So say the Civitas think-tank, in a report on a BBC ‘documentary‘ which turns out to be a bit of a travesty of the truth.
“A programme broadcast on 5 October 2005 called ‘Little Kinsey’ manifested such a distortion of its source material that we can no longer depend upon the integrity of the BBC’s factual programmes.”
‘Little Kinsey’ was part of the ‘Lost Decade’ season, focusing on issues relevant to the period 1945-55. Its central argument was that the restrained attitudes towards sexual activity which would have been considered as typical of the era were hypocritical, that men and women were commonly adulterous, that family life was frequently unhappy, that many men used prostitutes and that homosexual activity was common. In fact, the archive, now housed at the University of Sussex, showed no such thing: it showed a society in which most people were still very conservative in their attitudes. Nor do official statistics back up the lurid picture painted by the BBC.
The Civitas press release is here, the full report (pdf file) here.
Clearly a right-wing conspiracy. Civitas is full of right-wing conspirators, you know.
Projection. Baby boomers, the narcissistic generation who decided that having it all meant smoking dope and protesting Vietnam before going into government, law and the media, are projecting their ideal society onto their square, conservative parents. The thought of being the product of conservative, restrained, honourable parents obviously fills them with a self-loathing. So they project their own feckless, selfish values onto their parents.
to quote Admiral Ackbar ,
“Its a trap!!”
why?
it’ll be served up as let another example of the “prudishness” of the conservative “right wing”.
my own view is that there are far bigger, and greater, targets – such as the pandering to Islamofascists.
And just why are we forced to pay for the BBC when no-one is watching it??
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1727845,00.html
Archduke,
We’ll never pin them down on the Islamofascists. The mainstream media won’t play ball. Politicians are desperate for the Muslim vote.
I think the way the BBC behaves is abhorrent, but the BBC will just dismiss any criticism of their pro-multiculti and pro-Islam propaganda as ‘racism’.
The BBC always loves to blow its own trumpet regarding documentaries and current affairs. IMHO the way to get to the Beeb is to start fisking their ‘factual’ output. Once people realise how shoddy and dumbed-down the BBC has become, momentum might start to build. TV viewing figures are down. BBC share of those viewing TV are down. The licence fee should be on its way out.
We just need to ensure that they don’t bring in a bloody PC tax.
Associated Press is tilted against the US a lot of the time, and the BBC usually rushes to print any bad news from AP on Iraq.
But there is no sign of the BBC reporting this momentous news on the Sunnis flashing back on the Al Q terrorists :
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060309/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_fighting_al_zarqawi
“We just need to ensure that they don’t bring in a bloody PC tax.”
indeed. that idea is nuts.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1727845,00.html
staggering. indeed – nobody is watching it.
Just found this on the (D)HYS page about the US port deal:
“The question, “Are US ports safe in foreign hands?”, is quite simply a misnomer. The issue is not wether or not the ports are safe in ‘foreign’ hands, it is wether or not they are safe in MUSLIM hands.
THAT is the problem a lot of Americans have with this deal, and quite frankly the fact that the BBC see fit to omit this crucial detail is suspect to say the least.”
james bryson, manchester, United Kingdom
Sounds familliar. Does the ever sagacious Archduke have more than one alias…?
Any way, I recommended it.
It could be argued that the Civitas findings also backs the return of programme making to a centralised BBC where standards could be more effectively monitored. Whether those standards are worthwhile is another matter.
“Sounds familliar. Does the ever sagacious Archduke have more than one alias…?”
hand on heart, thats not me.
looks like somebody has plagarised my comment. not that i have a problem with that!
Grimer “start fisking their ‘factual’ output
This is regularly done with star reporter John Simpson’s output (e.g. his regular quoting virulent anti-Israeli Prof Juan Cole as an apparently independent “Middle East expert”, quoting a Guantanamo defence brief as if independent academic research, quoting incorrect or disputed death statistics from Iraq).
But when these points are submitted to HYS they rarely get published, but despite their absense the HYS submissions are full of people saying how impartial Simpson is & that “If there is still someone who does not agree with John Simpson’s views, he must seek urgent psychiatric treatment.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=1229&&&&edition=1&ttl=20060310100942
The moment a ‘PC Tax’ is introduced, I will be driving to France to buy one there. No way will I be paying a tax to a corrupt and dangerous Marxist media organisation just because I want to own a personal computer. It’s crazy.
