OPEN THREAD…

Middle of the week, I’m writing this from my bunker in an undisclosed location awaiting your observations on BBC bias…

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76 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. RGH says:

    So the BBC has interviewed Forbes (Hardtalk).

    Forbes’ view is that the Coalition is not cutting tax too fast and too deep at all.

    So what is the headline. A headline that catches the eye.

    “British coalition is making a ‘huge mistake’.

    A more accurate headline:

    “British Coalition is making a ‘huge mistake’ in not cutting taxes.”

    OK. Listening and  (but not reading !) makes it clear, but the headline, for those that skim rather than read, is misleading.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9570926.stm

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  2. jarwill101 says:

    Given that the beeboids are such craven apologists for the looters, I wonder if they’ll be sponsoring a Scrote Float at the upcoming Notting Hill Carnival. It would need to be of an epic scale, & upon it, those who haven’t had their collars felt, could display choice items of consumer desirables they stole in protest at the ‘kutz’, to a blitzing background of underground ‘kill whitey’ rap. They would then drive on to the Wood Lane Biodome & get Toynbeed out of their skulls, before looting, & then burning down the BBC. Who said bank holidays were dull?

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      I can’t seem to find a bookie who’s taking bets on the amount of fatalities at this year’s ‘Immigrant Stab Fest’

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  3. George R says:

    TRIPOLI:

    1.)

    Journalists still stuck in Tripoli’s Rixos hotel amid reports of nearby mortar and RPG fire

    [Excerpt]:

    “While both the rebel and Gaddafi forces claim control over Tripoli, dozens of journalists are still understood to be trapped in the Rixos hotel in the city.
    Among them is the BBC’s Matthew Price, who reported on Sunday that there were 35 journalists still in the hotel.”

    http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/wire/8135

    2.)
    “Tripoli coverage from Sky News wins praise, as other reporters remain in Rixos hotel”

    “With the BBC, CNN, Fox News and especially MSNBC slow to begin coverage of the unfolding story, Sky News became the channel to watch Sunday night. The network’s Alex Crawford rode into the city with rebels. She has been broadcasting live from the city since Sunday in a helmet and flak jacket with the sound of gunfire in the background. “It has been the most astonishing 24 hours,” Crawford
    wrote in a detailed account from the scene.”

    […]

    “The Sky News team provided the unflinching coverage using a a laptop connected to a mini-satellite dish charged by a car cigarette lighter, the Daily Telegraph reports.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/tripoli-coverage-from-sky-news-alex-crawford-wins-praise-as-other-reporters-remain-trapped-in-rixos-hotel/2011/08/22/gIQA71kMWJ_blog.html

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    • George R says:

      While Sky reports on Tripoli, BBC ‘reports’ against Murdoch, as Robert Peston, BBC-NUJ-Labour, currently does on his blog.

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    • deegee says:

      As unusual as it may be for me to defend the BBC I don’t think George R’s comment is fair. Alex Crawford is, in effect, embedded with the Rebels who want the world and Libya (not sure which is more important) to see them winning. The Rixos reporters came to report from the Gadaffi side, who didn’t want the world and Libya to see them losing so they heavily censored the Rixos crowd. Luck of the draw for a war correspondent.

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      • George R says:

        My entry above is strictly from two journalistic sources and receives no comment from me.
        The comment from Peston on Murdoch is typical Peston.

        One of BBC-NUJ’s problems in Tripoli is how it was duped by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi into reporting his version of events when the BBc-NUJ were not able to see the fuller picture.

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    • George R says:

      “Sky News’s Libya coverage knocks the BBC’s into a cocked hat ”

      (by Toby Young)

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100101969/sky-newss-libya-coverage-knocks-the-bbcs-into-a-cocked-hat/

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    • George R says:

      It’s not only Alex Crawford’s sterling performance on SKY NEWS, the political analysis of Sky’s Tim Marshall is erudite; whereas INBBC puts out its AL JAZEERA TV political identikit line (from a distance from the action), using the Islamic and over-familiar INBBC face of Abd al-Bari Atwan of ‘Al Quds Al Arabi’

      Abdel Bari Atwan, Hatred, Lies and LSE

      and on ‘Al Quds Al Arabi’

      http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Al-Quds_Al-Arabi

      Note its political line on Israel, which suits INBBC down to the ground.

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  4. Deborah says:

    I am sure we have all noticed how quickly these open threads are filling up and with even more contributors on a greater range of BBC bias.

