continues with John Simpson’s thesis that the Jordanian bombing proves the Iraq war was wrong!!, and with this pictureof a suicide-dressed kiddy above a caption which says:
‘Palestinian children learn at a young age about the struggle for freedom. To some, the Palestinian martyrs are heroes. Here a child poses for a photograph at a rally organised by militants.’
This from a series about the making of a film about suicide murderers (not sure if it was billed that way, exactly). One to add to the list for Natalie’s post below. (hat tip LGF)
Simpson “Ali was captured in the same mosque in Falluja where a cameraman filmed a US marine shooting dead a wounded prisoner.”
First time I have seen a report which states that the shooting took place in a mosque.
Am I ignorant or is Simpson painting the lily?
OT BBC Product Placement
Sorry, just incase you needed more evidence that product placement on BBC TV programmes is rife, and their recent investigation into ‘Spooks’ was a load of crock. Here’s some examples for you:
Kellogs on BBC1 Liza Tarbuck comedy “Linda Green”
http://www.1stplaceprops.com/case_kelloggs.cfm
and reposted from below:
Canon on BBC1 in Absolutely Fabulous (BBC1) and My Family.
http://www.1stplaceprops.com/caseStudyDetail.cfm?caseStudyId=12
Dyson on BBC1 in EastEnders and Holby City
http://www.1stplaceprops.com/case_dyson.cfm
Volkswagen on BBC in Murphy’s Law, Silent Witness and Judge John Deed
http://www.1stplaceprops.com/caseStudyDetail.cfm?caseStudyId=13
The BBC is laughing at us all, fingering us for £126.50 per year, looking for RPI++ 2.6% pa AND accepting product placements!!!!
What a sad joke.
Simpson’s article is just excrement from the devil’s own bottom. Jordan as Cambodia? He has already said that Iraq is not Vietnam, so how can Jordan be Cambodia? Oh, never mind.
The caption,
“‘Palestinian children learn at a young age about the struggle for freedom. To some, the Palestinian martyrs are heroes. Here a child poses for a photograph at a rally organised by militants.'”
I would love to see them caption a picture of an American kid holding a gun.
“American children learn at a young age about the struggle for freedom……” Yeah, right.
It’s Jihadi propaganda, pure and simple. Child abuse with BBC support. The BBC have plumbed new depths with that one.
dan,
Yes, it was a mosque that had been used as cover by terrorists.
dan
“Ali was captured in the same mosque in Falluja where a cameraman filmed a US marine shooting dead a wounded prisoner.” – Simpson, the Lion of Kabul
What bullshit. The jihadi whom the Marine finished off hadn’t been disarmed and detained, he was a combatant on the battlefield. Simpson knows this and chooses to ignore it. The older he gets the more adolescent he becomes.
struggle for freedom = suicide bombing.
Thankyou, BBC, for this precis of the Israeli Palestinian conflict!
Had a look at this article.
Please understand that this is can be classed as Entertainment/Propaganda. There is no countervaling argument by another commentator and any views or opinions in opposition to Mr Simpson’s are left to visitors to the web page.
It is the equivalent to a ‘Boxing Booth’ at a fairground.
‘Go a round with ‘Slugger Simpson’ and win a prize’.
What is worrying is that John Simpson, a senior broadcaster with the BBC, is putting this forward as his analysis (and to be blunt, it is extremely superficial). It could have been more interesting if Frank Gardiner’s views were put into the pot. I disagree with Mr Gardiner on many (many) points, but he is always a thoughtful analyst.
Just read it and file it away as another example of the Anti-Bush, Anti-Blair, Anti-War, Anti-Globalism, Anti-West culture that pervades the Current Affairs section (S*d it!, most) of the BBC.
John Simpson has written a book has he?I suppose the publishers know to send the cheque to Ireland,where he does his accounts but pays no tax because he is classified as an artist.
Robin,
Is that true? Do you have a link or a reference?
Yawn. I wish I had the patience of some of you people on this forum. Personally, with propaganda like that picture caption in common circulation (and being passed off as objective truth!) I can’t see a peaceful end to the troubles in Europe. We have a generation of people who, on the whole seem content to accept the trendy Hampstead shibboleths regarding Israel/Palestine, Iraq, poverty in Africa etc. Most people don’t have the time and inclination to question their beliefs about the leading issues of the day. Hence their worldview is decided in large part by the know-it-all intellectual bum-sniffers of Shepherd’s Bush and Notting Hill. The BBC’s cultural hegemony is questioned only by a handful of select publications unlikely to be read by Joe Public (if he can read at all).
This country’s only hope is for the BBC to be abolished. Nothing less will do. It is foremost among the promoters of statism, welfarism, the EU, and Islamist aggression. It, and the ideas it promotes ideally would have been swept away after 9/11. Seems we’ve chosen a long and bitter struggle instead of an instant catharthis.
I have a feeling that what Tocqueville wrote about 19th century America is true of Europe today: “A new political science is needed for a totally new world”. Indeed there is; someone ought to chronicle this period of history so that the scholars of the future can see how the BBC played their own small part in feeding the crocodile of Islamism and statism and producing what might be the biggest civil war and mass-emigration ever seen.
