164 Responses to OPEN THREAD….

  1. PacificRising says:

    Looks like the sequel to Lord Siralun’s show:
    FURY OVER ‘CRUEL’ BBC GAMESHOW OFFERING JOBS AS PRIZES

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  2. fred bloggs says:

    I hope I am also speaking for others, when saying my main gripe with the bBC is the lefty stronghold it is.  Value for money; which is the main point at the moment is not MY main concern.

    I object to paying for lefty organisations out of public money. I object to :
    * Pilgrims, union officers paid by public bodies.
    * Grants like – Union modernisation fund.
    * Monies for quango’s which are fronts for Labour and unions.
    Therefore I object to money to the bBC when it is so clearly a Lefty organisation.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Spot on.
      I don’t buy The Guardian, so why am I forced to pay for the same minority views to be peddled on TV and radio. 

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    • Barry says:

      Well said. Speaking for myself, I have two gripes:  
       
      1. It’s a lefty organisation, as you said.  
      2. It’s third rate anyway.

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      People often say that , yes the BBC is left wing but they do great dramas. Can anyone tell me what “great drama” they have produced in the last 5 years? All I see advertised on the BBC is Eastenders, Casualty, so-called game shows (mostly with z celebrities), left wing “comedians”  or  hours of cookery programmes.

      They used to do great dramas, comedy and factual programmes, but they don’t now.

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      • Daniel Clucas says:

        The cookery programmes are the only things worth watching for me :-[

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  3. Backwoodsman says:

    I can immagine the scenario, beeboid to friend in the ‘Third Sector’ .”Look , you send in a letter to the government saying if they cut the cost of social services, thousands (insert concern of charity ), are going to be made homeless , and we’ll make it our lead item on R4. deal ?”

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  4. D B says:

    Anybody familiar with Viz’s Modern Parents will be amused by this. BBC Home Affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani was unimpressed with the prize won by his young son at the school summer fair on Saturday:  
     
    @Domcasciani Dominic Casciani Modern liberal parent angst: Boy wins Action Man at school summer fair. #fail http://moby.to/te756h  

    The young lad seems chuffed, though. I bet he gets a set of these for his next birthday.

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  5. My Site (click to edit) says:

    I knew they shared ideologies, but (check out images)…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13997761

    http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/care-costs-for-elderly-should-be-capped-at-35000-2306430.html

    I know £4Bpa doesn’t stretch far, but surely the BBC can spring for its own wrinkly powerless old lady pictures to make a poin?

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      Well spotted

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      • London Calling says:

        Photo is credited PA (Press Association) – must have come with the press release from the same campaigning organisation to all media outlets, or its a remarkable coincidence that two picture editors chose the same stock shot. Takes cut’n paste journalism to a new (lower) level. It also suggests how incestuous the relationship is between “News Gathering” Organisations and Campaigning Organisations.

        Independent journalism replaced by paid spinners and the advocacy industry.

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  6. Cassandra King says:

    I see the money grubbing id industry is looking to top up its bank balances, must need to top up their pension pot or order those new company cars.

    The aid industry and how to provoke a humanitarian crisis:

    First set up a ‘relief camp’ near a large population of the poorest 3rd world and then spread rumours of FREE FOOD and MEDICINES  far and wide. Have cameras and film crews ready on site to pick out the sickest and poorest, the emotional blackmail arm twisting tricks never change and always sure to loosen the wallets of the Western givers.

    The BBC claims there is a drought but the UN claims there is not yet a drought, hmmmm who to believe eh? Over and over again we are expected to provide aid relief and over and over again it merely treats the symptoms of the real problems, stone age farming, corrupt governance, civil war. Sending food will allow more children to make it to reproduction age and then the problem starts its cycle with ever more mouths to feed.

    A combination of treating the symptoms and not the causes is merely kicking the population can down the road. A case in point was on the BBC report, a woman walks for miles with her SIX children, she cannot feed herself and yet she has SIX children! When those SIX get to reproduce at the age of 12-14 and they have SIX kids each trying to susbist in the same way as their parents then by 2020 the disaster can only be imagined.

    An area can only support so many poor subsistence farmers using stone age methods, even a small population lives on the razors edge of life and now because of the aid industry ignorance since live aid millions more people are trying to live in the same amount of land with the same stone age culture with the same resources, its a recipe for a complete die back disaster and its coming sooner than you think.

    The aid industry can always rely on instant uncritical support from the BBC and they can be sure that this billion pound world news empire will give any aid industry propaganda the full VIP prime time exposure. So even beore an actual drought is pronounced the aid industry is in like Flint shaking the donation can.

    The aid industry thrives on misery and hunger, every picture of a starving child means money on the bank to them and if there is no real problem then what better way to provoke it is to set up an aid station in the middle of their clients.

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    • Louis Robinson says:

      This is a lnk to the Oxfam Annual Report. Check out his page ask: how much do these offices cost? The annual budget is over S400m.

      http://www.oxfam.org/en/about/offices

      Has the BBC ever questioned how the $150,000 a year Chief Executive earns his money? But then, the Director General of the BBc earns more.

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  7. TooTrue says:

    For anyone who hasn’t seen this yet, here’s Ed Milliband’s robotic response on the strikes. I really thought it was a joke at first:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/01/ed-miliband-interviewer-shame-strike-soundbites

    Someone made this comment on the thread:

    Britain has gone to the dogs, and no one seems to give a shit.

    To me, that was a funny word association so I responded with this:

    The dogs still give a shit and it ends up under your shoe.

    Seriously, I couldn’t believe I was watching that clip as I was watching it.

    This guy is the Labour Party leader? I knew they were in real trouble but I didn’t realise it was quite that bad.

    In a funny kind of way it shows what happens when you stubbornly pursue failed left wing policies in submission to the God of PeeCee. Eventually you can only utter repetitive sound bites.
    Damon Green, the ITV News correspondent who was interviewing Miliband for a pooled story that also went to the BBC and Sky News, has vented his anger at the Labour leader and his entourage in a 1,300 word piece posted on Twitter

    Didn’t know you could post 1300 words on Twit…er.

    From what I’ve seen of it I thought it was limited to about 25 words per tweeting twit.

    I thought the dumb twittery format is why the BBC is pushing it so hard and directing the public to have its say on it, while steadily strangling the old BBC blogs to death. At least one could have a say of sorts on those blogs and develop an argument.

    Ah, I see, he tweeted on ‘TwitLonger,’ which is apparently not affiliated to Twitter.
    http://www.twitlonger.com/show/bfensm
    The BBC is being as subdued as it possibly can about Milliband’s extraordinary performance:

    Mr Miliband said “these strikes are wrong at a time when negotiations are going on”, but refused to elaborate when asked further questions.