Why stick at a PC tax? Why doesn’t the BBC demand 20% of the vehicle license? Or perhaps it should demand that people pay through PAYE, that way it would be “progressive”, i.e. as you earn more you have to pay even more to subsidise these parasites. The BBC would love that: those who detest them the most paying through the nose for their investments in Arab-language media in the Middle East.
From that (D)HYS:
“Thanks for the information. I no longer trust
the news sources in the U.S. It’s awful when
you feel your government only provides propaganda. The U.S. has become a government of war and/or getting ready for war. John
Bolton is starting up the propaganga machine
in the U.N. to go the war in Iran.”
John Houtz
Instead of actually finding an unbiased broadcaster (he must have the IQ of a lettuce to think the BBC is that) I think that Mr Houtz has instead simply found a broadcaster who’s bias is in line with his own.
Pete_London(pbuh) and myself are non-payers of the TV-Tax.
I haven’t paid for 2 years and Pete hasn’t for 6!
You can too.
Only Mugs pay TV-Tax thugs.
If anyone is worried about the PC-tax. Don’t! I will personally and for free (assembly) build you a computer from parts imported from the free world (which you pay for).
The machine will be cheaper and faster than one you could buy in the UK.
I agree with Rob. In fact, if you’re around the manchester area, I’ll build one for you too. 🙂
Off Topic:
Check out the picture used for this article.
Community still mourns MG passing
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4740656.stm
I can’t quite work out what graffiti on a door has to do with a car plant closing.
Are they trying to say that it was an ideal community before evil market forces and incompetant management sent the company bust? Now budding young artists have no hope of a job in a factory, so they have started defacing their own neighbourhood?
What a load of shit.
Rob
You will be pleased to know that I too have not paid my TV tax for the last five years (while owning a small very old colour portable). As it is hardly ever on I don’t feel any guilt.
However, I am about to be given one of those huge things that are more effective at swallowing space and time than a black hole. No chance of the occassional output from that (I am looking forward to watching old spaghetti westerns) being hidden so I will be paying the tax this year.
I live in London, and I can also build you a PC. I also used to live in Taiwan, so a quick call to the ex-girlfriend and I should be able to get components at knock down prices.
Peregrine,
I don’t pay the TV tax and we have a huge TV. It’s all about knowing your rights.
Don’t reply to their letters. It’s as simple as that.
If you work during the day, they won’t get you. We keep getting threatening letters, the last one said they would send an ‘inspector’. Nobody has ever turned up in the evenings. I guess they don’t want to pay them the overtime.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4767852.stm
“E-revolution forces Danes online”
Quotes:
——————————–
“We have made savings in the public sector of around 100m euros (£68.5m),” says Claus Juhl, from the government’s Digital Task Force.
Branch manager Karsten Frandsen says this has reduced the costs of an invoice from two euros (£1.40) to 1.2 euros (80p).
———————————-
errr… hello?
the Danes arent part of the Eurozone. They rejected it in a referendum and are still using the Danish Krone
Grimer,
I think you’re absolutely right. The agenda-setting is tedious for those who don’t share their world-view, but where it’s accompanied by the hard slog of good journalism – Channel 4 News for example – you agree to disagree and wish them well on their way.
The problem with the BBC is not just that they’re agenda-pushing, but that it daily undermines their journalistic practice. As anyone who has worked as a journo can tell you, it’s either one of the easiest jobs in the world, or one of the hardest. If you’re content merely to push your agenda day in, day out, it’s dead easy – the (same) stories write themselves day after day, helped along the way by fellow agenda-pushers (all those NGOs and lobbyists are more than willing to write your news for you). Soon enough, you end up with the Today programme.
The majority of stories (as opposed to attitudes) complained of here are, I believe, the result of an abandonment of journalistic standards (and effort), which are itself an expression of the comprehensiveness with which the “correct” agenda is understood by everyone involved.
Real reporting is hard: how much more work does it take to be Paul Reynolds digging out the facts than John Simpson spinning fantasies and speculation, do you think?
Ultimately, the fish starts to stink from the head: the poor junior staffers of the BBC will pretty quickly have to absorb the agenda and habits of their seniors, or get another job. And why do the seniors – the John Humphreys, the silent Kevin Marsh (head of new journalism college, yet to lower himself to explain why he invited al Sadr’s man on the Today program to push, unchallenged, the slur that the Americans were responsible for the Golden Mosque bomb) do it? As so often, it’s the “why does a dog lick its balls” question: because they can.
