Monthly Archives: June 2009

QUESTION TIME….

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Well then, I believe Question Time in on tomorrow evening and given the political fever that is in the air it seems a shame to let it go. So I shall return to blog it live and hope you will all come along for the fun. The panel consists of Baroness Royall, Liam Fox, Paddy Ashdown, Sir Max Hastings and Fiona Phillips. Since it is now way past “Save Gordon” time, it will be interesting to see how the BBC handles this.

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Vote Against.

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Nick Robinson, the Guardian, and even the BBC have given up. Despite their best efforts – even James Naughtie reluctantly agrees – labour is history.
No-one will vote FOR anyone, all votes will all be AGAINST.
Half of us still think the Tories are toffs, the other half say they’re indistinguishable from labour. No self respecting MP would send their children to the schools they’ve downgraded till they’re only good enough for ours. For some reason all MPs need massive flat screen tellies.

Do Ukip, the BNP, the Greens, Vince Cable or Esther Rantzen look any better?
No, not really. Not even on a giant T.V. screen.

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Inside Story

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In last Saturday’s Telegraph, buried amongst the troughgate, was: “Lebanese accuse Britain and US of appeasing Hizbollah “ by Damien McElroy in Beirut.

“Leaders of Lebanon’s pro-Western government have accused Britain and America of “appeasement” of Hizbollah as the radical Muslim movement prepares to seize power.”[….]“ A British diplomat said that the decision to talk to Hizbollah was taken even though the Secret Intelligence service reported it was implicated in terrorist incidents in the past year.”

We are talking to Hizbollah, and by so doing we risk making things worse for the pro-Western government that we supposedly aim to support.

The BBC has joined in this ever increasing chorus of admiration for Iran’s proxy whose aim is to destroy Israel, their contribution being the latest episode of ‘We are all Hizbollah Now.”

Particularly telling is the word the writer, Natalia Antelava, uses to describe an attack on the US military barracks, and bombings of Israeli and Jewish targets. Not, this time, the popular and somewhat revealing “audacious.”

Natalia wears her heart on her sleeve and comes out with “famous.”
“Notorious” or “infamous” did not quite express her true emotion?

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LABOUR MELTDOWN SPECIAL

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OK – I am supposed to be taking a break but I could not stand by whilst Labour implodes without providing this forum for you to discuss BBC coverage of it. Gordon is in full bunker mentality, the Save Gordon project looks doomed even beyond BBC salvation – so where to now? I wonder will the looming reshuffle be timed to dampen down the results of the elections? Will the BBC linger on the outcome of the elections or the consequences of the reshuffle? Still, I hear tractor production is at an all-time high…..

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Linguistic Limitations

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Apart from Jeremy Bowen’s pro Palestinian position, his grievance against Israelis, his reliance on Palestinian stringers because of his inability to speak either Hebrew or Arabic, and his lisp, one thing that annoys me about the BBC’s M.E. editor is the difficulty he has with his own language. This morning he chats with Sarah Montague about Obama’s forthcoming speech aimed at embracing the Muslim world. Struggling for a while with “ much looked-forward-to” he eventually found the word that had eluded him – “anticipated.” His vocabulary-light rhetoric is always peppered with “quite franklys” and “if you see what I means,” although I’m not sure he’s ever ventured a “to be Honest”
Anyway, he says that Netanyahu has his hands tied by the religious right, who have got it into their silly little heads that the land belongs to the chosen ones. Obama has the difficult task of convincing these religiously fanatical Jews to accede to Arab demands while overlooking entirely the intransigence, violence and genocidal intentions of his religiously fanatical Islamic brethren.
With next week’s ME visit by the One, ‘going forward’, Jeremy Bowen’s reports on the BBC are being eagerly – “much looked forward to.”

I’ll leave Justin Webb to everyone out there. Over to you.
(Too early for the Today link. Please, someone add it later)

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Passive Killing

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Thanks to Pounce for drawing my attention to this example of BBC bias.

Six killed in gun battle! Home-owner killed! Politically motivated arrests!
Police raid! Allegations of torture! Zionist Agents!

All of this and more, but wait – Who has done these evil things?

Israel is not in the headline. Why not? Because this time Israel is not the culprit.

There doesn’t seem to be culprit at all.
In fact no-one in particular seems to have murdered anyone. Just Fighting. Fighting is what has killed six Palestinians.

That explains why the headline is not:
“Palestinians murder Palestinians in West Bank Gun Battle.”

BBC headline writers have a habit of taking all responsibility away from Palestinians, who just die from ‘fighting’ whereas Israelis “kill militants” and “strike children,” and if any Israelis should die, it’s from Fighting, Rockets, or Explosions. You know, the ones that just happen.

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