to balance the lack of coverage that Ross/Brand initially got.

    “Look – we can do offensive right wingers, too!”

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  8. JohnA says:

    Radio 4 World at One – Martha Kearney in the US, virtually ALL the coverage is about Obama, black voters, Mccain of 2008 is not the original McCain, yada yada yada.

    Has Kearney got the hots for Obama ? She should be damn well ashamed of herself, there was no attempt whatsoever to get any proper balance. Just one “old = crusty?” Republican saying “Don’t trust the polls”.

    It should be OBC. Obama Broadcasting Corporation.

    (On another thread I have posted some links on how to follow tonights results, plus scenarios by Michael barone. because you can guarantee that the BBC’s coverage will be piss-poor, bloody amateur assessments and endless eulogising of Obama.)

    Oh – and no mention of Palin being cleared by the Troopergate Personnel Board investigator – who happens to be a Dem. Funny that – the original rigged report against Palin was played round the clock.

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  9. Martin says:

    Chuffer: Clarkson isn’t liked by the drug taking leftists at the BBC. On BBC News 24 they were saying “we’ve had 200 complaints” as if trying to invite more.

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  10. adam says:

    God, radio five dead is biased. Its beyond description.

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  11. disillusioned_german says:

    JohnA | 04.11.08 – 1:42 pm |

    Pretty easy. Tune to FNC – Michael Barone will be on there.

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  12. Martin says:

    BBC News 24 caught out licking the shit clean from Obama’s arse. John Sopel talking to some guy from Youtube. So they showed a clip of ‘Obama girl’ (very PRO Obama clip) then Tina Fey taking the piss out of Sarah Palin.

    Sopel snigggering away. Then he spouts on about how many hits had Obama girl got. “10 million” said the guy from Youtube. Sopel gives approving nod. “But that’s not the most watched political Youtube video, one of an Iraq war vet supporting McCain is…”

    Sopel ignores and moves on.

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  13. Martin says:

    I hope the Tory party is watching the BBC coverage of the US Election. They can expect 100 times the bias against them come our next election.

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  14. adam says:

    Yesterday Obamas gran was top story on the beeb.

    Today no mention of Palin being cleared at all, never mind leading news item. Unlike the previous smears.

    What a joke

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  15. adam says:

    Sopel is a real tosser. He was on Al Beeb America last night in Culpepper. That place must have doubled its population with the beebs invasion.
    He interview a republican who was hoping for the Bradley effect. Sopel jumped on him “so you are hoping for the racism of your own supporters. That seems extraordinary.”

    Im not sure whether Sopel is just so thick he doesnt understand Bradley, or he is a snide, prejudiced fool.

    Either way he is a prize tosser

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  16. JohnA says:

    Never, ever have I heard anyone at the BBC saying that it is blinkered racism for virtually ALL blacks to support Obama.

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  17. Jeff says:

    Has anyone noticed that the BBC has had to draft in two Children’s Newround presenters to read the news – because no doubt, all the main ones are in the States on a Obama-Jolly!

    So far i’ve counted Jane Hill, Jonathan Beale, Justin Webb, Nick Miles, Kirsty Wark, Kevin Connelly, Huw Edwards, Adam Brookes, Matt Frei, Katy Kay, Jon Sopel and David Grossman – and that was just for the TV and not including web or radio!

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  18. Pat says:

    G. Cooper – The images the BBC uses of schools intrigues me – it is usually a case of spot the white one.

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  19. Reimer says:

    “JohnA:
    Never, ever have I heard anyone at the BBC saying that it is blinkered racism for virtually ALL blacks to support Obama.”

    True. Sky has also had very little to say about this, which brings me to wonder belatedly…

    Where did this well-presented, erudite non-entity tipped by the liberal media to start saving the world tomorrow get the green light from, given that he seems to have arrived in a puff of political smoke from nowhere?

    R

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  20. adam says:

    90% of ‘blacks’ support Barak.

    Marcus du Sautoy turned up on Five dead last night.
    Guess who he supports…

    Radio DJ: Are you worried?

