That is the maxim followed by whoever wrote this article. It prompted this post from Squander Two, who says:
The level of duty on diesel is a fact, not an opinion. It is published every year in the Budget, and the BBC report on it then. All they need do to get the facts of the matter is to check their own archives. But they don’t. Instead, they report the claims, the opinions, of two lobby groups, without then telling us whether those opinions are right or wrong. This isn’t a discussion about the nature of the soul or something. It’s a real, easily discoverable fact, but the BBC seem unable to tell us what it is.
I am taking a break from being enraged with the BBC today. I would like to feed the writer of this article a nut.
New Orleans – if the reporter asking the question was from the BBC, it would make my day. In response to a question, which we can’t hear, here is the wonderful General Honoré: “You are stuck on stupid! I’m not going to answer that question!”
http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/09/20/stuckonstupid/
Cockney
The whole point about the Gramscian methodology is that tanks are NOT used to enforce it; rather infiltration sub rosa of institutions such as political parties, Universities, the BBC (and other media) and the police will be used to propagate a new cultural hegemony. It is well under way, has been going on for 40 years and if this blog is looking for reasons for BBC bias, then look no further for a least one reason why it is so. Why is this so irrational? There are none so blind as those who put both the telescope and the microscope to the blind eye.
Cockney:
“Methinks the lady doth protest oermuch.”
Could you try to post without the ad hominem rubbish.
Frank – it’s b*llocks – surely you can see that can’t you? political correctness caused by people having too much time in their hands isn’t enforced economic collectivisation and ruthlessly oppressive dictatorship. i despair.
I wonder if the General is interested in a political career? Probably not since he seems to have a short fuse when it comes to nonsense.
Stuck on Stupid….full transcript.
http://www.radioblogger.com/#001001
Excellent!
Verity:
Good for the General.
However, I can’t help wondering what would have happened had the general been hideously white and the reporter black.
gfh – it’s a bit much to say someone is “acting as a ‘useful idiot'” and then complaining about ad hominem attacks.
Treat others as you would wish them to treat you is my motto. Unless they are Gramscians, of course (whatever the hell that is).
Rudi + Honore might make a good ticket for 2008.
Ian Barnes
But the government for some bizarre reason wants to cut the infantry when they are so badly needed.?
Simple, our armed forces are being readied for assimilation into the future EU army. The usual pattern is denial of any plans, followed by ‘we’re just looking at options’, ending up with ‘it’s all been decided, you should have objected when you had the chance’. The European Rapid Reaction Force (I know, I’m crying with laughter as I type this) is the first step.
Cockney
You’re a serial offender when it comes to not reading links posted here before continuing a debate addressed the links. Frank P posted these above:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a4c610569be.htm
http://www.policyreview.org/dec00/Fonte.html
They explain what Frank P has been telling you; that a long term take over of cultural institutions, as opposed to sudden revolution, is the Gramscian way. Read them and think of what has happened to the BBC and other media, judiciary, academia, government, what is happening to the armed forces etc.
gfh – They don’t have the “hideously white” concept anywhere in the world outside the BBC canteen.
Go to the Radio Blogger link posted above (I couldn’t copy it for some reason). This is the most bracing press briefing I’ve heard for years! He tells the press who persist in harking back to Katrina when he is giving directions for evacuation for Rita: “Some of you are beginning to act like this is your problem. It’s not. You are the messengers.” Take that, you self-important nitwits!
From what I could hear of the reporters, it was all US MSM lefties taking the hits and no BBCers, but nice anyway.
Susan – Rudi and Honoré! Wow! What a concept!
I’d like to see an Honore/Matt Frei smackdown. Or even funnier: Honore v. Justin Webb.
QED
Rob:
“useful idiot” is a piece of political jargon. The purpose of jargon is to pack a lot of meaning into a few words. In using Lenin’s phrase I did not intend to convey the meaning that cockney is an idiot, still less that he is useful.
Verity:
I did read the transcripts and I have long felt that some of the more pompous/vacuous reporters should be given the Honore treatment. I remember seeing a film of Pres. Johnson saying to some reporter something like… I am the leader of the entire Western world and you dare to ask me a chickenshit question like that. Can’t remember the question but will never forget the answer!
