Probably Just Coincidence

But yesterday’s Today programme interview with Sheik Yosif al-Nasari, who told us, unchallenged by James Naughtie, how American Special Forces had sealed off the Samarra mosque before blowing it up, doesn’t seem to be available on Thursday’s ‘Listen Again’ page.

Those of you who like their anti-Americanism untainted by reality can still listen to Wednesday night’s arts review Front Row, where Syriana director Stephen Gaghan states that George Bush has personally ordered the killing of ‘lots and lots of people’.

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141 Responses to Probably Just Coincidence

  1. archduke says:

    “where Syriana director Stephen Gaghan states that George Bush has personally ordered the killing of ‘lots and lots of people’.”

    hmmm.. so the CIA go to Bush, and say “we’ve got these al qaeda types shooting at our soldiers – do we take them out”

    dubya just say “yeah”.

    that sort of “lots and lots of people”?

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  2. will says:

    The Daily Ablution is a daily must read, but in case you don’t, the interview between the leaden Mark Lawson & Stephen Gaghan is covered, including this comment

    I do wonder why Mr. Lawson changed the subject at this point – perhaps he sensed that Mr. Gaghan’s rambling conspiracy theories were making the director look silly.

    http://dailyablution.blogs.com/the_daily_ablution/2006/02/ceci_nest_pas_u.html

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  3. mick in the uk says:

    Tony Blair is promising to help pay for re-building work, so it must have been a n Isreali/US/British team which blew it up after all and now he’s feeling guilty.

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  4. Rick says:

    Today on BBC World Service – Reporting Religion – was interesting for sevceral reasons, but largely because it was dominated by Islam which shows the world how much of an Islamic Society the BBC projects Britain to be.

    Anyway – there are 4 Shia shrines in Iraq – 3 are under the control of Sistani and Iraqi security but Samarrah is in the Sunni sector and they refused to have Sistani control it and had American security instead – but they did not guard the mosque with armed guards and is covers a large area. So the Shia think the Sunni tribes did not really protect the shrine.

    The next issue was Sharia Law in the UK.They had some Muslim lawyer who smooth-talked the whole issue while the little girl interviewer (Jo Fidgin ?) listened without interruption – there would be no problem with British Law so long as it was not “unconstitutional” under Sharia. Then she let him make out how bengign it was and things in NIgeria were just an interpretation.

    I wondered if a Neo-Nazi were to say, Hitler had just one interpretation, Neo-Nazism is a liberal leaning doctrine of self-actualisation she would have been praising Mein Kampf.

    Anyway she had a liberal MUslim from Canada praising the Canadian Govt for stopping Sharia, that is was “political Islam” with right-wingers trying to get a foothold in North America to create a state within a state – she was arguing with him !

    She did not like his answers.He asked her where in the world a Muslim regime had been elected to implement Sharia.

    Then to see the real “enemy” the programme shifted to South Carolina to show Christian fundamentalists trying to get elected to take over a county.

    To round off it was all abouit Caterpillar and the Synod and interviewing Rev Sizer who is a Palestinian Friendship League or whatever lobbyist.

    Hard to imagine this programme presenting Britain, especially England as a Protestant country

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  5. Rick says:

    Tony Blair is promising to help pay for re-building work, so it must have been a n Isreali/US/British team which blew it up after all and now he’s feeling guilty.
    mick in the uk |

    I hope he’s feeling guilty.

    When you think how many Christians have been killed by car bombs outside churches in Iraq – 5 churches destroyed in one day – and Blair is silent.

    Baghdad, Aug. 02, 2004 (CWNews.com) – Five Christian churches in Iraq, including Chaldean Catholic churches, were attacked with bombs on Sunday evening, killing 11 and wounding more than 50. It was the first major attack against Iraq’s sizeable Christian minority by terrorist insurgents since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime……..On Sunday, four car bombs hit churches in Baghdad and another damaged a church in the northern city of Mosul. Several Chaldean and Syrian Catholic churches were among the targets, including the Chaldean cathedral in Baghdad. At least 50 people were killed by the bombs, which in some cases exploded as worshipers were leaving Sunday liturgical services.

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  6. marc says:

    OT

    Muslims plan to march in London to protest the mosque bombing in Iraq. Organizers say they expect up to 10,000 to attend.