    Marcus: well i am a little yes. Wasnt it in 1992 that we all went to bed thinking Labour had won and then when we woke up…

    DJ interrupts.

    I love how he just assumes because he is on the beeb they mean Obama not McCain and uses “we all”

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  21. George R says:

    BBC ‘report’ from Bristol, UK: a piece of ‘multiculturalist’ propaganda straight from the Labour -Harman songbook:

    “Obama effect ‘could boost black politicians'”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/7705705.stm

    -There’s NO BBC companion piece:

    ‘McCain effect ‘could boost white politicians'”
    – maybe that would be construed as ‘racist’. Such is the BBC mentality.

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  22. JohnA says:

    Reimer

    A real oddity – an article in the US press very critical of Obama.

    Bit late in the day, though.

    http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23581778-details/Why%20millions%20won%27t%20be%20voting%20for%20Barack%20today/article.do

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  23. JohnA says:

    sorry – article in the UK press – not US press. The London Evening Standard.

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  24. Tim says:

    Finally an article that exposes some of what is really going on in the world:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7708169.stm

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  25. Tim says:

    Were any Truck Drivers offended by Clarkson’s joke?

    Have any Truck drivers complained?

    I doubt it – I do get the feeling the Beeb aren’t so keen to defend him?

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  26. Kill the Beeb says:

    Anyone want to take bets on who will emerge the winner come tomorrow?

    I think Obama, because black America will vote for him because he’s black, lefty America will vote for him because he’s black and everyone left will just be buried by corruption.

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  27. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Is this a Monty Python sketch or a BBC News Online report?

    According to Amnesty International, nurses were sent to check during the stoning whether the victim was still alive. They removed her from the ground and declared that she was, before she was replaced so the stoning could continue.

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  28. Tim says:

    I think the stoning to death article in Somalia, is quite good and for once the BBC and Amnesty International make some valid points about the horrors of Islamic Sharia Law.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world…ica/ 7708169.stm

    Well done to both of them, just this once!

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  29. Tim says:

    Here’s the article again:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7708169.stm

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  30. adam says:

    No idea who will win. McCain has a lot to overcome

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  31. disillusioned_german says:

    Obamamania on BBC Sports: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/american_football/7708040.stm

    Redskins loss points to Obama win

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  32. Verity says:

    This sounds suspiciously like David Bowie, and he is just eccentric enough to have produced something like this.

    But even if it’s not, it’s the cleverest, strongest and most professional anti-BBC ad I’ve ever seen and deserves to go viral. The music’s rather good, too.

    http://uk.youtube.com/user/Doitmyselfagain

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  33. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Tim | 04.11.08 – 2:42 pm |

    I think the stoning to death article in Somalia, is quite good and for once the BBC and Amnesty International make some valid points about the horrors of Islamic Sharia Law.

    I’m afraid I can’t agree, Tim. The article is quite explicit in stating that this incident is not in accordance with Islamic Law:

    Convicting a girl of 13 for adultery would be illegal under Islamic law.

    In the interest of fairness, the BBC gives the Islamic court authorities position, after which the article then refers to the victim only as “the victim” or “her”. Impartiality demands that they don’t use emotional terms like “13-year-old girl”.

    The crowd of witnesses – all Mohammedan, presumably – seem to be well versed in international ideas about human rights. This report would have us believe that the crowd of 1000 people showed up to express their concern.

    I find that curious, and I also wonder who the anonymous “human rights activist” is (they’re everywhere, always unnamed, and never with an organization), who is not associated with Amnesty’s report.

    Good for Amnesty for reporting on it at all, of course. But this BBC report shows the horrors of angry “radical” males in a patriarchal society abusing the tenets of Islam for their own ends. Totally disconnected from the Shariah being discussed in the UK.

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  34. Tim says:

    Thought she was sentenced to death under Sharia law? – Her age was falisfied according to Amnesty.

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  35. John Bosworth says:

    Will any BBC reporter ask how it is that a country can elect a commander-in-chief who, thanks to his past associations, would not pass the security clearance checks for the secret service?

