If some adult at the Beeb could provide a straight answer about stage-managed “insurgent” photos, could they also explain the Beeb’s failure to report the results of this poll? It finds that Sunnis are surprisingly supportive of the new Iraqi constitution (even before the latest improvement). However gloomy it looks to BBC reporters, the Iraqis seem ready to prove them wrong.
…But the polling by the Iraqi Center for Development and International Dialogue — a nonprofit organization funded partially by the United Nations — indicated that the referendum was headed for passage regardless of the Sunday parliamentary action. “The part that surprised me was the percentage of supporters for the referendum. I didn’t expect that,” said Mr. Hafedh, who was minister of planning under interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Although support for the constitution was particularly high in the northern Kurdish areas and southern regions dominated by Shi’ites, Mr. Hafedh said it topped 50 percent even in central provinces known as the heartland of Sunni unrest — a sign, he said, that the Sunni-Shi’ite split is not as wide as many fear.
“This is exaggerated by political elites who are seeking power and by Western media and analysts,” Mr. Hafedh said. “If you go down to the streets, you can’t tell who is Sunni and who is Shi’ite. We are all mixed.”
When the Beeb fails to report key aspects of a story which is of critical interest to understanding what is happening on the ground, it is reasonable to conclude malintent.
Via Instapundit and RealClearPolitics
Update: In response to B-BBC commenter “Toad”, I have it on good authority that ‘malintent’ is well on its way to being a particularly good way to describe the BBC’s reporting. After all, Bill Gates can use it to describe the malicious code of hackers
“Now in security, there are some very, very key and obvious solutions. The most important is what’s called isolation. This is making sure that people with malintent can’t arbitrarily send code to all the different systems.”
and the word is now the stuff of legal disclaimers,
“In the absence of any other agreement, despatch shall be at the expense and at the risk of the buyer. The supplier shall be free to choose the route and the mode of transport. This choice must be made with the diligence of a prudent businessman, whereby the supplier and his agents shall be liable for lack of diligence only in the event of malintent or gross negligence.”
…I am more than happy to use this word as a descriptor for the Beeb!
On a more helpful note, B-BBC commenter Frank P mentions Melanie Phillip’s Diary as another case of the BBC’s “abandonment of fair journalism”. Read it all.
Kerry
“malintent” ?
“It is reasonable to conclude” squib perhaps!
what i dont get is on the bbc website the Iran issue is made out to be something else, i.e. Blair didnt say anything…
I’m really confused, if you go to yahoo you see all the news, and headlines range from “blair warns iran”
on the bbc, its dumbed down as usual.
an element of no.10 playing their usual games of trying not to provoke iran and play down the rift.
weird situation.
If there’s one thing the liberal media is good at, it’s making big rifts out of little rifts to suit their political agenda. For example, I’ve often thought blacks and whites in the USA would get along pretty well if the media would stop telling us we hate each other.
Amen, Van Helsing! The media and of course, the Democrats who keep telling black people that they are always the victims of society.
On the front page of the BBC news Middle East page is a story link “Israelis wound second attacker”. The link actually takes you to a story titled “Second knife attack in West Bank” about how Israeli troops have arrested a Palestinian youth with a knife who tried to stab a soldier at a checkpoint. Notice the (not so) subtle switch in emphasis. Its staggering that they get away with this blatant bias when they have just set up an ‘independent’ enquiry.
But it gets better, the story goes on the say that “Troops opened fire at the teenager but he did not appear to be wounded. Another Palestinian passer-by was hit by shrapnel, reports said”, so not only was the headline biased, it was not even true. It makes you weep.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/default.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4307438.stm
Iraq: If the bloody stupid ‘New Labour’ Government had not dispensed with the British diplomatic team who had been living overseas for many years, nor ignored and reprimanded the team then like their Tory predecessors they woulsdhave understood the difference between Shia and Sunnhi muslims. Rather like giving the power in Belfast to Sinn Fein (IRA).
But then again, who am I to criticise? I have only worked and lived in the Middle East for 5 years?
Communist Comrade party leader Blair must know better, or his advisors Campbell and Mandelson who have a similar bent.
And speaking of the Middle East, this should need no further comment:
The BBC’s board of governors published details about a review of its Mideast coverage. The five-person panel, chaired by Sir Quentin Thomas (pictured), “will also invite written submissions, call witnesses – which may include BBC staff – and consider licence-fee payers’ complaints.”
The laundry list of complaints against the BBC is quite long: these instances of odious coverage are just a fraction of what the UK taxpayers are funding: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. No wonder Israel boycotted the BBC in 2003. (If the links do not work, go to Honest Reporting.com)
More of the usual appeasing rubbish from the BBC, including a either a spectacularly ignorant or really sinister defence of the group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Nasty government banning this nice group!
Forgot the link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4317860.stm
Headline: Did Clarke listen? Well, instead of listening to the genuine ‘scared minorities’, i.e. Britons, he listened to the usual professional whinging lobby groups instead. Some democracy.
kerry
thanks for that.very important indeed.
the bbc and malawi
today the bbc blames the world for a coming famine in malawi.
what is the logic for that.if there is a famine then it is malawi’s fault.
i would have more sympathy if malawi requested the help of administrators from northern europe.something like paddy ashdown in the balkans.
all sub-saharan africa needs administrators to help them run their countries.they will be needed for all time.
A terrorist attack in Pakistan, reported on the BBC with no blame for America and no mention of Iraq:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4317998.stm
I am astonished.
