:
Stand by for some more Beeboid reporting from the Middle East. The trailer for Broadcasting House has just said that there will be some ‘moderate Israeli voices’ which we ‘rarely have the opportunity to hear’.
Two questions dear Auntie. Firstly, exactly WHY do we have so few opportunities to hear ‘moderate Israeli voices?’ After all, Israel and the Israelis are always there, and you don’t have to run the gauntlet of terrorism or a repressive regime in order to talk to them, now do you? (Unlike in the PA) Or are you implying that the majority of Israelis are rabid extremists wanting the extermination of Palestinians en masse? And therefore you’ve had to search far and wide before finding moderates?
Secondly, what you YOU call ‘moderate Israeli voices’? Can you mean Israelis who want to live in a Jewish State alongside their fellow Arab Israelis and Arab neighbouring states including a confident, friendly and cooperative Palestinian State without fear of antisemitism whoever perpetrates it?
Or do you mean Israelis who, because of the principles of Free Speech are free to vilify the existence of their own country and people in an orgy of self imolation and condemnation?
I await BH with uncontrollable longing ….
It was broadcast on Sunday morning. It would be interesting to know how it turned out.
O/T:
The Beeb website says that “The Sun is up in arms over the design of a fifty pence coin to mark the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross.
It says Gordon Brown has demanded a more positive image, after the Arts Council approved one of a British soldier carrying a wounded comrade.”
Bollocks ! The Sun and other newspapers complained because the coin has what looks like a sniper’s sights zeroed in on the soldier’s back! Wonder why the Beeb left THAT pertinent piece of information which WAS in the papers out?….are they also saying a wounded soldier being carried by his comrade is NOT a positive image? Given that I myself have been carried by a mate having been hurt badly during an incident in NI whilst on patrol I would have thought it summed up the comradeship of a regiment perfectly. (We leave no-one behind unlike the Beeb who leave things behind in their eagerness to slag off the Army etc.)
Pasted from Story here
“Zuma: Bad days for Mr Nice Guy”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4615019.stm
“Mr Nice Guy” has just been charged with corruption, but to the BBC, he is still Mr Nice Guy.
Just look at the article, and then imagine, in your wildest dreams, whether the BBC would ever have the name of Bush, Wolfowitz, Bolton, Rumsfeld in such a headline?
O/T: Beeb hires ex-student activist as new chief political editor. Disgraceful partisanship!
& Eamonn – the whole point of the Beeb story is that before his downfall, everyone in ZA (even his biggest ideological opponents) liked Zuma and said as much. Nobody would run a similar story about any of the neocon crew, because the same isn’t true…
john b
Yes, I know that; I was just remarking on the headline really. At the least they should have put Bad days for “Mr Nice Guy”. You will know by now that the BBC depicts people in very different ways, depending upon the opinion of the BBC news editors. Oh and by the way, some of us think the neocon crew are nice guys.
I hope everyone enjoyed Waterloo Day on Saturday. The BBC reports on a battle re-enactment over in … oh somewhere abroad:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4110194.stm
lots of reporting on the participants but not one single word on the fact that at Waterloo we kicked Napoleon’s arse. Not one word on the lead up to battle or the turning point it was in European history.
Hmmm. I have watched Robinson many times on ITV News. I have always thought he was excellent and have never detected any left wing bias in his reports. This could be good for BBC News/Politics and swing things a little more to the ‘centre’/impartial ground….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4111214.stm
This is great news, hopefully he will bring down the Beeb from the inside
They’re much more scared of losing the ability to jail non-payers.
It’s interesting that the BBC article on Robinson doesn’t mention his Tory background: I guess either a) they’re trying to avoid accusations of rightwing bias from leftie fruitloops, or b) the News Online editorial staff would sooner choke on their granola than admit to employing a rightist…
Robinson is of course anti Iraq War
Oh what a surprise, the BBC’s new Political Editor is a former activist for a left wing party.
