BBC special reports are an interesting exercise in teasing out the stock-standard Guardianista/Islington mindset of its reporters. In the midst of a fairly sensible report (if full of journalistic clichés about little children and mothers wailing over bombed houses), the guard drops, and the soft Apocalypse Now anti-Americanism seeps out:
“As the people of Baghdad tried to make do with little power, and in some areas no water, coalition officials were settling into Saddam Hussein’s marble-floored palaces, complete with their chandeliers, and gold-tapped bathrooms.”
Really? I recall reading that life for US soldiers was not that flash – here is a detailed rundown of the bases.
Regardless of marble floors and gold taps, if you only have electricity because you have a back-up generator, any amount of tasteless dictator chic doesn’t make up for the privations.
What does the silly Ms Hawley want anyway? The soldiers could donate their back-up generators to power up one civilian city block (allowing those inside to watch al-jazeera broadcast films of the death of Margaret Hassan), but without any power, Ms Hawley would soon be whining that the US soldiers were not doing anything to protect those same TV watching civilians from being killed by al-qaeda bombs.
Iraqi group shows ‘hostage death’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4541386.stm
Awww, another hostage ‘death’? Must be a nasty virus going round.
What else does the BBC article say on this “death”? Oh, “An Iraqi extremist group has broadcast an internet video apparently showing a hostage being shot dead.”
Hmmm, one guy shoots another guy (who is tied up at the time) in the head with a gun. Wouldn’t that be called “murder”???
So the headline should be “Iraqi group shows hostage murder”
Is it now against the BBC’s rules to say someone was “murdered” when they have been “murdered”???? Why? Who are they scared of offending????
Ritter – at time of writing, BBC Online has, under its “Other Top Stories” sidebar, two headlines:
“Man shot dead by police officer” and “Iraqi group shows ‘hostage death'”.
From their use of language you’d think it was the Stoke-on-Trent case that was the more serious while the Iraq case might be natural causes!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/4541240.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4541386.stm
What does the “silly” (why not add “little gal?”) Miss Hawley want?
Maybe a stable infrastructure for the Iraqi population perhaps, with an acceptable electricity supply and plentiful access to clean water.
Just a thought, chaps.
Chief Wiggum,
Well perhaps she should give up working for the terrorists, jack in her job with Al-BBC and get working.
P.S. Where the deaths in Iraq related to Plumbing activity?
OT
On Radio 5 at about 1.30 am on Saturday night, the announcer was discussing with a guest the just-ended football club tournament in Japan. In particular, she and the guest were discussing the involvement of a prominent American businessman (who has an interest in one of the major US clubs • Boston, I think).
The announcer (not the guest) made a clear comment along the following lines (in relation to the involvement of the American businessman in that tournament): ‘We don’t want any more Americans involved…’
I wonder what the BBC’s reaction would be if someone at a rival station had said ‘We don’t want any more blacks/Arabs/Asians involved’? The BBC would be leading the chorus for that person to be sacked immediately. But if it is Americans, they seem fair game and I bet the BBC does nothing about this discriminatory announcer.
It may have been a slip of the tongue, or said in jest, but remember, this was no excuse for Ron Atkinson.
I will send a complaint to the BBC and keep you informed about what happens.
“Silly Little Gal” Hawley provides the BBC’s daily “it’s all going wrong for the Americans” coverage from Iraq.
I challenge anyone to mention one report from Iraq where she is not deeply pessimistic/critical of coalition actions.
Just last week she started the report on the poll from Iraq with:-
The majority of Iraqis think that things are going badly….
Of course she was picking out the bit to suit her worldview, where the coalition can do no right. In fact the poll overall was mixed with optimistic results as well, but Hawley, true to form, omits all positive facts from her report. Indeed, would she ever have anything positive to say about anything? The frown on her face seems to be made of stone.
Oh Dear!
“Caroline Hawley has been the BBC correspondent in Iraq since before the fall of Saddam Hussein, but is packing her bags to move to Jerusalem to take up a new role as Middle East correspondent.”
Watch out Israel.
Read Caroline’s final anti-coalition column from Baghdad here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4535262.stm
Can this in any way shape or form be described as “balanced”?
