93 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Harry Potter Actress Threats from Dad and Bro

     A HARRY Potter star’s dad and brother have been charged with threatening to kill her after an alleged bust-up over her new boyfriend.

    Afshan Azad, who has appeared in four of the films as one of the wizard’s screen girlfriends Padma Patil, hails from a strict Muslim family.

    She was allegedly attacked at her parents’ home ­after she had started dating the new lad.

    Her dad Abdul, 54, has appeared in court accused of threatening to kill her. The actress’s brother Ashraf, 28, faces the same charge and an allegation that he assaulted her causing actual bodily harm.

    BBC:  Zzzzzzz

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    • Jack Bauer says:

      COMING SOON TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU…

      Harry Potter and the Honour Killing.

         1 likes

  2. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s more about the President’s incompetence regarding the clean-up effort:


    Volunteers ready but left out of spill cleanup

    BP and the Obama administration face mounting complaints that they are ignoring foreign offers of equipment and making little use of the fishing boats and volunteers available to help clean up what may now be the biggest spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico.

    The Coast Guard said there have been 107 offers of help from 44 nations, ranging from technical advice to skimmer boats and booms. But many of those offers are weeks old, and only a small number have been accepted, with the vast majority still under review, according to a list kept by the State Department.

    It seems as if BP is responsible for much of this:

    Still, more than 2,000 boats have signed up for oil-spill duty under BP’s Vessel of Opportunity program. The company pays boat captains and their crews a flat fee based on the size of the vessel, ranging from $1,200 to $3,000 a day, plus a $200 fee for each crew member who works an eight-hour day.

    Rocky Ditcharo, a shrimp dock owner in Buras, La., said many fishermen hired by BP have told him that they often park their boats on the shore while they wait for word on where to go.

    “They just wait because there’s no direction,” Ditcharo said. He said he believes BP has hired many boat captains “to show numbers.”

    “But they’re really not doing anything,” he added. He also said he suspects the company is hiring out-of-work fishermen to placate them with paychecks.

    So after all the scowling and finger-pointing and speechifying about taking control and keeping the boot on BP’s neck, the Government is still not providing any leadership whatsoever?  No wonder the Democrats in the House rewrote the travel rules to prevent Republicans from visiting the area.

    And no wonder the BBC still isn’t reporting any of this.

       1 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      The actual truth just does not fit the BBC narrative and so the truth and the facts that cannot be twisted or perverted simply dissapear, airbrushed out of the record by a BBC determined to protect its hero come what may and at any cost.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Mark Mardell and the rest of them read the US news, and have friends and acquaintances in the organizations complaining about blocked access.  They know this is going on, and there is no doubt they’re hiding it.  The question is:  why, and how long do they think they can get away with it?

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    • deegee says:

      What is the purpose of a photo opportunity trip to Louisiana? One doesn’t need a trip to see the leak hasn’t been plugged, only a television.

      It might be argued that the President needs to make an appearance as an expression of the idea he’s aware of the problem and giving it his attention but who else needs to sent at the people’s expense?

         1 likes

  3. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s the BBC’s Mark Davenport on Ian (soon to be Lord) Paisley’s remarks about the Pope and his upcoming visit.  
     
    Paisley and the Pope  
     
    The World Service has done an interview with him to be broadcast this weekend, and of course Paisley thinks the Pope’s visit is a mistake, says it’s all been arranged in secret, and is generally unhappy about it.  And he still stands by his unpleasant anti-Catholic remarks of the past.  Big surprise.
     
    So Davenport says this:  

    On one level this is not very surprising anyone who has kept an eye on Ian Paisley’s “News Letter” columns knows he hasn’t changed his theological views. However the recent reassessment of the former DUP leader, since he decided to share power with Sinn Fein, has tended to diminish some people’s memories of how fervent his attitudes were when, for example, he protested against the Pope in the European parliament back in 1988.  
     
    Oh, really?  It’s Paisley whose past is being sanitized, BBC? I think we all know a story about a broadcasting organization which has tended to diminish some people’s memories about certain other people’s past behavior.

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  4. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Now even CNN is unhappy with the Government’s blocking media access to the reality of the oil spill clean-up failure.  And CNN is in lock-step with the BBC on most issues.

    This presents us with another angle for the BBC report: it’s a problem of bureaucracy, a small-“g” government problem. It’s not necessarily blaming the President.  So why isn’t the BBC reporting any of this?  There are at least half a dozen Beeboids in the area covering this.  What’s going on?

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    • Guest Who says:

      You do use words like ‘report’ and ‘covering’.

