209 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. deegee says:

    Its not often I say anything positive about BBC coverage of Israel. Most annoying was their country profile. Instead of being a thumbnail introduction for those without basic knowledge it served as a profile of BBC biases and obsessions on the subject. It was also extremely poorly written (or perhaps poorly cut and pasted).

    The new profile is a world better. I’m sure when I read it carefully I will discover points of disagreement but the really egregious errors have been removed.

    I’m not sure about the revision date 31 August 2011. I’m fairly certain I accessed it in early October in its previous form. Can’t prove it. Intriguely the Google search engine still pulls the old leading paragraph. Much of the history of the area since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one … Lest we forget!

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  2. As I See It says:

    Do you know there are times when the Beebs don’t find a story about a bunch of silly wrong-thinkers quite so amusing.

    Imagine the scenario: fundamentalist-minded students have been skipping their evolution lessons.

    Queue chuckling Beeboids and their left-liberal media mates tut-tutting about such narrow-minded religious bigots.

    Afterall this is Paddy O’Connell’s ‘What’s in the Sunday papers today (which might further the cause)?’.

    Ah, I wonder if the lack of snide about this one might have something to do with the fact that these are UK based Muslim students who don’t like the Dinosaurs.

    Paddy is not very brave when he is not up against the whimpy Christians and to underline his unwillingness to criticise Islam he goes as far as to have a nervous laugh at the lecturer’s expense ‘Perhaps his lessons were just boring?’

    I award an inverted Victoria Cross for BBC cowardice in the face of Islam.

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    • cjhartnett says:

      Paddy O Connell is Schnorbitz to the BBCs perpetual tribute to Bernie Winters.
      He filled Jeremy Vines hand-crafted moccassins as Vine went to plant Primark goods on Bangalore children…and now Vine will worry about low cost airlines for the Christmas season, now that he`s back home.
      Still-long black coat, prep school and independents and loves Joy Division…what a rebel eh?
      The poseurs like him at Uni used to flick the ash of their Gitanes over the Fascists(well their old leaflets anyway!)…ca`t imagine its as much fun trying to drip the wax from the Dalai Lamas candle over a picture of Rupert Murdoch.
      Should be a verb here “to vine”-maybe it`s Deutch for blaming Eurosceptics for all those Euros filling the whole that was once a vine lake.

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      • Craig says:

        Schnorbitz!  😀  
         
        Paddy O’Connell just can’t help ‘framing’ his questions. He was discussing leaders with Sir Max Hastings and Lord Peter Hennessey this morning.   
         
        A clip of Ronald Reagan came first. Paddy’s question was a negative one: “Do you find that a bit of Reagan goes a long way?”   
         
        A jokey bit about choosing a clip for Mrs. Thatcher followed and, after Peter Hennessey had finished criticising her, Paddy added something “for our listener who doesn’t appreciate Margaret Thatcher.”    

        After such sniffy comments, Paddy suddenly became passionate and said, with great feeling, “Now can we move on to Clem Attlee. Do we need to find a leader with heart who could push the NHS into existence?”  
         
        Paddy’s enthusiasm for the NHS is something he keeps openly expressing. His enthusiasm for Labour is only a little less obvious.

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        • Craig says:

          The Sunday Times leads with ‘Sick bring own nurses onto NHS wards’. As this paints a disturbing portrait of his beloved NHS, with patients feeling the need to call on private nurses, I had a feeling Paddy O’Connell would refuse to mention it on his paper review this morning. He is that predictable.

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Man, this O’Connell is a piece of work. The bias comes out right from the start indeed. Hastings said that one key quality of Reagan was that he could make the American people “feel good about themselves”.  O’Connell interrupted him – “deliberately”, he said, sarcastically exclaiming that he wanted to write that down – and then completely changed Hasting’s statement into people wanting “a leader who can peddle hope. The sun will come out tomorrow.”

          What an absoulte joke.  Especially since we all know O’Connell bought into The Obamessiah’s Hope and Change™.