Ah well, now she can give her full attention to those evil Zionists.
Chief Wiggum writes:
” What does the “silly” (why not add “little gal?”) Miss Hawley want?
Maybe a stable infrastructure for the Iraqi population perhaps, with an acceptable electricity supply and plentiful access to clean water.
”
It isn’t Ms Hawley’s job to want anything – not on air at any rate. What Ms Hawley is employed to do is report what happens, not give us the benefit of her opinions.
Strange how hard it is to get that concept through the minds of Leftists and liberals, isn’t it?
You would think that the BBC would be trying to lay low, given that the USA conclusively won the war in Iraq last weekend. How many people voted – 77% ? Including Sunnis ? How many attacks? 0 ? The truth is the BBC’s worst nightmare – Iraqis and the coalition are winning this war handsomely, which of course means Bush was RIGHT. No amount of nihilistic carnage is going to stop them.
In less than 3 years the coalition have driven out a tyrant and started a democracy, just as they have done in Afghanistan. Hawley and BBC – please go back to the kiddies table, the adults are getting on with real life.
OT
Nick Cohen Article about the Today Programme.
I TURNED on the Today programme yesterday morning and thought I’d got a feeble comedy show instead of the news.
A sub-Michael Moore clown was doing a turn the gist of which was that George W. Bush was the stooge of the Haliburton Corporation. John Humphrys was the next act. He shouted at Lord Falconer for so long and with such assurance in the righteousness of his beliefs, the Lord Chancellor was barely able to get three words out in reply.
I may be surprised, but I don’t expect tomorrow’s programme will feature a comedian mocking Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. Nor do I expect to hear its presenters tearing into Charles Kennedy about the Liberal Democrats shameful failure to support the beleaguered liberals and democrats of Iraq.
If they do, it will be a first. I haven’t heard one opponent of the war given a hard time on Today in three years. Not even George Galloway.
http://www.nickcohen.net/?p=55
Is Caroline Hawley taking a crash course in Hebrew or will she just spew out the usual pool ignorant-arrogant journo rubbish?
In any case we’ll never hear any truth like this from the terrorist-huggers at the beeb:
Palestinians are handing out sweets in the streets of Gaza. Expressions of joy broke out throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with Palestinians rejoicing over the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s hospitalization.
True more people voted in Iraq than Britain. In fact you hardly hear Messrs Blair & Co, championing the cause of democracy and freedom of late?
They almost appear to have vanished..i suspect he has more problems with school reforms being rejected by Old Labour..
I did watch the BBC lunchtime news, i thought the coverage of Bush’s speech was fair, for a change.
What i dislike about the BBC, is that all the emphasis is put on the ‘Gay’ this, that, and everything…
i mean they represent 6% of the population and yet are given 60% of the airtime…please a little more balance and recognition for the rest..
Ian Barnes writes:
“What i dislike about the BBC, is that all the emphasis is put on the ‘Gay’ this, that, and everything…
i mean they represent 6% of the population and yet are given 60% of the airtime…please a little more balance and recognition for the rest..”
Well you’ve gone and done it now! Expect a telephone call from Bliar’s thought police within the next 24 hours.
Didn’t you realise there are some things you aren’t allowed to say any longer?
Tut tut….
Golly Ian
Does this mean you don’t think Elton John’s the greatest musician this country’s ever produced? Graham Norton its greatest entertainer? Peter Mandelson its greatest politician?
Ooh, you are awful….!!!!
The trouble with Britain is simply this; go anywhere in the world and say the words Elton John and people think of a tatty, camp vaudeville act from the seventies. In Britain he`s “Sir Elton”.
Says more about the country than the man (?).
OT – Just in case you weren’t quite sure how good a deal Tony secured at the EU budget meeting, the BBC are here to ‘help’ you. A quite impressive 7 out of 10!
The BBC UK/EU presidency scorecard
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4533268.stm
“The BBC News website gives the UK’s EU presidency marks out of 10 for its performance in a number of key areas.”
Note the disclaimer:
“Thanks to the Centre for European Reform, the Institute of Directors, Oxfam, Unicef and WWF for sharing their views.”
Oxfam, Unicef and WWF! The usual suspects for moonbat commentary that passes for ‘impartiality’ on the BBC.