And they can because, absent the market, there’s absolutely nothing to discipline these people – they are answerable to no-one or nothing. Oh, sorry, they are answerable to the complaints procedure (yup, that’s the one that brought you “Complaint upheld, no action recommended”), and the governors.
And who are the governors? You haven’t a clue, have you? Well, they are:
Michael Grade • TV lifer;
Anthony Salz • lawyer;
Deborah Bull – former principal dancer with Royal Ballet;
Andrew Burns • career diplomat
Ruth Deech • lawyer, don;
Dermot Gleeson • industrialist;
Merfyn Jones • Welsh academic;
Fabian Monds • Northern Ireland academic;
Jeremy Peat – Civil servant turned banker;
Angela Sarkis • charity worker, on the House of Lords Appointments Commission;
Ranjit Sondhi • race relations activist (that’s a bit harsh, he’s probably a good egg);
Richard Tait • BBC lifer.
That’s right, good establishment chaps all, but a life swaddled in the British establishment is no grounding for overseeing the BBC. And, of course, not a journalist among them: not one. Worse, looking at the list, you get the feeling they’d feel pretty chuffed personally if Dimbleby, Paxman, Humphreys et al nodded to them in the lift.
Who believes these are the people to save the BBC?
Nope, the only way the BBC will ever recover is to abolish the licence fee and let the market get on with the job.
” If anyone is worried about the PC-tax. Don’t! I will personally and for free (assembly) build you a computer from parts imported from the free world (which you pay for).
The machine will be cheaper and faster than one you could buy in the UK.
Rob Read | 10.03.06 – 10:43 am | #
Gravatar I agree with Rob. In fact, if you’re around the manchester area, I’ll build one for you too.
Archonix | Homepage | 10.03.06 – 10:51 am | # ”
I’ve been thinking of building my own machine for a while now (OS X/Win dual boot FTW!), and would like to buy parts from say newegg or whoever in the US – do you guys know any sites over there that will ship to the UK, or have I misunderstood?
The BBC website introduces the governors, and gives them a chance to answer that burning question: “Why did I become a Governor.” Here’s what they wrote, stripped of the guff about how great they (all) think the BBC is:
Anthony Salz: “Getting involved in the BBC offered a new community of opinionated and clever people, but with rather a different approach from lawyers.” (Translation • “Dimbleby nods to me in the lift!”)
Deborah Bull: “I have always been involved in a range of activities in addition to my work on the stage.” (Translation • “It’s great on the CV. Check out this portfolio!”)
Andrew Burns: “Over the many years I’ve spent working overseas, I have had close relationships with any number of BBC journalists and producers. So it’s a world I both admire and feel very comfortable with.” (Translation: “Dimbleby nods to me in the lift!)
Ruth Deech: “So that I could play a part in ensuring the BBC continued to offer to others what I had when I was growing up. . . . The BBC has a key role in citizenship. And of course that’s not just true here in the UK. The BBC represents the best of what Britain has to offer the world – its values, its culture. And of course it’s also an absolute mainstay of Britain’s cultural life – particularly in music – everything from the regional orchestras to the Proms. Where would we be without it?” (Translation: “And where would I be • stuck teaching law at St Anne’s, that’s where.”)
Dermot Gleeson: “I wanted to become a Governor because I regard the BBC as one of Britain’s most important institutions.” (Translation: “Closely followed by myself, of course.”) Also “Kofi Annan called the BBC’s World Service Britain’s greatest gift to humanity in the second half of the 20th Century.” (Translation • “Gosh!)
Merfyn Jones: “I’m steeped in broadcasting, and particularly broadcasting in Wales” Also “I listen to BBC radio a great deal, and I also watch a lot of BBC television.” (I’m not making this up • it’s what he wrote.)
Fabian Monds: “One of my driving passions has always been a great interest in communications technology. . . . . the BBC as a connecting agency is very important to me.” (Translation: “I’m a Northern Ireland techie. Will that do – Ed?”)
Jeremy Peat: “At the time of approaching retirement, I was looking to carry on being active, and with a clear Scottish connection. The role of BBC Governor – on the UK Board but also National Governor for Scotland – seemed to fit the bill ideally.” (Translation: “It passes the time.”)