      That might be the probelm right there.

      The BBC seems now to exist more to ‘interpret events’.

      They can be, and often are, mutually exclusive. Evidently.

         1 likes

  5. Ronald Todd says:

    Why was the BBC so keen for an African country to win the world cup?

    They were insistant that all African countries support each other. Would they not be more likely to support the countries that give them the most charity?

       1 likes

    • Jack Bauer says:

      I too am puzzled at that.

      The BBC is staffed by Euro-fanatics who love “Europe”. So you would think that the party line was to support a European team over an African team

      I guess now they will be supporting the European team with the most black players.

      That rules out Spain.

      I’ve also noticed that while it’s seemingly absolutely fine for the BBC to push the line that ALL of Africa wanted Ghana, the “black” African team to win. Them all being BLACK.

      But I wonder what would happen had I phoned into Five Live and stated that I’m supporting the Spain because they are now the most representative of the white European culture.

      I only ask because personally I want them all to lose. Being an ENGLAND supporter, irrespective of the skin hues of the players.

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  6. David Jones says:

    Remember the Goldstone Report?

    Goldstone, a South African, “… was one of several liberal judges who issued key rulings that undermined apartheid from within the system by tempering the worst effects of the country’s racial laws.” Wikipedia.

    I’ve just come across this – http://www.hudson-ny.org/1189/legitimating-bigotry-the-legacy-of-richard-goldstone by Alan M Dershowitz  Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

    “Richard Goldstone, author of the notorious Goldstone report, did not become a South African judge in the post-Apartheid Mandela Era, as The New York Times and other media have erroneously reported. He accepted a judgeship during the worst days of Apartheid and helped legitimate one of the most racist regimes in the world by granting the imprimatur of the rule of law to some of the most undemocratic and discriminatory decrees.
     
    Goldstone was–quite literally–a hanging judge. He imposed and affirmed death sentences for more than two dozen blacks under circumstances where whites would almost certainly have escaped the noose. And he affirmed sentences of physical torture–euphemistically called “flogging”– for other blacks. He also enforced miscegenation and other racist laws with nary a word of criticism or dissent. He was an important part of the machinery of death, torture and racial subjugation that characterized Apartheid South Africa. His robe and gavel lent an air of legitimacy to an entirely illegitimate and barbaric regime.”

    Very well qualified to judge Israel I would say. Bastards!

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  7. Guest Who says:

    Gotta love the always good value, peak-time screened Newswatch.

    As a cost-cutting measure, maybe it might be best to have the segment nailing them bang to rights, get Uncle Ray to pose the obvious critique, have the nasal Beeboid (shaved, cropped, or spiky hair), usually in a blazer, sneer ‘I don’t think that’s fair’ and… 

    FIN.

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  8. Grant says:

    The BBC relentlessly pushing the line that if the proposed referendum on voting reform isn’t successful, the coalition will split.

    On “The Daily Politics ” yesterday, in the absence of Andrew Neil, gorgeous, pouting, Jo Coburn was so excited by the possibility she almost spilled out of her summer frock.

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  9. Grant says:

    Cassie,

    Just read your post on the previous open thread about the World Cup.  I am with you.  Go, Holland, Go !!!  Graet win against Brazil yesterday.

    Yes, how the BBC would hate it if Holland win the final !

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    • Grant says:

      Great !  or is  “graet ” the Dutch spelling ?

         0 likes

      • Cassandra King says:

        All dressed in orange which is my favourite colour and ready to cheer them on, heres hoping for some beeboid tears eh?
        Come on the orangemen!

           0 likes

        • Grant says:

          Cassie,

          Not my favourite colour nor fruit,  but I would support the Devil against the BBC !

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  10. RCE says:

    Check out the inevitable, groan-worthy relativism at the sign-off to this item about Muslim parents taking their children out of school music lessons, from 13.22 here:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sy4p1/BBC_London_News_02_07_2010/

    And I wonder what this very suspect, highly-convenient, anonymous “extreme-christian” whistleblower means by looking “a little closer to home”?

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  11. John Anderson says:

    David Preiser at the top of this thread posted about the Harry Potter actress being under threat of “honour killing”.

    On the World Service earlier this week there was a long interview with a young woman who had eventually reported to the police that her grandmother and another relative had killed a young woman.   But for some reason – when the great majority of these cases arise in  the Muslim community – the case concerned a Sikh family.  Now what editor decided to focus on Sikhs, not Muslims.   And to cap it,  they said that the next case they would review concerned religious fixation and threats against homesexuals.  By Muslims ?  No – by Christians.

