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.
If you subscribe to the daily email telling you what is on that night, you get as a bonus the weekly musings of the editor.
This is this week’s masterpiece. I don’t recommend that you read it, just marvel at the waste of effort of a top BBC employee
NEWSNIGHT – PIZZA IS BETTER WITHOUT CHEESE
============================================================
————————————————————
FROM NEWSNIGHT EDITOR, PETER BARRON
————————————————————
I was at a dinner the other night and met an interesting chap who’d just written a book about the history of the aphorism.
We had quite a lengthy conversation about what constitutes an aphorism, as opposed to a maxim, nostrum, proverb or cliché. As he explained, an aphorism is short pithy statement attributed to one person.
His favourite – coined by George Burns – was, “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible”. Pretty good.
It made me think, wouldn’t it be good to contribute an aphorism to the language, so here – virally – is my attempt:
“Pizza is better without cheese.” To my mind, it has – unlike the business about the snowflakes – the merit of being literally true and metaphorically valuable.
I love cheese. But I hate the greasy, molten scab you get on top of most pizzas. To my mind a pizza should be thin and crisp, with tomato, herbs, garlic and maybe a little dried chilli. But none of Britain’s numerous pizza chains offer such an option.
So, I end up having to explain what it is I want to a waitress who looks at me as if I’m either a militant vegan or a sufferer of lactose intolerance. Then, quite often, the message doesn’t get through to the chef and you’re faced with the split-second choice of whether to accept the cheesy offering and try to eat it, or send it back and end up having
your lunch alone when everyone else has finished, without cheese but possibly with the disgruntled waitress’ saliva.
It’s a dilemma with no right answer.
Cheese is an American affectation
This week I was introduced to Armando Iannucci, who was being shown round the BBC newsroom by the head of TV News to absorb material for his excellent series The Thick of It.
I read somewhere that he too favours pizza without cheese, and he should know – his father used to run a pizza factory. “Cheese is an American affectation,” he confirms.
Can we really be alone in this? Time, I think, for a national debate.
The metaphorical bit of my aphorism is simple. Just because things are generally done one way, and almost everyone accepts that’s the way it’s done, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it.
That’s more or less the philosophy behind what we try to do on Newsnight. As a philosophy it’s not a million miles away from “think outside the box”.
The trouble with Edward de Bono’s classic aphorism is that it has slipped into cliché, so remember the next time you reach for it there is an alternative.
Broccoli won’t save the planet
It’s amazing how quickly received wisdom can settle and congeal. Take our Ethical Man series. In the Guardian this week Natasha Walter, with reference to Justin Rowlatt’s project scolded:
“All the organic broccoli in the world won’t be enough to save the planet.”
She assumed how Justin’s project will proceed when in fact the point of what he’s doing is precisely to identify the things that certainly won’t save the planet and the things that might.
Journalism, like pizza chains, loves a formula. This week we’ve been debating those phrases used on news programmes which really grate. “The deadly H5N1 virus” came up. It is indisputably pretty deadly, or at least, as our science editor says, highly pathogenic, but very quickly the words start to wash over you in a meaningless way, like “the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr” or in an earlier time “mainly Muslim West Beirut”.
My own pet hate is the phrase they use on BBC1 bulletins before the regional programmes, “now the news where you are”, which always sounds to me like “wherever the hell you are”. I’m told the problem is you can’t use the form “across the country” because that alienates the Channel Islanders. But there must be a better way – perhaps you know it.
WHAT TV NEWS PHRASES DO YOU HATE? CLICK HERE TO TELL US: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4792682.stm#form
At the same dinner I met another interesting fellow who’s a Newsnight devotee and subscriber to our e-mail service.
He had two questions. Why doesn’t Jeremy Paxman write the daily e-mail like the other presenters? Answer: because Jeremy, contrary to the prevailing trend, thinks that the pre-eminent form of communication is still television and remains to be convinced otherwise.
And who is that irritating chap who’s always writing about things like the Newsnight theme tune? Ah.
will
Lord help us – that Peter Barron guy sounds like a parody.
Oh for the days of real editorial/current affairs talent – Grace whatshername at the BBC, Cudlipp at the Mirror, Harry Evans at the Sunday Times – and for that matter Andrew Neil. Why is Neil being used for froth when he should be in charge of something like Newsnight – or DG ?
WHAT TV NEWS PHRASES DO YOU HATE? CLICK HERE TO TELL US
Ah, that is almost too easy. The ones I hate the most are “militant” “plumber” and “market trader” used in place of murderer.
“WHAT TV NEWS PHRASES DO YOU HATE? CLICK HERE TO TELL US”
“militant” instead of terrorist
“asian” instead of “muslim”
“the Prophet Muhammed” instead of the Islamic “prophet” Muhammed
TV phrases to hate:
“Fit for purpose.”
Woke up early the other morning, switched on R4 to hear Farming Today (or some such), to hear someone describe cows as “not fit for purpose”.
Eh?
Excellent post at USSNeverdock about the way the BBC virtually always gives a platform to the wrong muslim spokespeople :
http://ussneverdock.blogspot.com/2006/03/uk-muslims-march-against-bin-laden.html
Ian Barnes writes:
“they have an article about a guy arrested for putting rubbish in the bin, before the biggest scandal in political life david mills + co.”
For once, I disagree – not that Jowell isn’t the bigger story, but because outrageous bullying by local gauleiters, like those from Hinkley & Bosworth Council who issued this (highly questionable) fixed penalty notice, needs as much exposure to ridicule and opprobrium as possible.
Indeed, I’m mildly surprised the BBC picked up this story at all as it runs against the tide of their nanny-state agenda.