Anyway, what happy multicultural places Pakistan and Bangladesh are when they ban sects like these simply because hardline extremists tell them to. The next time someone whinges about someone in a hijab being looked at askance we should point them in the direction of this article for a real example of a hate-filled society.
Way OT sorry,
On 5Live this morning the wonderful Mr Campbell said…
“…the Americans thought ‘The Madness of King George the Third’ was a sequel”.
ho ho ho.
Now hold on. Its ok to joke about the stupidity of the Americans is it?
Can you imagine what would happen if another country was used?
But, no – bashing the Americans is ok.
Disgusted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4317998.stm
Masood Ahmed Raja, a doctor belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect, said he was going to a mosque when he saw three masked men escaping on a motorcycle.
“I had no idea who these men were, but when I reached the mosque, I heard cries and saw blood everywhere,” he said.
“I don’t know who attacked our mosque, but it seems to be an act of religious terrorism.”
Why does the BBC quote a Pakistani doctor as saying “terrorism”, but censors the British Prime Minister’s speech to Parliament???
Maybe this is the beginning of a new policy at the BBC. Terrorism can actually be called terrorism. Yeah right.
again OT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4318284.stm
David Frost moving from al-BBC to al-Jazeera.
should be a smooth transition.
OT
Am concerned that British soldiers are being left stranded in Iraq after their tours of duty…check out this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=BVEQRJIWHB31PQFIQMFSM5WAVCBQ0JVC?xml=/news/2005/10/07/wirq07.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/10/07/ixportal.html
and yet no mention of it on the bbc?
this is surely quite important? i mean i thought more would have been done to speed up the replacement of the ancient Tristar fleet. Either buy/lease another 5 or 6 C 17s, or better still do like the French airforce and buy a couple of relatively new commerical passenger jets as transport aircraft.
Clearly the guys need some help?
I’m sure with the strong pound the RAF could buy a few Boeing 747s, no worries..
What is wrong with this government? They can waste £1,000,000,000 trying to cut truancy in schools (and get no results)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/22/ntru22.xml
but they can’t afford:
Toilet Paper
Ammunition
Planes
Chemical Warfare Suits
Dersert Combat Boots
Body Armour
etc
How can these sh*ts ask people to fight and possibly die for their country, when they aren’t even willing to provide them with the best possible kit and support?
This government wastes billions upon billions of pounds on pointless “initiatives” and then fails to deliver even the basic necessities to our troops.
Why doesn’t the BBC ever investigate these disgraces? If it wasn’t for the good will of the Americans, the British Army would be in real trouble.
OT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4304620.stm
Its an overview of all the digital TV packages available from Sky/’Free’view etc.
I like the cost comment on ‘Free’view.
“Basic multi-channel option that comes through normal TV aerial with no monthly subscription.”
erm, so I dont have to pay the TV Tax for this?
Also, the TV Tax is NEVER mentioned in the entire ‘report’
Big pile of poo.
Melanie Phillips reports on the exchange between John Humphreys and former Chief of Defence Staff Lord Boyce, over biased reporting of Iraqi politics.
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/
Extract: >This concept of an even-handed approach to Iraq was too much for Humphrys, whose response was that reporting ‘good news’ would be propaganda. To which Boyce made the reasonable riposte that reporting only disaster was equally propaganda. Indeed, from the moment the Iraq war began, if not before, the BBC — and most particularly, the Today programme — has been arguably the jihad’s most powerful propaganda weapon in the world. Interesting, though, that in the Today universe, only the coalition side can be guilty of propaganda.< Read it all.
OT: Just before 5pm news today (Friday), the BBC (Jenni Murray) had a piece discussing war coverage and bias.
Good you might think. The two people interviewed were a BBC journalist and peace campaigner. [I was driving so I didn’t write down the names but I think it was Ben Brown and Paul Rogers]. Amongst other things, we learnt that the BBC converage of Fullujah was biased towards the US because the journalists were embedded.
Typical BBC, they hold a debate between the soft left and the hard left and then claim to be neutral.
PS: Let me add, the programme is called The Message and the item was labelled Peace Reporting.
peace journalism claims to be a distinctive approach to reporting conflict, vastly different from the one pursued by most war correspondents and mainstream media. But what is and can it work? Does reporting of conflict in the media unwittingly fuel further violence?
:+: Big up for Lord Boyce. This is one person I would not like to disagree with. He holds his victims with a fearsome stare while he fires off questions that are pretty much unanswerable. It seems to me he is the only establishment voice that dares to speak up for those who are carrying out British policy in Iraq. Listening to much of the BBC output it is quite easy to think that the soldiers are from another country.
BBC has a responsibility for impartiality but that does not give it a license to show no respect for British service people who are sent by politicians to do a job.
Clearly it seems the war was ill-judged but that doesnt mean the BBC can turn its back on British soldiers still out there doing their best.
There is a british army website with good stories of soldiers and day to day life as a soldier in Iraq – reading this is a good way to counterbalance the anti-British army tone of the BBC
Clive
Only one answer to all this treasonous propaganda: bring back the D Notice. Or disband the BBC; it’s inimical to allied forces in the war zone. What surprises me is that the squaddies can keep their safety catches on their rifles when they see a BBC reporter anywhere within range (or any MSM reporter come to think of it). Indicates great discipline among our armed services. They should strike a new medal for it. ‘For Extreme Cool under Great Provocation!