CHRISTMAS OPEN THREAD

For those brave enough to endure the BBC over the next few days – here’s a seasonal open thread just for you…

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34 Responses to CHRISTMAS OPEN THREAD

  1. magiclantern1 says:

    Turned on the vile Today programme this am (for the weather, which is mostly objectively reported) to hear alleged psychologist and Beeboid favourite Oliver James ranting about capitalism (“neo-liberalism”) causing loneliness and mental illness. Turned off immediately.

    No BBC for me this Christmas – best way to stay clean and sane. 

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  2. George R says:

    “BBC monitor: Bowen is ‘biased'”

    http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/25338/bbc-monitor-bowen-biased

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  3. InterestedParty says:

    All the reports I’ve seen about the upcoming Christmas Queen speech have only hilighted her tribute to the troops.  the BBC have this claim that she is about to make some sort of “climate plea”. Listening to the short clip they have, the Queen merely mentions re the environment that young people should “dicuss issues that concern us all”. Which is a great idea. It will be interesting to see if her speech lives up to the headline.

    Otherwise I might think the BBC were merely spinning the words of her Maj to suit their agenda πŸ˜‰

    Queen’s broadcast praises forces and makes climate plea

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8429302.stm

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    • George R says:

      Now this would stop the BBC guessing about the Queen’s speech:

      “With apologies to Her Majesty, Quentin Letts imagines what if Prince Philip made tomorrow’s Queen’s broadcast”…

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1238156/With-apologies-Her-Majesty-Quentin-Letts-imagines-Prince-Philip-tomorrows-Queens-broadcast-.html#ixzz0adjcXORD

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    • InterestedParty says:

      Well, having un-patriotically missed the Queens speech due to  the usual Christmas family TV commitment arguments πŸ™‚   I later read the transcript of her speech and – unless she went unscripted – I see it has nothing whatsoever in it that could possibly be construed, even to the most fevered brain, as a ‘climate plea’.
      In fact even the later BBC TV reports don’t try to make such a spin on her speech.

      I know there may be more egregious examples of Beeboid history management going on elsewhere today and before, but you have to have some wonderment that some un-named BBC web contributor has the power to make up a headline like this – that will appear on the Google aggregator headline listings throughout the world – knowing it may not be clicked on and read by most, but just absorbed as background reality. Is it too much to call this kind of thing a flat lie?

      Don’t get me wrong, if the Queen makes a clear-cut “climate plea” some day, I am all ears, but for realities sake, if there are any Beeboids that check this site out, please answer this, how do you parse this speech to claim that it contains a ‘climate plea’ ?

      And no answers saying the word “environment”=”climate plea” πŸ˜‰

      Merry Christmas.

      http://www.royal.gov.uk/ImagesandBroadcasts/TheQueensChristmasBroadcasts/ChristmasBroadcasts/ChristmasBroadcast2009.aspx

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  4. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s a Christmas-themed complaint about BBS bias.  The top Catholic cleric in Jerusalem – the “Latin Patriarch”, as he’s called these days, is making his annual trip to Bethlehem, the place where – as the BBC puts it – “the Bible says Jesus Christ was born”.  Of course,when the Beeboids want to inform the public about an important Mohammedan religious event – like in the “schools” section article directed at your children about the Hajj – there is no qualifier such as “the Koran says…”  There never is an equivalent attribution qualifier when the BBC discusses Mohammedan scripture-based behavior.  But that’s not my main complaint here.

    You all know, of course, that the Beeboids simply can’t resist twisting the Palestinian knife at every opportunity, so even in a specifically religious, non-political, report, they have to add this:

    Yet the tourism boom has failed to bring money with it as most of the tourists visit the town just for the day, staying in hotels in Israel.
    “Only 5% of the money stays on the Palestinian side,” Palestinian Tourism Minister Khulud Duaibess said

    So the nasty Israelis oppress the poor Palestinians even on Christmas. Naturally the BBC will not tell you that there are barely even 5 hotels in town, nowhere near enough to accomodate the 15,000 seasonal tourists they report have come to visit.  No, all you know is that the poor, victimized Palestinians get the short end of the stick once again, and the nasty Israelis reap the benefits of Christmas.