John Simpson has written a book has he?
I was pleased to see one of his efforts in the window of “Bargain Books” on a buy 3 for a fiver, or somesuch, deal.
dan writes:
“I was pleased to see one of his efforts in the window of “Bargain Books” on a buy 3 for a fiver, or somesuch, deal.”
Even cheaper on a country market stall I was browsing the other week. Still, never mind. I’m sure he gets a fabulous salary from his masters at the Beeb!
In his book does he write how Saddam’s Iraq was “a not altogether unpleasant society”, as he said on the BBC in 1991?
Presuambly Hitler’s Germany wasn’t either, or Stalin’s Russia, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia…
Peter,
Read a decent history covering Iraq (i.e. not one knocked out in a week by an American in 1992)and/or speak to Iraqi colleagues and you’ll learn that in the context of the Middle East Saddam’s Iraq was relatively advanced and affluent, at least prior to the Iranian war, and that real collapse didn’t occur until after the first Gulf war. Infrastructure, agricultural technology and women’s education and working opportunities etc were all improved from pre-Baathist times. This gives some understanding of why a substantial minority of Iraqis are so hostile to the occupation and new government – beyond those who directly benefitted from his corrupt favouratism.
Saddam was (and is) a genocidal maniac, however most people were able to live relatively unmolested daily lives – just as today when insurgency horrors are given vast coverage despite large parts of Iraq are relatively peaceful.
The comparison works best with pre-war Nazi Germany – a universal oppression but truly horrific only for certain targeted groups and general policy that wasn’t wholly disasterous and attracted support beyond the zealot fringe. This contrasts with Stalinist Russia or Mao’s China(economic degradation, starvation, society wholly oppressed) and Pol Pot’s Cambodia (third of population murdered).
For true understanding it’s important to look at the reality even in extremely horrific circumstances.
Tom L,
Sorry no links,its something I read months ago so I should have used the words apparantly.But I beleive its also the same for the likes of Bono and Bob Geldof
TomL – some links regarding John Simpson’s favourable tax arrangements in Eire:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1572354,00.html
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1509280,00.html
“The BBC’s world affairs editor John Simpson avoided tax on his book Strange Places, Questionable People while he lived in the exclusive town of Dalkey.”
Robin and Michael,
Excellent! Cheers!
It’s funny how socialists are always so good at finding useful tax dodges, aren’t they? I guess paying taxes is only for us “little people” — the ones who don’t provide the grand, essential service of dictating to the world how it must behave.
An intriguing leap there branding Simpson a socialist!
There are other views – visit http://www.corriganreid.co.uk
Here is a quote from corrigan’s site,
“But I will argue that the BBC should be cherished by the British • as it is by millions of all colours, faiths and nationalities around the world”
Cherished? I can smell the roses already.
“• and that is more often right than wrong.”
As BBC seems to be mostly opinion – just look at their website, – the right/wrong discussion is a curious one. Also, when it is proved wrong, how about ‘up-front’ about corrections? You see, the BBC website search engine does not include the corrections page. Nice.
“The BBC has a duty to report what its journalists see and not bow to any sort of political pressure.”
Nope, it has a duty to report the facts, not what ‘its journalists see.’ What are they, omnipotent?
“It is always weak to argue that something should be retained simply because of the lack of alternatives but in this case it is true.”
He thinks there are no alternatives.
“Dump the BBC • and I would guess that many of the contributors to biased-bbc would celebrate at Auntie’s wake • and what are you left with?”
Answer – £120.
“Would that suit people simply because the replacements would pander to their prejudices? I get the horrible feeling that is the aim of the website.”
Of course, it’s a vast right-wing conspiracy, innit?
If the BBC wants to know about suicide bombing slimeballs, all they have to do is go here:http://www.angelfire.com/sk3/suicidestring/
The BBC, were so good we have to jail people to make them pay for it!
Carolyn Quinn (RAdio 4) is truly a weird one. Her voice undulates in a perpetually insinuating manner, but today she is back on Iraq hobbyhorse and the issue of phosphor bombs. She tried to manufacture a story of Anglo-American breach of International Convention.
So disappointed to learn that these munitions are not ‘chemical weapons’. Then she tried to make out the British Army was at fault………..what does she think troops fighting a besieged town should do, spray shaving foam or bath salts ?
Then to speak of “side effects”……the biggest side-effect is DEATH – maybe she doesn’t realise the phasers are not set to stun as with Captain Kirk.
The BBC employs some of the dippiest women, it seems to be a misogynist organisation employing some really stupid women to discredit the really intelligent ones it does not recruit.
Rick
Have to agree, BBC really getting their teeth into a story that could be headlined
“Troops use legal weapons to kill enemy”
“To some, the Palestinian martyrs are heroes.”
i fear i, too, am being brainwashed by the beeb.
only now has the bias in the unquestioned, scare-quote free use of the word martyrs come to my attention.
so, martyrs here is objective? but “terrorist” is difficult to use correctly?
but then again, “martyr” is how “they” refer to themselves, isn’t it?
so, it’s all right, then