    I think the BBC is either riddled with Islamists who block or deter adverse reporting about their religion and community – or by total cowards.

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/07/026672.php

    ……………………..

    Meanwhile right now we have Jeremy Bowen on From Our Own Correspondent blaming everything in the Middle East on the Israeli Prime Minister.  Like – he had not got on well with Clinton,  and that Obama’s rudeness was entirely due – not to Obama – but to BN.   Specifically, because BN had spoken to AIPAC, the lobby group,  and had declared Jerusalem to bew the capital of Israel. 

    Bowen says that Obama has simply reverted to the stance of previous US Presidents.  That Obama is the constant one,  that it is Israel that has gone postal.

    What a bloody liar Bowen is.

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    • Jack Bauer says:

      There is a spate of high profile dis-honour killings in India at the moment, predominantly by Hindus.

      Of course, it goes on in Pakistan all the time too.

      However, in this country and the United States it’s overwhelmingly Muslim. And dats a fact.

      Killings are just the tip of the iceberg thought. There’s a medieval attitude to women that manifests itself in silent abuse, suffering and battery.

      Remember when white, middleclass British “feminists” used to be against that thing?

      No more.

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  12. Martin says:

    Still waiting for the BBC to report the story about Al Bore

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    • Craig says:

      Still nothing on the Al Gore affair on the BBC website. The story is on the websites of Sky News, the Telegraph, the Guardian and the Independent, to name just a few.

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      • Guest Who says:

        ‘Watertight oversight’ in action, as Richard Black might claim?

        Oddly, throwing around wild accusations with the best of ’em not a problem if the subject is the correct side of the narrative team.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      They did put up a single news brief on the website a couple days ago.  But I can say for certain that there has been total silence about in on the air.  They learned the John Edwards lesson, just,

         0 likes

  13. fred bloggs says:

    Parliament channel.  Today, saturday, they are doing a round up of what has gone on in the Scottish executive.  As working people could only catch up at the weekend, why not the national Parliament.  The regions could use their own channels for their regional assemblies.

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  14. Martin says:

    Notice how the BBC are bigging up a tiny number of Muslim women who have planted some wreath at the National Memorial for the armed forces.

    11 women out of a population of some 4 million Muslims is hardly newsworthy is it? More of a stunt for which the BBC have fallen for.

    Remember the so called Muslim peace protests in some of our cities? Remember how the BBC fixed the photographs showing Muslims present that they then claimed was the true feeling of Muslims in the UK?

    Only when OTHER photographs came out was it obvious the vast majority of people present were white non Muslims and that the BBC has as usual been very selective in how it had used the photographs.

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  15. Craig says:

    Swivel-eyed Palestinian lefty Abdel Bari Atwan on Gavin Esler’s Dateline London yet again, along with French lefty Marc Roche of ‘Le Monde’), liberal American Stryker McGuire of ‘Newsweek’ and, as this week’s representative of the British press, Polly Toynbee of ‘The Guardian’.  

    Another completely unbalanced panel, with no right of centre guest again.

    As far as the UK press goes, Polly Toynbee replaced Michael White of ‘The Guardian’ (last week), who replaced Yasmin Alibhai Brown of ‘The Independent’ (the week before) and so on…

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    • Cassandra King says:

      Dateline London gives you a full spectrum of the popular media, you get the hard left and the soft left and the crypto left and the centre left and the centre. As far as the BBC are concerned that is the entire legitimate political spectrum.
      Obviously the BBC will invite the odd very isolated right winger and attempt to portray them as isolated and deranged and a tiny minority.
      The BBC believes that the most read and popular written media consists of:
      1) the Gaurdian
      2)the independent
      3) the observer
      In fact the circulation of all these combined is less than the daily mail alone, the telegraph and the times and the express have a combined circulation that is many times that of the left wing group and yet they enjoy a tiny amount of representation.
      The BBCs political loyalties can be very easily revealed by dateline London guest invitations alone.

         0 likes

      • Craig says:

        That sums it up very well Cassie.

        That occasional isolated right-winger is more often than not Janet Daley. On quite a few occasions she has found herself being ganged up on by the other guests and Gavin Esler.

           0 likes

      • Martin says:

        Spot on. The endless dribble that comes from the BBC when they continually wheel out left wing scum like Toynbee, Sir Michael Shite and Toilets Maguire is beyond a joke.

        Toilets in particular is never off the BBC, how come we never see any journalist from say the Sun on the BBC on such a regular basis?

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      • Guest Who says:

        As with context background of ‘guests’ the relative ABC ratings of publications selected as ‘representative’ of the BBC world view vs. the actual composition of licence fee payers may be revealing.