O/T but related (sort of): If anyone’s feeling down around the holidays, I recommend seeing The Chronicles of Narnia for an instant cheering up. The best part is that it’s chockablock with things that the BBC/Guardian set truly despises: white people, Englishness, Christians and Christianity, Christmas, good and evil being absolute rather than “morally equivalent.” The children fight an evil witch (who has banned Christmas for a hundred years, no doubt wanting to call it “Winterval”)while dressed in Crusader costumes — yes, Crusader costumes complete with chain mail, embellished with the rampant lion emblem of Richard Coeur de Lion!
No wonder this movie gave Polly Toynbee nightmares. It’s a big fat punch in the nose to our masters in the cultural elite.
Bloody Hell Susan, my missus made me sit through that rubbish at the weekend. No anti-PCness justifies the sheer awfulness, trust me people.
Susan, I`m liking it already!
Why do the British people need to be forced to fund ballroom dancing contests with the full weight of the criminal law?
To the question “Will La Hawley take a crash course in Hebrew?”
Of course not. She won’t need Hebrew just to sit in the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, where all the journalists stay, and talk to Palestinians. Why would she want to see anything of the real Israel and Israelis, that would spoil all her Arab contacts. Like Guerin, she’ll consistently make those reports in a studio somewhere with the black night-time background – well the Beeb say, Israeli time is 2 hours ahead so it would be dark by the time our correspondents are doing their input for the 10 pm news.
I would actually ban all BBC reporters from standing in front of cameras anywhere, I don’t want to see those ugly strident moaning women, I want to see the places they are reporting from and they are blocking my view. I want to see streets, people, workplaces, cafes, views and landscapes, not British leftwingers.
Israel currently has underway a major railway construction programme, does the Beeb ever mention that? Jerusalem is going to get the most modern fabulous suspension bridge, designed by a Spanish architect – you’ll never see it on the Beeb’s screen.
O/T
Re: Death toll in Iraq…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4525412.stm
Note how the figures supplied by Iraq Body Count “have been questioned by critics, with some arguing that it has greatly underestimated the number of casualties”, while those critics of The Lancet’s study who queried the methodology and the high figures are not mentioned.
Was it mewling Hawley who said, in one of the ‘meet our correspondents’ promotional trailers, something about “seeing history literally unfold in front of me”?
Question; are phone taps illegal if they are sanctioned by the President?
i cant believe this,
have a look what the bbc are alowing muslims to post on there web forum.
Message 6 – posted by W3stLondon_Cr3W**, 12 Minutes Ago LOOK AT DA NASTY KUFFS HERE. MAN JUST WANNA MAKE ME WANNA GET A BOMB AND BLOW’EM UP !!! Message 7 – posted by W3stLondon_Cr3W**, 10 Minutes Ago MUSLIMS WAKE UP WAKE UP. ANY MUSLIM AT UNI WIV KAAFIR FREINDS – WAKE UP!! LOOK HERE AND SEE WHAT THESE PEOPLE ARE LIKE. INFRONT OF YOU THEY SMILE AND PUT ON A GOOD ACT BUT BEHIND YOUR BACKS THEY ARE LIKE THIS!!!!
Message 14 – posted by AnnaEsse**, 1 Hour Ago
Will someone please inform the police that this Cobalt person has threatened to kill people.
thats all i could save before it was deleted,
Question; are phone taps illegal if they are sanctioned by the President?
mrdgriff
Jon Snow introduced Channel4 News by describing the President’s actions as illegal, even though the subsequent report accepted that illegality was not clear or proven.
Dave,
Do you have a link to that thread.
roy,
Jon Snow is a moonbat. Channel 4 is leftwing, and no use as a source of news.
OT
Looks like the BBC enjoyed its day in court.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/inside/statement.shtml
Tipped by Qaz commenting at http://www.theamericanexpatinuk.blogspot.com/
Go three screens into the news and you might even spot the link under: More from England London/South
Well it’s hardly important news, is it?
Who’d be interested?
re:Caroline Haw-Hawley
Aw c’mon BBC, can’t they leave the horrible accents to us colonials.