    Now is it because more and more of us are noticing – or are the BBC getting even less inhibited in their bias (or of course a mixture of the two).

    Personally I think the BBC bias has become more blatent since May last year.

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    • Roland Deschain says:

      I had exactly the same thought.  In my wildly optimistic moments I hope the Tories are biding their time and giving the BBC enough rope to hang themselves.

      Then reality intrudes and I realise the Tories simply haven’t the nous to do that.  They really are too craven to do anything and thus they seal their own fate.

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      • graham duck says:

        “I had exactly the same thought. In my wildly optimistic moments I hope the Tories are biding their time and giving the BBC enough rope to hang themselves.”

        This lot won’t have the bottle to do anything about the INBBC, as your second para correctly notes. Reality indeed must cut in. Whose bright idea was it to appoint Patten? holy moses. The Tories are sleepwalking to defeat by propaganda at the next GE I’m afraid and deservedly so if they can’t wake from their slumbers.

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    • As I See It says:

      I agree, the BBC is stepping up the bias. They are in full re-elect Labour mode. The grateful Red Eds will naturally repay such loyalty and the Beeboids will have struck oil again.

      As for us licence payers? To quote James Dean in Giant “There’s not a dang thing you can do about it!”

      And Cameron will be left regreting “We should have shot that fellah a long time ago, now he’s too rich to kill!” 

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    • Billy-no-mates says:

      I can only speak for myself and had gradually became more aware of BBC bias really since the election. Not that it didn’t happen before – I just didn’t notice or tolerated it. Once the cat is out of the bag the scale is breathtaking and you wonder how they get away it.

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    • fred bloggs says:

      The problem is the general public, because they do not know the real details of a story, they will not detect the; missing fact, added distraction, slanted emphasis, played down, etc.  If it came to their notice then the esteem of the bBC would come down to the level it is rally at.

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    • As I See It says:

      The BBC brand is very strong. It will take decades for the general public to see it for what it is, just as the Russians eventually did with Pravda.

      Alternatively a concerted attack and expose might do the trick. The BBC have themselves shown the way with their assault on News of the World.

      Now if I were in Downing Street I would kill two birds with one stone and begin by trashing the Man-Made Global Warming scam which happens to have the BBC’s mucky fingerprints all over it.

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  5. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Well worth a watch!
    Hilarious parody of the average, ignorant social-Marxist:

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  6. TheGeneral says:

    On Monday afternoon Five Live’s Richard Bacon had a alternative comedian as his guest from the Edinburgh festival . A giggling and patronising Bacon asked him what he thought of the riots, purring with anticipation at the expected tirade against the government. The comedian began by saying “The politicians haven’t got a clue,” the giggling Bacon loved it until the guest continued ” The Tories say it was due to thuggery and Labour say it was due to the cuts,”  
    “Yes yes ” Bacon interjected enthusiastically, but the comedian continued ” Neither of them have a clue. It was down to some Blood Clads saying ‘ Hey man der is a riot goin on, lets get down der and nick some tellies.'”  
    Bacon’s deflation was wonderful. ” But, but, but surely the cuts had some effect .” he offered dejectedly.  ” Not a bit of it. It was all about the chance to nick stuff ” his guest replied

    EXCELLENT !!!!
     

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    • NotaSheep says:

      I missed this show, I find it too depressing to listen to Richard bacon’s inane lefty-prattle, but I did hear the trail. Was the lefty political comedienne’s views more to Bacon’s liking?

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  7. RGH says:

    How did this get through the net?

    And what does it tell us about Zimbabwe (and other maladministered societies in the Third World).

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14528642

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    • Peter Capriole says:

      The fact that they are white Zimbabweans is the elephant in the room. 
      Even the question that must have passed the BBC reporter’s lips has been edited out. Instead we get the reply:

      “They are all Africans and we feel that it doesn’t matter where they’re coming from,” he says.


      “We could have brought in Koreans or Chinese. What matters is that they’re bringing in expertise to transform our economy.” 

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      • RGH says:

        I agree.

        The far-sighted Nigerian politician clearly answered a question which was not highlighted as such.

        He responded to the suggestion as to why ‘white’ farmers.

        The answer is obvious. They are Africans and get on better with their workers than Koreans and Chinese.

        I’ll take it further. There are many Zimbabwean ‘Africans’ who miss them.