    (Note the misplaced comma.)

    Interesting way of putting it. The BBC wants to bury this embarrassing episode as deeply as humanly possible. If Cameron had done likewise, the BBC would be shouting it from the rooftops.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13971770

    Now the BBC is going to have to think really hard about how to handle Milliband in future. Since he is both Labour Leader and an utter ass it’s a tricky one for the BBC. They can’t ignore him but they also can’t risk him making an idiot of himself again.

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    • noggin says:

      that milliband interview, is there some kind of slick editing
      palava going on, so weird

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  8. My Site (click to edit) says:

    A BBC programme retweets a BBC employee tweeting about a BBC ‘story’ featuring quotes from those they have selected in the BBc edit suite to comment on… public sector cuts…

    BBCEmmaSimpson Emma Simpson  by BBCBusinessBig update today from Coventry and the impact of public sector job cuts. Some striking results. On the Six and onlinebbc.in/kMbGar

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  9. 1327 says:

    Sorry for the delay in posting but it was a busy weekend. I was amused by the uncritical coverage on the Beeb of the director of the Health & Safety Executive blaming basically everyone but themselves for the general mess that is Health & safety these days. She blamed “bureaucrats” of misusing her departments directives to stop people doing things (kids playing conkers etc etc).

    This amused me as a few years ago at work I was landed with the role of H & S officer and suddenly had to cope with badly written directives and laws that tended to be hopelessly vague. Even worse the H & S Executive used to send out a monthly or quarterly bulletin which give details of their latest prosecutions. It was horrifying reading as I read of prosecutions where what I believed to be standard practice had been followed. The combination of the badly written and vague H & S laws combined with British courts dragging every law to its logical conclusion is a toxic combination. The people she was blaming for these problems actually understand these laws and she doesn’t that is the problem.

    I do wish that instead of parroting this womans views the Beeb had perhaps interviewed a few retired H & S officers from industry as their views may have been different from what the Press Officers wanted.

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  10. noggin says:

    BBC definately in the aid business.
    Apparently a charity run by the BBC is spending more than £15million a year on aid projects,
    including educating Africans on climate change?? romantic soap operas on  Indian radio…

    check out mel philips blog, she did quite a piece on it

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  11. FAIRFACTS MEDIA says:

    Anyone watch CountryFile last night?
    John Craven going on about climate change and saying the planet is ‘heating up’.
    To think that when I was a boy, he had the responsibility of reading the news to children on Newsround.
    Don’t think he is to be trusted now!

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    • Deborah says:

      Fairfacts Media – did you notice the exceptional emphasis in John Craven’s voice each time he said ‘climate change’ ?  Not sure what was going on there but each time John said ‘CC’ there was extra stress to the voice.

      If I remember correctly JC said it was the driest spring for 100 years but he failed to mention if the one back then was due to climate change as well.  But the suggestion that British agriculture needs to consider dry springs on the basis of one or two years is positively dangerous.  About 3 or 4 years ago Farmers Weekly had a column on how blackcurrant farmers growing the things for Ribena were having to find new varieties because existing ones needed to have a frost to trigger flowering.  Well since then a winter frost has not been a problem. 

      However I also note that Country File has obviously run out of farming stories and we are mostly back to eco-rubbish.

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      • ltwf1964 says:

        gave up on that crap show a long time ago

        sold out to eco buffoonery and greenie whacko non science way back

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  12. james1070 says:

    Not on BBC. The joys of multiculturalism at an “Arab” festival in America. A Christian preacher tries to practise diversity and intercommunity relations.

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  13. Sres says:

    Please get this guy to write here



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  14. RGH says:

    Honestly, is this really front page breaking news?

    What is it about leftist American anti-democrats that the BBC treats his health in a similar fashion that Pravda presented news about Breznev.?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14017135

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    • Craig says:

      They won’t be quite so keen to report that Noam Chomsky has criticised Chavez – as reported (of all places!) in the Observer:

      Noam Chomsky denounces old friend Hugo Chávez for ‘assault’ on democracy

      The Observer article is clearly torn between its admiration for Chomsky and its admiration for Chavez. The BBC will probably resolve that tension by ignoring the story completely.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Chomsky only just now figured it out?  I’m not worried, though.  He’ll still end up supporting Chavez in the end, unless too many Jews in Venezuela are deported or killed.

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        • RGH says:

          Chavez, the fun guy who informed the world:

          Speaking at a rehabilitation center on December 24, the controversial left-wing president said “the descendants of those who crucified Christ… have taken ownership of the riches of the world, a minority has taken ownership of the gold of the world, the silver, the minerals, water, the good lands, petrol, well, the riches, and they have concentrated the riches in a small number of hands.”

          Geezer like that deserves a BBC ‘welcome back, Presidente’ report.

          Don’t they know how stupid they are!

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  15. Matthew says:

    Shocking bias as usual from the BBC here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14012294

    Some hackers posted something on a Fox News twitter feed.

    Ok, amusing story for online but there little explanation of what Fox News is runs like this;

    “The broadcaster’s conservative stance has made it unpopular with many Americans.
    Despite that, it is the most watched cable news network in the United States, with its prime time shows attracting almost two million viewers, well ahead of rivals CNN and MSNBC.”

    Are they seriously that isolated from reality that they can’t understand how something that doesn’t broacast lefty wibble like the BBC can be popular?

    The vast majority of Britons have never watched Fox News, but they know it’s evil and wicked from the BBC’s constant attacks on it.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      The most popular is unpopular?  Ooookay.

      The Beeboids do think they understand why Fox News is so popular.  Remember, they all think that except for NYC, DC, Chicago, and the Left Coast, the US is made up of mainly of far-right, Evangelical Creationist whackos. Fox News is their daily dose of red meat.

      But this raises the point I’ve made before:  If Fox News is on the Right, then the opposite must by definition be on the Left.  The BBC believe themsevles to be the antithesis of Fox News, ergo the BBC must be on the Left.  They bring this on themselves, really.

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  16. Oliver says:

    On the BBC homepage (‘weird and wonderful’ section) and the QI website today’s ‘Fact of the Day’ is a quite interesting/revealing choice.

    QI FACT OF THE DAY: In 1999, the total number of people killed by guns in the US was 28,874. In Britain, the figure was 207.

    QI QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Computers have enabled people to make more mistakes faster than almost any invention in history, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns.” CARL GUNDLACH

    A subtle Fourth of July message from the BBC.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Just makes me glad that 2nd Amendment rights are getting more and more respect in the US every day.