        If immediately filed with the Balen report.

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  16. morpork says:

    Even given the BBC’s endless propensity for wasting the licence fee, this has got to be a joke, surely?

    After more than 60 years of the Radio 4 show Woman’s Hour, the BBC is launching an equivalent forum for men.

    To be called (with blinding creativity) Men’s Hour, it is, according to host Tim Samuels,“about capturing the spirit of when good mates sit around nowadays – amid all the banter you can actually open up about what’s on your mind without being ripped apart.”

    And among those “good mates” sitting around “bantering” will be, not J Clarkson, but uber-macho Louie Spence!

    Gerald Warner as usual is on the case.

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    • Martin says:

      Basically the BBC wanted a homosexual hour but probably knew that doing sound out in the open would get panned. So call it ‘Man’s hour’ then just fill it full of Village People look a likes and problem solved.

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    • Craig says:

      When someone on Gerald Warner’s blog commented that there would be a regular ‘Thought Of The Gay’ section on the programme, I thought he was joking. He wasn’t!

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      So it’s “The Graham Norton Show” only without the female celebrity guests, but with even more discussions of bodily functions. Sounds like a real winner.

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      • Martin says:

        I’m sure the toilets on Hampstead Heath will be a regular subject of discussion on MAN HOUR

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  17. George R says:

    “Mark Thompson to BBC staff: ‘We can’t go on like this'”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7869061/Mark-Thompson-to-BBC-staff-We-cant-go-on-like-this.html

       0 likes

  18. TrueToo says:

    Talking about Africa and the World Cup, the adolescent lefties at the BBC would no doubt have supported Ghana if they’d played England, patrtluy because of the typical subversive lefty attitude of the BBC towards English tradition and partly because the BBC will always support poor, downtrodden Africa against the wicked, imperialist West.

    A gem of an example of this was provided by Ros Atkins of World Have your Say on a visit to Eldorado Park, near Soweto, where he asked children what team they support. Those who said Ghana met his expectations but he couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice when some of them said they backed Portugal. Perhaps Atkins is unaware that Eldorado Park is a predominantly “coloured,” i.e. mixed race, area and partly because there has been much conflict between coloureds and blacks in South Africa, the former would not necessarily back an African team to win the World Cup.

    Atkins is one of a very few relatively fair-minded lefties at the BBC, but indoctrination is tough to overcome.

    However, having said all that, I was flabbergasted to hear a World Service journalist suggest that since Africa’s performance at the World Cup had been so poor it might be time to reduce the number of African teams at the Cup and replace them with teams from elsewhere. I believe that is the first time I have ever heard the BBC contradict the typical patronising lefty attitude to Africa and look at Africa fair and square.

    Great game from Ghana yesterday, though.

       1 likes

  19. David vance says:

    David P

    Dead right. Paisley is now a “hero” – like Machine Gun McGuinness and Grisly Adams – thus sanitisation is required prior to canonisation.

       1 likes

  20. George R says:

    “Attack on BBC over pensions”

    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/pensions/article.html?in_article_id=507929

    (I wonder if BBC business staffers advise it on ‘investments’ with our licencepayers’ money!)

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘The BBC has an unusually risky investment strategy.’

      Possibly reflective of belief systems having an influence over pure financial considerations?

      Totally fine if they appreciate that ‘some investments can go up as well as down’. And the powers that be realise that the taxpayer doesn’t get called in if this strategy doesn’t deliver.

      And editorial decisions don’t get influenced by where employee financial interests lie.

      You know, the kind of thing that makes ’em, in so many ways… ‘unique’.

         1 likes

  21. George R says:

    “Hundreds of BBC staff forced to work out of makeshift studios in £830m office move fiasco”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291845/Hundreds-BBC-staff-forced-work-makeshift-studios-830m-office-fiasco.html#ixzz0shNmTUp6

       1 likes

  22. Guest Who says:

    Just watching Marrshmallow in full ‘satire’ mode.

    I wonder if his top ‘guest’, and boss, was in on the wheeze on constantly cutting back to a lifelike waxwork that remains mute in answering key questions to prove the Beeboid narrative, tee hee.

    Still, it does rather highlight the total dummies that served the role live and in person during the previous 13 years unchallenged on his cumfy sofa.

    Now, 1st up, here’s top-rated The Observer…

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Marrshmallow and Alan Johnson: comedy double act gold..

      AM : What about this dire example…

      AJ : No it’s not.

      AM : Oh, OK. Er… what about that DC dummy, eh?

