61 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. Grant says:

    I have not had time to scroll down, so don’t know if this has already been reported.
    Those of you who are aware of Craig’s fantastic blog, may not be aware that he decided yesterday to discountinue it.
    We have lost one of our best weapons in the war against the BBC.
    But, he promises to keep posting here.
    Cheers, Craig, you did an amazing job !

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    • Jack Bauer says:

      Absolutely.

      And you’ll note that even though organized questioning of the £3 billion poll tax funded BBC monster is essentially run on a one man and his dog basis with no funding —

      Even this is tantamount to “treason” by the unhinged BBC fanatics who sometimes troll their unsustainable arguments here!

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    • Roland Deschain says:

      Hear hear.

      I often wondered how Craig found the time and inclination to do such a forensic analysis and don’t blame him for calling it a day.  If the BBC isn’t doing something similar how can it possibly contend that it monitors itself for impartiality.  It should make public how it monitors itself.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Yes, thanks for the great work Craig.  Hopefully your work may continue in some small way.

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  2. NotaSheep says:

    Seconded and I am sure that there will be many that will miss Beeb Bias Craig’s postings.

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    • Grant says:

      Interesting that, although we know that the BBC are aware of Craig, I don’t think any of them or their fellow travellers ever posted on his website. Craig will maybe confirm that.
      In itself a triumph !

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  3. Pounce says:

    Yesterday the home office released the Immigration figures for 2009. Included in that report was the figures for immigrants who had been awarded ‘British Citizenship.’  Figures show that the total figure of successful applicants has gone up by 59%. Instead of reporting that news. The bBC headlines with;
    British citizenship test: One in three immigrants fails

    And then reports on how those who are failing the most belong to a certain gay death cult. (Before any bBC clones object and call this site a racist site, I’m an apostate from Islam) So in effect saying, look we are stopping Muslims from getting in. Which is funny in that 1) they are already here, 2) they will never get deported. 3) They all hate our f-ing guts.

    It seems that the inability to inform the public about the true immigration figures , you know the one which help oust labour from power still hasn’t been taken aboard at the bBC.

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  4. Derek Buxton says:

    I usually enjoy watching the Chelsea Flower Show on BBC2, but this year it was ruined by the propaganda for global warming and the UN bio diversity year.  The celebs they use are a pain in the rear anyway but to have an actor quoting Lovelock was the end.  Sack the bloody lot.

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    • Grant says:

      Derek,
      Quite agree. I watched 5 minutes this week the switched off.
      Also am I the only person who can’t stand Alan Titmarsh ?

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    • Millie Tant says:

      It was ruined for me when instead of showing the gardens and plants, it suddenly went haring off to view Raymond Blanc’s kitchen garden in Oxfordshire. What the heck is that about?

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    • Roland Deschain says:

      Global warming propaganda gets into almost every programme these days.  It frequently ruins what are otherwise interesting documentaries, where there appears to be a contractual obligation to tack on something in the last five minutes about “the adverse effects of global warming”.

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  5. Bupendra Bhakta says:

    Living with a gardener means I see a bit en passant of a lot of these programmes.

    Springwatch with Corkscrew-Head Kate Humble is, from first to last minute, one solid shill for global-warming and the carnage it is wreaking on our flora and fauna.

    In contrast, however, the presenters of Beechgrove Garden, people who actually go into their gardens and try and grow stuff, are completely off-message and are forever chuntering on about how dreadful last winter* was, worst in my six decades etc. Chance of another series – nil.

    *yeah, yeah, I know, (before any greenies comment) that ‘very cold’ is an extreme weather event (along with ‘quite nippy’, ‘OK out’, ‘T-shirt weather’ and ‘cor’) of the sort that absolutely proves incontrovertibly that AGW exists and in the words of Clive james will have the frazzled corpses of polar bears floating past our penthouse windows.

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  6. George R says:

    ‘Jihadwatch’:

    Pakistan: 30 dead as Presbyterian extremists storm two mosques, take hostages — no, wait…

    BBC report:

    “Deadly attack on mosques in Pakistani city of Lahore”

    (by BBC’s ALEEM MAQBOOL)

    Note the BBC’s politically censored house style:

    E.g., opening words: Not Islamic jihadists, but:-

    “Gunmen have attacked two mosques”..