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  17. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Typical BBC report on anything not 100% in favor of an open borders policy.  All emphasis is on sympathizing with immigrants, with no respect for the notion that this is a legal issue. The BBC simply doesn’t care about that if there’s a soft “It’s for the children” angle.

    I like how the answers of both the mayor and the police officer are all about how they’re not racists.  This obviously shows that the Beeboid framed the questions as a racist issue first and a legal one second.  “When did you stop being a racist?” *DONT_KNOW*

    As always, the BBC clearly thinks that it’s the fault of nasty immigration laws that familes are tragically separated and not the fault of the parent who deliberately places their children in harm’s way.  Illegal immigration in this way is child abuse, plain and simple.  Yet the BBC turns the issue on its head to support their own ideology of open borders.

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  18. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Bless.

    BBCCollege BBC CoJo What it’s like to start at the BBC: http://bbc.in/koOwn5
    ‘.. but on my first day I was given news stories to do.’ (OK, it’s qualified, but… )
    No mention of when he met the Borg Queen.

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  19. My Site (click to edit) says:

    sophiebr Sophie Brendel The BBC is not banning talent, writers or staff from using Twitter! Here’s our statement & links to our guidelineshttp://bbc.in/lQAwbU
    *Don’t get caught. If you do get caught, deny it. If denial doesn’t wash, stealth edit. Then deny it. If all else fails, give out Helen Boaden’s ‘complaint’ email… you know the one. The one she ignores like we ignore hers.

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  20. Craig says:

    First hour of this morning’s Today programme.

    Do you hate mobile phone companies? During the first paper review James Naughtie quoted the FT and “new Brussels plans that will delight customers but – and you’ll be terribly sad to hear thisdeliver a big blow to mobile operators“.

    Personally Jim, I’m not punching the air with joy that private companies are being damaged by some new piece of E.U. legislation, but thanks for sarcastically sharing your left-wing prejudices with us.

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  21. Craig says:

    Still the first hour of this morning’s Today…  
     
    There was also a plug for this evening’s Panorama (won’t be watching) on junk mail. After the usual talk of “cuts” from the reporter, James Naughtie quoted the defence from the Direct Marketing Association (i.e. the junk mailers’ association) that junk mail keeps the Royal Mail going and then, chipping in his own opinion, described this as “a slightly odd argument”.  
     
    The reporter then pretty much confirmed what the DMA is saying. So not such an “odd argument” after all.  
     
    Why can’t Naughtie keep his negative opinions about private enterprise to himself?  
     
     
    Talking of the BBC talking about “cuts”, another BBC reporter was at it shortly after in a chat about elderly care, describing it “a time of cuts”. Some people are going to start calling the BBC “the British Broadcasting Cuts Corporation” if they aren’t careful.

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    • Craig says:

      That first hour of Today often reaches a climax of bias whenever Norman Smith (Radio 4’s anti-Tory chief political correspondent) puts in his daily appearance – especially when he’s chatting to Naughtie.

      This morning the topic was Ian Duncan Smith, the cap on benefits and homelessness. “A tricky one this” for the government, began Naughtie. Oh yes. Norm then began giving what Labour said, as usual. Then what Labour also said.

      A cheerful interview between a Labour MP and Evan Davis brought the first hour to an end.

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    • Techno says:

      I watched the Panorama programme.

      It was emphasised that the Royal Mail is now heavily dependent on junk mail for revenue.

      No mention that this is because the EU forced it to open up to competition.

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  22. Craig says:

    Second hour of today’s Today. First up, another Labour MP.

    “One of the government’s most controversial welfare policies is that of capping the total amount of benefits received by a family to £26,000 a year,” began Evan Davis, using the Beeb’s second favourite c-word (Naughtie knows what its favourite is).

    This was an attack on the government from Liam Byrne. Evan Davis’s new reputation as an all-interrupting, all-aggressive interviewer vanished. No interruptions, no aggression.

    At the end came a stern “And I should say we asked Eric Pickles, the Communities secretary, or Ian Duncan Smith from Work and Pensions if they’d like to respond, but they weren’t available.”

    Well, you could say ‘More fool them’ for not bothering to appear and defend the government, but what about Grant Shapps, Greg Clark, Andrew Stunnell or Bob Neill from Eric Pickles’s department? All unavailable too, or not asked? No Chris Grayling or Steve Webb from IDS’s department? Did Today ask either of them? If not, why not? How hard did Today try to get a minister to reply?

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  23. Craig says:

    The Today programme then handed over some precious airtime to a guest reporter – author and care home resident Diana Athill.

    She was chosen to report on social care. Why was she chosen? Well, she was interviewed by Zoe Williams of the Guardian last month under the headline Diana Athill interview: Why the private sector shouldn’t touch social care. That probably explains it.

    Her report wasn’t without interest but, as her interview with Sheila Scott of the National care Association showed, she is not keen on ‘profits’ and said so:

    “It’s terribly difficult once..when people start going into it as a business of course. When running something as a business you are wanting to make a profit and how you get round that problem I do not know.”

    Besides Mrs Scott, we heard from socialist historian Pat Thane, someone from the oh-so-independent-yet-surprisingly-close-to-Labour King’s Fund (like his boss Chris Hams, Richard Humphries advised the Labour government over health policy) and the manager of the non for profit charity that runs her own care home.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      I’m sure I’ve heard Diana Athill on Radio 4 before talking about living in a care home.

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  24. Craig says:

    Passing by the typical Thought for the Day that David posted about and the surprising friendly chat between Evan Davis and Andrew Dilnot ( surprising if you didn’t know that Mr. Dilnot presented a BBC programme until fairly recently and that Evan Davis and Andrew Dilnot used to co-write research papers together), the final hour featured another assault on the government.

    This attack, by Sir Hugh Orde of ACPO, was followed by no such words about ministers declining to appear, so why weren’t they asked to respond?

    Naughtie’s questions were mostly geared towards getting Sir Hugh to stick the boot in. His one interruption seemed to be aimed at getting him to stick it in even harder.

    Here are the questions:
    “You say this is a risk, but what do you fear might happen, or could happen?”
    “Give us an example of where your concern is, a loose end?”
    “The government of course argue that it’s simplification?”
    (where was the long-winded outlining of that case that Naughtie would usually give us?)
    “What about the political changes in the local control of the police. They’ve been fairly controversial. Where do you stand on them?”
    “Can’t hear you saying that without concluding that you’re slightly concerned.”

    (only interruption) “Well you say ‘lack of clarity’ you mean ‘political interference’?

    No real challenges from Naughtie and no response allowed from either the government or a government supporter.