          I also agree with what As I See It said about the notable lack of sneering at conservative religious people who are what Justin Webb has decried as “anti-science”.  Are these people now unfit for public office, I wonder?

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  3. Craig says:

    Radio 4’s most obsessive programme, ‘Sunday‘ with Ed Stourton, gave over its closing ten minutes to #Occupy this morning, interviewing an enthusiastic American “political and religious campaigner”, Jim Wallis (spiritual advisor to Barack Obama and personal friend of Gordon Brown). What justication is there for this programme to keep covering these tiny protests almost every week?

    Wallis had been taken to meet the St. Paul’s protestors by Giles Fraser, who gave an audio report on ‘Sunday’ a couple of weeks ago supporting the Occupiers. Here he was given a friendly interview by Ed. 

    Ed then interviewed the Dean of Sheffield, the Very Rev Peter Bradley, outside whose cathedral another such ‘protest’ is being held. Unlike several editions of the programme, at least this one featured a less enthusiastic voice. (He seems to like their message, but not their presence in front of his church). Ed Stourton used his questions to put a lot of Wallis’s enthusiastic points about the Occupiers to Dean Bradley – adding some enthusiastic points of his own for good measure – and watered down his guest’s criticisms (“a bit incoherent”, Ed would say when Bradley said “incoherent”, for example). When the dean mentioned the presence of the Socialist Workers Party, Ed added one of those uncomfortable-sounding “all right”s, that seems to mean “let’s not go there, let’s move on”, which he promptly did. 

    Since #Occupy began, ‘Sunday’ has pretty much acted as their (self-appointed) broadcast wing.

    Other segments included an interview with someone from the Baha’i faith. Not a single question from Ed about the ongoing (sometimes severe) persecution of Baha’is in many Islamic countries, especially in the religion’s birthplace, Iran.

    There was also a report from Bradford and Keighley by Kevin Bocquet on child sexual exploitation. B-BBC commenters might be expecting it to have ignored the widely-reported involvement of Pakistani gangs (though not so widely-reported by the BBC). The report started out that way but, towards the end, Bocquet brought up the subject of what he called “Asian gangs”. Someone from the Ramadan Foundation was then brought in to stress that “white men” were far more guilty than those Asian gangs in terms of numbers and he was followed by a deputy children’s commissioner who castigated the papers for dwelling on the Pakistani community, saying it’s a problem across all ‘communities’. Kevin Bocquet was (as so often) clearly trying to get a particular message across here. 

    Typical ‘Sunday’. 

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  4. cjhartnett says:

    Craig…thank you!
    7-8am every Sunday morning putting yourself though this aural mortification, so that the rest of us need not have to do it.
    1. Child Sex Abuse
    2. Crawling around Islam.
    3. End of Capitalism/Wall St
    4. Global warming
    5. Murdoch/Leveson.
    These five corners of the BBCs Pentagram get shown to us daily,weekly and regularly…and there is no pretext small enough to provide the excuse to bring out the laundry basket for Stourton and his little helpers.
    The BBC used to be one predictable car crash, but has now  slunk into life support/hospital radio format.
    Time to introduce the old girl to Primrose Shipman…”In Dignitas Verito”…Eurobus to Geneva if that allays their fears about Ryanair!

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  5. Jeff Waters says:

    Britain’s Foreign Office Prepares For Riots In Europe; Sees Euro Collapse “When, Not If” – http://www.zerohedge.com/news/britains-foreign-office-prepares-riots-europe-sees-euro-collapse-when-not-if

    Anyone see this story on the BBC?  Me neither…

    Jeff

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  6. pounce_uk says:

    The bbC, the propaganda arm for Islamic terrorism.
    So how many people have heard about the NATO Strike on a couple of Pakistani Border posts? You know those border posts which overlooked an area of Afghanistan where NATO Troops were conducting an operation and found themselves been fired on from across the border and so retaliated and took out the idiots who were doing the shooting. The Guardian reports that version of events, as does, as does the Daily Mail. (So both sides of the political spectrum ) Yet the so called World renowned bBC still reports on how the Pakistani soldiers were are all innocent. 