    So what’s wrong with this picture?

    Where were these “peaceful” Muslim protesteres after the Twin Towers blew up? Where were they after Muslim terrorists blew up the Bali nightclub? Where were they after Madrid was attacked? Where were they after their Muslim brothers murdered over 50 innocent Britons?

    Muslims don’t seem to mind when their Muslim brothers murder us infidels but let someone print a cartoon, make a movie, write a book critical of Islam or attack them, then they’re all up in arms rioting around the world.

    Seems us infidels to matter much to Muslims.

    http://ussneverdock.blogspot.com/2006/02/uk-muslims-in-london-protest-mosque.html

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  7. marc says:

    Seems us infidels don’t matter much to Muslims, that is.

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  8. Pounce says:

    I see the BBC defends to the death yet another apologist for the ROP.
    Why for Ken it’s just another day at the office. But don’t worry folks as Ken is used to fighting bigger opponents. Excuse me Aunty. If somebody had referred to a black reporter as a Slave master then the smell of sticky brown stuff would still be wafting down the corridors about what a racist this guy was. Somehow I get the feeling the BBC is a little biased on this story.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4749688.stm

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  9. dumbcisco says:

    Yes, an awful lot of the BBC reporting has veered to Red Ken’s side – “unfair he should be suspended by an unelected body”.

    Meanwhile here is a possible opportunity to show solidarity with the Danish and protest for free speech :

    http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2006/02/stand_by_denmar.html

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  10. Noel says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4749866.stm

    It’s the Imperialist curfew wot did it.
    Note the odd subtitle ‘Conspiracy’ although the paragraph that follows does not contain any reference to ‘conspiracy’ in scare quotes or otherwise.

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  11. Anti Aunty says:

    I see our old friend Bilal Patel has come out in favour of Ken on the (D) HYS board!

    I suspect that if a high profile CONSERVATIVE councillor/council leader/mayor had made racist comments and had been similarly punished by the Standards Board,the BBC would have been flooded with messages from all the lefties saying what a wonderful system it was!

    btw on the SKY news board they are running a poll . So far just under 75% of the people who have voted say the decision was right. Not the impression you get from the BBC’s (D) HYS responses

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  12. newkidontheblock says:

    The drivel peddled by the Today programme is really nothing new for the BBC.
    On 31/08/1983 the Soviet Union shot down a South Korean 747 murdering 269 people.
    On the night that the story broke, the BBC’s fairly new Newsnight (presented, I think, by someone called McCormack) was quick off the mark to whip up a CIA conspiracy theory.
    The previous day the US had launched the Challenger space shuttle which was to deploy a communications satellite. Newsnight claimed that this shuttle flight was a spy mission linked to the Korean airliner and therefore it was understandable that the BBC’s beloved Soviet Union had taken such action.
    Subsequent investigation showed that the shuttle flight was not a spy mission, the Korean airliner had strayed off course through navigational input errors and there was no link between the two events. The BBC never corrected their assertions on that Newsnight programme, and of course, the presenter kept his job.
    BBC propaganda, distortions and downright lies have been with us for more that a generation.

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  13. Rick says:

    “unfair he should be suspended by an unelected body”.

    Yes they should have ordered an immediate election and let him see if the 30% who bother to vote in London wanted him in the job………then again Joke Mayor for Joke City

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  14. pounce says:

    Having a butchers through the BBC web front page;
    And came across a thumbnail of a little boy crying on their week in pictures.
    So had a look and hey it’s only this picture;
    http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41362000/jpg/_41362568_afghan_pa416.jpg
    with the following caption;
    “A boy cries on the streets of Kabul in Afghanistan as British forces patrol the market area of the city.”

    Do I get the impression the BBC is trying to sell the image the boy is crying because of the presence of the British. Christ BBC why don’t you just get somebody from your Kabul office to send hate mail to the Brits. (Silly me it’s already happened)

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  15. Rob Read says:

    The BBC is the enemy of the UK aremd forces.

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  16. archduke says:

    the al sadr conspiracy theorist rant still isnt available on the Today site (07:11)

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/thursday.shtml

    probably just a coincidence.

