BBC MAN OF THE YEAR?

I know I blogged this last night but I listened to the BBC coverage of the return of Ethiopian illegal immigrant Binyam Mohamed on Today this morning and it was so one-sided as to be about as credible as Binyam’s daring tales of wandering through the tribal areas of Afghanistan/Pakistan to deal with his “drug issues.” The narrative being followed remorselessly by the BBC is “was he tortured”? They appear disinterested in the fact that the US authorities consider him a very dangerous Jihadist who was involved in planning terror attacks. If this is true, I would hope that he was robustly interrogated and the pity is he was even taken prisoner in the first instance – but then again we love life like they love death. I appreciate that some bleeding hearts resile from the notion that we must treat murdering terrorists for what they are in order to try and save innocent lives but why must concede this point? You have to hand it to Al Queda – when they instructed their operatives to whine “torture” if captured on the basis this would win over the gullible and dhimmified msm, they called it exactly right. I KNOW that many other parts of the liberal media are also hailing brave Binyam but of course the big difference is that you and I are forced to fund the BBC to do so and this that makes it so much worse.

BACK HOME…

Have you been joining in the BBC celebrations as Gitmo Jihadist Binyam Mohamed touches backBinyam Mohamed getting off his plane down on home soil? Not HIS home soil, of course, after all Ethiopiais a lot further to travel, but you get the general idea. I was listening to Peter Allen discussing this on Radio Five this evening and was amazed at his insistence that Binyam (as his lawyer would insist) was an innocent abroad and – get this – his travelling to Afghanistan to seek help for his ..ahem…”drug issues” was perhaps quite innocent given that the Taliban were in charge back then and would have frowned upon any drug taking. Do you think Peter might be missing a few points re the Taliban? It’s quite stunning how each time Gitmo spews forth one of these pseudo Brits like Binyam and Moazzem the BBC turns them into cause celebres. I bet the Jihadi can’t believe their luck when the left wing dhimmified media, best exemplified by Al Beeb, roll out the red carpet for them.

Hey Presto!

At least 400 BBC employees, goodness knows how many Muslims, Annie Lennox and several MPs declare their abhorrence of Israel ‘for Gaza’. They accept Hamas’s allegations without hesitation or deviation (but with repetition.) Discussions on the BBC reduce the issue to a simple contest; who is the biggest victim, and whose warfare is fair, and whose is a crime.

Squabbling over what is and what is not a war crime, over whether Israel should endure random rocket attacks permanently because retaliation would automatically incur the crime of murdering civilians who were, or were not, imprisoned in an overpopulated hellhole with no way of escaping; disagreeing over white phosphorous, accuracy of targeting, who is a legitimate target and who is a civilian, whether this or that was deliberate or unavoidable, and who is the biggest villain, is a road to nowhere. While all this has been going on front of house, behind the scenes something else has happened.

Slowly but surely, by sleight of hand, the BBC has maneuvered Hamas into the position of graduating by stealth as a fully-fledged legitimate political entity in the eyes of the public. The BBC constantly pleads “talk to Hamas” because not to do so would be churlish, since the BBC has, with its magic trickery, legitimised, normalised and humanised it. There is only one thing worth saying: Recognise Israel’s right to exist, renounce violence, and re-educate your followers. Agreeing to any of that would entail no longer being fundamentalist extremist Islamists, so what’s the use?


The BBC has made up its mind already because it is not concerned with history, geography or a piddly little existential threat.

However many Fitnas or Panoramas we are shown that tell us there is a fundamental incompatibility between Islam and the west, the media still stops short of connecting this, multiplied several times over, with the threat Israel faces. They don’t like terrorism when it rears its head here, but are unable to empathise with what Israel has lived with since 1948.

These arguments obfuscate the real issue, which is: why is Israel fighting? Why is Hamas, fighting? Why are Syria, Iran and other assorted Arab states involved? In this topsy turvy way, by not asking these questions, the BBC has manipulated public opinion to back the wrong horse.

SLUMDOG ALERT

The BBC has been swooning at the success of the film “Slumdog Millionaire” at the Oscars all morning. I haven’t seen the movie yet so can’t comment on it but I do note that several of the young people that star in the movie repeatedly refer to their home city as “Bombay”. The BBC really must have a word with them – don’t they know it is Mumbai?

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.

THE GREEN SHOOTS OF RECOVERY SPOTTED ON THE BBC!

I had to laugh at the outrageously easy ride that Alistair Darling was afforded by Sarah Montague on the BBC this morning. Did you catch the “interview”? Here it is if you dare to listen. In essence, Darling was allowed to repeat the narrative that Labour is “re-building the banking sector” (That it helped destroy) and that he and Prudence are now preparing for “the recovery phase.” Now Darling is atrocious at the best of times but in all fairness he managed to get through this “interview” without even the vaguest hint that Labour has been up to its’ scrawny neck in creating the mess in which our financial system finds itself. I also noted that Montague suggests that banks are “too big to fail”. Who says so? Perhaps they are too big to subsidise? It strikes me that that the BBC sees this entire financial crisis as an opportunity to extend the reach of The State and this colours interviews such as this.

SO, WHEN DID YOU STOP BEATING YOUR WIFE

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Let’s be honest – Israel will never get a break on the BBC . The latter is institutionally pro-Palestinian and really struggles to disguise this each time this issue comes up. Earlier this morning, on Today, this was manifest in this item on (Sh)Amnesty International’s report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes and demanding an arms embargo against the Israeli state and “armed Palestinian groups”. No surprise there, I think anyone who has familiarity with AI knows that it is profoundly and sickeningly anti-Israeli but what interested me was how the BBC chose to cover this. It gave Gaza correspondent and donkey expert Aleem Maqbool the opportunity to glowingly propagandise on behalf of Hamas painting Israeli forces as homicidal monsters who deliberately target children before then switching to an accusatory interview with Israeli government spokesmen Mark Regev. I thought Regev countered quite well but the James Naughtie seemed a/ Disappointed that Hamas rockets were less effective than Israeli rockets and b/ Determined to ensure that the listener was left with the impression that Israel was the guilty party even when defending itself.

POLICE NO LONGER RACIST?

Yet another day and another attack on our police, this time by the Orwellian entitled Justice Secretary Jack Straw, and gleefully reported by the BBC. This report starts by the spineless Straw suggesting that the Met is “no longer” institutionally racist (back-handed compliment there, lads) before he helpfully adds that there may still be “pockets of racism” within the force. It’s a perpetual motif of BBC reporting, this denigration of the British police. The idea being reinforced time after time is that racism is endemic and only the brave advocates of left-wingism can save us from it. The BBC sees this as an article of faith and never misses the chance to further propagate it.

SHARIA JUDGE ALERT!

Accidentally switched on Nicky Campbell’s “Big Question” on BBC1 and was impressed to see a Sharia Judge in the audience as the topic of “Are Men’s sins worse than women’s” was discussed. It’s remarkable how the multiculti uber alles motif runs right through the rancid BBC even on a Sunday morning. This programme is an absolute freak-show.

WHEN GORDON MET BARACK

Anyone catch the BBC coverage of the news that our Dear Leader is off to see Obama in ten days time? Weren’t they bigging it up for our Gordon? I’ve been criticised for saying this elsewhere but it seems to me that this meeting is one that matters much much more to Brown than to Obama. It strikes me that Prudence has all the significance of a worm to the US President, window-dressing at best. But I suppose it helps Gordon move the news agenda away from leadership plots so the BBC sycophancy does serve some purpose! Your views?