    Why today the bBC is running with the story how these brave men were buried, funny enough none of the bBC defence experts seem to link the 11th Nov signing of improved defence links between China and Pakistan or the story the other day from the Pakistani Chief of staff who stated:
    “that military cooperation between Pakistan and China was not aimed against any country”
    Paranoid from pounce, well lets see, in whose interest is it to see Afghanistan fail, Why China, Pakistan and of course the bBC. Currently China is ring fencing India. (Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka ) in which to keep her military occupied so as to allow China’s own military a free rein in the area. The US noting this belligerent nature of the Chinese signed a defence pack in which to locate troops in Australia. This has given relief to the other non-Chinese states in the region who are concerned about the projection of power from China. (Strange how the bBC doesn’t see it that way) I quote the bbC:
    “ China’s maritime claim is ill-defined but it resembles a giant U shape extending for more than 1,000km (621 miles) off its southern coast and reaching into what Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei see as their own waters.”
    Now have a look at the bBC map and see how naughty the latter 4 countries are for thinking the seas off their coasts may belong to them. Well according the bBC they are. Funny enough the bbC feels that distance Great Britain has no claim to the Falklands, but rather the argies do.
    So it isn’t hard to accept that maybe the taking out of a couple of Pakistani bases was because they fired first. Maybe on orders from Islamabad

    So instead of reporting the news as it should the bbC reports it as its leftwing doctrine and Islamic masters tell it to.
    The bbC, the propaganda arm for Islamic terrorism.

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  7. George R says:

    BBC-EU  uncritical of Cameron on TURKEY.

    Of course, on this issue, BBC-EU is not critical of Cameron because both campaign for Islamising Turkey to be member of, and concomitantly Islamiser of the EU (and Britain).

    “Cameron embroils Queen in Turkey’s EU bid ”

    http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/11/cameron-embroils-queen-in-turkeys-eu.html

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    • George R says:

      Peter Hitchens today:

      (-scroll down to: “Doesn’t ‘modesty’ apply to footwear?”)

      http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

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    • noggin says:

      Ah Camercon again, proving he s a fully paid up member of the millionaire slime club, along with Gove and Osborne…. 
      in precisely the same way people were conned into voting the too late soundbite artist into number 10 in the first place?
      obviously the plan now to flood 1000s muslim turks into EU/Britain…great, & sell us down the river at the same time
      w-nker! …thatchers boy certainly has her plan on his mind
      Dhimwit Dave, too blind to see Erdogan, and whats really going on

      .

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  8. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC the propaganda arm of Islamic terrorism.
    Nigeria Islamist militants Boko Haram ‘attack Yobe’
    Gunmen believed to be members of the Nigerian militant Islamist sect Boko Haram have attacked several targets in the country’s Yobe state, reports say. Explosives were thrown at a police station and a bank in the town of Geidam, 100 miles (160km) from the state capital, Damaturu. Witnesses said people were trapped in their homes during the attack. It was unclear whether there were casualties.

    And here is how Reuters reports the very same story:
    Nigerian town burns in Islamist sect attack-police
    MAIDUGURI, Nigeria Nov 27 (Reuters) – Churches, homes and the police headquarters in the small northeast Nigerian town of Geidam were set ablaze in a wave of night time gun and bomb attacks by a radical Islamist sect, the police said on Sunday…. “Four policemen were killed, 20 wounded, eight churches and 20 market stalls as well as Geidam council secretariat are completely destroyed.”
    I wonder why the bBC left out the churches part, you can bet your bottom dollar if a mosque had been attacked the bbC would be reporting it. But when its 8 churches then its silence all round at the bBC.
    The bBC the propaganda arm of Islamic terrorism.

