, the Beeb sees setback for Bush as a “blow by powerful Senate group”! (Surprise, the Senate is a political body comprised of Democrats, Republicans and one “Independent”. What is so surprising about a renegade Senator from the rustbelt who rocks the boat?) If you really want to know what’s happening, look elsewhere for factual reporting. The only surprise here is that Senator Voinovich, a Republican, did not vote to recommend Bolton to the whole Senate. Voinovich had already expressed some doubt about Bolton. While unusual, it does not sink Bolton’s chances of approval. It merely provides the Beeb with a ‘Bush is humiliated’ non-story.
The real story is that anti-Bush flunkies in the CIA and State Department are doing their best to torpedo Bolton’s nomination to the UN because he has a proven record as a diplomat who actually works for his president.
I have to dispute your link to the New York Slimes for “factual” reporting. Particularly is regard to John Bolton. As per usual, the Slimes has led the “McCarthyite” witch-hunt against Bolton with a fantasy list of smear and jeer.
Historical footnote: the eponymous Joe McCarthy forced actual communists to rat out their fellow travellers who plotted to create a Stalinist/commie United States. Whereas today’s lefty “McCarthyites” use smear to force out of public office actual Americans.
“Historical footnote: the eponymous Joe McCarthy forced actual communists to rat out their fellow travellers who plotted to create a Stalinist/commie United States.”
Considering that this is a media bias blog, that’s an very good observation.
When I first arrived in the US back in the early eighties, it was absolutely the received wisdom that McCarthy was “wrong”.
It’s only in the past twenty years that people have been prepared to consider the possibility that McCarthy was a bully, a liar, an alcoholic, but in at least some of his accusations, right.
He discredited himself by going overboard, but there was a kernel of truth in what he said. That kernel was suppressed by the MSM until recently.
For what it’s worth, I find McCarthy a pretty vile figure, Roy Cohn even more so, but sometimes vile people are speaking the truth.
I had seen the headlines of other articles about this story, and they all said that Bolton’s nomination was going to the full Senate. I didn’t read further.
Then I saw that the BBC said that the committee did not forward a recommendation, and I was surprised. I had to read farther down in the story to realize that this did not mean the nomination was not going to the Senate. (Yes, I know: stupid Beeb, making me read their actual story to get the news. How unfair!) I went so far as to do a screen capture, because I thought that they were reporting something different from all other media sources.
They sure put a top spin on that baby.
I find it incredible that the BBC wastes time on this story. Given that the USA affects us in so many ways there must be a hundred more important stories out there (get yo ass out there Matt baby).
This is one of the most obvious examples of BBC bias. The story is being pursued to fit a pre-conceived notion (Iraq war wrong, neo cons nasty and dangerous, Bush now weak).
Matt Frei talks about how Bolton if appointed (so I assume now he will be since Frei is obviously anticipating this denoument) “may” (BBC speak = will) be “damaged goods”. What a nonsensical statement. If he arrives there he will be the US’s UN Ambassador. Everyone who isn’t already pissed off with the USA will kiss his ass to use the vernacular whatever his
past transgressions.
Besides UN Ambassador is hardly a make or break office. As Ambassador he will have to do what Bush tells him to. If Bush says cut a deal with Russia or Iran or whoever he has to do it and if he doesn’t he goes. Simple.
I’ve seen the BBC News 24 story, and it does say in the course of it that Bolton’s recommendation is now up to the Senate, although not before creating a very negative impression. Mind you, even the Telegraph and The Times are reporting it like this.
OT – BBC staff vote for strike action. We have yet another (D)HYS slot on this piece of non-news. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4541761.stm
I’ve sent the following. I think I can guess whether it will/won’t be published(!):
“Of course the BBC staff should go on strike. They provide valuable public service broadcasting, the like of which we don’t see elsewhere.
On Sky and ITV, for example, we get trash like Kirsty’s Home Videos, Soccer Saturday with Jeff Stelling, Pop Idol and garish kids TV. The BBC unearths original gems like Just for Laughs, Score Interactive with Ray Stubbs, Strictly Dance Fever and Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow.
I’m so glad that I pay my licence fee so that the BBC can decide what to do with it.
Stand together, comrades!”
David Field
I saw the Matt Frei piece last night where he described John Bolton as likely to be “damaged goods” when he eventually gets to the UN.
The only “damaged goods” I saw was Matt Frei himself. The filibustering over his appointment has only served to show that he has some pretty fierce views and does not tolerate fools gladly. Just the sort of new broom needed at Turtle Bay.
O/T
Surprisingly, we don’t have Guerin or Plett doing the bidding of the dysfunctional ‘people’ known as Palestinians. We have Richard Allen Greene:
PALESTINIAN FILM BRINGS OCCUPATION HOME
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4541297.stm
Which starts:
“Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories makes headlines almost every day – but its occupation of individual homes is less well known.”