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  17. TAoL says:

    The BBC on the planned ‘Museum of Tolerance’.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4721336.stm

    The report is not content with reporting the facts but gives tugs at our heart-strings with its opening couple of paras. I have to push off shortly, so maybe someone would like to have a little fun and fisk it?

    This opinion piece (and I stress that it is an opinion piece and not a news item) points out some ironies:

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=6046

    But the headline stands out:

    ‘Row over Israeli tolerance museum’

    This is not an ‘Israeli’ museum at all, as the report then makes clear.Absolutely wrong.

    It is the brainchild of the “The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre” and is a privately-funded project.

    Ah well, they’re all Jews, aren’t they? If it’s not nasty Israel who are picking on Arabs, it’s the rich Diaspora Jews, innit?

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  18. archduke says:

    Now this is an interesting one.

    “BBC America” sponsors the leftist political website Wonkette.com:

    http://drinkingfromhome.blogspot.com/2006/02/bbc-sponsorship-for-us-lefties.html

    your TV license fee, at work.

    I wonder how the BBC Governers are going to explain this one?

       1 likes

  19. Rob says:

    As hand-picked left-wing audiences go, the one for today’s “Any Questions” on Radio 4 was a gem. The usual hysterical applause for any left-wing opinion stated. At least this lot seem to have the manners not to jeer and shout down any opinion expressed against them. I had to turn it off in disgust after a barely coherent rant from Germaine Greer drew whoops and long, lound applause.

    The audience selection process is so bent it’s not true.

       1 likes

  20. Rick says:

    Registrant:
    Talos, Attila
    BLOGWIRE HUNGARY SZELLEMI ALKOTAST HASZNOSITO KFT
    Frankel Leo u. 106-108
    Budapest, Budapest 1023
    HU

    Domain Name: WONKETTE.COM

    Administrative Contact:
    Talos, Attila domains@gawker.com
    BLOGWIRE HUNGARY SZELLEMI ALKOTAST HASZNOSITO KFT
    Frankel Leo u. 106-108
    Budapest, Budapest 1023
    HU
    +36-1-212-2569 fax: 123 123 1234

       1 likes

  21. will says:

    “unfair he should be suspended by an unelected body”

    So what are judges, magistrates, tribunal board members etc etc?

       1 likes

  22. Rick says:

    Rob, what would you expect ?

    Morley College Profile
    Overview Morley College is the largest adult education college in South London, with over 15000 students. It is based on the South Bank, close to the arts centre of London, and is easily reached by tube, rail or bus.

    Morley runs over 1000 part time day and evening courses in Visual Arts, Music, Languages, Humanities, Exercise and Health, Dance and Drama, Computing, Basic Skills and English for speakers of other languages.
    .
    Location Morley College, 61 Westminster Road, London, SE1 7HT
    tel: 020 7450 1889 fax: 020 7928 4074
    http://www.morleycollege.ac.uk
    email: enquiries@morleycollege.ac.uk

    Nearest Tube: Lambeth North (100 metres); Waterloo and Elephant and Castle (10 mins walk)
    Nearest Rail: Waterloo or Elephant and Castle (10 mins walk)

       1 likes

  23. will says:

    Anti Aunty ” I see our old friend Bilal Patel has come out in favour of Ken on the (D) HYS board!”

    Gay Muslim activist, Bilal Patel slams “Israel-loving snivelling hypocrites, almost all of them Jewish”

    http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/

       1 likes

  24. archduke says:

    Rob -> Lord Tebbit (PBUH) had some interesting things to say, to be honest.

       1 likes

  25. DFH says:

    archduke – I believe BBC America is funded by advertising, not the licence fee (although how it uses its budget does determine how much it can give to the BBC for reinvestment in programming). It was the politics of the sponsorship that interested me.

       1 likes

  26. Rob says:

    Good lord, I can hardly believe this – an article critical of the Democratic party on the BBC’s frontpage. What IS going on?!! Well done, Justin Webb.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4747254.stm

       1 likes

  27. Ashley Pomeroy says:

    “Well done, Justin Webb.”

    “America’s greatest contributions to world culture (incude) the kazoo, the electric guitar, drive-in fast food etc”

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  28. Ashley Pomeroy says:

    Christ, I can’t even spell the word include. Justin does however go on to describe the left as “ranting” whiners and indeed he likens them to cockroaches. Perhaps he has been betrayed by those he once championed.