Did anyone see Springwatch? I saw every single one of them over the three weeks it was on. Bloody good it was too, right up my street.
Bill Oddy and the saucy-looking Kate Humble out on a Devon farm showing off lots of birds, mammals and whatever else.
We learnt that the farm where the main broadcast was based is an utter haven for wildlife, stuffed full of the it. We even met the farm owner and manager.
Despite this, viewers aren’t informed of the actual reason why there’s a vast array of wildlife thriving there – it’s a shooting estate.
They are not told that its wildlife exists largely as a result of first class management and conservation policy. At no time were viewers informed that the bird and mammal life is there because of shooting.
I have to admit, that I like the chap. He seems OK to me. Perhaps Al- Beeb is learning from the time that they caused a man to commit suicide (David Kelly). The greatest travesty in British Broadcasting and from which the BBC will never recover. Though I remember at the time Andrew Marr gave a broadcast at the death of David Kelly, Andrew Marr said ” Only the enemies of the BBC are blaming the BBC”. I think he was wrong then, I think he is wrong now. The guy is a bloody buffoon. Good riddance to him. The BBC later apologised for their role in the death of David Kelly.
I laugh at the guardian article from John B
“Marr …. established a reputation for scrupulous independence since being appointed political editor of the BBC in 2000.”
That’s right, he is independent. Then again why did he say that about people attacking the BBC after the murder of David Kelly as being enemies of the BBC. Any sane person criticized the BBC for their handling of David Kelly, which was worse then the Governments handling of David Kelly. Dress it up all you want
Then again, if Andrew Marr is so ” independent” why did he say:
“The idea of a world of democratic and prosperous states on the American model is a fantasy…This is correct”
Well sounds impartial to me…… If you are a left wing idiot ….
Hello John B
I feel compeelled to bring some info to your attention.
“Nobody would run a similar story about any of the neocon crew, because the same isn’t true…”
i.e that they are nice. Well, as is mabe.
However, I am sure that you know, most of the Neocon crew are actually old socialists “mugged by reality”. I think that you may pass this way, as I have done. I think you do not really understand what a neocon is. Perhaps you are ignorant and read only the Guardian and watch the BBC.
By the way, Paul Wolfowitz (a neocon) is seen as a generally nice chap. (By the way, Donald Rumsfeld is not a Neocon).
Timesonline.co.uk.printfriendly/0,,1-524-1670740,00.html
If ignorance is Bliss John B, then you must be in heaven.
This is an interesting article:
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1186147,00.html
“Geldoff hails George Bush” as doing more for Africa than any other US pesident
I really dohope that this appears on the BBC, though at last checking it had not. I would laugh my balls off if this appeared on the BBC..Tehe..tehe..tehetehetehe
Anyone interested can listen again to the topic broadcast on the Broadcasting House webpage – http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/bh/
Let’s have another dig at the Jews.
PALESTINIAN ‘TARGETED HOSPITAL’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4113538.stm
Maybe she ‘targeted hospital’ because, well, she actually aimed to blow up an Israeli hospital.
In short, a Palestinian woman attempted to blow up the hospital in which she has been receiving burns treatment after a cooking accident. Her justification?:
“Ms Bis also said she had been angry over allegations that Israeli guards had ripped out pages of the Koran at a prison in northern Israel, claims Israel denies.
“What angered me and the Palestinian people is the abuse of the Koran,” she said. “Should we sit in silence with our hands tied?”
Maybe Israel denies the ‘desecration’ (yawn) becasue it happens to be untrue. Palestinian prisoners themselves tore pages out of the Koran:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3101169,00.html
Of course, the BBC somehow overlooks this fact.
Pete – you think the Tories are left-wing now?
Lee – I said “everyone in ZA (even his biggest ideological opponents) liked Zuma and said as much. Nobody would run a similar story about any of the neocon crew, because the same isn’t true”.