      AJ : Glad you brought that up. Let me make a snide amusing ‘joke’

      AM : Please do.

      And Mr. Thompson expects them to be taken seriously? Good job the current government is addicted to Aunty as the last, for some odd reason.

         1 likes

      • Craig says:

        Another lowlight of today’s Marr was his introduction to the Mark Thompson interview where Andrew Marr mentioned the BBC’s “well-reviewed coverage of the general election”. The BBC’s election coverage was a disgrace, and it wasn’t reviewed well here (or on other blogs!) nor in many of the newspapers. Who gave it these good reviews? Labour? The Guardian? The Independent? The Greens? The BBC itself? The main problem was bias, and Marr himself was as guilty of that as any individual at the BBC. So, not surprisingly, he didn’t tackle Thompson over bias.

           1 likes

    • Craig says:

      I’d like a waxwork dummy of Marr, so I could melt it down slowly.

         1 likes

    • Craig says:

      Guest Who, did you also notice how Marr glided over the Sunday Telegraph‘s headline, saying “Sunday Telegraph has a slightly tedious story about an ex-MP’s expenses”? I soon as I heard that I guessed it would be about a Labour MP.
      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/7870310/MPs-expenses-Former-Labour-MP-Frank-Cook-claimed-for-DIY-items-bought-in-USA.html

         1 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        As is being established daily, fellow media sistas such as the Mirror, Graun, Indy, etc are a rich source of deep insight, quotable quotes and objective reviewers, despite not having much support from the public in terms of actual readership.

        The Telegraph meanwhile, can only be responsible for tedious stories.

        Lord knows how anything from the Mail would be referred to. I think the curse of Murdoch means the rest are not even acknowledged.

        It’s that unique ‘balance’, for which Aunty is justly renowned.

           1 likes

  23. Guest Who says:

    ‘Hobbling the BBC’s ability to compete’. OK, like a uniquely funded £3.5B doesn’t offer a bit of a leg-up.

    Watching Marshmallow and Thompson is like (and as much use as) a typical Newswatch: stooge poses a seeded question and grumpy bozo in a blazer (Ok, he has a suit) says ‘Oh no, that’s not true’… and cites ’emails and calls they have had these last few days’. All in support. Uh-huh.

    Navel-gazing? More like disappearing up their own orifice.

    If the BBC wishes to be equated to all other broadcasters, maybe a quick review of the totality of the ‘unique funding’ they enjoy might then be appropriate?

    Then all this market rate talent would be free to go out and enjoy the vast career and pay opportunities awaiting them.

    Apparently.

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      You wouldn’t want folk to get angry now…

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jameskirkup/100045993/bbc-chief-publishing-our-stars-pay-would-make-people-too-angry/

      What, like with forcing ’em to pay over the odds for a narrow world view?

      Have to love the we know what’s best, and what you want’ school of ‘elite’ thinking.

      Seems to have gone down a storm.

         1 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      ‘Hobbling the BBC’s ability to compete’.I must have shot three feet into the air when Thompson came out with that one. Compete? Yes, with our money, forcibly collected if we want to watch ITV, for example. They will try to force it even if you don’t have a TV, come to that. If you are not “on the database”, as they so charmingly like to menace us, you are presumed to be a criminal or at least they will pretend you are, to try to harass and hound some money out of you.

         1 likes

  24. Guest Who says:

    Hell’s Bells. Sounds more like a canteen chat between two disgruntled middle-managers told the Xmas party will no longer be open bar.

    And the best… the best… we on the outside allowed to gaze upon can expect seems to be strikes if the entire licence fee doesn’t ultimately get devoted to pay, perks and pensions, which come first obviously, and actually delivering a service we are forced to pay for might not happen any more.

    So the BBC is basically a very cosy means to avoid unemployment or retirement hardship in the public sector broadcast industry, whilst being allowed to pump out what they fancy on the public teat?

    Unique.

       1 likes

  25. George R says:

    “BBC World Cup staff rack up massive bar bill”

    http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/142773/BBC-World-Cup-staff-rack-up-massive-bar-bill/

       1 likes

  26. Martin says:

    I see the BBC bus on South Africa has run up 3000 miles. Just how much CO2 does that relate to Harrabin?

       1 likes

  27. Derek Buxton says:

    Why can the BBC, Radio 3, spend an hour giving free publicity to Oxfam, absolutely disgraceful from 12 noon today Sunday.  And of course it was used also to plug climate change as well.  When asked where the money came from she said roughly 50% from subscriptions and the rest from government departments, ie our bloody money.  But she said it is well used, our costs aren’t excessive.  She travels around the world on a regular basis for god’s sake.  Oh yes she “worked” in the NHS before getting the CEO job.