    “The stickers which have caught my attention and which I think are part of a noteworthy political phenomenon” are nonetheless left-wing, anti-Bush stickers, because Justin Webb is left wing and feels sorry that the left wing is doing poorly in America.

    The report also includes the word “fissiparous”, which is the kind of slimy, underhand and indeed feminine word I would expect a left-winger to use. Webb also uses the word malaise, which is a bad word to use if you are a left-winger because it reminds people of Jimmy Carter = weakling.

    “The worlds of entertainment and news (which used to pipe a vaguely left-wing message into the nation’s homes) have been blown to bits by technological changes which render them powerless” – I bet that, back in the day, Justin Webb would have argued strenuously that the worlds of entertainment and news did not pipe a vaguely left-wing message into the nation’s homes, or indeed any message at all.

    Twenty years from now the current BBC staff will admit that this blog was generally correct, and they will have done well for themselves with their deceit.

       1 likes

  29. Fran says:

    I don’t know what RoP or ROP stands for. Can someone help me out?

    Thanks

       1 likes

  30. Bryan says:

    Fran,

    Religion of Peace.

    But what with all the suicide bombers blowing themselves up in its name, it should be the Religion of Pieces.

    The Religion of ‘Peace’ is often spoken of with heavy sarcasm.

       1 likes

  31. Bryan says:

    Now I have to leave this computer and venture out into what’s left of the real world.

       1 likes

  32. Rob says:

    Who was the BBC correspondent forced to apologise to listeners after making some refreshingly un-BBC comments about anti-American bias? Was that not Justin Webb? Or was it somebody else? Either way I think Webb deserves credit for that article regardless of what he may or may not have said in the past.

       1 likes

  33. Susan says:

    Gay Muslim activist, Bilal Patel slams “Israel-loving snivelling hypocrites, almost all of them Jewish”

    Al-Beeb probably thinks it’s hit the multi-culti jackpot with Bilal Patel: a gay Jew-hating Muslim. If he had some sort of physical handicap as well they’d really be over the moon.

       1 likes

  34. will says:

    With complaints about Coronation Street’s use of the phrase “white trash” waved away by regulators, its open season.

    BBC’s Radio Times reviewing tonight’s BBC film “A Time to Kill” has Samuel L as a “working-class black man” who murders “white trash” who have raped his daughter. When he goes to trial, his prosecuting attourny is in “the redneck corner”.

    Would the Radio Times have similar disparaging terms on hand if the baddies were black?

       1 likes

  35. Susan says:

    O/T I wonder if al-Beeb would ever think of buying this woman’s “artwork”?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/4749366.stm

    Sounds like it’s right up their alley.

       1 likes

  36. gordon-bennett says:

    Further to the Justin Webb article, I thibk he is admitting that the left (Democrat Party) control of MSM has existed and still does but that the MSM is less influential now.

    If, as usually happens, the UK catches up with the US after a couple of years then I think we on this blog need only to carry on as we are and wait for the beeb to become no less biased than now but a lot less influential.

    When that happens then perhaps a new generation of beeboids will drop the leftie schtick and go impartial or fade away since there will then be increased pressure to reform the beeb funding mechanism.

       1 likes

  37. archduke says:

    hmm. more and more its becoming apparent that the bbc is al-bbc.

    one of the biggest riots in decades kicked off in Dublin city centre today – and it merited a brief snippet on the evening BBC news. think it was about 3rd or 4th story – after an iraq report.

    says it all really.

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  38. Natalie Solent says:

    Several observers have commented on a new tone in Mr Webb’s reports over the last few months. To see what I mean read this post from The American Expatriate.

       1 likes

  39. archduke says:

    very odd how the bbc chooses pictures on its website.

    have a look here

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4750576.stm

    scroll midway down – you have a quote from the taoiseach, illustrated by a garda beating the crap out of someone.

    the quote is:
    “it is the essence of Irish democracy and republicanism that people are allowed to express their views freely and in a peaceful manner”

    odd , no? any other webmaster would have illustrated that quote with a photo of Bertie Ahern.

    or do we have Republican Sinn Fein sympathisers working for the BBC website?

    i’ve grabbed the photo/quote combo and hosted it here:

    http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=oje4gy

       1 likes

  40. archduke says:

    wrong link
    corrected:
    http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=oje5oy

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  41. Susan says:

    Several observers have commented on a new tone in Mr Webb’s reports over the last few months

    Maybe he’s either stopped smoking crack, or taken it up.