    The BBC finds room to promote a political cause in the middle of a religious event.  Charming, and typical.

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  5. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Since the majority of Beeboids set foot into a church once per year at most, and they assume they are on the middle ground and just like most of you all, they provide a helpful guide for that rare excursion into that strange religion stuff:


    A guide to Christmas worship for novice churchgoers

    It’s written by a former vicar.  Not by the Archbeard of Canterbury, or any of the legion of trendy vicars they get on Thought for the Day or other religious items they cover, but someone who gave up the collar entirely.

    Can’t the BBC find an active member of clergy, FFS?  For the main holiday of the official state religion (apologies to Easter advocates), this is the best they can come up with?  Lame, and evidence of a very poor internal attitude towards Christianity, as well as evidence of just how much the Beeboids think they are on the middle ground on the issue.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      That made me laugh, though in truth, perhaps it gave more cause to cry instead. The weirdness of coming up with something like that is somehow comical. Most of it reads like something written for five-year-olds.

      But then you come across the hilarious advice to go for low church if you like an intellectual challenge!  Are all those high-church Anglo-Catholic types a bit lowbrow then? Dear oh, dear.

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  6. deegee says:

    It must have been hard for Bethany Bell to resist MMGW in her article about the decline of Palestinian sheep minders but she opted for the Jews, instead. While shepherds watch their flocks by night

    Just in time for Christmas.

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  7. deegee says:

    Some odd but strangely consistent reporting from the West Bank.
    Israeli settler killed in West Bank shooting

    The Consistencies:
    πŸ™  Israeli deaths announced in passive tense. We are left in doubt of the suspected killers until the 9th paragraph. Up to that point it could have been a dispute between criminals, a domestic or even an assisted suicide.
    πŸ™  The victim is identified as a settler. Why not a motorist or even a man?
    πŸ™  An official describes the suspects as ‘suspected Palestinian militants’ when he almost certainly used other words.
    πŸ™  The victim is unidentified. No name – no personal details. According to the Jerusalem Post he was Meir Chai, 45, father of seven from two months to 18 years.
    πŸ™  The ritual reference settlements being a major problem implying Chai’s death was his own fault for living in one, concludes the article.

    The Oddities:
    *DONT_KNOW*  At the fopurth paragraph the article segues into a totally unrelated piece on Netanyahu attempting to persuade Kadima members to join him only to return to the killing story at the 7th paragraph.
    *DONT_KNOW*  The map illustrating the story shows a Faqua at the top. I had never heard of it before. Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and of course Jerusalem are cities. Faqua located east of Jenin and therefore somewhat left of where placed on the map is an obscure village of about 4,000 people.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    A New Year’s Resolution for the HYS moderators:

    We will stop allowing every single thread to be derailed by off-topic comments whining about the Daily Mail

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  9. George R says:

    For BBC: the problem for Christians in Muslim countries extends beyond these two people –

    “Kidnap couple set to spend Christmas in captivity”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8429853.stm

    More generally, BBC:

    “A Sorrowful Christmas in the Islamic World”

    (by Robert Spencer) –

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/12/spencer-a-sorrowful-christmas-in-the-islamic-world.html

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  10. Paddy says:

    I  confess… I like Dr who.

    Why then does aunties pc fingers stretch into even this iconic scifi show.

    IN the opening line of this years christmas episode we have Christmas referred to as a Pagan Holiday.  It wasnt necessary to have an obvious dig at the millions of Christian beleivers on the second most important day on the Christian calendar.

    I respect the rights of the atheists on this boards to have  go and to rnt on about Britain being secular etc but it is known Christmas day for a reason. It my have been  co-opted festival from the pgan times but to most people it is a christian festival. In fact if yu surveyed the UK public virtually all would describe it as a Christian festival.

    Why then does Aunties pink army take the biggest watched show over christmas nd use it for its revisionist mantra?

    Scum.

    Next they film inside a church and yet seem to miss any Crucifix or cross altogether for fear of offending our minority friends again on Christmas day.

    And finally the plot line mentioned the Obamessiah saving the world.