    Guess they won’t.

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  36. Martin says:

    Simon Mayo asks “What is the Bush legacy?”

    To answer this question he has TWO Democrats and one Republican.

    The BBC fair and balanced as usual.

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  37. Roland Deschain says:

    Verity | 04.11.08 – 3:03 pm |

    What makes you think Bowie has anything to do with it, just because someone has used Sound & Vision as the soundtrack?

    I’d wager Bowie can spell better too. Professional ad my a***.

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  38. TPO says:

    Does the BBC really need a team of 175 to cover the U.S. presidential election?

    A BBC spokesman said of its U.S. election coverage: ‘BBC News is sending 125 people including technical staff to report for a wide range of outputs and audiences on this globally important story.
    ‘Almost all staff will be working for more than one area of output and the deployment has been heavily coordinated and scrutinised to ensure efficiency and value for money.’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1082848/Does-BBC-really-need-team-175-cover-U-S-presidential-election.html

    I never did find out why the BBC had to have seven different journalists, all standing outside the same entrance to a Jerusalem hospital, to report on the state of Ariel Sharon’s health.

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  39. Chuffer says:

    Verity,
    Roland D is right; infantile spelling makes the whole thing look terrible!

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  40. Verity says:

    I agree about the misspelling of sponsor and agree that David Bowie would have caught it.

    I didn’t know this was already a song. I thought it had been written for that snip.

    Oh, well, even with the bad spelling, it’s the most forthright anti-BBC message I have read. I liked the level of vitriol, which we haven’t seen previously in polite little anti-BBC snips. Wouldn’t they have had to get David Bowie’s permission to use his voice as part of this propaganda, though? You can’t just attach someone’s voice to a political message without their permission, especially not if that voice is famous.

    It’s interesting that there was no credit anywhere, for anything. No word on who produced it, wrote it or financed it.

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  41. David Bowiiieeee says:

    Hey you cats –I didn’t like agreeee to any use of my music in any like anti BBC ad –you’ll all be seeing my lawyer in the morning–form an orderly queue

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  42. Verity says:

    You only have one lawyer? How pathetic!

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  43. Robert S. McNamara says:

    That just looks like an amateur video with Sound and Vision as the soundtrack (which has been out for 31 years). People use other people’s music on YouTube videos all the time.

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  44. Robert S. McNamara says:

    Hey Mr. Bowie, what’s Tina Turner like in the sack? Were you ever afraid that Ike would come round and pistol whip you?

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  45. Verity says:

    I’m still not sure that attaching a famous person’s voice to a strongly political message is not actionable.

    McNamara – What does your infantile question in your second post have to do with biased BBC?

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  46. Verity says:

    What time is it in Britain just now? 6:30 p.m.? A little early to be falling down giggling at your own cleverness, isn’t it, Mr McNamara?

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  47. Robert S. McNamara says:

    I’m not giggling. I’m just saying that I’m 99% certain David Bowie didn’t make that video.

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  48. tina turner says:

    Robert S. McNamara | 04.11.08 – 4:54 pm |

    well it gave me a 😆

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  49. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Tim | 04.11.08 – 3:07 pm |

    Thought she was sentenced to death under Sharia law? – Her age was falsified according to Amnesty.

    Yes, and the BBC took care to point out that this stoning would then be illegal under Islamic Law. This absolves Islam of responsibility for this particular act of barbarity. Combine this with that crowd, so concerned about human rights, and it seems that the fault lies with a few extremists who are not mainstream even in their own Islamic country.

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  50. George R says:

    The BBC’s political impartiality at work in this report. The BBC ‘impartiality’ is between, ON THE ONE HAND, the interest of Turkey to get into the European Union, along with the EU’s (and Brown’s) campaign to get Turkey’s 75 million Muslims in; and ON THE OTHER HAND, the welfare of Turkish orphanage children, and the Duchess of York’s ITV report:

    “Duchess accused of Turkey ‘smear'”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7708878.stm

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