Susan,
I shall be looking forward to seeing The Chronicles of Narnia. I am sure that it will be more realistic than the BBC’s Stuff Of Nightmares – a Left – wing fairytale in two parts.
BBC 1 Tonight
11:35 pm
Geldof in Africa
12:05 am
Geldof in Africa
The poor BBC just don`t get the irony of this Post Colonial Saviour taking up the White Mans Burden.
Although this is a US-centred study, I’m sure that many of the findings are applicable to the BBC:
Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist
http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6664
“…I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican…”
Replace “Democrat” with “Labour” and “Republican” with “Conservative” and you’ll have the situation at the BBC.
Replace “Democrat” with “Labour” and “Republican” with “Conservative” and you’ll have the situation at the BBC.
I think its more a case of replacing Democrat with Liberal Democrat.
Anyway, not for much longer, now there’s Blu-Labour Dave.
Kyoto has problems. Guess whos to blame?!? I’ll give you one guess.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4542104.stm
S is M
I believe they are called liberal imperialists. The BBC is so Afro-centric, what about the poor of South America? Not a former colony perhaps. Strange that the one colony that done good, America, is so despised by those who pass the begging bowl round for Africa.
What Africa needs is condoms not babies and rifles which it appears to have in abundance.
Get a medal or a peerage, raise money for charity. Why does the BBC carrying free advertising for these donations while skinning us for a licence fee and upsetting us when we are trying to have a meal after a hard days work.?
mrdgriff writes:
“The BBC is so Afro-centric, what about the poor of South America?”
This is a very important point and one that is widely overlooked.
The BBC seems to have an obsession with Africa, to the point that one might reasonably conclude there is a clear and distinct racial bias at work – in favour of Africans and openly discriminating against, for example, Latin Americans and Asians.
Why is there an endless BBC litany about African states, and almost complete silence about affairs in, say, Singapore, Argentina, Peru or Cambodia?
The BBC is institutionally racist? Oh yes!
If the reporting on Africa and Iraq was objective, it would be a redeeming point. However the bog standard reporting is so predictable: Africa = starving children, Iraq = insurgency. North America – fat indulgent gas guzzling burger face filling global warming racists. What about African news on corruption in politics? Iraq news on how many schools opened today? Female emancipation in Afghanistan? Nah, give ’em the slobby news, the lazy news, the sensational news, talk down to them, just take their money, they don’t complain.
Many hard working Africans who support and educate their families will be disgusted with the Western portrayal of the continent.
This is the same BBC which will endlessly trumpet the racist murder of a black youth but turn their journalistic nose up at the more horrific racist torture and murder of a white youth, and then, when confronted with this bias, claim that the murder of the black youth was “more newsworthy.”
The BBC is obsessed with Africa because it needs the success of black people to validate its stance on the evils of colonialism and racism against people ‘of colour’:
If colonial Africa equalled oppression, killing, misery and poverty, then Africa minus colonialism should equal a marked decline in the above.
When oppression, killing, misery and poverty actually increase in Africa in the absence of colonialism, the BBC scratches its collective head and then sticks grimly to the explanation of the ‘legacy’ of colonialism. When that explanation in turn starts to wear thin, the BBC casts about for another excuse. And so on, ad infinitum, always searching for the African model which will prove that all evil stems from whites with a colonial mentality.
Is Orla Goering in Johannesburg yet? I’m sure we can expect her to carry on this proud tradition.
America and Australia and New Zealand are the true legacy of colonialism. Those countries which turned from “Anglo-Saxon” values to coerced collectivism are now shit-holes. Those countries like India re-discovering property rights are recovering from neo-slavery very quickly.
Susan’s right. LWW is *wonderful* and very close the book. I can’t believe Disney did such a good job!
Rob Read,
Too true.
I googled “obsession with Africa” and BBC and arrived here, because the Corporation seemed to me to be going so overboard on every angle of coverage of things African – music and particularly “world” music is utterly dominated by African artists to the exclusion of so much wonderful material from, yes, South America, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Russia the “Stans” and even Korea (a particularly rich musical culture).
I guess Africa is “in”; is allegedly “cool” and some of these folk seem to be deluded into the idea that great wisdom floweth therefrom. I don’t begrudge Africans their due and even more but this is out of all proportion to reality.