All I was doing was merely musing in a sidebar sort of way about race issues. There have been a couple of silly incidents in Australia that were on my mind.
Frank P’s links are essential reading as a short course in Gramscian theory. And it is rather unfortunate that some people can have their minds so fully closed that they do not wish to understand the motive force behind PC. One can see the intolerance of Gramscians in every field of human activity. What happens to scientists who denounce the global warming theory? Or to film actors and producers who make profound films about the founder of Christianity – Gibson, not Scorcese.
They are insulted, side-lined and ignored.
Gramsci’s ideology is the result of the insights of a clever man of evil intent.
What’s with this ridiculous piece comparing the leader of the Liberal Democrats to Chairman Mao?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4267436.stm
It’s absurd!
Hang on Natalie, I thought this was a wonderful blog which detailed examples of BBC bias and liberalist agenda setting. Please please don’t tell me that referring to a “drug user/abuser” constitutes a main entry! I am not a bleeding heart liberal by any stretch and hate the constant drip drip Leftist dogma which stems from the Beeb. This is only my little opinion of course but isn’t the persistent political bias, detailed herein, in danger of being degraded by being associated with this sort of (typically) BBC trivia?
In any case, I remain a devoted newcomer to your site. I really enjoy visiting every day to see if what I’ve seen, you’ve seen! Please keep up this wonderful work.
One wonderful – and, I’m sure, intentional – effect of General Honoré’s comments will be that those reporters will think twice before they pose trite, off-topic questions again, or try to control a press briefing again. Imagine how it must feel to have a world famous general tell you, in public, that you’re stuck on stupid!
Allen@Aberdeen – this also explains the proliferation of something no one had heard of 10 or 12 years ago: tens of thousands of state-paid “counsellors”, for which read “re-education agents”, to talk people out of their instinctive reactions and get them to adopt the official line.
Very true, Verity. Imposing state-ideology is not cheap, but the taxpayer can be made to pay, just as for a TV licence.
BTW, has anyone noticed a tribute to Simon Wiesenthal on the BBC? I haven’t been watching the TV news and nothing on radio during my listening. I would have put SW on a pantheon above all others except perhaps Solzhenytsin.
Again the Radio Times has an unusual turn of phrase.
Vietnam’s Bloody Secrets
8:00pm – 9:00pm
Five
http://www.radiotimes.com/
Documentary on the war between the USA and Vietnam
Even Rifkind acknowledged today that the USA was invited by the South Vietnamese government to help to overcome the Communist insurgents.
So how come the Radio Times can bill it as a USA v Vietnam match?
Allen@Aberdeen (and Susan): on (D) HYS, they asked, as noted yesterday, for “reactions” and now they have to live with it, because last time I looked, everyone who wrote in was in awe of this man.
How utterly infuratiating! We know if there had been any negative, especially anti-Semitic, reactions, they would have posted them at the speed of light, but when I looked yesterday, people were unanymous in praising Mr Weisenthal. How soon before this item gets pushed off the top of the page?
Ooops! Spoke too soon. It’s been removed from the page in favour of Should Kate Moss Be Dropped? Are You Affected by Hurricane Rita? Is The 100 Minute Bible A Good Idea? and How Will Basra Violence Affect Troops?
(I see I misspelled unanimous above.)
The 100 Minute Bible thread provides the usual helping of Christian-bashing:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4267098.stm
But this guy got through:
Can we please have some criticism in similar terms of the Koran and Islam? As an irrelevance to the modern world, a brainwashing cult etc. I am sick of hearing my faith subjected to this sort of abuse while this other religion is sacrosanct. It’s discrimination, that’s what it is.
R Norris, Leyton
How did that get through? I almost said someone’s head would roll …
Regarding the recent discussion about Gramscianism, Theodore Dalrymple as some things to say about political correctness:
Dalrymple: Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.
Sorry,
Forgot the link to Dalrymple’s interview:
http://orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/GlazovDalrymple.php
Excellent, Susan. Thank you for that.
My current complaint…..