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  9. David Preiser (USA) says:

    China has figured out something the BBC hasn’t, and something which many people will actually support:


    China to Cancel College Majors That Don’t Pay


    Much like the U.S., China is aiming to address a problematic demographic that has recently emerged: a generation of jobless graduates. China’s solution to that problem, however, has some in the country scratching their heads.

    China’s Ministry of Education announced this week plans to phase out majors producing unemployable graduates, according to state-run media Xinhua. The government will soon start evaluating college majors by their employment rates, downsizing or cutting those studies in which less than 60% of graduates fail for two consecutive years to find work.

    Gender Studies and Outdoor Adventures with Philosophy majors take note.

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  10. Umbongo says:

    Apropos of not a lot, but an aperçu concerning our media: Adam Boulton (of Sky News) was interviewd in today’s S Times colour supplement.  He wrote that “I don’t believe in the political class”.  Fair enough.  Further down the page we read that his wife is Anji Hunter, Blair’s spin doctor.  In reality, Boulton and Hunter are so in the political class, any further in and they’d be coming out the other side.  So even if you don’t pay for it, don’t expect all the news on TV/radio.

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  11. Hugh says:

    They can’t even report Gary Speed’s death honestly. The Times, Telegraph, Sky and every other major news organsisation acknowledge his apparent suicide. And Iain Dale considers the awful effects of depression. The BBC? ‘Shock as Wales Boss Gary Speed Dies.’ Fucking hypocrites.

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    • cjhartnett says:

      I too noticed this blandishment.
      The BBC are prurient, mealy-mouthed and opportunists.
      They seem to love hopping into passing hearses and emoting with all the faux-sincerity of the worst ullulating keening widows that get paid to do this line of work.
      Yet always with a superior tone, as if their tacked together “tributes” are somehow the last word.
      It`s a personal tragedy for a pedestrian player who was a decent bloke…any other crap about icons,legends is puff and guff…both of which are the best that the BBC can ever do now.
      Sadly the latest shroud will accompany Millie Dowlers or Madeleine McCanns in serving the interests of the BBC.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Just had to kick SKY off the PiP for the morning, again, after the Irish anchor spent about 5 mins with some guy standing outside a fottball stadium to circle around the fact that this poor bloke is dead, no one knows why, but that does not mean 75% of the ‘news’ can’t be spent guessing or nagging ‘friends’.

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  12. George R says:

    INBBC still refuses to report Islamic discrimination and victimisation of Christians, Jews and non-Muslims in Britain.

    ‘Jihadwatch’:

    U.K.: Lebanese Christian worker at Heathrow files suit after being harassed by Muslim co-workers, fired over their accusations

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    • noggin says:

      re.
      ah….supremacist racist aspects of the ideology AGAIN..  
      what is it going to take for the penny to drop,

      shameful  
       
      Nationally a bigger conern here, what are muslims doing as airport security scanners?  
      …its been proven time and time again, whether street sweepers, baggage handlers up to doctors or higher, the ideology clouds every judgement, they are incapable of independant evaluation away from it…..unbelievable…..that IS a big BIG security risk in itself

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  13. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Kate Dailey has another biased piece from the US for BBC News Online, this time about another favorite BBC issue: illegal immigration.

    I is for Illegal: Acting on Sesame Street without a visa

    It’s about a child actor who on Sesame Street who was living and working in the US illegally. Naturaly, Dailey takes the BBC line on the issue: the boy is a victim of bad, pointless laws.

    The entire piece is agenda-driven. We learn about the boy’s fears when the authorities check his fake green card before an appearance in nationally televised parade.  We also learn that Sesame Street teaches important social messages, and Daily notes the irony of how the show was unwittingly teaching another one, this time about the horrors victims of illegal immigration must face.  Clever.

    At no time does Dailey question the judgment of the boy’s parents for not only continuing to live in the US after their visa expired, but deliberately submitting forged documents to Sesame Street. It’s as if Daily believes the system is set up wrong, and the heroic parents are fighting it as best they can.  There is no explanation of how or why they decided to break the law, or put their child in a dangerous, stressful situation.

    In the interests of balance, Dailey provides space for two voices on the issue. 