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  25. George R says:

    -PETER HITCHENS:-

    (scroll down) –

    “Who sneers at Oxbridge? Er, the BBC, Mr Paxman.

    Only those who have lived in communist states ever understand me when I say that this country is turning into a People’s Republic in all but name. But maybe this will alert the complacent. The BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman amazingly urges the holders of Oxbridge degrees not to be ashamed of them. He says: ‘Why there should be any shame attached to them I simply do not know.’
    I do. I can think of no other country in the world where attendance at its finest universities should be seen as shameful. But then no other country has the BBC, where the gilded beneficiaries of British liberty work day and night to denigrate the country that gave them all they have, its institutions, its laws, its faith and its traditions.”

    http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2011/07/just-text-claim-then-give-these-vultures-both-barrels.html

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  26. Craig says:

    Continuing to swamp this page (while you’re all otherwise engaged!)… 😀

    There was then a discussion on pay ratios featuring Andrew Simms of the left-wing, greenie think tank the New Economics Foundation, following their official reaction to an IMF report. (Today likes the New Economics Foundation.)

    Mr. Simms says extreme wage inequality is wrong and is “bad for society” and approves of naming and shaming the guilty parties in the private sector. BBC long-term favourite Tony Travers of the L.S.E. was the other party to the discussion and talked about the public sector. Unsurprisingly he said high pay wasn’t a big issue in the public sector and attacked Eric Pickles.

    At least Evan Davis raised the BBC as an ‘exception’ and Travers laughed with him at that. However, Evan then ran with the earlier point: “Andrew Simms, in a way it sounds like although the public sector is where a lot of the chat has been about, it is the private sector that it might have more of an effect on..?” “oh, absolutely!” said Mr Simms, who then attacked the bosses at Barclays.

    Evan couldn’t resist then returning to the poor public sector to ask Tony Travers, “Is there downward pressure even without these ratios on public sector pay? It feels like the top end is under pressure anyway.” “There is,” said Travers.

    So there you go. The ‘problem’ is the private sector, not the public sector. Wage inequality IS a problem too. Everyone agrees – at least on the Today programme.

    At least the closing debate on social care had a pro-Conservative columnist (Matthew d’Ancona) and a pro-Labour columnist to debate. That’s something I suppose.

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    • Craig says:

      Still, there was Geoffrey Howe to talk to Naughtie about President Reagan. Mustn’t be accused of cherry-picking! 

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      D’Ancona makes Call Me Dave look like Norman Tebbit.

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      • Grant says:

        Craig,
        Brings back memories of the good old days when you had your own website !

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        • Craig says:

          Thanks Grant. Just for you…

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          • Roland Deschain says:

            That’s Les Dawson, surely?

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            • Craig says:

              ‘As I said to Tony and Gordon, and yer can read it in my new autobiopsy, my Pauline’s mother (or, as the Tories’ would ‘ave it, “my mother-in-law”, in so far as the Tories would ‘ave anything, what with all them Tory cuts), my Pauline’s mother said ‘One day John I will dance on your grave’. I said ‘I hope you do, Pauline’s mum. I will be buried at sea.'”‘

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  27. RGH says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returns home after a prolonged stay in Cuba for treatment for cancer.
    Chavez’s health: Venezuelan views Chavez’s illness delays summit Profile: Hugo Chavez Chavez marks 12 years in office

    The apotheosis of Chavez is getting worse and worse.

    “The anniversary was also marked by supporters of Mr Chavez in Cuba, Bolivia, Argentina and other countries in the Americas and Europe.”

    And, as we can plainly see, in Broadcasting House.

    “Mr Chavez is renowned for his flamboyant public speaking style, which he puts to use in his weekly live TV programme, Alo Presidente (Hello President), in which he talks about his political ideas, interviews guests and sings and dances.”

    What a fun, guy!

    He gets bags of applause with gems such as:

    “The World has enough for everybody, but some minorities, the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ, and of those that expelled Bolívar from here and in their own way crucified him . . . have taken control of the riches of the world.”

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    • Philip says:

      The disproportionate coverage and importance the Beeb is attaching to this is highly revealing.

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  28. cjhartnett says:

    Reckon there`s a bias/time graph to be drawn for the Toady Show over its three hours!
    Is the BBC quantitatively more biased the more it repeats its stories-or do they get less so?
    I`d say more-they get more self-righteous the more they hear their colleague read it; but there is an academic argument to indicate that familiarity with the soundbite might induce “anomie”!
    Reckon there are interruption coefficients and wordclouds galore here, should Professor Craig..visiting Prof(Wessex Uni/Meeja Studies!)…deem this the model appropriate!
    I would aslo factor in the dyadic component…Sarah/Justin as the baseline of bias index 100.
    There are other variables in this study, but I`ll wait for the BBC to fund me!

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  29. cjhartnett says:

    Just in case anyone could question the double helix of evil and banality that is the BBC/Guardian, may I cite these two cases from one hour of listening this evening?
    1. Millie Dowler case-certainly sounds bad, but if it was only on a Guardian website at 4p.m, then how come Eddie Mair is citing it as fact at 5p.m. Any checking of it-I`m sure there wasn`t…it`s Murdoch you see, so all manicured hands to the pink oars!
    Maybe Mair could tell us how they got Prescott(Lord, doncha know?) on the blower so quickly to add his two centimes to the story? Bit cosy I`d say!
    2. I listened to some fatuous crap with two atheists called Monkey Cage( I`ll not bother with their names or real title of the show). Point was that science is verifiable and reasonable(hooray!) and religion and the supernatural in general are not(boo!).
    The notion of possible demonic forces got plenty laughter from them and their audience, and -of course-to believe in scary things like ghosts or alien abduction just showed how feeble these spiritual types were-and are!
    Yet not a word on global warming, Millennium bugs or the other scientific spook stories…these presumably are scientifically verifiable, and so they will not one life be lost by the cavaliers like me!
    Well that`s alright then…

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      got Prescott(Lord, doncha know?) on the blower so quickly ‘

      If the aim is to inspire empathy for victims or the story, I don’t know why they get this hopelessly compromised tub of hypocrisy on air at the merest drop of hypocrisy.

      He was just on SKY and the juxtaposition of the murderer’s image with this blustering oaf gobbling out faux outrage was unfortunate at best.

      Mind you, they did have (BBC) Any Kershaw on the guest reviews. Not only was he un-PC, but often funny enough to put cheeky ‘wit’ Sam Delaney in the shade.