In other words, nobody would run a similar story about the neocon crew, because it is not the case that their biggest ideological opponents like them and say as much (rather, they march through the streets chanting “neocons out”). Not because it is not the case that they’re nice, or because it is not the case that anyone thinks their nice.
I’m sure that some of them are individually nice; I’m sure you love them lots, and quite possibly have their posters on your wall; and I’m glad that you agree Donald Rumsfeld is neither a neocon nor a nice person.
Ugh, I mean “anyone thinks they’re nice”. Please don’t kill me, Natalie…
Err I’m confused are people really suggesting Nick Robinson is left-wing. He was chairman of the Young Conservatives. The famously right wing part of the Conservative Party, the UK’s mainstream right-wing party.
And his appointment is nothing unusual for the BBC. Before he was at ITV, he was political correspondent at… BBC News 24.
john b
Any party which tacitly endorses Gordon Brown’s theft of so much of our wealth, which is not foursquare against ID cards and which is in favour of the UK’s continued membership of the EU is left wing.
They may not quite be as left wing as New Labour or the Lib Dems but they are left wing all the same.
It’s not what it says on the tin but what the tin contains.
Pete – so who exactly would the BBC need to hire for you /not/ to accuse them of being left-wing-biased?
Peter Hitchens? Ayn Rand? Nick Griffin? Attila the Hun?
Don’t worry, John b, the death penalty is reserved for those who say “literally” when they mean “metaphorically.”
Rod Bishop,
Are the Young Conservatives really the “famously right wing part of the Conservative party” nowadays? In my day they locked themselves in the loos for safety while the Federation of Conservative Students hopped around the country like giant barded frogs.
Nick Griffin? Why would I want to put a socialist in charge of the BBC?
Miam wrote:
“Hmmm. I have watched Robinson many times on ITV News. I have always thought he was excellent and have never detected any left wing bias in his reports.”
I’ve never seen Robinson on ITV having lived in Spain for nearly 3 years, but do remember that his tone of coverage on the BBC was quite typical sneer and jeer at the Tories. Once in fact I felt compelled to make a complaint about his coverage of the Conservative Party (he was assigned to cover the Tory Party after the Major’s election victory if memory serves) and the reply I got simply was that Nick Robinson used to be the Chairman of a Young Conservatives branch, as if that was the be all and end all of everything. I get the impression that a number of newspeople adopt the lefty sneer and jeer approach to Conservatives merely to help their careers along knowing how endemic BBC bias is.
“Robinson is of course anti Iraq War”
Does anyone have the faintest idea what David Dimbleby’s view on the Iraq War is? No. There was a time it would be unthinkable that anyone would have the remotest idea what any BBC journalist’s view on any matter was.
As for any beeb coverage of Bob Geldof praising President Bush, haven’t found any on a search of its site, but strangely enough it seems negative stories against Geldof predominate on the beeb website (???)
Pete, al-Biss has given various conflicting accounts for her motives. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050620/ap_on_re_us/gaza_attempted_bombing
At the Shikma Prison in Israel’s Negev Desert, where the Shin Bet security service allowed Israeli TV reporters to interview her, al-Biss said she was determined to carry out a suicide attack against Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
“My dream was to be a martyr,” she said, adding that she was recruited by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement. “I believe in death.”
Sitting calmly across from an Israeli TV interviewer, the young woman with large brown eyes and curly dark hair pulled back in a ponytail said her decision had nothing to do with her disfigurement, which might make her less desirable as a bride.
“Don’t think that because of how I look I wanted to carry out an attack,” said al-Biss. “Since I was a little girl I wanted to carry out an attack.”
However, her story grew more contradictory as the interview progressed. After more than an hour, she began to lose her composure and changed her story.
In a separate interview with foreign reporters, she asserted that she had undergone treatment at a Gaza hospital for her burns, where someone apparently planted the explosives on her body without her knowledge.
“I did not intend to carry out an attack,” she said, at which point Israeli security officials told reporters she was lying.