    Undocumented immigrants call it the Golden Cage – the ability to live and work in America without the ability to move freely. It’s the carefully considered trade-off for a better life, says Shuya Ohno, national field director for the Center for Immigration Reform.

    The Center for Immigration Reform seems to be well hidden from interent search engines.  In any case, Shuya Ohno seems also to be the Deputy Communications Director for the National Immigration Forum, a group which calls for amnesty and takes the BBC-approved position that actions against illegal immigrants are inherently racist. 

    The other voice we hear from is the mouthpiece from FAIR, a group which advocates a hard cap of 300,000 immigrants total per year.  To Dailey’s credit, she allows a moment for the viewpoint that the country can’t possibly accomodate unlimited immigration.


    “The reason we have immigration laws, the reason we set limits is because we understand that the decisions these immigrants make have an impact on everyone else on American society,” says Mr Mehlman. “It affects their jobs, it affects their tax dollars, it affects their children’s education.”

    Before you start to think about whether or not that’s reasonable, the amnesty advocate gets the last word.

    For his part, Mr Ohno believes the laws themselves are illogical. “They’re not tied to the social or economic needs of the country. They’re a product of politics, not policy.”

    Then it’s back to making the issue personal again, with a closing sob about the poor child’s plight.  A classic rhetorical technique.

    It’s the standard BBC Narrative on the issue: rules about immigration are wrong because children are victimized.  Don’t blame the parents for putting the child into the situation in the first place.  Shift blame,

    Except the whole thing is actually stupid and pointless.  In the end, the kid and his family got their green cards anyway. So the immigration laws worked, and the only thing wrong was the parents breaking the law.  But that’s not how Dailey saw it.  To her and her editor, it was just another opportunity to push an agenda.

    for a group which wants a hard cap of 300,000 immigrants per year.

    Needless to say this policy goes against the grain of Beeboids who want open borders for all and sundry at all times.

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  14. hippiepooter says:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066796/Christian-mother-forced-Heathrow-job-hate-campaign-Muslim-fundamentalists.html

    Has the BBC mentioned anything about this?

    Let me see, fundamentalist Muslims with security passes working at Heathrow Airport allegedly bullying Christian staff and saying that America got what it deserved on 9/11 and Muslim *security staff allegedly picking on at least one Jewish passenger on numerous occasions.

    Absolutely no matter of public concern there at all, I’m sure.

    I’m sorry if I’m being a bit hysterical, I guess I’ve forgotten about all the Nazis who were allowed to work at security sensitive installations during WWII because they were *peaceful Nazis who had nothing to do with the tiny, unrepresentative minority who invaded Poland.

    Wake me up someone, I know I must be dreaming.

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    • cjhartnett says:

      Taking the public space is a tenet of Islamism.
      If crosses can be removed and rugs facing Mecca can replace them, then the Caliphate gets one step closer.
      Any Islamic mission creep has got to be confronted and prevented…yet it will have to be up to us, because the media has the British public trussed up with an exposed throat. Happy to sacrifice the country just so it can parade its smug multikulti wristbands.
      That they will be removed by amputation at the wrists soon after seems to have escaped these thick scientific socialists who wet their beds at the thought of real faith.
      Only wish the Judeo-Christians would begin to deal with the BBC as Islam does at times like these!

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  15. Cassandra King says:

    From order order:

    And here is something the BBC will not be reporting anytime soon, after flogging to death the Leveson inquiry when Murdoch and news international is in the frame to dead silence when the BBCs allies are in the frame. The hacking scandal is nothing more than an opportunity for the BBC to attack its enemies.