    I am not being paranoid, it is hard to take a  picture in a church and not see a cross.

    What has the church ever done to them to deserve such treatment.

    Still it was a good show and I will miss young Mr Tenant when he leaves.

    Happy Christmas to one and all , no matter what religion or cred you have. May god bless your new year ( even if he is my imaginary friend at least I still have the right to believe)

    Sorry if I got a bit ranty above but it is Christmas

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    • Paddy says:

      Sorry about all the typos but I have been ‘hitting the pop’ today πŸ™‚

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    • Millie Tant says:

      Paddy: May god bless your new year (even if he is my imaginary friend at least I still have the right to believe)
      ===============================

      John Betjeman posed the question in his poem “Christmas”:

      “And is it true,
      This most tremendous tale of all,
      Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
      A Baby in an ox’s stall ?
      The Maker of the stars and sea
      Become a Child on earth for me ?

      And is it true? For if it is,
      No loving fingers tying strings
      Around those tissued fripperies,
      The sweet and silly Christmas things,
      Bath salts and inexpensive scent
      And hideous tie so kindly meant,

      No love that in a family dwells,
      No carolling in frosty air,
      Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
      Can with this single Truth compare –
      That God was man in Palestine
      And lives today in Bread and Wine.”

      Beeoboids don’t ask the question: that would be too open-minded for them.  And indeed too civil. They simply, in their shallow way, despise people for believing in something beyond the Beeb’s reach and for not toeing the Beeboid line.

      Wonder how many today got the hideous tie so kindly meant. πŸ˜€

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Obamessiah worship in Dr. Who has nothing to do with the BBC.  R.T. Davies, the current (although he is now stepping down) executive producer and steward of Dr. Who, is a homosexual and committed Leftoid.  He was the creator of “Queer as Folk”, and has not hidden his enthusiasm over making the main character of “Torchwood” a homosexual, so it’s no secret.

      Of course, since he probably gets his news from the BBC, he will be unaware that the President has a very poor track record so far of supporting gay marriage rights or the rights of homosexuals in the military to be open about their sexual preferences.  Maybe he’ll figure it out eventually.

      Davies’ far-Left political views have influenced his creative direction for Dr. Who from the beginning of his tenure.  I noticed it from the start, and this is just the latest example of his personal views coming out in the story.

      As an atheist, Davies is not going to be very fond of organized religion, although he has apparently stated that he has no problem with the human instinct for religious belief.  While some may see bits of Christian symbolism in Dr. Who, I’ve seen evidence of a mutli-culti, relativist tendency.  For example, the first story arc with Martha as the Dr.’s companion featured a hospital run by a culture using a green crescent as its symbol.  This is the exact same symbol used by today’s Mohammedan affiliate of the Red  Cross.  The alien culture running the hospital was not Muslim, and it was assumed that this was now the international symbol for medical assistance.

      I don’t know that Davies is specifically anti-Christian, but as a homosexual and atheist, he can’t be very fond of the Catholic Church, the US and African branches of the Anglican Community, or the kind of US Christian we’ve all seen denegrated on air by Beeboids.

      His right-on views and homosexuality may very well be why he got the nod to direct the Dr. Who franchise, although of course I couldn’t say for sure.  But there’s no question they let him promote a homosexualist agenda in the Dr. Who spinoff, “Torchwood”.  In any case, the shows are full of Leftoid commentaries without any influence from Auntie.

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  11. Marky says:

    I haven’t watched the BBC in a long time, switched on the telly and within 10 mins there was a pro-Barack Obama mention on Dr Who of all places. In the program two guys walk up to a burger van and the woman serving says somethig along the lines of everything will be all right because of Obama. I thought WTF!

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    • Guest says:

      ‘Senior White House officials’ described a bloke trying to set a bomb off on a plane as an act of terrorism and that ‘President Obama is monitoring the situation’.

      That’s why they get the big bucks. Neither statement is in any way inaccurate, but rather smacks of less than challenging interpretation of events in the news room during the school hols.

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  12. George R says:

    Islamic jihad message: Merry Christmas, infidels!