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  28. Craig says:

    The paper reviewers on this morning’s Broadcasting House (Radio 4) were Baroness Billingham, SWP/Respect-supporting BBC presenter Michael Rosen and jazz musician and BBC presenter Julian Joseph.

    Presenter Paddy O’Connell’s run-down on the papers began (like Marr’s) with the Observer‘s scary headline on cuts. He later turned to one of his guests and asked:

    “And to you Angela Billingham. Cuts. Take us through some of the cuts, as have been reported. And do join in as you want to around the panel.”

    Baroness Billingham launched a emotional attack on the Tories, (“It actually made me jump out of bed. It was bad enough when they were demanding 25% but to talk about 40%”. “20,000 people will be forced onto the streets”. “To be absolutely honest, as a politician I would think that much of this is their real agenda. They hate public services, the Conservatives”.)

    Rosen joined in (“And how are all these unemployed people supposed to be stimulating the economy? It’s just complete nonsense.”), as did Julian Joseph (“Who are they trying to save? I mean, it’s completely ridiculous.”)

    Nowhere in the programme (and I re-checked to make sure) did Paddy O’Connell mention the fact that Baroness Billingham sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.

    That’s quite an important piece of information to ‘forget’ if you’re going to invite someone to talk about the government’s policy on cuts.

       1 likes

    • Martin says:

      Have you seen the size of her? She’s fatter than Diane Abbott, seriously.

         1 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      And at one point, turning to the budget cuts, the interviewer said “We will all agree on this” – or words to that effect.

      The Baroness was a total clown.

         1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      That’s quite an important piece of information to ‘forget’ ‘

      One rather suspects there is a large section of the BBC edit suite, as with the research and booking departments, dedicated to ‘forgetting’.

      Oddly, they all seem to be on a fag break when it comes to ensuring that the provenance of a commenting body might not be in line with the narrative and need a bit of ‘framing’.

         1 likes

  29. David Preiser (USA) says:

    BBC News Channel doing a segment on – what else? – boodget coots.  After a brief BBC interpretation of what’s going on, they bring on the commentary.  First up:  Ed Balls, speaking uninterrupted and unchallenged.  Next up:  A TUC guy, speaking uninterrrupted, but slightly challenged by Tony Beeboid.  Although the TUC guy did get the last word about the savage coots, by the grace of a leading question allowing him to hint at violent protests like in Greece.  Of course he says that public sector workers are “loathe to take indoostrial action”, and would do it only as a last resort, and certainly on their own and not commanded by the TUC.  Yeah, right.

    Anyone on to defend the Tories?  No.  Moving on the next story now….

       1 likes

  30. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Why is the Gulf cleanup so slow?

    There are obvious actions to speed things up, but the government oddly resists taking them.

    I’m going to keep bringing this up until the BBC finally reports it.


    As the oil spill continues and the cleanup lags, we must begin to ask difficult and uncomfortable questions. There does not seem to be much that anyone can do to stop the spill except dig a relief well, not due until August. But the cleanup is a different story. The press and Internet are full of straightforward suggestions for easy ways of improving the cleanup, but the federal government is resisting these remedies.

    The article goes on to list things the President still hasn’t done to help the cleanup effort.  None of these things will be new to people here, but all of them will be a complete surprise to those who rely on the BBC for their news on US issues.

    Of course, the reason the BBC is hiding all of this from you – and it’s a deliberate, coordinated effort, since no Beeboid in any department around the world has dared bring it up – is that they don’t want to discuss the following conundrum:

    As the government fails to implement such simple and straightforward remedies, one must ask why.

    One possibility is sheer incompetence. Many critics of the president are fond of pointing out that he had no administrative or executive experience before taking office. But the government is full of competent people, and the military and Coast Guard can accomplish an assigned mission. In any case, several remedies require nothing more than getting out of the way.

    Another possibility is that the administration places a higher priority on interests other than the fate of the Gulf, such as placating organized labor, which vigorously defends the Jones Act.

    Finally there is the most pessimistic explanation—that the oil spill may be viewed as an opportunity, the way White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said back in February 2009, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Many administration supporters are opposed to offshore oil drilling and are already employing the spill as a tool for achieving other goals.

    This isn’t the paranoid rantings of somebody like myself – it’s the Wall Street Journal.

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      I’m going to keep bringing this up until the BBC finally reports it.’