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      • james1070 says:

        The Congo is doing the same. They are importing White Africans with 30 yr land leases to grow food. Well Mugabe’s loss is Congo’s gain.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Yes, I thought the phrase “Forced off their farms by Robert Mugabe’s land reforms” was wonderfully non-judgmental.  And the Nigerian politicians statement that he doesn’t care where the farmers are from and that they’re “all Africans” pretty much tells you that this was in response to a question about said elephant in the room, which the BBC casually left out of context.

        But are all white farmers’ wives so shallow as the ones who are bored while the men do all the work because there are no shops or hairdressers for them to go to?  Nice.

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  8. As I See It says:

    Guido Fawkes on Mr Bowen the Grand Mufti of BBC Middle East news.

    http://order-order.com/

    I would submit that the reason that the Beeb have been caught napping on this story is that they don’t like it – just doesn’t fit their anti-NATO narrative. Here’s a bet, should Gaddffi manage to get an insurgency off the ground the BBC will be all over like a rash.

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  9. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC , crooked MPs and half the story.
    Remember the song and dance the bBC made about how the wife of a Tory MP who asked (without giving her name) contractors laying a new road if they had any leftover could they fill in the pot holes on the communal private road that led up to her home.
    MP Graham Stuart’s free road surface to be removed
    A road surface laid for free outside an East Yorkshire MP’s home is to be removed following a dispute about it. MP Graham Stuart’s wife, Anne, asked East Riding of Yorkshire Council contractors to surface the private road with any spare asphalt they had. But local residents have complained about the lane’s new surface.
    Here is a similar story about another MP which the bBC hasn’t bothered reporting. An MP who has form for expense fraud , the MP who the bBC used to present a program about Porn. I wonder why the bBC hasn’t bothered airing this story?

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    • pounce_uk says:

      I see the bBC has knocked out a story about Jackie Smith using 2 convicts on community service to paint her house over 2 days. However it seems the bBC in telling the story has made her into a victim I quote:
      Prisoners painted room for ex-minister Jacqui Smith
      A prison service spokesman said there had been “a mistake”.
      Err how about saying the prison didn’t even know.
      Ms Smith said the prisoners “didn’t have anything else on” and she made a donation to the charity for their time.
      So according to the bBC, Mrs Smith was doing the coutnry a service.
      “Offenders should work on projects which help the whole community.
      And instead of cleaning the streets of Reditch they cleaned the inside of Smiths house.
      “Batchley Support Group weren’t aware of the scope of the restrictions and Ms Smith and Richard Timney [her husband] certainly wouldn’t have been aware of these,” .
      And after the outcry after trying to get 2 porn films on the backs of the tax payers,nobody saw the dangers of having a couple of lags working at her house. (Something tells me the full story isn’t been aired here)
      “However, the group does agree in retrospect that undertaking work on Ms Smith’s home may not have been the best use of prisoners’ time, though it should be pointed out that the donation made for the work has enabled Batchley Support Group to carry out much-needed work in the community.”

      And any reporter worth his salt would ask how much was handed over, seeing as ot cost me £300 to have bedroom done the other month by a friend and I supplied the paint.

      Good to see the bBC keeping the red flag flying high. Now if only the story would break that the 2 men whitewashed Smiths toncils while Hubby watched. Now that would be a story I’d like the bBC to report.

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      • Jane Tracy says:

        If you read Jacqui Smith’s so called rebuttal on the LBC website you will notice that she writes it as if they just happened to be outside her house looking for something to do!

        Presumably in the same way as our money from the MPs expenses scheme found its way into her bank account which if you remember she seemed to be claiming had just happened.

        The common denominator in this exploitation of position and influence is one Jacqui Smith…

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      • Millie Tant says:

        There is enough Beeboid bias to write about without the need for gratuitous nastiness of the kind posted in the final paragraph above about Jacqui Smith.

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  10. Span Ows says:

    Cranmer on BBC double agent double standards re Coulson/Patten

    http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/08/if-andy-coulson-was-double-agent-so-is.html

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  11. Span Ows says:

    News you probably won’t see on the BBC:

    “PCTs predict to break even or show a surplus at the end of 2011/12, according to figures obtained exclusively under the Freedom of Information Act.”

    http://www.gponline.com/channel/news/article/1085970/exclusive-majority-pcts-predict-cash-surplus-end-financial-year/

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  12. Billy-no-mates says:

    Quite apart from all the bias. Has anyone noticed that the quality of the BBC reports from Libya and the riots was piss-poor. – I’ve seen it discussed elsewhere but its true SKY coverage of both events has been so much better. Though in fairness to the BBC they had a huge number of reporters still on Murdoch and they did such a good job at Glastenbury 🙂