Can you please explain to me the site BBCArabic.com and why I should be paying for it via my TV Licence?
Could you also confirm that the users of this site pay towards the TV Licence.
Simple Yes/No answer will do.
Kind Regards,
Robert White.
Hope you’re all watching Gavin Esler’s report on African-American poverty on Thurday’s newsnight.
Some Biased BBC responses in advance:
The BBC digitally exaggerated certain scenes to compound the appearance of poverty.
The BBC repeatedly pointed out that 50 million Americans have no health insurance while failing to adequately stress that these people simply bring their health problems on themselves.
The goverment doesn’t have to help people in America and the BBC is ignorant of the basic tenets of the constitution, due to its ingrained anti-Americanism.
How come the BBC can’t stress the POSITIVE aspects of living on the breadline?
How come the BBC has to stress its communist agenda by pointing out how hard it is to work for £3 an hour?
The BBC is not being patriotic because patriotism is to be loyal to ones country AND its allies, especially in a time of war and disaster…negative messages are therefore unpatriotic…
Looks like Hank is getting in his retaliation first.
It looks like they’re exaggerating the famous “no health insurance” figure again! Last I looked it was 40 million — now it’s 50 million? It’s literally jumped by 10 million people in a matter of a few weeks.
My, things are bad here in Chimpy McBushitler’s Empire! I expect to see a poor black person fall over in the middle of my street any day now, personally dispatched by McChimpy’s roving death squads (or something like that) for the “crime” of trying to obtain health insurances for his missus and his littl’uns.
Hank — how did you like the article I posted which showed that New Orleans would be the richest city in the UK based on the disposable income of its inhabitants?
Re: Evacuating Texas for Hurricane Rita, MSNBC showed rows of school buses lined up to carry people to safety.
My, I wonder why this idea didn’t occur to Mayor Moron of NOLA and Gov. Blank-o before Katrina? I mean, it was the federal government’s responsibility to tell them to do it, wasn’t it?
Hank “50 million Americans have no health insurance
See Montreal Economic Institute
http://www.iedm.org/main/show_editorials_en.php?editorials_id=293
patients are said to have no insurance (a term used interchangeably with no health care)
Most without private insurance depend on public health insurance systems, namely Medicare for those aged 65 or over and Medicaid for low-income people. These two systems also cover handicapped persons
Thanks dan,
I doubt that Hank will read it. Or the BBC for that matter.
Grrr … having no health insurance doesn’t mean not having access to health care that is at least as good as the NHS, and in many instances in much better equipped hospitals.
I’ve just put the phone down from talking to a friend in Houston, and they are predicting that Galveston will be wiped out. Right now, it is bumper to bumper 30mph out of Galveston to Houston with the journey predicted to take five or six hours. (It’s normally an hour and a bit.) On the other side of Houston, people are headed north the 250 miles to Dallas and Ft Worth. The people from NO in the Astrodome have been evacuated to Kansas and Arkansas. They are going to become professional evacuees.
Verity that’s awful. I do hope Galveston and Houston are spared.
Grrr … having no health insurance doesn’t mean not having access to health care that is at least as good as the NHS, and in many instances in much better equipped hospitals.
Indeed Verity, my family used county hospitals when I was a girl and my brother received a free appendix removal operation and that was back in 1950-something! (Before Medicaid and Medicare).
Indeed all of my six brothers and sisters were born in a county hospital. I was the only one of my family to be born in a private hospital.
Sadly, the county hospital system in Southern California is under tremendous strain today from illegal immigrants crossing the border for treatment.
Susan: “Hank — how did you like the article I posted which showed that New Orleans would be the richest city in the UK based on the disposable income of its inhabitants?”
OOooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh! Modest, tasteful and sensitive as ever. Mine’s bigger than yours, and I can pee higher too!
Why don’t Susan Statler and Verity Waldorf just swap email addresses and keep in touch directly, rather than using Biased BBC as their personal bulletin board?
Or is it just me that’s bored by their twittering on at each other here?