    ‘Jihadwatch’  report:

    “Suspect in attempted bombing of flight to Detriot was on a watch list”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/12/suspect-in-attempted-bombing-of-delta-flight-was-on-a-watch-list.html

    BBC report:

    “Incident on transatlantic jet ‘may have been attack'”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8430612.stm

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  13. George R says:

    For BBC: example of investigative journalism by’ The Times’:

    “Police lose battle over evidence of ‘British 9/11’ plot”

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6968061.ece

    Note for BBC: supression of Balen Report (using £200,000 plus of Licencepayers’ money to do so) is not investigative journalism.

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  14. PDC says:

    If you’re snowed in and want a good read try,
    http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/bastardi-europe-blog.asp?partner=accuweather
    This guy has been spot on with his long range weather forecasts and is scathing about the true believers in the the new religion of man-made climate change at the BBC/Met Office.

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  15. George R says:

    The BBC’s Barbara ‘tears for Arafat’ Plett is pushing her usual pro-Arab, pro-UNRWA, anti-Israel line:

    “No celebrations as UNRWA turns 60”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8427987.stm

    For a different, and critical line on UNRWA:

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/20048

    and:

    http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/24624

    Ms Plett is now the BBC’s UN correspondent, but she still pushes her same old pro-Arab, anti-Israel propaganda.

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  16. Robert Soul says:

    Probably been covered before but I caught the BBC production of Oliver Twist here in Canada a few nights back. It was nice of the BBC to feature a half black actress for Nancy and a couple of black kids amongst Fagin’s crew. No problem there with meeting the diversity quota. What was more interesting was they felt no need to tone down the anti-semitic angle in Fagin’s trial.

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  17. Will says:

    Does the BBC do irony?

    Most Annoying People 2009Sunday 27 December
    9:00pm – 11:30pm
    BBC3

    Introduced by Richard Bacon

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  18. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Just listening to the News on the BBC World Service, and had to laugh at the segment they just did on the attempted mass murder on that plane.

    The first giggle came when they found some old schoolmate of Abdulmutallab to give the obligatory “he was a nice guy, I never expected this” speech.  The American-accented schoolmate said that the Abdulmutallab he knew was friendly, well-liked by his teachers, all the usual encomiums, including “he was very religious.”  I laughed when the former schoolmate finished by saying that “it doesn’t add up” that the guy he knew turned into an Islamic terrorist.  It’s funny because he wouldn’t have done if he wasn’t “very religious”.  Bit of a disconnect there, and naturally ignored by the BBC.

    The bigger laugh came when they had a Nigerian official (I think that’s who he was) who seemed to know all about Abdulmutallab’s situation.  From what the Nigerian in the studio said, it’s pretty clear that the wannabe terrorist got “radicalized” while studying at the University College London, when he took an Arabic studies course.  Soon after that he apparently wanted to go to Yemen to study hardcore Islam, give up his passport, etc.

    Instead of focusing on the very important issue of possible radical elements this guy knew at the UCL, the Beeboid in the studio wanted to know if the real problem was that the “powerful and wealthy” in Nigeria were often given an easy pass through airport security.  While that’s also an important part of this story – how the guy even got on the plane – it’s telling that the BBC keeps ignoring the religious angle every time it comes up.

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  19. David Preiser (USA) says:

    To set up a segement about whether or not the mass murders of 9/11 shaped the next decade, the World Service decided to give a montage of audio clips from reports on the day about the mass murders of 9/11.  But the Beeboids reveal their political bias in their choice of source material: aside from BBC material, they feature clips from ABC (who, except for Jake Tapper, have been openly in the tank for promoting the White House political agenda, including broadcasting from the White House itself to help support His policies) and the far-Left NPR.

    It’s already trying to portray Bush’s response as negative, “revenge”, “you’re either with us or against us”, etc.  I’m shutting it off now because they’re talking about how Bush used these attacks as a smokescreen to grab “raw power” worldwide.  Get bent, BBC.

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  20. deegee says:

    Is the BBC obsessed with Obama? You bet!
    Newsbeat – Odd Box Festive Politics Special

    Of a total of ten (10) segments six (6) were Obama moments!