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100101969/sky-newss-libya-coverage-knocks-the-bbcs-into-a-cocked-hat/
    http://chat.thisislondon.co.uk/london/threadnonInd.jsp?forum=18&thread=330497&message=1812778
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2029109/Libya-Gaddafi-friendly-BBC-blown-Sky-News-live-coverage-Alex-Crawford.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

    They might be able to get away with bias but they are going the way of other nationalised industries in offering a crap and expensive (in this case news) service This is more difficult to brush under the carpet .. listen for rebuttals

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  13. cjhartnett says:

    With all this Libya stuff going on…are we getting queues of Labour people saying why going into Libya was the wrong thig to do…as most of them have been saying for months now?
    I`m not listenting to the BBC at the moment, but am guessing that if the Coalition is seen to have come out of it reasonably well(in this news cyxle anyway!), the Beeb won`t be doing anything to report the story in any way other that Obama saves the West/ the wonder of the EuroArmy we`ll get if we join the Euro .

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Quite right, cj.  The BBC has said that this is a victory for the US President, but sneers at their own Prime Minister for being on vacation at a random moment, when he was the one who started the ball rolling while the President demurred until reality forced Him to act.

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  14. cjhartnett says:

    With all this Libya stuff going on…are we getting queues of Labour people saying why going into Libya was the wrong thig to do…as most of them have been saying for months now?
    I`m not listenting to the BBC at the moment, but am guessing that if the Coalition is seen to have come out of it reasonably well(in this news cyxle anyway!), the Beeb won`t be doing anything to report the story in any way other that Obama saves the West/ the wonder of the EuroArmy we`ll get if we join the Euro .

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  15. George R says:

    LIBYA.

    INBBC has a profile of ‘rebel’ leader, JALIL*. (* Is it chance that INBBC’s photo of him is sideways on?)

    “Who might lead Libya after Gaddafi?”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14637437

    Now, INBBC doesn’t mention whether Jalil is religious, whether he is a Christian, or possibly a Muslim. So, it must be irrelevant. Right?

    How does one spell ‘ZEBIBAH’?

    Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Chairman Of The National Transitionial Council (Rebels) In Benghazi

    And:

    “Libya’s Self Proclaimed New Leader Has The Mark Of The Islamist”

    http://howcanpeoplebesostupid.com/?p=3585

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  16. George R says:

    ‘SKY NEWS’:”Journalists Freed From Tripoli Hotel”

    http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16056216

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  17. DJ says:

    Looks like we have a result in the competition to guess what defense the BBC would use for its shoddy non-reporting from Libya. Congratulations to everyone who picked ‘whiny passive-aggresive sermonising’.

    Yes, indeed:

    http://tinyurl.com/3thqkjh

    Lectures about the grim reality of combat from people who spend their lives second guessing and sneering at those who serve in uniform? Hey, no one said smug bureaucrats had to be self-aware, right?

    What are the rules here anyway? Stewie and pals had no trouble all but denouncing the cops who shot armed felon Mark Duggan as murderers, but only paid up guild members are allowed to comment on how well a publicly-funded monster broadcaster does its job? How does that work? And is dealing with tooled-up gangsters more or less dangerous than hanging round the hotel bar in full body armour?

    More to the point, whatever the wider issues, the critics are right: by any objective metric the BBC’s coverage from Libya has been abysmal, and the more so since Sky have done so much better with so much less. That’s at least as legitimate issue as the BBC’s ‘Atrocity of the Week’ coverage from Afghanistan but the same broadcaster that denoucnes the troops as either chumps or psychopaths wants to claim that interviewing the Head Bartender is just like steering your X-craft under Tirpitz.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I like the irrelevant unflattering quote about US media.  Nice smokescreen, as if the BBC doesn’t send a legion of staff.

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    • Billy-no-mates says:

      Just heard the media show – very good. Official excuses from the BBC for the piss-poor coverage range between – We were unluckly (unfortunately as it was pointed out they have been unlucky several times) and … wait for it… health and safety But it doesn’t matter because the BBC had more viewers so that vindicates the BBC’s crap coverage.  
       
      I heard Phil Duplicitous on R5 give a gratuitous plug for the BBC war correspondents – Why????  
       
      They (the BBC) are definitely on the back foot.

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      • wild says:

        In “war reporting…[there are not]…”winners” and “losers”

        “A shower of awards will surely follow [Crawford’s reporting of the war] – and rightly so.”