“I didn’t kill anyone. Do you think they will forgive me? Do you think they will give me any mercy?” she asked. “I hope they show me mercy. I didn’t kill anyone.”
Then al-Biss terminated the interview, saying she was exhausted.
At one point al-Biss agreed with a reporter that she might have been a victim of the militants, breaking down and sobbing, “Forgive me, mother.”
This woman is in desperate need of psychiatric help, but it shows the total inhumanity of those that incited her to perpetrate this horror, and how they work on children.
Hal
Of course there is little or no coverage of what Geldof and Bono said about Bush and America making major contributions to Africa. It does not chime with the BBC view of America as mean and nasty. Therefore we get bias by omission. If Geldof and Bono had strongly criticised Bush, it would have been spread across all the BBC news and online.
Just a repeat of all the nonsense about the UN doing all the aid work in Indonesia after the tsunami whan in fact the UN was doing damn-all – the real work of life-saving was by the US and the Aussies with help from Singapore and Japan.
“UN/EU good, US bad” is the BBC theme. Ignorant tosh.
Melanie Phillips has a post up about the Palestinian woman who was prevented from blowing up a hospital in Israel (such nice people):
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001276.html
She includes comment on al-Reuters and al-BBC from a Tom Gross:
“On air, most BBC world news bulletins today have begun their reports with the news that “Israel has arrested Palestinians” without mentioning that those arrested were members of Islamic Jihad linked to the murder of two Israelis in the last two days, and were in the process of planning future attacks. Online, the BBC separates its bomber story from its report of Israel’s “crackdown” in the West Bank that followed it – as if Israeli security policy is unrelated to a continued terrorist threat. And the BBC glosses over the details of Islamic Jihad murders in the previous two days.”
None other than the Pedant-General has picked this up.
http://infinitivesunsplit.blogspot.com/2005/06/sticks-and-stones.html
He’s a bit of a nutcase, but perhaps readers might want to offer suggestions for sentencing.
Pete, one can also be sure that if the BBC posts an article about the latest Amnesty International report accusing Israel of ‘crimes against humanity and war crimes’ that included ‘obstruction of medical assistance’, it will not link the abuse of the Palestinians who forced Israel to make such ‘obstruction’ necessary. Or when reporting on Israel’s closure of borders preventing Palestinians from entering into Israel to work, they don’t mention the terror attacks perpetrated previously at these borders, but merely portray the poor Palestinian who suffers as a result of this ‘unjust’ policy.
Teddy Bear
All too true. Of course in a vacuum the BBC could report all it likes. Unfortunately legions of fools and knaves merely glance at the news each day and we end up in a situation where the Palestinians are not only not treated as pariahs, but are feted. Sick, perveted minds.
Talking of which, john b hasn’t yet told me why I’d want a leftist such as Nick Griffin at the BBC.
BTW Teddy Bear, I always liked your site but it was (my opinion only) a little harsh on the eyes. I like the new one. Now, how do we convince more people to stop paying for a licence to own a TV?
Thanks Pete. I presume the first site you are referring to is the anti-TVL one, and the new one is the Biased-BBC forum. I only set up the latter as a prospective alternative to posting in this kind of format, where it is not easy to see where there are new posts, and the various topics covered end up being duplicated, and ultimately buried in archives. Plus the other offers greater variation in the creativity possible for posters, and the ability to insert pictures.
Feel free to open any topics there you wish, the more the merrier.
Regarding your question as to how we can deter more people to stop supporting the BBC via the TVL, I guess there will always be those who will accept whatever they are told, and since it doesn’t affect them much personally, will not be bothered to delve any deeper into it. Since the media as a whole is guilty of increasingly dumbing the society down, I can only presume that there will be an increase of these disinterested souls.
We can only rely on this medium to hopefully increase the awareness on any who might stumble on these sites, and be stimulated to delve deeper into it. Then they might decide themselves to stop their support for this evil and corrupt organisation that masks itself as a public service.