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  42. archduke says:

    i dont think bbc will ever show this

    http://www.zipperfish.net/free/yaafm12.php

    (its a cartoon about cartoon rage)

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  43. Allan@Aberdeen says:

    Re air-head Cloonie’s interview on Newsnight last night with a swooning Kirsty Wark, the questions put were as penetrating as we would expect but the answers by George led to some reflection on my part. Gorgeous George (Clooney, not Galloway) spoke of the oppression of McCarthyism etc and gave the usual glib summary of the injustices suffered by those accused of treason. BUT, the internet allows people like me to determine for myself whether those accused actually were guilty of treason and whether McCarthy actually was the demagogue of leftist legend.
    Archives released from Russia show that McCarthy underestimated the scale of treason in the US’s media and body-politic. We also know that most of those accused of treason were de facto traitors. Such questions should have been put to the air-head, and the BBC can be depended upon not to do so.

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  44. Rick says:

    McCarthyism etc and gave the usual glib summary of the injustices suffered by those accused of treason

    http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/progjfk2.htm

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  45. archduke says:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator_mccarthy

    “mcCarthy’s mother, Bridget Tierney, was from County Tipperary, Ireland. His father, Tim McCarthy, was American; the son of an Irish father and a German mother.”

    as i’ve said on another thread, irish politics is skewed somewhat to the right..

    “Although McCarthy’s activities did not result in any convictions or criminal prosecutions for espionage, intercepted Soviet communications from the now-declassified VENONA project, as well as the opening of Soviet Archives, indicate that some of the individuals he pursued were, in fact, Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers.”

    “Later, the VENONA papers confirmed that there was Soviet espionage in high levels of American government.”

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  46. Allan@Aberdeen says:

    Archduke quotes:
    “……indicate that some of the individuals he pursued were, in fact, Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers.”
    It’s more than just ‘some’, but the internet enables laymen like me to bypass this self-appointed guardian (how appropriate) of truth to determine for myself what is actual truth, and to pass my own judgement on those who have denied me these truths. The BBC does this continuously as it did with its mouthpiece Clooney, and yet is completely unaware that it has indeed been by-passed.

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  47. Ashley Pomeroy says:

    “the internet enables laymen like me to bypass this self-appointed guardian etc”

    OT, but two of the top tags on Flickr at the moment are “riot” and “riots”.

    There are lots of photographs of the smashings-up in Dublin, taken by regular people like you or I, on the spot and unfiltered by an editor. I’m sure media graduates would bemoan the lack of context and “framing”, but I enjoy this kind of on-the-spot reporting, direct news live as it happens, from hundreds of people.

    Each of the photographers has an ideology (because otherwise they wouldn’t be taking the picture), but it is my hope that the diversity of ideology will prevent one single point of view taking centre-stage. Having said that, certain photographs are more magnetic than others, and of course one person could simply take hundreds and hundreds of photographs and muscle out other points of view out.

    Here are some people in Lahore rioting (mildly) about the recent cartoon issue; I can see two women in a huge crowd of men, and would the BBC ever describe these people as “hideously white”, even though they are uniformly white (albeit that they are lawyers, and that Pakistan does not, as far as I know, have the kind of affirmative action programmes that are common in the West):
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/68016364@N00/100428372/

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  48. Ashley Pomeroy says:

    “muscle out other points of view out”

    Well said there. I am reminded of Paul McCartney and the “ever changing world in which we live in” from Live and Let Die.

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  49. archduke says:

    ashley -> indeed – flickr is funnily enough where i went to FIRST when i heard on the radio about the dublin riots.
    the tag i used was just “dublin”
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/dublin

    but there is one photo that stood out a mile , with regards with the onset of independent blogging and independent news gathering:

    Vantage

    says it all really.

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  50. archduke says:

    the photo of the garda beating up somebody is STILL up on the bbc site, next to a quote by bertie ahern…

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4750576.stm

    very odd.

       0 likes