        Spot the contradiction.

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      • Martin says:

        Agreed, I thought Sky’s coverage has been far superior to the BBC. The beeboids seem to be more interested in telling us when they’ve been shot at than what is going on.

        Sky did have a hack in that hotel (Lisa holland I think) but I think she left as I remember reading a comment about the fact that none of the hacks could go anywhere without it being sanctioned by Gaddafi’s lot and also (unreported by the BBC) that Gaddafi’s lot had stopped talking to western journalists anyway.

        What got me was the difference in reporting, when Alex Crawford was with the rebels moving into Tripoli the BBC were still stating that they were 20 km away when we could clearly see that was NOT the case.

        Personally I prefer Sky’s reporting, they tend to throw the information out there (sometimes not confirmed but they do tell you that) and leave it for the viewer to interprete it, where as the BBC get their leftie hack to give us his or her opinion for 10 minutes for which I’m not interested thanks.

        What really annoys me is the lack of ITV reporting, they really should be forced to start up their 24 hour news channel again and if needed take money from the BBC tax to help part fund it.

        The ‘evil’ Murdoch loses 100 million a year keeping Sky News going so I don’t see why ITV shouldn’t also be made to fund a news channel.

        Over the years I’ve found ITV to do some good war reporting.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Once again ratings = quality.

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      • Reed says:

        “They (the BBC) are definitely on the back foot.”

        Quite right Billy, and they are beginning to realise that it is becomming more apparent to all, as the competition (Sky News) gets more plaudits.

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    • pounce_uk says:

      Have a look again at that corridor shot. (People are taught to lie low in a corridor in buildings as they are usually in the middle of the building and afford the most protection from rounds and blast damage) Notice anything, have a look to the left of the man with no Helmet. Why its a low slung wall which overlooks the main hall. Why here’s a picture which expresses exactly what I am saying.
      So why should I care for the so called welfare of people who are now playing the victimcard when they haven’t the commonsence in which to ensure that they are safe.

      Oh and the reason why folks like to lie down near a half wall, so they can keep cool.

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  18. pounce_uk says:

    So here I am trying to find reasons and excuses for not going on a 20 mile bike ride. When I come across this:
    Israel kills Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza air strike
    An Israeli air strike has killed a commander from the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli missile hit the car of Ismael al-Ismar, a leader of al-Quds Brigades in the city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border. Shortly afterwards, mortars were fired from northern Gaza into southern Israel. There were no injuries…. The BBC’s Yolande Knell in Jerusalem says these exchanges threaten to undermine the informal ceasefire agreement that was announced by an official from Hamas, which governs Gaza, late on Sunday.
    So if I didn’t know better, I’d say that the Israelis are well out of order for killing somebody during a truce . But the thing is I do know better and as i have reported time and time again that truce has been broken on 7 separate occasion since it came into play on Sunday., 4 times since Monday morning. On each and every occasion Israel has been the victim and on each and every occasion the bBC has decided not to report the story and to realy cap the reporting the bBC reporter has the cheek to claim that this single strike threatens to undermine the ceasefire in place.. Which is funny as  hamas are on record as saying that this hudna is only a temporary thing which may explain why they have no problem lobbing over the odd Grad or two over the border.

    But what makes this story even more damning is how after the murders of the fogal family the other month the bBC excuse was they were far too busy with the events transpiring in Eygpt at the time to bother with the murders in Israel. Yet at this moment in time, there is turmoil in Libya, turmoil in Syria, turmoil in turkey (6 days of airstrikes against the PKK) and yet the bBC can still find the time not only to report the fact the IDF have killed somebody in Gaza, but they do so while the dead man’s body is still warm. 

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    • dave s says:

      How long before us country dwellers come to regard London as one whole no go zone?
      Heading that way for sure if people round where I live are typical.
      Let us hope the Notting Hill event is peaceful. If not it could finally finish off London as a place to visit.
      This writing off of London by so many is a great tragedy and will have consequences. If you middle class, with children and old English what has London to offer you now?
      I would like to see a breakdown of just what type of London dweller is leaving and why. Somehow I doubt the BBC/Guardian is too keen on finding out.

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  19. Martin says:

    I notice that Radio 5 when mentioning 5 bellies Smiff’s use of prisoners to paint her house START from the point of view of defending her action.

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  20. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ, its love of the false use of word ‘Asian’; its hostility to English cricket, even in the hour of success.