      Even hell does get to freeze over, eventually…

      watertightoversight (n): A BBC news ‘reporting’ (see under ‘enhancing the narrative’ and ‘interpreting events) construct, whereby unfolding events can prove contrary to the perceived ‘correct’ world order of things and be ‘inconvenient’. Hence this gets applied, and used as justification until a) An excuse can be found, b) It blows over and a wee snippet can be inserted in last year’s CBeebies to point at as ‘balance’ if challenged, c) stealth edits can be prepared with the approval of partner parties in unwelcome spotlight, or, d) nothing more is ever done in hope that most  folk will simply forget.

      Can be rather undone by such as sites such as BBBC and net archiving capabilities.

      So best used only in absolutely dire circumstances, such as Labour pols getting busted, (A)GW stories looking a wee bit shaky, anyone in the Middle East other than Israel really going a smidge too far, etc, or, as in this case, ‘The One’ looking like a total inept, out of his depth plonker once deeds get interrogated over words. At last.

         1 likes

    • Martin says:

      Keep going David, sooner or later someone in the MSM will put their cocaine down and report it.

         1 likes

  31. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Not exactly bias, but here’s a little example of how detatched the BBC is from ordinary human existence.  Police blogger Inspector Gadget has a post on today’s killing spree in Northumbria with updates.  As usual, there are loads of heartfelt comments from cops all over the country, especially as a policeman was shot in the face by a known weapons fetishist recently let out of jail due to the soft rules Ken Clarke just said were so great.

    The BBC’s Emma North thought it was appropriate to post this comment:

    Hello there please contact bbc news with anything you may have on the injured officer. all will be treated in confidence
    many thanks
    emma north, bbc news tel 0208 624 9001

    Charming, isn’t it?  Perhaps she couldn’t get in touch with Newcastle General Hospital because nasty Tory boodget coots have left them without enough money to pay the phone bill?  Or maybe they know better than to talk to the BBC any more than strictly necessary.  The hospital isn’t telling the BBC enough to please them, so they instead blithely ask grieving co-workers of the victim to share any tidbits they might have.

       1 likes

    • Martin says:

      Shame a few beeboids didn’t get slotted.

         1 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Yes, I imagine BBC editorial policy on arming the police would do a u-turn so fast it would make James Naughtie’s fat head spin.

           1 likes

  32. Bupendra Bhakta says:

    Emily ‘Um You Know’ Maitlis who is not um you know quite so eloquent without an um you know what’s the word? autocue on Newsnight – ‘So will this break the coalition then?’

    I suppose, like traffic wardens and parking fines, they will deny that they have a quota or a target to fill for this question, but we know they have, and we know they will keep asking it (for the next 5 years)

       1 likes

  33. Martin says:

    Jesus Christ! The BBC have just gone too far this time. They are bigging up the non story from the Observer leftie twats and have used it as an excuse (not that the BBC need one) to wheel out Liebour scumbag after Liebour scumbag to spout nonsense.

    No one is going to make 40% cuts but the BBC allow Nazi mong boy Ed Balls to spout this shit.

       1 likes

    • Craig says:

      A chunk of Ed Balls’s interview has now become a regular feature on the News Channel, being repeated after their main report on ‘the cuts’ each hour. This means that viewers are now getting an hourly diet that includes two short clips of Philip Hammond (32 seconds) and Alan Johnson (18 seconds) followed by a significantly longer clip of Ed Balls (1 minute 18 seconds), plus loads of BBC spin. The BBC are obsessed with Balls.

         1 likes

      • Craig says:

        And now they’ve just reprised nearly two minutes worth of the other interview David mentioned earlier – the one with Communist trades union leader Mark Serwotka.

           1 likes

  34. sue says:

    Here’s another one from Christopher Booker in today’s Telegraph, more Robin’s department than mine:
    “Also defending the establishment line was last week’s Panorama, with its “inquiry” into Climategate. This example of BBC propaganda at its most childish purported to be impartial, by pitching two advocates of man-made global warming against two “sceptics”, who turned out to be believers in man-made warming. Its centrepiece was yet another vindication of the “hockey stick”, including a sycophantic interview with Dr Mann.”

       1 likes

  35. Pounce says:

    Anybody watch this Kids program that was on bBC2 yesterday. it’s a docuodrama about the london bombings and is about a bunch of school children at school that day in 2005. The story centres around 2 coloured children 1 black boy and 1 muslim girl who are both victims of white people. The boy is almost mugged by a white boy but is saved by his white friend who follows him and the muslim girl is a victim of a vicky pollard lookalike. The story ends with a white bus driver kicking off the muslim girl and her sister for wearing hijab.
    The thing is I was in London that day and no bues ran after the bBCs misguilded criminals decided to act like militants and murder over 50 people. I was in uniform and had a little boy come up to me and asked if I was going to kill Al-q with a missile. (his mother explained that they had watched war of the worlds the previous night) so much for white people picking on Asians then?
    Typical bBC revisionist PC crap which can only protray whites as racist and coloured as victims albeit on a day Islam decided to send a message of peace.