Repeat a lie often enough …
It’s a piece about a film by Israeli-Arab actor-director Mohammad Bakri, a man who made the film ‘Jenin Jenin’. The piece even links to the film’s website (“Jenin Jenin” film exposes Israeli war crimes) as it says. The only problem was that there were no Israeli war crimes in Jenin. There fabricated reports of a Jenin massacre which have since proven to be lies. The BBC does know this but the left just cannot let an anti-semitic lie go, however gross.
espresso said: I have to dispute your link to the New York Slimes for “factual” reporting. Particularly is regard to John Bolton. As per usual, the Slimes has led the “McCarthyite” witch-hunt against Bolton with a fantasy list of smear and jeer.
Yes, even the NY Times (bad as it is) gets this better than the Beeb.
OT Boris Johnson said something interesting on Question Time last night, after severa minutes of beeing badgered by the liberal panel and audience, over the Tories running a ‘one issue’ campaign, ‘obsessed’ with immigration, Boris replied (from memory):
“I’ll tell you why, I’ll tell you why that issue was singled out, why it got so much attention, because of the media. The BBC, the BBC, they kept phoning every single Tory MP every 5 minutes asking for a comment about Howards ‘extremist’ policy on immigration. Because they were looking for a ‘Tory splits’ story, thats why, thats why.”
Very enlightening insight into the sleazy tactics employed by the BBC to sabotage the Tory campaign. Good old Boris refusing to sit back and take it any longer. Perhaps biased-bbc should get in touch with him to find out the details.
Boris-johnson.com
Sure, the Conservatives had no intention whatsoever of focussing on immigration – they’d have far rather been bigging up all their great ideas for the economy!
And when Bolton is eventually confirmed, which is almost inevitable, contrary to what is being reported, the BBC will run a story on the “shock” and “surprise” of this unexpected turn of events. They will question how it could happen when “everyone” was against it and “anyone” can see how bad he is. Even though the general acceptance of these “facts” is based solely on biased, selective and anti-bush, reporting.
And when Bolton is confirmed, no doubt the BBC will forget to mention that Maggie Thatcher had spoken out strongly for him. Thatcher is regarded as an Attila the Hun figure by most BBC staff.
The mere idea of an American sticking up for America’s interests sticks in the BBC gullet. They would rather have the usual State Department patsies, or the rollover appeasing types our Foreign Office normally produces.
Off Topic:
I was truck by this little gem in today’s earlier reporting of the Uzbek protests.
Soldiers fire on Uzbek protesters
Last Updated: Friday, 13 May, 2005, 14:23 GMT 15:23 UK
In the capital Tashkent, 300 km away, a man was shot dead outside the Israeli embassy, upon suspicion he was a suicide bomber.
Our correspondent says the incident, while apparently unrelated to the protests, shows how tense the situation has become.
Well gosh yes, it really just shows something, doesn’t it?
The incident is not mentioned in the current page at that URL (Last Updated: Friday, 13 May, 2005, 17:22 GMT 18:22 UK)
David – what I think the Democrats are hoping for, is an Ambassador who WON’T do what the White House want them to.
Oh – and make some news.
Very slightly off topic, but you might want to visit this link: http://homokaasu.org/gematriculator/ to assess this sites suitability for persons of a nervous disposition.
OT
Today’s Telegraph has an article on Robin Aitken, who has recently left Auntie, titled ‘It’s not easy being a Tory at the BBC’.
I can commend it to all contributors to this Blog.
Robin has written write a book provisionally entitled ‘Taking Sides: Bias at the BBC’
Should be a best seller!
Peter: Today’s Telegraph has an article on Robin Aitken, who has recently left Auntie, titled ‘It’s not easy being a Tory at the BBC’.
Care to give us a URL please? I’ve hunted around and searched the DT site for this, all to no avail.
Further clues will be appreciated…
“Very slightly off topic, but you might want to visit this link: http://homokaasu.org/gematriculator/ to assess this sites suitability for persons of a nervous disposition.”
I used it to assess some of my own text. I regret to report that I am 57% evil – but then what would you expect of a registered Republican? 😀
Congratulations! This blog is 71% good!
While the BBC trots out the usual nonsense it has inexplicably missed this:
“It may be Europe’s most liberal city – but if you are gay, you had best beware”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1611374,00.html
“WHEN the editor of one of America’s leading gay magazines visited the world’s gay capital a fortnight ago, he assumed that he would be safe.”
“But as Chris Crain, editor of the Washington Blade, was walking hand in hand with his boyfriend near one of the gay districts in Amsterdam, two men standing on a street corner spat at his face. He stopped to ask why, was called a “fag” and suddenly the two youths turned into seven.”
“Surrounded, Mr Crain was kicked to the ground by the gang and ended up in hospital with a broken nose and badly bruised face.”
Can you guess who was responsible?
In addition:
“For the first time, the Amsterdam Tourist Board has issued a warning to gay visitors to be careful in the city. In the first country to legalise homosexual marriage, gays are increasingly fearful of holding hands in public. Some have been chased out of their houses and middle-class gays are moving to rural areas for safety.”
Have you guessed yet?
OT
One of today’s lead stories is of the “village of traitors” in the Gaza Strip.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4544311.stm
Tim Butcher, in a typically slanted piece writes, as the sheik of this village explains the position to him:
“I could not help wondering how his reasoning would stand up to a mob of Palestinians if they ever got a hold of him.”