         0 likes

  30. RGH says:

    Seems like that  Sinai LNG pipeline has been sabotaged again.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14009192

    A lot of controversy in Egypt about the deal with Israel, naturally. But although the article mentions that Jordan is also suppled through the pipe line, there is another stakeholder. Yes, you guessed, but the BBC as is its wont, does not reveal:

    “Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Energy Azzam Shawwa has notified Minister of National Infrastructures Joseph Paritzky that the PA plans to transport natural gas bought from Egypt through a pipeline running through Israeli territory. The gas is intended for a Palestinian power station built two years ago.”

    The Israeli Infrastructure Minister at the time:

    “This is an opportunity for regional cooperation between Israel, Egypt and the PA. It ties the countries together and creates a common economic interest, which can greatly contribute to the peace process.”

    Words fail me in the light of the BBC reporting of the region.

       0 likes

  31. cjhartnett says:

    The Monday Night 8.30 spot tonight was given over to the plight of Pakistani blokes and their sexual needs.
    The ponderous Beeboid thinks that they`re not getting enough sex education…I`d blame the schools-certainly not Islam!
    So it is we get a skate around the Islamic view on interracial marriage, homosexuality, grooming of white girls, interfamily marriages. Got the idea that these were issues for Muslims to address “in mosque” as it were…oh yes, and probably more sex education might help them make an informed choice!
    Given the population explosion, they must be getting their information from somewhere at least!

       0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      Is this on radio or TV? Which channel or station?

         0 likes

      • cjhartnett says:

        It was Radio 4 last night at 8p.m(4/7/11)…only caught the last few minutes though. Sorry Millie!

           0 likes

  32. Millie Tant says:

    Tonight’s Newsnight is a special on the theme of attitudes to British identity.
    That’s bound to be a barrel of laughs – not! Plenty of scope, though, for  riding a few hobby horses and getting in a bit of Beeboid propaganda on behalf of specific groups / points of view, no doubt.

       0 likes

  33. dave s says:

    That Newsnight show.
    The BBC at it’s bravest. Even using the hate word English.
    On reflection not very brave at all. Very timid and very politically correct.
    Although Hereward was mentioned not exactly approvingly but of Alfred the Great not a word.
    Once again the old lie. The “waves of immigrants” down the last 1000 years. Where from and when I always ask to no avail.
    The Scots seem to missed out on these “waves ” .I suppose they are some of the “waves”.
    To be English is apparantly to be tolerant. That’s about it.
    I can see why toleration is being pushed as the approved liberal line. What if a lot of old English suddenly remember who they are and stop being so tolerant?
    Consternation in Islington. Brussels and all points east or west.
    The elites would do well to remember that one of our finest and most intolerant of men rose suddenly to power in the 1640s.
    Always great change in the life of a nation is swift and rarely foreseen.

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I was going to say the same thing.  The breakdown of a pan-“British” identity is Mrs. Thatcher’s fault for closing down the mines, the spread of a false sense of resentment that there is no English-only Parliament, and the fault of the supposedly recent rise of an “English” identity?   
         
      I knew this was coming once I saw Mark Easton – usually a champion of Social Cohesion – doing a segment which presented the St. George Cross as a racist symbol.  (First instance is 5 seconds in, and the egregious shot starts at 2:11).  
       
       
      Yawn. Wake me up when the BBC complains about how their various minority language servcies lead to the breakdown of British identity.
       
       
      This is all a bit of pre-emptive schadenfreude at the final nail in the coffin of the evil British Empire, so loathed by the BBC, yet without which it wouldn’t exist.  
       
      And what’s with the Ravel music punctuating statements on Scottish independence?  What’s wrong with Scottish composers?  There’s plenty in the BBC library.  
       
      (I’d give 5 points to Paxman for rolling his eyes at “illegal wars”, but I don’t want to hear any bias or personal opinion from him, even if I agree with it.)

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        PS:  Portillo is pathetic.  His definition of what it means to be British isn’t even worthy of a grammar school essay.

           0 likes

      • Craig says:

        The report from Scotland by Alan Little essentially blamed Mrs Thatcher for the recent decline in British feeling among Scots (if there really is a decline). This was Little’s own preferred explanation and he used Iain Macwhirter, a left-leaning commentator from the  Sunday Herald, as his report’s main ‘talking head’ to back himself up. There was no editorialising from Little about this commentator’s contribution (because it matched his own) but when Magnus Linklater of the Times came on to put the view that Scotland needs the UK for the good of its economy, Little editorialised that many Scots are getting fed up with hearing this sort of thing and tried to rubbish it.

        Couple that with an expression of opinion by Little about “the huge potential of wind” (in the pursuit of making Scotland ‘carbon neutral’ by 2020) and you get a typical Newsnight report.

           0 likes

        • Roland Deschain says:

          I’d say there’s definitely a decline in British feeling up here north of the border.  Not so much due to Maggie but due to Labour cynically stoking up resentment during her years of the fact that “Scotland never voted for the Tories”.  (Neither did many other areas – that’s democracy.)  Aided and abetted at every turn by the BBC who hated Maggie.

          What Labour were too stupid to realise was that this played directly into the SNP’s hands, and the fruits of this are now becoming apparent.  I fear it is now irreversible.

             0 likes

          • Grant says:

            Beeboids are stupid and are playing a dangerous game.
            What if England goes independent and leaves the EU ?
            Where does that leave Scotland, Wales, NI and the BBC ?
            Well and truly stuffed, that is where.
            If I were english, I would go for it.

               0 likes

            • David Preiser (USA) says:

              I bet most of the Beeboids – especially the producers and editors who drive this line of thinking – don’t actually believe it will ever happen. So they can talk it up all they want, and egg on every talking head to vent about it, without worrying about real consequences.

                 0 likes

  34. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC, Blue  Doctors and here’s one I made before:  
     
    Nottingham City Hospital doctor ‘exposed himself to staff’  
     A doctor indecently exposed himself to colleagues at a Nottingham hospital, a medical disciplinary panel has heard.  
     Dr Adeniran Yesufu, who worked at the City Hospital, was allegedly seen carrying out indecent acts three times in late 2007 and early 2008.A General Medical Council (GMC) fitness to practise panel was told several employees described a man matching his appearance.Dr Yesufu, who was not present at the hearing, denies the accusations…Mr Rigby told the panel sitting in Manchester that Dr Yesufu had sent a series of emails to the GMC with comments and arguments about what he pointed out were inconsistencies with the evidence against him.  
     
