Happy Birthday!

Over at CiFWatch they’ve been comparing two reports about Hamas’s 23rd Birthday celebrations and wondering why there was nothing in the Guardian to mark the happy event. Al-Jazeera, not particularly known for its pro-Israel bias, generously shares the information that “the tight Israeli siege has made Hamas increasingly unpopular.” Yes, unpopular. The BBC, on the other hand, hasn’t noticed this at all. CiFWatch has: “But the BBC? Hamas is unpopular? … Continue reading

Size Matters

Even those amongst us who staunchly defend the theory that size doesn’t matter would agree that there are limits to the number of immigrants a geographically challenged country such as Great Britain can absorb.You’d think, therefore, that the chaps and chapesses from the British Broadcasting Corps would be ideally placed to sympathise with the problems facing a country the size of Wales that has been taking in around 700 African … Continue reading

WHO GIVES A FIG?

As Richard North eloquently points out this global warming morning, the role of government is to ensure that the basic infrastructure of society runs as smoothly as possible. Upwards of 2m people in the UK depend on heating oil for their essential needs, but this government is so obsesssed in driving up the cost of power and fuel – as Chris Huhne the ecoloon announced yesterday – because of its … Continue reading

WHICH IS IT?

The Telegraph is very clear: electricity prices are going to to rise £500 a year because of the government’s lunatic “clean” energy obsession. For the BBC it’s a different equation (written in matter-of-fact business need terms and a cue for pictures of useless windfarms): Government to guarantee electricity prices Yes, there’s mention of a possible price hike, but it’s well down in the story in the BBC’s version. The main … Continue reading

The Flaw Pilger Doesn’t See.

I know it’s no good getting nostalgic, but in the olden days, when BBC spokespersons such as “John Reith” called in occasionally to remind us of our stupidity, they would cite a survey which concluded that the BBC was indeed biased in its Middle East reporting. In favour of Israel. Anyway, the other day when ace reporter John Pilger was holding forth to Justin Webb about his new film, aired … Continue reading

TWITTERING AWAY….

Mark Kinver, as I have pointed out before, is as fervent a BBC greenie as Richard Black and Roger Harrabin, if not more so. And here he is, given a political platform to comment on the Cancun so-called agreement. First he is worried that no “legally binding” deal was reached (that is, he is sad that we have not had billions of pounds of taxes imposed on us); second, he … Continue reading

Sometimes The BBC Doesn’t Censor News From The US – When It’s An Approved Thought

Most people here will be well aware that the BBC censored news of the beginnings of the Tea Party movement in the US for about two months before the reality of nationwide, simultaneous protests on April 15, involving hundreds of thousands of people, forced them to report it. I first mentioned the issue on an open thread here back on Feb. 19, 2009, even before anyone started calling them “tea … Continue reading

A TWEET FROM THE ECHO CHAMBER…

Left-wing website Think Progress has a very upbeat happy-clappy take on the outcome of the Cancun climate conference. I am aware of this because BBC LA correspondent Peter Bowes recommended the article after he’d seen it tagged by one of the leading climate analysts of our generation: How much is all this going to cost UK citizens? What could we spend the money on instead? What will it mean for … Continue reading

Serious or Satire?

Which producer had the idea of bringing Rupert Wingfield- Hays’s outrageous report about a five month old story to us today? I thought I was hearing a skit from Caroline Glick’s satirical show Latma. He even managed to include a donkey in his pathetic report. Wingfield- Hays resurrected the incident which has been spinned every which way to show either a) the brutality of IsraelisettlersillegalunderinternationallawthoughIsraeldisputesthis, or b) the deliberate and … Continue reading