    Dominic Byrne ends with “Let’s hope we’ll have some more great Obama moments in 2010”. I don’t doubt it :*

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  21. Will says:

    With Brown detested by the majority of voters it grates, but is understandable, when every minister interviewed on the BBC has to tell us how great is Gordon.

    But not just Labour lackeys it seems, on “Today” we had “Dr Kerry Brown, senior fellow of the Asia programme at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House analyses the prospect that Chinese officials will grant a pardon.” to the British (Akmal Shaikh) drug smuggler. Our Kerry repeatedly told us that Brown is a well respected international statesman – so those Chinks will soon have Akmal winging his way back to his motherland.

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  22. Matt Saunders says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8432678.stm

    Second recent Tory attempt to help out homeowners defending their castles. Beeb’s response? No statistics, few anecdotes even, a very weasley heading, and a lot of direct quotes from the DPP. Of course there were no represtentatives of pro-self-defence groups quoted…

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    • Will says:

      & the BBC think it appropriate to state “A call by the Conservatives to make it harder for people who tackle burglars to be jailed has been rejected by the Director of Public Prosecutions”

      So Starmer can thinks that a revised law enacted by Parliament is something he can choose to implement?

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  23. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s some information to counter the pro-ObamaCare propaganda the BBC has been feeding you for months.  Even committed Leftoids and Obamessiah supporters are seeing through the charade of “health care reform” lowering the cost of health care and increasing care for those who need it.

    Liberals Wake Up:  ObamaCare Stinks

    A few days ago, extreme Leftoid and Obamessiah worshiper Jane Hamsher went on the BBC’s arch enemy network to condemn the Senate bill.  Now even NY Times extreme Leftoid opinion columnist – and longtime self-proclaimed champion of the working classes and virulent critic of George W. Bush and Republicans – Bob Herbert says that this is not going to fix anything, and will in fact make things worse.


    There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate’s version of President Obama’s effort to reform health care. The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, which are popularly viewed as over-the-top plans held only by the very wealthy. In fact, it’s a tax that in a few years will hammer millions of middle-class policyholders, forcing them to scale back their access to medical care. . . In the first year it would affect relatively few people in the middle class. But because of the steadily rising costs of health care in the U.S., more and more plans would reach the taxation threshold each year.

    So here’s a committed Leftoid who wants socialized medicine to be a reality saying that this Pelosi/Reid ObamaCare deal will not lower health care costs and will in fact harm the very middle classes that The Obamessiah said weren’t going to be taxed.  Not only that, but this means that The Obamessiah is in fact lying when he says that people will be allowed to keep their current health care plans in any future system.

    Instead, the BBC keeps providing you with Democrat talking points, regurgitating White House press releases, and coming up with new ways to convince you all about how the US health care system costs too much (and editorial opinion on its own) doesn’t cover people who in fact actually do have access to free health care.  The pro-NHS, pro-Democrat Beeboids just aren’t going to give up trying to promote a success story for His Plan For Us, and won’t tell you the truth.

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  24. Guest says:

    Quick question for those better versed in the intricacies of the BBC and its myriad systems of burying anything contra narrative… er… accountability.

    This small exchange has stemmed from my wishing to register a concern about a broadcast entity with BBC in its name:

    Thanks for your e-mail to BBC Information. 

    While I appreciate the time it has taken for you to email us, I must advise that as World Have Your Say is part of the BBC World Service so you will have to contact them directly to discuss your concerns:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/institutional/2009/03/000000_contact_us.shtml

    Thanks again for contacting us.

    Regards

    BBC Complaints
    __________________________________________
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

    —–Original Message—–
    Complaint:} There is a fine line between reflecting and shaping.This, just now, from twitter:BBC_WHYS – We also need to make sure we are reflecting the anger that’s out there rather than nuanced voiceWhose voice is being reflected by this UK-funded entity, exactly?The more I hear and see, the more it seems to be some kind of funded talking shop for students to vent upon. And their ‘audience’, too.Other than being concerned about the buck passing from what I had thought was the only, logged, complaints system for our nationally funded by licence fee broadcast system, I do not that where I have been directed is not actually a complaints register but merely a method of contact.They are beyond parody.

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