    BBC-NUJ continually and wrongly desribes an individual or group as ‘Asian’ or ‘British Asian’, when the correct word would be ‘Muslim’, ‘Hindu’ ‘Pakistani’, ‘Indian’ or dare we say it: ‘British’.

    In ‘Newsnight’ (22 Aug) we had a Pakistani campaign to make cricket in England more ‘Asian’. And a campaign, obviously not racist when a Pakistani says it: ‘to make the English team look less white in the future’; and we heard all the evidence about how most cricketers in Britain of South Asian connection support the teams from either India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanks over England!

     The English Defence League has a point about the misuse of words on this:

    “What Does It Mean to be Asian?”

    http://englishdefenceleague.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-asian-2/

    This

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  21. David Preiser (USA) says:

    A viewpoint about poverty you will not hear on the BBC (Bonus points on Beeboid scorecards: the speaker is not a middle or upper class white male):

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

    Sorry, embed didn’t take.

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  22. cjhartnett says:

    Good news that all those journalists have finally been released from their minibars-and can go back out into dry dusty Tripoli to get us a story.
    Lynsey Hilsum looked a bit merry on Channel4 News tonight!

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    • David vance says:

      Phew, what a relief, I was thinking we would need to launch a ground offensive to save these custodians of independent thought!

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    • Buggy says:

      I can’t wait until their war memoirs hit the shelves:

      Chapter 5:“Deadly Encounter with a Corby Trouser Press.”.

      “Chapter 8: “Distant Gunfire: Don’t they know that I need my eight hours a night?”

      “Chapter 11: “The minibar is almost out of gin !”

      “Chapter 14: “NOW IT’S WAR ! (As the hotel all-comers ‘Twister’ tournament reaches its climax ! )”

      “Chapter 15: Surprising news: the television informs me that some sort of civil war is going on here ! Who knew ? ”

      “Chapter 18: Our side seems to be losing: sooo not fair !”

      “Chapter 20: “Homeward bound ! And a well-earned rest for your humble correspondent !”

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  23. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ-Guardian-Labour DIRECTOR GENERAL, MARK THOMPSON:

    -has decided to DENY ANY DEBATE on the nature of the undemocratic global media empire that is the BBC.

    ‘Guardian’:

    “Mark Thompson attacks James Murdoch over BBC:

    Director general targets corporation’s critics, warning collapse of BSkyB takeover was not excuse to debate scale of BBC”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/24/mark-thompson-attacks-james-murdoch

    At the Guardian’s annual politically statist gathering of the undemocratic at the Guardian’s restrictive Edinburgh anti-Murdoch Television Festival, the BBC has the leading role.

    D G THOMPSON, infamous for the preferential treatment given to Islamic interests at Islam Not BBC, now decides to go public in his total censorship of any debate about the nature and role of the BBC empire.

    Presumably, the British government is supporting this denial of criticism, or debate of the BBC; otherwise Hunt or Cameron would issue a public statement to stop Thompson’s attempted denial of basic freedom.

    The BBC-NUJ-Guardian is behaving like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in trying to BAN any criticism of the organisation’s ideology and aims.

    In the photograph, accompanying this ‘Guardian’ article, Thompson is grinning like a Cheshire Cat. He thinks that the joke of denial of debate is on us licencepaying suckers; and that we can’t touch him. He expects to get his £1m pension pay off from us at worse.

    This is what we are up against.

     Are there any Beeboids to speak out against THOMPSON and BBC’s publicly voiced policy of DENIAL OF DEBATE, together with censorship? Any politicians?

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    • Reed says:

      Notice the dishonesty in that article regarding the BBC’s dominance. Thompson seems to argue that a broadcaster’s share of the pie is entirely related to their financial position, rather than the span and reach of their empire. I think he seems rather worried that the BBC’s concentration on the dominance of the Murdoch media empire might open a Pandora’s box : a more general investigation into media/news share in this country.

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    • Billy-no-mates says:

      Thanks for this George. We speculated (was it only July) that the NI issue had backfiired for the BBC when it gave Cameron a common-sense legitimacy to look at ANY media dominance. From the article it would appear that Thompson acknowledges this by his defence. Which in my opinion is great news because its beginning to look like the big battle has begun. I speculate that this is the cover that the government required to get payback on these twats. Reform of the BBC can’t be undertaken in hysterical vengance but everyone agrees on the dangers of a media monopolies. But how do you encourage media diversity with a fat, left leaning state funded behemoth sucking the life out of every commercial start-up… mmmmm let me think??