    Guido has obtained the text of Alastair Campbell’s evidence due to be delivered to the Leveson Inquiry this coming Wednesday. It is a wide-ranging tour de force critique of the media which develops themes that we first saw in Tony Blair’s “feral beasts” speech. He focuses his ire on the Murdoch press, singling out Trevor Kavanagh, the Daily Mail’s editor Paul Dacre and Express owner Richard Desmond for sustained criticism. In an explosive claim the former political correspondent of the Daily Mirror accuses his former paper of serial criminal activities.
    In his written evidence Campbell claims he was
    shown by police references to me and my partner in Glenn Mulcaire’s notes, I have seen invoices in relation to myself and others, being paid by The Mirror to private investigator Jonathan Rees.
    He goes on to accuse Mirror executives of being knowingly complicit alleging that
    they certainly knew more was being spent on private detectives, and they knew more stories were coming via that route, and they certainly knew the kind of thing private detectives appeared able to do more easily than journalists.
    Campbell believes the Daily Mirror hacked either Carole Caplin or Cherie Blair’s phone and that is how they broke the story of Cherie’s pregnancy:
    I do not know if her phone was hacked, or if Cherie’s was, but knowing what we do now about hacking and the extent of it, I think it is at least possible this is how the stories got out. They often involved details of where Cherie was going, the kind of thing routinely discussed on phones when planning visits, private as well as public. I have also never understood how the Daily Mirror learned of Cherie’s pregnancy. As I recall it, at the time only a tiny number of people in Downing Street knew that she was pregnant. I have heard all sorts of stories as to how the information got out, but none of them strike me as credible.
    Piers Morgan was editor of the Mirror at the time of Cherie Blair’s pregnancy.
    <img src=”http://orderorder.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/piers-morgan-mirror.png?w=138&h=195″ title=”piers-morgan-mirror”/>Campbell also claims attempts were made to “blag” information from his bank and telephone company, voicemails between him and Tessa Jowell were intercepted,  that he received threatening text messages from Rebekah Wade and James Murdoch’s office when he publicly backed Tom Watson’s battle. It is the allegation that the Daily Mirror, under Piers Morgan’s editorship, hacked Cherie Blair’s voicemails which will make headlines.
    N.B. Guido obtained this text by legal means, Alastair Campbell’s evidence can be read here.

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  16. George R says:

    CANADA.

    For BBC-NUJ, Canada hardly exists. So here is Melanie Phillips on political Canada:

    http://phillipsblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/11/a-statesman-for-the-west.html

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  17. Cassandra King says:

    Canada ceased to exist when the left lost power, it has become one of those invisble nations that the BBC makes sure get no positive airtime, it if dont bleed it dont lead kind of thing, turbo charged. The BBC are nothing if not utterly spiteful and they have an utter determination to follow through a deliberate policy of blackballing entire nations that contradict the BBC world view.

    Cuba got 100% more positive airtime from the BBC than both Canada and New Zealand and Chile combined, tells you all you need to know about the BBC scumbags.

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  18. George R says:

    Beeboids on violence against women journalists in Tahrir Square, Cairo.  
     
    1.) K.KAY that conclusion-jumper, faux-feminist and non-critic of Islam:  
     
    http://twitter.com/#!/KattyKayBBC
     
     
    2.) J. BOWEN, not so sure about his ‘Arab Spring’ now?  
     
    [Excerpt]:  
     
    “Tahrir feels different because it is reflecting a society that is more unstable and lawless than it was nine months ago. Women feel much less safe than they did then…”  
     
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15908318  
     
     
    For more forthright analysis, ‘Jihadwatch’ has:  
     
     
    Reporters Without Borders says Egypt unsafe for female reporters after more sexual assaults on journalists  
     
     
    [Excerpt]:  
     
    “The assault on Lara Logan was a high-profile instance of a pervasive problem in Egyptian society, and here are two more such incidents. For journalists, as was the case with Logan, there may be the added element of being identified as ‘Jewish’ and therefore becoming all the more of a target for violence.”

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  19. George R says:

    IRAN.  
     
    When will INBBC oppose Britain’s enemy, Islamic Republic of Iran, instead of weakly only keeping quiet, in the hope of setting up Islamic-compliant, World Service Persian Service?  
     
    When will CAMERON/HAGUE close down Ahmadinejad’s PRESS TV operation in Ealing, London?  