Too bad about the illegal immigrants and CA’s stupid policy. I have tried in vain for years to explain to Brits that you will not be denied medical care in the US just because you’re poor or don’t have insurance, but they just refuse get their minds round it. It goes against everything they hold dear. Haven’t the BBC’s perceptive and utterly unbiased correspondents like Gavin Hewitt and Matt Frei noticed that sidewalks in American cities are not littered with dead poor people?
Here’s the series Hank was posting about BTW:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4265454.stm
I actually don’t think this piece is as bad as it could have been. Usual slapdash Beeb job showing complete ignorance of the way things work in the US and appeals to emotionalism — for example, I don’t understand why this woman Cindi who can’t afford prescriptions isn’t qualified for Medicaid?
But it’s a bit more fair than the usual Beeb outpouring of socialist propaganda:
And what is the responsibility of the poor to help themselves?
On Newsnight, we will also hear from a black community worker who says the fast-track to poverty is dropping out of high school, taking drugs, and getting pregnant as a teenager.
Avoid all that, and at least you have a chance of the American Dream.
Sybil wrote,
Susan: “Hank — how did you like the article I posted which showed that New Orleans would be the richest city in the UK based on the disposable income of its inhabitants?”
OOooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh! Modest, tasteful and sensitive as ever. Mine’s bigger than yours, and I can pee higher too!
What’s your problem Sybil? I wasn’t posting anything at all meant to say “mine’s bigger than yours and I can pee higher too!”
Hank was waxing on about African-American poverty and the Beeb was using New Orleans to supposedly illustrate the “Third World” conditions that African Americans in the South supposedly live in. (Like there’s no minority poverty in the UK or France!)
The point I was trying to make was that the definition of poverty in Europe is often not the same definition in America.
It may shock you Sybil, but the living standards of many a middle-class Western European would be considered “working poor” in the US.
I also don’t get why you call me “Susan Statler.” Have no idea what’s that about, but assume it’s meant to be derogatory.
If either of them look like that blonde lass in the top right they can swap email addresses with me if they want.
I’m not bored at all.
Anyway, shouldn’t you be able to predict whether they swap email addresses or not?
PS to Sybil — If Natalie, Andrew, Kerry or Ed asked me to restrict my commentary to Beeb subjects, I’m certainly happy to comply. They are the blog’s owners.
None of them have ever asked me that, though.
One wonders why this Sybil person feels she has the right to tell other posters on this blog what they can post or can’t post when the blog’s own owners don’t seem to agree with her?
Rob,
If either of them look like that blonde lass in the top right they can swap email addresses with me if they want.
What blonde lass?
OT Basra
On tonight’s Radio Five Live Drive the Iraq Interior Minister told BBC reporter Richard Gilpin that the two British troops had been taken to a “house near the police station.”
Gilpin’s response? “So therefore there was no justification for the British troops to smash into the police station, knocking down walls, crushing cars to try and get the men out?”
(Clearly he forgot “raping women, eating babies and pissing on copies of the Koran.”)
Yup, no justification for the troops to carry on like that, Richard. Should’ve just left our boys there and waited for the video of their beheadings.
Rob – “Anyway, shouldn’t you be able to predict whether they swap email addresses or not?” V good!
Are you Rob now known as Grimer?
Every American should have the pleasure of paying gigantic taxes to enable them to have treatment in a filty, 1950’s hospital from nursing staff who couldn’t care less whether you are alive or dead.
I am writing from personal experience of attending Casualty with sporting injuries, I make no claim that the entire NHS is filled with killjoy hags who tolerate men only for the fact that they happen to pay their bloody wages.
Rant eases…the facts: Gainfully employed male, paying very large amounts of tax to the state, takes part in sporting events to keep fit and ensure a middle and old age free from infirmity (and dependence on the state). Male sometimes incurs sporting injuries which require attendance at hospital to be stitched up, x-rayed, etc. Male endures questioning from bossy female nurse regarding relevance/stupidity of male actions. Male responds by pointing out the cost of said visit is absolutely dwarfed by cost of long-term healthcare, which he is avoiding by being fit. Male then spends a long time on a queue for substandard treatment.
For anything but emergency treatment the NHS is a joke. Unfortunately most of the political class worships at the shrine of the NHS, so it will never change. Sadly.