      I’m beginning to understand what it feels to be in an Arab Spring

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  24. London Calling says:

    Riots!!
    Academics study the riots (from a safe distance and on a large pensionable salary, the BBC reports:

    Dr Patrick Tissington, associate dean of business partnerships at Aston University, viewed footage of an attack on a sweet shop in Birmingham. It was targeted during the first wave of disorder on 8 August, in the city centre. The footage shows one or two young men trying to smash the shop’s window before others join as a crowd watches.
    Dr Tissington said: “When one person goes at it, several others join in because it’s now been established it’s OK to do that because someone is doing that and no one is stepping in to stop them.”

    Give that man a cupie-doll. Wow. You wouldn’t think you need a university academic to tell you that. Such insight.

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  25. cjhartnett says:

    Some BBC4 programme on Pathe News.
    Andrew Marr is slating Pathe for its heavy handed, bovine one-sided slant on the Suez Crisis…the French and the British being uncritically supported in a futile last hurrah of propaganda by that irrlevant dumbed down and increasingy pointless means of foisting its world view on viewers-who had seen throught the lies and desperation.
    Hmm…no read over then Andrew?..not on that fat salary paying for the injunction?…

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    • jarwill101 says:

      Pathe News is long gone, cj, but the beeboids, for an exorbitant fee, provide us with Pathological News. It is disfigured, crucial parts seem to be missing, & it is contagious. They are never going to get well, or adopt a sensible, balanced diet until somebody knocks them into shape. The BBC is monstrously obese, like a pampered Sultan. It takes little in the way of vigorous intellectual exercise, aside from jumping to pre-ordained conclusions. It spends its time, & our money, weaving an illusory tapestry, its great project, its ‘narrative’. The Red Testament. When looked at closely, much of it appears to be upside down, & lacking in ‘nuanced opinions’. It appears to lean, irrevocably, to the left. At this moment there are  beeboids busy adorning the heads of looters with haloes.
      Marr, of course, was robotically ticking another beloved beeboid opinion box. That’s what he does when he isn’t talking to Lenin, in his remarkably totalitarian head. It is tedious & predictable. As boring as his unoriginal potboiler books. Some of his public pronouncements could be out of the NKVD manual. God knows what he says about the ‘unenlightened’ in private.
      For the generation before Marr’s, for those of the left, the Suez crisis was a flashpoint. It confirmed all they thought they knew about imperial, perfidious Britain. For a time they wouldn’t have to think about Soviet repression, Hungary etc. People like John Le Carre lay great store by Suez. He was, apparently, a signatory to a letter to, I think, The Times; from the masters’ common room at Eton, no less. His pro-Arab/Muslim sentiments have come to the fore in his later books. A good writer appears to have been taken over by the spirit of Tony Benn, or Tariq Ali. Suez seems to have been crucial in cementing-in the pro-Arab/Muslim conviction of the left in the late 1950s. That bias has grown over the years to the point of obsession – as we see, to our cost, with the BBC; a corporation prejudiced, at the best of times, but reliably one-eyed whenever it comes to the adherents of the crescent moon.

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  26. pounce_uk says:

    Ref the airstrike the IDF carried out yesterday here is the bBC explanation of why?
    The Israeli military said its target in Wednesday’s attack had been an activist implicated in weapons smuggling and militant operations in Egypt’s Sinai region.
    And here is what the IDF had to say on the matter:
    An Israeli military spokesman said the strike targeted “an activist linked to Islamic Jihad who was implicated in attempted terrorist actions in the Sinai.”Israeli public radio linked Ismar to last week’s attacks on southern Israel’s border with Egypt which killed eight Israelis.“(He) financed the attack in the south of the country last week and was responsible for financing a major attack that terrorists were planning to carry out in the near future.”
    And knowing how quick the bBC is to report when a terrorist is hurt in Gaza. Let me get the news in first:
    Several hours after Ismar’s death, two mortar shells hit the Eshkol region, which flanks the Israel-Gaza border, Israeli police said. Al Quds Brigade claimed the attack and said it had fired six shells towards the Kissufim border crossing, in response to Ismar’s killing.
    Immediately afterwards, the air force hit “two terrorists who had fired rockets at Israel,” the army said in a raid which Palestinian medics said moderately wounded two Islamic Jihad militants near Deir Al Balah. Palestinian medics later reported finding the body of Ismael Amoum, 65, in the same area, saying it had been blown to pieces.
    In a third strike, Palestinian medical sources said 20-year-old Attiyeh Moqat had been killed, and the Al Quds Brigade claimed him as a member. Another Palestinian was wounded, said medical sources who had initially identified the dead man as Mohammed Moqat.
    So the Israelis hit a mortar base plate injuring 2 and apparently  killing a 65 year old man. Seeing as how he was reported to have been blown apart and the Israelis use concrete warheads for kinetic strikes in Gaza (less collateral damage, I can only presume that Ismael was closer to the base plate than the 2 terrorists who were wounded) and the penultimate guy has been claimed as a terrorist leaving Mohammed which I can’t say anything about.
    Now lets see how the bBC reports this story .