     
    So the bBC writes an article where the gulity party is given the benefit of the doubt . But hang on what’s this I found from 5 years ago by the bBC:  
     
    Reprimand for ‘indecent’ doctor  
    A doctor who indecently exposed himself to a stranger has avoided being struck off but has had restrictions imposed on his licence for the next two years. A General Medical Council (GMC) panel found Dr Adeniran Yesufu’s behaviour was “indecent and unbecoming”. Dr Yesufu, a haematology registrar at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, must inform new employers of his past and will be monitored by consultants.  During the hearing, Dr Yesufu blamed his behaviour on stress……  
    The panel, siting in central London, heard Dr Yesufu was sitting at the bus stop in March 2004 when a woman, identified only as Mrs J, stood next to him. The woman was speaking to her husband on the phone while waiting for the bus and noticed Dr Yesufu looking at her as she was talking. When she put the phone back in her bag she noticed Dr Yesufu had unzipped his trousers and exposed himself to her. The woman called her husband for help and then confronted Dr Yesufu, calling him a pervert.   
    The doctor ran off, but the woman and her husband searched for him in their car, found him and called the police. Dr Yesufu was later cautioned and released. Dr Yesufu later wrote to the GMC and claimed he had heard the woman talking with “racist undertones” towards him but then realised she had been on the phone.  
     
    It appears the bBC left out the racist part. Gee I wonder why, Could it be he was caught withh his pants down?

       0 likes

  35. Techno says:

    Just saw Breakfast’s coverage of the Milly Dowler hacking.

    Interview: a Guardian journalist.

    Then another interview:  Tom Watson, Labour politician, saying that the “government is scared of the Murdoch empire”

    An anti-Murdoch agenda?  No way!

       0 likes

  36. George R says:

    How ISLAMIC is Islam Not BBC (INBBC)?


    And how Islamic is ‘The Guardian’?:


    “The Life of Muhammad BBC documentary – live coverage”

     (posted by Ms Riazatt Butt)

    – on special screening in central London this morning –

    [Extract]:

    9.03am: Later this month the BBC is showing a three-part documentary about the life of Muhammad. I’m going to a special screening of it and a Q&A this morning in central London.
    It’s a television first, claims the BBC Press Office. OK they would say that wouldn’t they but I think it might be the first time in decades – if not ever – that a British network has screened a programme, let alone a series, about Muhammad. According to the blurb it charts the ‘extraordinary story of a man who, in little more than 20 years, changed the world forever.

    […]

    “Would such a three-part series have come about under a different, non-Muslim, BBC Head of Religion? Perhaps not.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/jul/05/life-of-muhammad-bbc-documentary-live

       0 likes

    • Wally Greeninker says:

      An interesting quote from the ‘scud stud’ in the above blog was:

      “He makes the point – fairly emphatically – that Muslims believe there is a difference between the message and the messenger and that is why there is “no shrine, no plaque to mark the place of his birth”. Muslims are “following the messenger not worshipping him.”

      Rageh is pushing a strict wahhabi / salafist line here: veneration may not be worship but it can come pretty damn close; you only have to listen, with half an ear, to the names of the sites of many muslim-on-muslim mass murders to realise that there are shrines to shia martyrs and sufi saints in many parts of the islamic world. Until the advent of the house of saud, and consequent local dominance of wahhabi theology, the tomb of the ‘prophet’ and the dwelling places of his immediate family had been carefully preserved. Mentioning ‘place of his birth’ is not really here nor there, in a non-christian context. For the remarkable campaign of destruction conducted since 1924, see:

      http://www.fsmarchives.org/article.php?id=1224940

      (scroll down to heading ‘vandalism in the name of allah.’)

      The inclusion of people like Robert Spencer as contributors will probably turn out to be as much a joke as putting in one or two sound bites from Ayaan Hersi in the Radi 5’s appallingly unctious
      ‘The Truth about Mohammed’, in 2006. She got less than one minute out of an hour: one snatch of her voice said only: ‘he attached very little value to human life’. In a religious context, this could mean a contempt for the things of this world and the programme makers certainlydid not include anything she almost certainly aso said to imply that he wasn’t too bothered about having people killed or sacrificing the lives of his followers.

      Normal BBC bias pales by comparison with the depths of spin and mendacity to which that documentary sank. The fact that muslim ‘opinion leaders’ applauded the first part of this one implies that it will follow the same pattern.

         0 likes

  37. cjhartnett says:

    Heard Evan banging the drum against Murdoch and the Evil Empire on Toady earlier.
    I don`t doubt Nick Davies at the Guardian. He is an excellent journalist…despite the Guardian knowing it!
    I don`t think that he would want the BBC and its outriders in the liberal press to be scrambling over Millie Dowler with such glee…albeit with that smug, prurient, arms length disdain for having to pass on the goss!
    To see Davies trying to get Whittingdale to provide the 9am soundbite in such a shameless and offensive manner makes the BBC just as guilty of abusing the Dowler family as anybody. They don`t give a damn about the family-they just want Murdoch out of the equation so they can peddle their worldview unchallenged.
    Wasn`t Labour in power when all this happened-Iain Blair etc?

    They did the same fish for a soundbite yesterday too.
    Gary Richardson and Today wanted David Haye to announce his retirement yesterday…he didn`t and ,boy, did Gary keep trying to get him to retire…they`d re-arranged the schedule just so he would!

    Note also Robin Ince sideswipe at Fox re gullibility and the paranormal on his show yesterday…but no gullibility re global warming would get an airing among such “reasoned and rational people” as he and the fellow atheists that made up the whole programme.

    Put this lot together and you get a flavour of what the BBC are up to!

       0 likes

    • George R says:

      Of course, BBC-NUJ is the largest broadcasting empire in the world; expoiting its political position, using public funds to spread pro-Islamic, pro-EU, pro-mass immigration, anti-British propaganda.

         0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      Quote from cjhartnett:

      They did the same fish for a soundbite yesterday too.
      Gary Richardson and Today wanted David Haye to announce his retirement yesterday…he didn`t and ,boy, did Gary keep trying to get him to retire…they`d re-arranged the schedule just so he would!
                                       ———-
      If that’s the same Garry Richardson, the man is notorious for his crass, plonkingly tactless and embarrassing interviewing. (I only know of him from the tennis). I didn’t hear the David Haye interview but there was a taste of his tactlessness and penchant for almost-taunting of sportspeople in his questioning of the defeated Rafael Nadal on Sunday.

      Awful, charmless, gormless creature.

         0 likes

      • Roland Deschain says:

        Was he the one who interviewed the defeated boxer (don’t know his name, not interested in boxing) on Monday’s Today?  That was a tactless interview, taunting the man along the lines of “You said you’d retire, why don’t you say here that you will?  He’s not going to give you a rematch so you might as well.”