    And, we are  told  that it all simply sectarian:

    “The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad” [not Lahore] “says the attacks appear to be sectarian in nature.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/10181380.stm

    In fact, this particular murderous attack goes to the core of what Islamic jihad is about: it is about the Islamic necessity of killing anyone deemed an infidel, so as to further the cause of Islamic supremacy in the world.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I see this attack as going to the core of what I mean when I call these people “cavemen”.  And during Sabbath prayers, yet.

      This is sectarian nonsense, something that Christian Europe got over a few hundred years ago.  Maybe someday the Muslim World will start to choose life over death.  It will take some doing, though, as those people have been cavemen far longer than they have been Muslims.

      Maqbool is on the News Channel right now talking about how “a lot of extremists” feel that the people who’ve been attacked aren’t proper Muslims, so they’re infidels who must be killed.

      Not a single word of concern for a house of worhsip being attacked, or how wrong it is, as the BBC does when non-Muslims do it.  As usual, the BBC has an editorial policy to tread very lightly when reporting on Muslim attacks on houses of worship.  Instead, they’re discussing it as if it’s no different than if it was an ordinary crime like a group of armed thugs who tried to rob a bank and are now holding people hostage.  No difference at all.

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      • Bupendra Bhakta says:

        This is sectarian nonsense, something that Christian Europe got over a few hundred years ago.

        ****************************************

        Give or take a northern ireland or two.

        BBC reporting on same was the first time I ever heard the phrase ‘Human Rights Lawyer’.  BBC-speak for those who defended IRA **** in a court of law.

        Plus ca change etc.

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Fair point.  Exception that proves the rule, etc.

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        • Ed (ex RSA) says:

          Give or take a northern ireland or two. “

          Not that old myth again. Northern Ireland is a national conflict, not a religious one. The IRA et al are like the Basque ETA, not the followers of the dead paedophile in Pakistan.

             0 likes

        • Millie Tant says:

          Except that the conflict there is not about doctrine or religion per se.

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    • Jack Bauer says:

      So the BBC can’t yet identify whether they are Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Zoastorean, Bhuddist or Mayan gunmen?

      Must be one of those, I suppose.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Actually the BBC has admitted the killers are Muslim.  Maqbool explained that the sect under attacked are considered infidels by mainstream Muslims, hence the reason for the “sectarian” attack.

        No fretting that a religious building was made into a battlefield, unlike BBC reporting when the US or Israel is involved.

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      • Grant says:

        I blame the Aztecs for everything.

           0 likes

        • Jack Bauer says:

          What have the Aztecs ever done for us?

          Apart from human sacrifice?

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          • Grant says:

            Ask not what the Aztecs can do for you, but what can you do for the Aztecs  ?

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            • Wally Greeninker says:

              The Ahmadi are not strictly infidels, who may be merely subjugated and forced into dhimmi status: since they are Muslims by birth or descended from Muslims they are guilty of apostasy (there are fatwas around to that effect) which is punishable by death, at least to  a strict salafist. The comparison to N. Ireland or sectarian strife is not an accurate way of looking at the attitude of these fanatics.

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              • David Preiser (USA) says:

                Hey, Sunnis and Shiia kill each other over a rift dating back to 661 CE, so the fact that yet another sect is fair game comes as no surprise to me.  One caveman’s infidel is another caveman’s shaman.  I was just quoting the Beeboid there about the Ahmadi.  Maqbool said very clearly that most Muslims considered them to be non-Muslim.  That’s probably what his imam told him.

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  7. Dazed-and-Confused says:

    Did anybody have the misfortune to watch “Inside Sport” on Monday night, where-by the BBC (via Mark Chapman) examined the disgrace of sportsmen and women not being able to “come out”, and camp it up on the sports fields of Britain and the World beyond.

    If any ones got some spare time on their hands, pass yourself a sick bag and get ready to cringe, because it really was left wing television at it’s worst, and utterly beyond parody.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=inside%20sport

       1 likes

    • Martin says:

      They did a bit on Radio 5 as well, anyone would think every sportsman is a raving homosexual, but only in the wet dreams of the average male beeboid.