       1 likes

    • Martin says:

      It’s typical of the drugged up scum at the BBC. They make up rubbish or just tell blatant lies.

      BBC=SCUM

         1 likes

  36. Pounce says:

    Anybody else noticed how the bBC reports on how Cuba is saving the life of this huger striker by feeding him through a tube.
    Mr Farinas has actually gained weight due to intravenous feeding since he was moved to hospital on 11 March

    Yet when the Yanks did the same, on the very same Island its a human rights issue.

    Funny that.

       1 likes

  37. Martin says:

    God Alistair Campbell even made it on to Top Gear tonight. At least Clarkson tore into him and the one eyed mong.

       1 likes

  38. Martin says:

    Jesus, fatty Nolan on Radio 5, the man who once did a WHOLE phone in about the price of a Mars bar in the hotel room mini bar he was staying in (and should he eat it, well Stephen as you’re already 26 stones and make Mr Creosote look like Twiggy I’d say not) just told Daniel Hannan that we could still borrow more money if we wanted to and we don’t need to cut the public sector.

    Of course not, let’s just keep borrowing, why not?

       0 likes

  39. David Preiser (USA) says:

    There’s a new skimmer vessel in the Gulf now to help clean up the oil spill, and of course the intrepid BBC is on top of every latest development.

    This is little more than a paraphrased press release from the Coast Guardl.  The BBC is so intent on keeping you informed in a certain way that they even report that there has been – *gasp* – a delay in getting a couple other containment ships into the area:


    But these plans have been delayed by tropical storm Alex, which brought high seas and strong winds to the region.

    Offshore skimming in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida has been on hold for almost a week.

    And that’s it.  That’s the only thing slowing things down, according to the BBC.  Just look at all the links on the page.  Sure, the Beeboids have been very busy toiling away and grinding out report after report, covering all sorts of angles.  But not a single one of them mentions even one of the Administration problems I’ve been highlighting here for the last two months.

    No wonder the BBC doesn’t know about the Government and BP blocking media access to the cleanup effort:  they’re just lapping up whatever the US Government and the Coast Guard tell them.

    Your license fee hard at work.

       0 likes

  40. Martin says:

    The BBC only sees the world as viewed looking up Barry’s rectum.

       0 likes

  41. Guest Who says:

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100046056/av-the-bbc-will-throw-its-weight-behind-a-yes-vote/

    But, that’s not really their remit, is it?

    How would licence fee payers who might not share their political world view feel?

       0 likes

  42. George R says:

     -Just as the BBC positions itself politically behind the (Labour Party supporting) public sector trade unions on the issue of ‘cuts’.

       0 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/06/bbc_removes_gold_plate_from_pe.html

    A few commenters a little uncomfortable on the expert BBC business/finance guy’s claim that the licence fee is not a tax. Plus a few other aspects of his ‘reporting’.

       0 likes

  44. George R says:

    BBC propagandising alarmist, anti-Government views on education:

    [Opening extract from BBC Education page]-

    “Is the government’s attitude to computer technology in schools taking us back to a ‘dark age’ of chalk-and-talk?
    That is the fear of many in education who think the coalition government’s actions are turning back the clock on recent developments in the use of computers for learning.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10495726.stm

    In contrast, Melanie Phillips discusses Britain’s education problems today, linking them to this BBC ‘Panorama’ report:
    .”..tonight’s edition of BBC TV’s Panorama, which claims that over the past four decades a mere 18 teachers have been drummed out of the profession for incompetence.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1292046/Incompetent-doctors-sacked-earth-useless-teachers.html#ixzz0sn1tjWdp

       0 likes

  45. Guest Who says:

    Just another isolated incident, nothing whatsoever to do with a cross-corporate mindset at all, one is sure. Guessing not a fan’ of FaceBook?:

    http://themediablog.typepad.com/the-media-blog/2010/07/bbc-olympics-facebook-saddos-1800040710.html

    Though perhaps good reason to anticipate yet more high-£ awaydays to further make good use of the licence fee (after top management salaries & gold-plated pensions are secured first) trying to PC-police into the market rate talents employed there.

       0 likes