           0 likes

        • Millie Tant says:

           David Haye – referred to in cj’s comment – is the defeated boxer who lost the challenge for various heavyweight world titles last weekend.

             0 likes

      • cjhartnett says:

        If you want the nadir baseline of unfunny smug self regarding radio at the “comedy” slot at 6.30… Gary Richardson was given a six show run last year…and I doubt very much there`ll be a recommission even at the BBC.
        No Reith archive or transcripts either!
        Maybe someone could tell us what credentials Gary Richardson has to mock Haye, Nadal or anyone…did he ever “play anything”…apart from with himself?

           0 likes

  38. My Site (click to edit) says:

    bbc5live BBC Radio 5 Live Will a free press ever be responsible? Your Call with @nickyaacampbell >> bbc.in/cftp2J #notw

    As opposed to the ‘responsibility’ one would enjoy with a press that is not free to the tune of £140+pa? Or those ‘overseen’ by those who know better? Interesting line of thought to start off from, especially historically.

    Off next for my morning twittersurf, but what has been noticeable by its absence (so far, the cherry vultures I am sure ready and lurking) is much by way of tribal, ‘wingist default support for Ms. Wade.

    Also wondering what happened in the brains overnight of those immediately were calling for Cameron to resign because of Coulson because… er… he wasn’t involved then (yes I know he knows here too – go down that route and we may as well nuke all within the M25… which, on reflection..). Anyone who goes that route is blatant in their naked politics as opposed to any hint of media introspection., Mr. Peston.

    But at least we did get Prescott and that, Mr. Murdoch, was all it needed for me to treat my SKY viewing in the same way I have always done with several of your other ‘media’ stablemates. 

    At least I have that choice. Financially at least.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:

      My site,
      I would certainly go along with the idea of nuking everyone within the M25, preferably during the Olympics.
      Sadly, that may include some posters here, but we just have to accept some collateral damage.

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        My fault for making the flip comment (note: ‘may as well’ as an inclusive of us all – being London born and bred, Plod, on any selective ‘ist, ism, ‘zi grounds) but as a caution, such things can get one in the soup if on twitter, for instance, sadly, these days.

        My point, now being noted in much higher echelons, is the cherry picking going on in some quarters, both political and media, to score very narrow points that are nothing to do with any genuine affront to the treatment meted out to a crime victim’s family.

        It’s all about media patronage now, with some very short memories and some very extended standards at play.

        I am as big on precedent as I am low on tolerance for hypocrisy (especially if only justified by ‘uniqueness’), so if such a route is to be taken, let all who have gutted our media in terms of professionalism and integrity pay the consequences for all the lines they have and are crossing.

        Just… careful what one wishes for, as these things can swing too far the other way. When I see folk demanding due process getting waived and innocence needing proving, even for gutter journos, then that is in danger of happening.

           0 likes

  39. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Came across an interesting link today…

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/29/watching-tv-computers

    Seems that, beyond not agreeing on stiff, few can even agree on what is legal either. But transgress what ‘may’ be, and you’re busted.

    Nice country.

       0 likes

  40. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC and how it uses misleading headlines in which to promote its leftwing agenda.

    Dutch blamed for Srebrenica dead

    The above is how the bBC reports to the world how they feel the dutch should be seen after a dutch court found the Dutch army gulity of allowing 3 (yes 3) muslims to be murdered by Serbs in the enclave of Srebrenica. Now on seeing that heading and not going any further would you feel that they have been found guillty of allowing thousands to be kiiled.

       0 likes

  41. Span Ows says:

    I just posted this on the Ronald Reagan thread but it fits here: listen to the first few lines of this vidoe commentary…they just can’t help the sarcasm…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14015400

    It ends on a similar note too re hotdogs and doughnuts (all in less than two minutes…great tribute (NOT!)

       0 likes

  42. George R says:

    “Leaked email reveals BBC Wales journalists being paid to tidy desks”

    [Extract]:-

    “Dozens of BBC Wales journalists have been told to tidy their desks, archive old tapes and fill in expenses forms over the summer – instead of working on programmes.
    A whistle-blower who works at Broadcasting House in Cardiff claims that bizarre BBC rules have made it too expensive for many programmes to use staff journalists who have spare capacity over the summer.
    Last night the BBC acknowledged the authenticity of a manager’s internal e-mail leaked to the Western Mail that appears to back up the claim, but said the controversial rules would be contributing to 15% production cuts over a five-year period.
    The whistle-blower told us: ‘At a time of already savage cuts to programme budgets at BBC Wales, the mismanagement within the organisation can be highlighted by the fact that dozens of staff are currently being paid to do absolutely nothing.'”

    Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/07/05/leaked-email-reveals-bbc-wales-journalists-being-paid-to-tidy-desks-91466-28993615/#ixzz1RDwI9ZZm

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This is the kind of thing which makes me keep saying that the constant focus on the high salaries of top execs is a red herring.  This is the middle management waste which needs to be fixed to help the budget.  Obviously this scheme was created with a poorly thought out “target” in mind (staff levels), with no thought given to the larger picture outside of the fiefdom.  Typical.

      If I were a cyncial person, I’d suspect that this was done on purpose to give the finger to nasty Tories forcing savage budget cuts on the poor old BBC.

         0 likes

  43. pounce_uk says:

    I see  bBC radio presenter Jenni Murray has opined to the media that she  feared being a ‘traitor to her class’ by accepting the offer to become a dame.  
     
    Yup just like Lord Prescot another leftwing tosser. These champions of equality for all who have no problem shouting out 4 legs good, 2 legs bad. Kind of have no problem becoming what they hate the most when the chance is offered to them.  
     
    So fat twat feared being a traitor to her class did she? Tell me, is she f-ing working class as that watch on her wrist isn’t something you’d purchase at Argos or heavens forbid poundshop. Anybody know what working class jenni earns a year while presenting womans hour.  Well seeing as £200,000 is around the average she isn’t exactly having to shop at Aldi to make ends meet is she.  
     
    Working class indeed.

       0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      I didn’t realise she is from Barnsley. Who’d have thought it?

         0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      No, it’s not whether or not one ends up earning enough money to live a posh lifestyle, but the circumstances of one’s birth which counts.  Born into a wealthy family?  Your achievements in life mean nothing, as all of it can be easily attributed to the privileges and advantages of your birth.  In the class war mindset, the achievements of anyone born into wealth (or even upper middle class) are worthless.

      In contrast, anyone born “working class” should be proud of their parents’ ability to procreate randomly, and all achievements are well-deserved.  Any lack of achievement can be blamed on oppression and the lack of opportunities available to the working classes, and the fact that England had an Upstairs/Downstairs culture 100 years ago, no fault of one’s own.  So long as one occasionally remembers to claim working class roots, then anything goes.