         1 likes

  8. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Andy Gallacher on the News Channel just now defending The Obamessiah again against criticism over handling the oil spill.  Once again the BBC points out that the President can’t really do anything personally to stop the leak, and criticism is unfair.  Once again there is no discussion whatsoever about His abject failure to get clean-up and coastal defense action going early on.

    As long as the focus remains on the leaking hole itself, all blame can be shifted away from Him, so that’s how the BBC covers it.

       1 likes

  9. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Has anyone else noticed that nearly every time the BBC talks about the BA strike and negotiations, there’s Unite imagery in the background?

       1 likes

  10. Anny says:

    Nauseating!!!
    Nicky Campbell 5 Live this morning in usual uninformed know it all mode declaring that prostitution was a “career choice”
    and not understanding the difference between decriminalisation and legalising

       1 likes

  11. prpw says:

    BBC World shilling just now that while Hurricane Katrina was extremely damaging to Pres Bush, it’s still `unclear’ whether the GOM oil spill will be damaging to Obama… (the BBC hope it won’t be of course, and while other news organisations can find data showing mounting dissatisfaction with his administration’s handling of the spill, the BBC don’t seem able to). and I still want to know why Matt Frei or one of his mates isn’t striding around waving his arms in the air and sneering into the camera about the handling of the response, as he did so piously after Katrina. why not so even-handed this time? 

       1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Matt Frei is currently on assignment in Brazil, doing a series of reports on how great the Brazilian economy is, and how wealthy the country has become and is a Socialist success story.

         1 likes

      • Millie Tant says:

        I happened to tune in one night recently only to find  myself in the middle of the Katty and Matty show with Frei Boy declaiming at length about “racism” in Brazil.

        No doubt much to the chagrin and bewilderment of the BBC, Brazilians don’t even think of themselves as “races”, much less as colours of the spectrum. Yes, they just think of themselves as er…people…Brazilian people. How sensible of them.  But let that not deter the BBC from sniffing out “racism” with the dedication of a truffle hunter. Oh, no. Frei Boy solemnly intoned and Katty listened agog while Frei had the Brazilians of African origin in his sights…they are not as well represented as some others in higher education, but deary me, the problem is how to get those undifferentiated Brazilians to call themselves “black”.

         Cheeky buggers, calling themselves Brazilian, I say. 😉

           1 likes

        • Daniel Smith says:

          I noticed a strange contradiction in Frei’s report: the Brazilians are a wonderful diverse melting pot (take note Blighty) who see passed skin colour  YET blacks have it worse than anyone else. This same scene of shanty town, were it to appear in America, would be taken as proof how Racist America is.
          Needless to say, Karl Marx appears to save the day for Frei: this apparent racism is really about economics.
          From this report, I don’t think Frei’s knowledge of Brazil goes beyond a youthful admiration for Pele and samba rhythms.

             1 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Yes, to hear Frei Boy tell it, Brazil’s version of Socialism is going to lift up all those shanty town denizens from poverty.  It will be the first time in history that happened, of course.  Also, because some Brazilians he talked to acknowledged that there’s racism, that means they have the problem well under control, things looking up for blacks.

            Just like his reporting on the US, Frei already has the story he wants to tell in mind before he even gets off the plane.  Reality doesn’t always enter into it, and he can just make things up sometimes to fill out the story.

               1 likes

        • Grant says:

          Did any reports mention the hundreds , if not thousands, of “street children” murdered by the brazilian police each year  ?
          Now that is real socialism !

             1 likes

      • Martin says:

        I saw that as well, no mention of the murdering of street kids by the Police, I wonder why?

           1 likes

  12. Nick Name says:

    Totally off topic I’m afraid… but has anyone else noticed how the pro-BBC fanatics will not tolerate any dissent or criticism? I happened upon a YouTube video yesterday which described itself as

    The BBC are happily crippling themselves to please a******es who want them dead. Here’s my response. Contains strong language and close-ups of James Murdoch’s face.”

    I left a comment saying that I could no longer ignore the BBC’s bias, & I have now been blocked from his site! So much for tolerating opposing views!