    ‘Telegraph’ report:- 
     
    “Iran expels Britain’s ambassador to Tehran calling ‘death to England.’  
     
     
    “Iran erupted in a fresh frenzy of animosity towards its old imperial foe on Sunday as MPs chanting “death to England” voted to expel Britain’s ambassador to Tehran and threatened his mission with a reprise of the 1979 hostage crisis. ”  
     
     
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8918875/Iran-expels-Britains-ambassador-to-Tehran-calling-death-to-England.html

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  20. George R says:

    Censored by anti-NATO, INBBC:

    Afghanistan: Senior jihadist commander responsible for NATO deaths given amnesty, now head of Kandahar’s Islamic Affairs Department

    [Excerpt]:

    “To land a gig like that, are they sure he has been miraculously cured of his ‘misunderstanding’ of Islam? He does not sound terribly remorseful below in spite of hitting a few talking points. In fact, it sounds like he is bragging. More on this story. “Insurgent commander who planned bomb attacks that ‘blew soliders to bits’ is granted amnesty,” by Ben Farmer for the Telegraph, November 27 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

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  21. Jonathan S says:

    can you imagine this coming Wednesday The One Show? I wonder if the guest will be two talking bollocks, apart from the hosts.

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  22. Hugh says:

    BBC appear to have fallen for Guido Fawkes’ sting on Twatson.  
     
    They’re jubilant that Guido has been summoned to appear before Leveson, whilst missing the point that Twatson is in it up to his neck for publishing Campbell’s evidence on his own blog.
     
    Talk is that Twatson will resign from CMSSC in this morning.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Indeed, the BBC news brief about this conventiently leaves out the part where Watson himself mentioned part of it on his own blog and on Twitter.

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      • Roland Deschain says:

        The news brief contains this:
        One of these is speculation as to whether or not Cherie Blair’s phone was hacked when her husband was prime minister, although Mr Campbell makes it clear he has no evidence to back this up.

        There was a similar reference on last night’s TV news to the effect that Cherie Blair’s phone might have been hacked.

        They seem to have missed out the salient point of Guido’s blogpost:
        Alastair Campbell Evidence to Leveson Claims Morgan’s Mirror Hacked Cherie Blair’s Voicemail” [my emphasis]

        So anyone relying on the BBC for their news will assume that it’s all evil old Uncle Rupert’s fault again.

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Campbell says Guido misinterpreted his words, so naturally the BBC will take that line.

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  23. My Site (click to edit) says:

    whilst missing the point’

    The definition of what is covered by the noble editorial by omission concept of ‘watertight oversight’ extends far with this medium, Luke.

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  24. My Site (click to edit) says:

    BBCBreakfast BBC Breakfast An opinion poll commissioned by us has shown almost 2/3rds of people believe the strike to be “justified” @richardwestcott has more @0620
    Blue Peter polls: Another one made up before the programme.
    Who is this ‘us’ the BBC keeps discovering amongst the ‘people’?

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      ecotricity ecotricity BBC global poll: 71% of people say coal and nuclear should be replaced, with focus on energy from sun and wind: cot.ag/shv1Xo 
      Guessing that, though I never get asked to participate, I get to fund these… uniquely?

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      • George R says:

        A BBC-greenie sponsored (licencepayer paid for) global ‘poll’ is irrelevant to interest of British people, who want cheaper energy.

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    • Roland Deschain says:

      You know, it depends what they mean by “justified”.  A lot of people were told they can expect pension rights that they aren’t now going to get.  If that were me I’d be pretty pissed off too.  I therefore would use the word “understandable”.

      The problem is that it was obvious 10-15 years ago that these pensions were unaffordable and still the last government let new people into these schemes.  This should have been raised continually by the then Opposition but they were too useless and cowed by the BBC to do anything other than say they’d match Labour’s spending.  I do recall the subject coming up from time to time but with nothing like the tenacity reserved for, say, Occupy protests or phone hacking.