But then, I can’t help asking myself how the reasoning of an innocent Israeli child “would stand up to a mob of Palestinians if they ever got a hold of him.”
And that’s why the sheik is protected by “a high, well-maintained security fence manned round the clock by heavily-armed Israeli soldiers”, just like Israeli children are.
The rest of the story is just as bad.
The Gaza sheik piece was on “From our own Correspondent” and also on the World Service. On and on goes the Al-BBC propaganda machine.
But the reference to the Palestinian “mob” was perhaps unfortunate – I thought we were being told that they are an upstanding people whose only problem is that they are victims, that it is all the fault of Israel. To suggest that they form “mobs” suggests they have a screw loose, that they don’t much care for law ?
For some strange reason there have not been many reports yet on the BBC that Fatah and the new Palestinian president intend to prevent any elections this year as they fear defeat by law-abiding, peaceful, trustworthy Hamas. The Hamas that wants to sweep the Israelis into the Med, those that it has not killed by suicide bombings.
“I knew he was a collaborator, and he knew, I knew he was a collaborator, but the 50-year-old sheikh still danced around the issue.
“It is you who said ‘collaborator’. I say I am someone who had to do something because my life was in danger.”
‘Collaborator’? It’s ok for the BBC to be judgemental when the subject is a Palestinian collaborator then. No mention of ‘militants’ here!
And I particularly liked:
“In front of a large crowd, Muhammad Mansour was beaten, shot at close range in the side of the head and then the mother of one of the men he betrayed was then called forward to stab his lifeless corpse and pluck out his eyes. It was a display of Old Testament-style brutality and I wondered if it might one day be applied to the villagers of Dahaniya.”
“Many of them, like the 17-year-old Mohammed, are the sons or grandsons of Arabs who collaborated, so perhaps they would be let off.”
“But does not the Old Testament say something about the sins of the father being visited on his offspring?”
Maybe it does, but I’m sure the Koran is much more widely read in those places.
Under the road map agreement aren’t the Palestinians supposed to be cooperating with Israel as regards terrorism? Surely there should be no such thing as a Palestinian ‘collaborator’?
Pete. I can’t believe the mind-boggling ignorance and blatant propagandization of that “collaborators” piece. I’m just speechless at the stupidity.
So Judeo-Christianity gets the blame for barbaric behavior — even in a place where cracking open a bible in public might get your throat cut?
Un-freakin’-believable.
OT
There was a very good article in yesterday’s Telegraph – which has already been referred to by Peter and Sybil above. Robin Aitken worked for 25 years at the BBC including on the notorious Today programme. Unfortunately, this article only seems to be available in the dead-tree version. I’ve scanned the article and uploaded it (as an RTF file) here:
http://www.EZFileShare.com/EZFileShare/users/1002738772/AitkenTelegraph14052005.rtf
My OCR software is not perfect so there may be the occasional glitch but, even so, it’s well worth a read – an insider’s account of bias at the beeb. Robin Aitken is also publishing a book on the subject later this year.
David H – nice work
pete_london – that gay bashing story is astonishing, more so that the bbc failed to report it.
I think its a damnn shame that the lefty “one world” dream is everywhere shrivelling on the vine,and that people are going to get hurt, after all it would be great if you could open your society to one and all and expect that harmony would prevail.
As a small and large c Conservative I take no pride in saying that “we told you so”, indeed, we keep telling you so. My guess is that where we go wrong is in assuming that the left wish the best for one and all, given thier track record I`m beginning to think that they`re just plain evil in thier doings and somehow seek to profit from Anarchy.
OFF TOPIC
Since the BBC were so quick to report on the riots and deaths as a result of Newsweeks allegation that US interragators flushed the Koran down the toilet, will they be as quick to report on Newsweeks admission that they were wrong and apologized?
http://ussneverdock.blogspot.com/2005/05/america-koran-not-flushed-newsweek.html
OT David H – I couldn’t access your article by Robin Aitken but I will keep trying. Seems a bit like David Aaronovitch’s swansong article in The Guardian about how the left treated him when he changed some of his views. He is such an excellent writer.
Nothing to do with the Beeb but indicative of the socialist mindset
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1610461,00.html
(in which case, quite a lot to with the Beeb)
Hazel – For some reason the file disppeared off the host service. It’s back there now: http://www.EZFileShare.com/EZFileShare/users/1002738772/AitkenTelegraph14052005.rtf
Hazel – Sorry, ignore the last post – the file is now available as a Word doc here: http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Documents/AitkenR.doc
the most disguting aspect of the “traitors village’ Tim Butcher piece is that reading between the lines he agrees with the label but tempers this with “feeling sorry for the villagers” text.
And an excsllent insight into his mindset, describing the horrific murder of Muhammad Mansour as ‘Old Testament-style brutality’! what a perfidious way of showing his hatred of Israel.
Were these islamic Jihadists killers following the teachings of ancient Jewish texts!!!
APPALLING!
The BBC take a have bias then get facts to fit that bias approach. A classic example was an ‘Iraqis don’t like America’ story where they interviewed one person who moaned about how America hadn’t fixed the water and power supply.