       1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      That was truly awful.  And of course this guy’s main point is that only right-wingers are against the BBC, which is tacit admission that the BBC is biased to the Left.  And then he stifles dissent?  Sounds so much like our past defenders of the indefensible.

         1 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      For  BBC fanatics and intolerance of any criticism whatsoever of the BBC, you have to see the Broadcasting forum on Digital Spy. It is inhabited by media types including BBCers.  There’s a small handful of regulars – only about four – who constantly stand gatekeeper and ready to go on the attack against any whisper of criticism of anything to do with the BBC or the licence fee.

         1 likes

      • Marky says:

        Oh no not Digital Spy!!! We like the BBC therefore everyone should pay for what we like…

           1 likes

    • Marky says:

      Yes I’ve come across this a lot and have been banned/had comments removed quite frequently by Beeboids, also the BBC YouTube channel has been removing my and other people’s comments against the licence fee or bias (but they let some through). What I have noticed is that Labour YouTube channels are the worst for banning and removing comments along with Beeboid channels. The further to the left a blog, channel, forum is the more likely they will be intolerant of dissent.

         1 likes

    • Marky says:

      BTW I just posted “The BBC Licence Fee is the forced subscription for a media product, enforced with coercion, threats and intimidation, an extortion racket propping up a biased media corporation… Nobody should be forced by law to pay for The Guardian before they are allowed to read The Telegraph. Refuse to pay the BBC extortion fee.”

      On that thread, maybe I will get banned as well..

         1 likes

  13. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The usual bias is on full display in this BBC report about opening of a road from the West Bank into Israel.

    West Bank road partially opened to Palestinian traffic

    Note that the terminology used:  “Israel military opened,” “Isreali military closed”.   Not the “Israeli government”.  Pinning it on the military implies that the military runs the show, makes the decisions, and maintains that nasty bully perception of Israel the BBC likes.

    But worse than that is the way they describe the overall situation of the West Bank:


    Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements

    Why is Israel there in the first place, BBC?  What happened in 1967, BBC?  Without the proper context, the BBC creates the impression that Israel invaded unprovoked, simply for Zionist territorial expansion.  Once again the BBC effortlessly demonizes Israel.

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  14. David Preiser (USA) says:

    I’m a bit late getting to this, but here’s the BBC denying the reality of Hamas and demonizing Israel over the blockade of Gaza: 
     
    Details of Gaza blockade revealed in court case  
     
    First, let me acknowledge again that the BBC has improved its reporting on Gaza in recent months by finally admitting to the border with Egypt and including Egypt in responsibility for the blockade.  
     
    Having said that, this particular article is a classic example of the BBC’s egregious dishonesty regarding Hamas and Israel and Gaza.  The piece itself is about the details of what’s actually allowed through and what isn’t permitted, finally made public by a court case in Israel.  Fine.  At least it shows that the BBC has been exaggerating when reporting that only basic humanitarian supplies are allowed through by the nasty Israelis.  
     
    However, all these improvements are basically destroyed by the second to last sentence:  
     
    It does set the context for the blockade: in what Israel considers to be its existential conflict with Hamas.  
     
    What Israel “considers to be”?  I direct the BBC’s attention to the following sections of the Hamas Charter:  
     
    Article Six:  
     
    The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned. In the absence of Islam, strife will be rife, oppression spreads, evil prevails and schisms and wars will break out.  
     
    It’s not Israel’s opinion:  this is Hamas’s own reason for existence.  The BBC is lying about Hamas.  
     
    From Article Seven:  
     
    The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders. It goes back to 1939, to the emergence of the martyr Izz al-Din al Kissam and his brethren the fighters, members of Moslem Brotherhood. It goes on to reach out and become one with another chain that includes the struggle of the Palestinians and Moslem Brotherhood in the 1948 war and the Jihad operations of the Moslem Brotherhood in 1968 and after.  
     
    This is about the destruction of the State of Israel, full stop.  The BBC won’t tell you, and demonizes Israel instead.

       1 likes

  15. George R says:

    “Europe: the battle of ideas” –

    but anti-EU views barely allowed (outside Election time) to be voiced by British people on the BBC.