      There still has been no proper, open debate to demonstrate to public sector staff that despite what their Unions say, there isn’t the money there and hasn’t been for some time and that it simply isn’t on to expect hard-pressed taxpayers who can’t afford their own pension to stump up for public sector pensions they could only dream about for themselves.

      Having said that, I have a friend in the Met Office who is going to strike who says he recognises that it can’t be afforded, but that by striking he reckons they’ll get a better deal than if they just roll over.  Can’t say I blame him for that.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:
  25. George R says:

    INBBC continues to SUPPORT Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and to OPPOSE NATO and British and American troops.

    Jihadwatch’ gives an alternative:

    NATO “braces for reprisals” from Pakistani-backed jihadists in retaliation for airstrike

    Also, and censored by Islam Not BBC (INBBC):

    Afghan officials: “Forces were retaliating for gunfire from two Pakistani army bases”

    Via  Pakistani INBBC employee, M (‘Mohammad’?) Ilyas KHAN, et alia, based in Islamabad, we are fed the Pakistan propaganda:

    “Pakistan denies firing provoked Nato border attack ”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15915247

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  26. deegee says:

    Has the BBC subtly reduced its obsession with Israel?  O:-)  First it produced replaced the country profile with something arguably honest and today when I checked the Middle East section there was not one Israel story.

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  27. George R says:

    Typically, one has to read to over half-way down this INBBC ‘report’ to get even a hint that Islamic attitudes are common  re-practice of FORCED MARRIAGE:

    “New forced marriage law comes into effect in Scotland”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15909237

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  28. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Uh, oh, Gove just laid down the gauntlet against “militants” in the Unions.  He said that some people are “itching for a fight”, want scenes of unrest all over the TV screens, want people to be inconvenienced.  If the BBC repeats the speech – which you know they will to ramp the anger – ask yourself if he could equally be talking about them.

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  29. George R says:

    BBC: licencepayers to bear brunt of cuts, not putative NUJ strikers.

    “Strikes avoided after BBC agrees to delay new terms”

    http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/strikes-avoided-after-bbc-agrees-to-delay-new-terms/s2/a546919/

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      “would have led to new joiners at the corporation being employed on much worse terms than existing staff“.

      As the number of income generators reduces as the parasite classes breed, with the coming de/recessionary realities, that precedent will be… ‘unique’ indeed.

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  30. My Site (click to edit) says:
    • Roland Deschain says:

      Addressing the Leveson Inquiry seminars last months Full Fact’s director made the point that when it came to a complaints process, the oft-criticised Press Complaints Commission actually had a better functioning system than the BBC.”

      ‘Sfunny.  Don’t recall hearing that on the BBC. *

      *Disclaimer.  That there may, somewhere on the BBC site, easily located by members of BBC staff who may choose to post here, be a reference to this does not negate the fact that I (and probably most people) didn’t hear (or indeed read) it.  Thank you.

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  31. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The most important story in the world is still the Levenson inquiry.  I wonder if this wasn’t about the BBC’s arch enemy if they’d spend so much air time on it to the exclusion of other news.  Everybody knows the tabloid media does this stuff: that’s why they buy the papers in the first place. Are all the people who bought the papers and ate this stuff up going to all of sudden feel sorry for the celebrities?

    If the public wasn’t buying, they wouldn’t keep doing it. Most of this is about a paper which no longer exists anyway.  Boring.

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    • Roland Deschain says:

      I wonder if they’ll suddenly go quiet when Guido appears and puts forward all his evidence that the Mirror is deeply into this as well.  It might look, well, strange suddenly to shut up when left-wing papers are fingered.

      One might almost think that Guido had a plan to make his appearance as high-profile as possible.

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  32. David Preiser (USA) says:

    So two celebs on the Levenson inquiry today, zero evidence of phone hacking or other illegal behavior.  All we hear about is “decency and taste”.  How is that going to be regulated?  Why not end this farce and just declare that Rupert Murdoch shouldn’t own anymore newspapers?  That’s what this is really about.

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