Angela Sarkis: “Firstly, because it’s a great opportunity. . . Secondly, as a consultant working with different levels of change management in public and voluntary organisations, to find out how the BBC was dealing with strategic issues around change. And thirdly, I saw it as a rare chance to both learn more about the media and influence its impact.” (Translation: “I’m flattered • they want me for my Agenda. Also, isn’t broadcasting great!”)
Ranjit Sondhi: “I’ve always had what people call a portfolio career, and while it can certainly be physically demanding it’s also enormously intellectually stimulating.” (Translation • “It’s great on the CV. Check out this portfolio!”)
Richard Tait: “I became a Governor because . . . I thought I had a contribution to make, at a time when . . . the quality and impartiality of its journalism – could be seen to be under pressure.” (Translation: “They wanted an insider”)
Peregrine,
I have the dealt with the TV-Tax thugs in the same way as Grimer.
They go away if you ignore them.
Midwich,
There are a couple of articles on beating Rip-Off Britain here:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper-features/76848/for-a-few-dollars-less.html?searchString=buy+abroad+buy+buying+buyer+buys+buyers+abroad
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/75725/ripoff-britain.html?searchString=buy+abroad+buy+buying+buyer+buys+buyers+abroad
I haven’t read the first article, but I did reaqd the second one. On page 7 there is a chart showing relative prices. It’s a bit out of date now, but it should give you an idea of prices.
Be sure to check on any applicable import duties (I don’t think there are any on computer components, but monitors with a DVI connection, get taxed as TV’s).
Always pay by credit card. If you have any problems, the credit card company are liable.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4793070.stm
this story should be lead story on the bbc.co.uk
porfumo is dead, it makes no difference now.
what makes a difference is the current scandal..
will watch 1pm news to see
can they arrest Tony Blair too do you think? or is he off the hook?
i stand corrected it just changed
Excuse my ignorance, I’m new to all this, but could someone please tell me how to post a link on this comments page.
I love this site, and would like to contribute my penny’s worth some time.
Thanks.
Why is the HYS section on Simpson being moderated ? Why can’t we just post commments freely ?
Derek -> just cut and paste
e.g.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/index.shtml
Michael Taylo’s comments above about how the BBC GroupThink works is excellent. As he says – a fish stinks from the head, and John Simpson is the head of overseas reporting.
2.8 Billion extorted for nothing in return.
http://acepilots.com/mt/2006/03/09/blonde-extinction-meme-dies-slowly/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4789132.stm
correct me if i am wrong, but is pre-election polling allowed in israel?
from reading Jeremy Bowen’s report i am none the wiser as to whether Kadima or Likud are doing well or badly in terms of public opinion.
he merely mentions:
“At the moment, the polls suggest that Kadima will win most seats.”
Yes, the BBC publishes trivia and overlooks really important stuff, real shifts in geopolitics.
It is no surprise that they paid very little attention to what Bush was doing and saying in India, and how the Indians responded. They preferred to twitter on about his cricket session in Pakistan.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/013378.php
“We just need to ensure that they don’t bring in a bloody PC tax.”
It’s interesting to speculate how things would be today if British Telecom had never been privatised; although a tax on PCs might be hard to turn into law, a huge levy on internet use – to pay for the BBC’s website – would be feasible if the BBC was in cahoots with the people who control the phone lines.
Of course, in an alternative Britain in which BT was never privatised, we would still have those old Bakelite phones and Britain’s subset of the internet would resemble Prestel or Ceefax. Or sommat.
As I understand it you have to pay a TV licence if you have a TV card in your machine. And the government could simply increase the import duty on PC components and fund the BBC that way. And in the near future people will generally use XBoxes or set-top boxes or something other than PCs with which to surf the internet, at which point the BBC licence will still apply because such things will be connected to (futuristic) televisions which can nonetheless pick up BBC signals… somehow. I’m not up to speed on the technical details.
I don’t pay the licence fee either, because I don’t have a television. I choose instead to spend twenty pounds a month for broadband. I generally only watched documentaries, and yer average fan-page on (insert technical/historical subject here) wipes the floor with a television documentary. If I want to see something like The Living Planet or I’m Alan Partridge I buy the DVD.
Ho ho.
Ian Barnes’ link:
ITALY BID FOR PM CORRUPTION BID
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4793070.stm
Begins with:
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the husband of a UK minister could face trial in Italy, following a request from prosecutors.