    The  pro-EU BBC only follows the  EU’s elite in  the agenda on this:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/

    And:

    http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/1657-ukip-vote-doubles-in-thirsk-and-malton

       1 likes

  16. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Remember when David Cameron was knocked back on his heels during the debates any time Brown or Clegg talked about making the House of Lords into a genuinely elected body?  I think the Tories may have a reason to go along with them now:

    Dissolution Honours:  John Prescott made a peer

       0 likes

  17. Marky says:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/bbc

    At least here you can post a comment before it gets removed. Help keep up the pressure.

       0 likes

  18. Roger C says:

    I feel that the BBC is treating the latest parlimentary expenses scandle with kid gloves today. There is no mention that David Laws is a lib dem or that he is gay, if this had been a Tory minister in the limelight his party would be the first thing announced as would the pig troughing activities he has indulged in. The BBC protects its own.

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  19. John Anderson says:

    Well well well – Roger Harrabin mentions McIntyre and also attendees at the Heartland Institute conference with some respect – and suggests that the various ClimateGate “whitewashes” may come unstuck through deliberately ignoring relevant testimony :

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10178454.stm

    and a couple of days ago he reported on dissension in the ranks of the Royal Society – a report also aired on Radio 4 :

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10178124.stm

    Wot, no polar bears or glaciers ?

    Maybe he should check with the equivalent Australian body about dissension in their ranks too – and claims that “creating” green jobs kills off more real jobs :

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/scientists-at-academy-row-over-climate-sceptic-policy/1843775.aspx

    (The Telegraph and the Times also ran pieces on the latest Royal Society review and a sense of breaking ranks :

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7778917/Royal-Society-to-publish-guide-on-climate-change-to-counter-claims-of-exaggeration.html

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7139407.ece

    ………………..

    Maybe the new consensus is emerging – agnosticism,  an unwillingness to be browbeaten by those on high ?   And it would be encouraging if BBC journalists stopped being spoonfed  apocalyptic nonsense – otherwise they will end up looking exceedingly foolish and unprofessional.

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  20. George R says:

    Isn’t the BBC more involved in the resignation of David Laws than it is letting on?

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  21. Guest Who says:

    On a little quest for information which, with Craig sadly no longer doing his sterling work seems even less than likely considering the complexity and time required.

    Just wondering at the level of time commitment we get from many high-profile BBC contributors. Or how back-up is arranged.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2010/05/the_mess_david.html#comments

    PS: I’m off for a week’s half-term break.

    It does seem this chap seems to vanish at every school holiday, for its full extent, which suggest a generous vacation entitlement indeed.

    More crucially, for a 24/7, 365/365 multibillion news broadcaster, it also seems to result in ‘casual’ periods of coverage – and especially online interaction – at best, on the odd notion that nothing happens or is worth discussing when the establishment are mostly on the shores or slopes.

    Andrew Neil’s last post was May 10.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/dailypolitics/andrewneil/

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  22. Simon Fay says:

    News 24 straight-facedly reporting masses of cheeky Mexican bastards at home and abroad (i.e. in the US) protesting noisily against US sovereignty in wake of Arizona’s moves to toughen immigration regime. 90% of the piece on the anti case, 10% max on the pro (a brief word from a patriotic group on the low probability of universal-brotherhood reciprocation from the ever-emboldened incomers)

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  23. Slowjoe says:

    Did anyone catch “7 day sunday” today?  I think the link is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00psvjk

    Some “comedian” has a bit of a routine (from memory):
    Iain Duncan Smith has said that work makes you free.  Perhaps he should study a little history. 
    Michael Gove has said <something> strength through joy, and David Cameron said he thinks the coalition will last a thousand years.

    Three nazi references in a row, delivered straight.

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  24. George R says:

    BBC’s (and Obama’s) uselessly vague ‘warning’ on ‘World Cup terrorism in South Africa’.

    BBC report self-censors the use of the phrase: ‘ISLAMIC JIHAD’, so what follows here is not specific, even on the type of attack.

    “US warns of World Cup terrorism in South Africa”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/10181726.stm

    A more specific report, from ‘Express’ (uncensored by BBC):

    “Blood soaked ticket: Al Qaeda’s warning to World Cup fans”

    http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/178039/Blood-soaked-ticket-Al-Qaeda-s-warning-to-World-Cup-fans

       0 likes