      It’s a black and white world they live in, with no quarter given.

         0 likes

      • MarkE says:

        It’s a bit more nuanced than that; my own working class credentials are pretty good, but I make the mistake of being proud of having escaped that background because of advantages denied to others (a full complement of limbs and a work ethic).  By not being a victim, and having said “[bad things] happen, but victimhood is a choice” I have made myself the devil incarnate.

        I rather like my status.

           0 likes

  44. As I See It says:

    Having turned on BBC Radio Five Live intermitently during the day I couldn’t help but notice that they are going completely over the top on phone hacking.

    I know listening to voicemails in search of a story is far far far worse than….I don’t know?….TV journalists faking sequences in documentaries so as to embelish a narrative….

    You would think high up on the charter of our ‘balanced’ BBC is a clause that says – attack Mr Murdoch, wherever and whenever.

    Wait a bit….I’m sure some ‘journalists’ (Mr Bacon, Mr Campbell et al) would welcome new and very restrictive personal privacy legislation – if only they could work up enough of a head of steam on this.

       0 likes

    • Lloyd says:

      I only listened to 45 minutes or so, earlier, but i’d have to say that the story deserves every minutes exposure that it’s getting. Brooks and Mulclaire should go to jail, and i’m not even interested in any “innocent to proven guilty” nonsense. Mulclaire was bang at it and it’s not conceivable that Brooks wasn’t aware.

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        i’m not even interested in any “innocent to proven guilty” nonsense.

        Hearing that a lot today. If with a few ‘unique’ caveats.

        If complicit, and guilty, books get thrown at Brooks… and whoever else knew and is obliged by law to earn their high paid keep. No question.

        Equally, elsewhere in the the MSM.

        Otherwise, careful what you wish for.

           0 likes

        • My Site (click to edit) says:

          Despite the alliterative ring, for Brooks read Wade, at least on mine, though she seems to be both.

             0 likes

        • Lloyd says:

          The fact that Mulclaire has a previous conviction for phone hacking – across a wide range of people – is proof enough for me. As for Brooks, well if she didn’t have any knowledge of Mulclares activities she would have been the only editor at NoW not to know. Would this stand up in a court of law? Maybe not, but on the balance of probabilities they’re both guilty.

             0 likes

      • As I See It says:

        The debate has moved on a little since my original comment but I stand by my first impression of the BBC coverage – completely over the top.

        BBC priorities? Anti-Murdoch, politically leftist and pro-censorship legislation for the rich and famous.

        I just don’t believe their sudden concern for the feelings of the families in certain tragic cases. Cross reference when the Dowler family made their brave and impassioned remarks about their treatment during the recent trial BBC News 24 russelled up a civil rights lawyer within the hour to spout ‘there is nothing wrong with the current system’. 

           0 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      I hope they throw the book at Brooks & Mulcaire.  I’ve no sympathy for celebrities or politicians who couldn’t be bothered to change their password.  But a young girl who is missing, very likely dead?  That’s another matter entirely.

      However there does seem to be a lack of curiousity, at least in any articles I’ve seen, as to whether any other papers were doing this.  To me it beggars belief that only the News of the World got up to this kind of thing and it’s almost like no-one wants to look for fear of what they might find.

         0 likes

      • matthew rowe says:

        Well just me but until some evidence that can be put by a prosecutor to a judge  is brought up and not just the constant unsubstantiated  bleating of Lard Pressalot and a few C list celebs then all this is worth nothing no matter what the case and as Polices relationship with the press and the near impossibility of proving a “hack” on a phone! then that may take even more time and hot air  !
        Sorry but I don’t want blind hatred  and dislike replacing truth and fact !

           0 likes

  45. My Site (click to edit) says:

    No excuses for NI, NotW, Brooks, etc, and Andrew Neil rightly took apart PCC numptie (if blowing a 100% filleting by loving the sound of his own voice and not letting her hang herself with her own), but then I see this…

    arusbridger alan rusbridger  by james_randersonRT @Peston: News Int execs tell me they fear there may be worse examples of NOTW hacking than Milly Dowler. The mind reels

    .. and I realise that Milly Dowler is already forgotten as this morning’s excuse for petty tribalism. Look at the axis of wind up here, especially in the guise of ‘chatting’ with each other.

    The MSM sickens me.

       0 likes

  46. reformation70 says:

    Interesting review of that new BBC Muhammad documentary at where else the Guardian. However they do cover the Satanic Verse incident.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/jul/05/life-of-muhammad-bbc-documentary-live

       0 likes

  47. D B says:

    Mickey Clarke, the veteran business journalist who gives Radio Five Live’s business coverage an occasional welcome burst of common sense, came out with some stuff that must have had the full-timers in the BBC newsroom spluttering into their lattes this morning:

    “Is chucking money at the US economy the right way? I mean, it’s not worked twice now…Chucking money at it is not always the way forward. The Americans have a situation where they have these high levels of debt, they’ve been printing money like there’s no tomorrow, they have a housing market that’s still flat on the floor and they have an unemployment rate which is approaching 10%.”

    Whatever next -somebody actually criticising Paul Krugman on the BBC. Not sure I could take that shock.

       0 likes

  48. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Hugh Grant (why is his opinion worth anything?) just told Gavin Esler that democracy in Britain is corrupt and that the “cabal” of the “Murdoch Press” runs everything.  The Government, he said “is elected by Rupert Murdoch”, and this corruption must be investigated.

    Is this not libel?

       0 likes

  49. George R says:

    THE ISLAMIC NEXUS MADE PLAIN:  
     
     
    Muhammad, an Islamic propaganda TV series, initiated by INBBC  
     
       l  
     
    INBBC  
     
      l  
     
    Muslim, Aaqil Ahmed, head of INBBC religion, commissions:  
     
      l  
     
    Muslim, Somalian, Rageh Omaar, who’s at Islamic broadcaster, Al Jazeera, to do 3 part INBBC TV series on Muhammad  
     
      l  
     
    ‘Guardian’ sends Muslim to preview screening in London this morning  
     
      l  
     
    Muslim, Ms Riazat Butt  
     
     
      l  
     
    Her updated,  Muslim only account of Omaar, Ahmed and Butt:  
     
     
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     http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/jul/05/life-of-muhammad-bbc-documentary-live
     
     
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    THE SEQUEL: how dhimmi INBBC and ‘Guardian’ will exclusively delegate all matters which relate to Islam for Muslims only to broadcast and propagandise for, as prelude to the total Islamisation of Britain.  
     

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