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  27. pounce_uk says:

    I’ve tried to post about this story a number of time. But it simply won’t post. So I have to cuff it hoping it will get through (Is there a list of words which prevents your post, getting posted?)  
    Anyway that bloke in the wheelchair was interviewed by the bBC. Have a look at what his T-Shirt says. Oh nothing wrong with it. But I thought you couldn’t promote a political message during an interview about something else. So I put his name in the bBC serch engine and had a look at another of his videos for the bBC and guess what this time he is wearing a T-shirt which simply states 1948. with the 8 coloured in red.  
     
    I wonder if they would allow anybody to be interviewed wearing an EDL t-shirt? Hey I’m not saying I support them, just asking if they would allow it.

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  28. pounce_uk says:

    Just when you thought the bBC couldn’t get any lower they come out with this bag of tripe:
    Israel, Ukraine and the mysterious case of Dirar Abu Sisi
    Palestinian engineer Dirar Abu Sisi vanished from a train in Ukraine earlier this year. He turned up in an Israeli prison nine days later, but is he really the brains behind Hamas’ missile programme, as Israel claims?.. The Israeli court has since released partial transcripts of Mr Abu Sisi’s interrogation sessions, in which he apparently admits to helping Hamas increase the range and accuracy of their rockets, as well as helping the movement set up and run a military academy. His lawyers, and his wife, say he has nothing to do with Hamas, and knows nothing about rocket technology.
    But even if Mr Abu Sisi was involved in developing rockets for Hamas, would that be enough for Israel to conduct an international abduction?
    But there is another possibility.
    In 2006, Hamas captured a young Israeli soldier in a cross border raid. More than five years later, Corporal Gilad Shalit is still presumed to be held prisoner at a secret location inside Gaza. Israel has an almost sacred covenant with its service personnel: it does not abandon its soldiers. The Israeli government is desperate to get him back.
    It is not impossible that Dirar Abu Sisi was in fact a secret and senior Hamas operative. However, the evidence uncovered in this investigation suggests that – whatever his dealings with Hamas may or may not have been – he was not nearly that important.
     
    This past week Israel has hit Gaza from the air and virtually everyman they have taken out has been a terrorist who belongs to PRC, the group behind the Sinai attacks. Yesterday they struck and killed the man who funded that operation. The one thing about the Israelis is, they nearly always get their man. Which kind of explains why the leader of Hezb-allah hasn’t shown his face in public since 2005. Yet the bBC feels that not only have they got the wrong man. (even while admitting that he may actually be who the IDF claim him to be) But actually, he is been used as a bargaining chip in which to get the man who Hamas themselves abducted from another country. (Israel) but whom the bBC still claims was captured. No bBC if he had been picked up in Gaza then he would have been captured. 

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  29. Martin says:

    I notice the BBC attacking three more Tory plans.

    1. To collect taxes from Swiss banks of British customers. Even though it will bring in several billion the BBC have wheeled out endless critics saying “it’s not enough” yet what did Liebore do for 13 years?

    2. Hillsborough. The BBC are angry that Cameron might be looking to withhold information that the BBC ‘hopes’ will make Maggie Thatcher look bad. So how come the BBC were never critical of the 13 years in which Nu Liebore failed to release these documents?

    3. MoT tests. Government plans to make them every 2 years, so Radio 5 big up some crap about the RAC testing MoT stations and finding they are missing things. So what, that has nothing to do with making the MoT test every 2 years, that is to do with poor garages.

    Every time we get a Government policy the BBC always start from the point of view of attacking it. Shame they didn’t take the same approach when the one eyed idiot was trashing our economy.

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  30. George R says:

    Black heritage/ White heritage.

    In light of BBC-NUJ headline:

    “Paris offers black heritage tours”

    – soon BBC-NUJ will have to headline:

    ‘London offers white heritage tours.’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14642130

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