Bloody hell, just who could the “husband of a UK minister” be? Mr Harriet Harman? Mr Yvette Cooper? Mr Patricia Hewitt?
A judge has been asked to indict Mr Berlusconi and lawyer David Mills on corruption charges, say reports.
Yes yes, but just who is this “husband of a UK minister”?
It is alleged Mr Mills, who is married to UK Culture Minister Tessa Jowell, was paid a bribe by Mr Berlusconi after giving helpful testimony in two trials.
I seeee …. But which political party is she a long standing member of? I see no mention of the ‘L’ word.
I can’t remember who mentioned this but I’ve only just got around to viewing it:
http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1050#
A magnificent performance, a tour de force and the way to talk to a backward, dysfunctional culture.
Brian Hanrahan on WATO Radio 4 today is a dork. There are concerns that surgeons working in these ISTC hospitals doing hip-replacements are having big problems because the Govt had bought one type of hip joint and it is not necessarily the one these surgeons in ISTCs are trained to fit.
Hey presto there are problems.
So Hanrahan starts claiming these doctors are not trained to the same standard as NHS surgeons being “foreign” which feeds the Minister the line “but 25% doctors in the NHS are foreign”
This is not the issue. The issue until the BBC twisted it was whether someone trained to fit a Charnley joint is able to fit Joint X when he has never seen that joint before and has no experience of cementing it in.
How the BBC fails to comprehend is bizarre
Has this been on al beeb yet?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/08/MNGBVHKF8T1.DTL
It could be a headache for them; muslims (superdoubleplusgoodgoodgood), defending democracy and freedom of speech (superdoubleplusbadbadbad).
Hat tip to Mr Jericho
Why is the HYS section on Simpson being moderated ? Why can’t we just post commments freely ?
dumbcisco | 10.03.06 – 12:44 pm | #
Presumably because any comments which disagree with Mr Simpson are ‘extreme’ and must be removed.
Thanks, Archduke.
Feeling a bit stupid. I’ll let you get on with your good work.
Mr Harriet Harman? Mr Yvette Cooper? Mr Patricia Hewitt?
Mr Harriet Harman – Jack Dromey is not a lawyer but a TGWU official
Mr Yvette Cooper – Ed Balls is a Gordon Brown clone
Mr Patricia Hewitt is a QC and Judge called William Birtles
Thanks Grimer, will read those articles carefully. It’s still a bit early for running OS X on a homebuilt PC as standard, but a year from now, who knows?
How about this for quote of the week:
“Journalism is an art, not a science, and everyone knows how inaccurate it can often be.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4778380.stm
Yes John,’it’ can be very inacurate can’t ‘it’?
As for art, well art is a CREATIVE process.
John Simpson – artist…
the bbc news is pathetic.
they have an article about a guy arrested for putting rubbish in the bin, before the biggest scandal in political life david mills + co.
you are a joke
i do wonder who at the BBC is also receiving bribes?
its not just gun crime you to worry about now – its bombs:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/4792292.stm
http://english.people.com.cn/200603/01/eng20060301_246997.html
WHAT IRONY,
We need Communist China to tell us this.
“Journalism is an art, not a science, and everyone knows how inaccurate it can often be.”
oh for f**k sake Mr Simpson – just gives us the facts. just the facts.
here’s a hint – it’s called REPORTING
“they have an article about a guy arrested for putting rubbish in the bin, before … david mills + co.”
I suppose it depends on whether the BBC is pursuing a highbroad agenda, or a tabloid agenda, or the kind of self-aware highbrow tabloid agenda of newspapers such as the Guardian (which has reports on David Beckham etc, but couched as if they were major insights into contemporary culture rather than just prurience).
“Journalism is an art, not a science, and everyone knows how inaccurate it can often be.”
I think the key issue is to do with sourcing. Journalists can’t source their comments to the same supposed standard as academic theses; without this transparency, journalistic reports always have an element of the journalist’s judgement and faith in them.
And adequate sourcing is impossible in conventional news journalism in part because of time pressures. Of course, the BBC – being better than the News of the World – shouldn’t have this problem because it is not competing with tabloid-style news. There is no reason why it cannot report news stories a week or a month after they happen, but as accurately and thoroughly as possible. It is theoretically not under commercial pressure and can take time to get things right. But of course the BBC *is* competing with tabloid-style news. Why is this? It might sound naive and simple, but why does the BBC scramble for headlines etc?