It’s the petty officials who make a police state function – whether intellectually challenged police forces who misapply the poorly drafted legislation spewing forth from this goverment like waste from a ruptured sewer pipe, or officious zealots in local government offices, who should be escorted from the premises, clutching their possessions in a black bin liner, whenever a tale like this comes to light. Indeed, it’s a great pity that the officer responsible wasn’t ‘named and shamed’.
These tin-pot dictators need bringing to heel, they must be made publicly accountable for their actions and the BBC should be congratulated for exposing them (even if it may have cribbed the story from the Telegraph!).
Michael Taylor writes:
” TV phrases to hate:
“Fit for purpose.”
Ugh! Agreed.
Also ‘best practice’ as trotted out by ZaNuLabour apparatchiks at the drop of a hat.
“best practice” is Arthur Andersen droid speak , thats made its way into NuLabour Newspeak.
Ever wonder where Brownstuff got the inspiration for his Enron style accounting?
I get the dreadful feeling that when Osborne makes it to No.11 a big stinking, turd of a financial disaster will be waiting for him.
“brownstuff”, thats funny.
Heres what sickens me, listening to Radio 4 last night, something about one of the states of USA and the BBC launch into that old “gap between rich and poor” being so vast (no mention of the gap between Jowells fortune and mine).
First off, I dont care how big the gap is. Secondly, its none of thhe BBC dammned business to go moralising in a foreign country.Thirdly, no mention ever of the gap between abiltity, input or even luck. The BBC just assume that if you are poor it is because someone else is rich.
Close down this dangerous Socialist broadcster NOW.
SiN writes:
” Secondly, its none of thhe BBC dammned business to go moralising in a foreign country”
I noticed the same thing. Isn’t it curious how the BBC seems so obsessed with finding fault with the USA?
Never a word about how wide such a gap might be in, say, France, Spain, Italy, Japan or even (gasp!) Cuba.
And yes, I agree with your suggested remdey, too. The BBC is beyond reform.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4793728.stm
The US economy created 243,000 jobs in February due to economic strength. The big uptick in jobs creation encouraged more labor seekers to enter the job market — which resulted in the unemployment rate going up one-tenth of one percent, from 4.7 to 4.8.
So how does the BBC headline this story?
Click on the link and see for yourself.
Disgusted. Envious little pricks, aren’t they?
‘Peter Barron’ cannot be real, surely? He sounds like a character in Private Eye’s It’s Grim Up North (London). He is not of this world.
“Oh my, Tarquin, don’t you just hate it when tofu is served at just below room temperature?”
He is clearly hankering after a column in The Gaunad.
Having read this thread I can see only one answer. All State-funded broadcasters should be transferred to the European Commission and then affiliated into a new European Union Broadcasting Authority (EUBA) run from Brussels or Luxembourg.
This would have the advantage of thoroughly alienating the public in each country and making the absurdity of taxpayer funded TV plain…………..but it would be so attractive to the Eurocrats to have their own TV channels…….which noone would be watching
Susan,
Just think of all the lefties losing money by shorting the US after they trusted the BBC’s economic news.
Rick,
Knowing the EU EUTV would be run with the same proficiency as the studio Harrison Bergeron storms.
Google the name.
“quite often, the message doesn’t get through to the chef and you’re faced with the split-second choice of whether to accept the cheesy offering and try to eat it, or send it back and end up having your lunch alone when everyone else has finished, without cheese but possibly with the disgruntled waitress’ saliva.”
The subtext is that the man writing this does not envisage a waitress reading it, i.e. his perception of the audience is that it is made up of people exactly like himself. I wonder if he knows a waitress, on a social level? Has he ever had a conversation with someone who did not go to university? With someone who works in a supermarket? I imagine that he holds working people in contempt.
I often used to get that myself; I went to university and worked for a time in the media, and then I was made redundant and got a job as a typist. I often found myself having to reiterate the fact that I was a typist to people like Peter Barron, because they assumed that I was joking. The conversation usually hit a brick wall at that point. I really dislike Peter Barron a lot.
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and I have never met anyone like him before!
Well, maybe one or two. 🙂
The world is on the brink of world war three, with the Iranians edging closer to their dream of wiping out Israel.
And Peter Barron is writing about cheese on pizza.
who are these clowns?
“Are you a heretic?”
What the hell sort of question is that to ask in a TV interview? Have these people passed through the 14th century yet?
archduke:
It’s an even more extreme example of the wild-eyed, panicked “move along, nothing to see here” line. If Mr Barron thinks the evils of the world don’t exist because he burbles on about cheese, then ergo they don’t.
Susan,
Well spotted – a piece of rank bad journalism, produced by some anonymous low-grade staffer who knows just enough to keep on the right side of The Agenda. In this case The Agenda dictating a sort of unthinking knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
And the effect of this in the long run has been / is to exile the BBC from any serious economic / financial reporting. If it matters to you, the last organisation you’d look to is the BBC.
Instead, the people to whom this information matters look to Bloomberg. Who report it thus: “US Adds 243,000 Jobs, Wages Gain in Sign Labor Market Bolstering Growth.”
Anyway, let’s hope the poor sod who’s dignity has been compromised by producing the BBC’s unique “take” on this data is reading this. If so, have some self-respect mate, and work for an organisation with standards.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/feedback.shtml
BBC Radio 4 13:30
Feedback
10 March 2006
Today Programme
“Did John Humphrys go too far in his recent interview with the new leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron on Wednesday the first of March? Gavin Allen deputy editor of the Today programme responds to listener concerns.”
Listen to Allen defend Humphrys, pathetic! He mentions that they regularly have a de-briefing afterwards, “we all discuss in open forum”. Later on in this same programme Rod Liddle defined what good journalism was and how the editor should choose the news subjects for the Today programme.
Can Michael Taylor expose the editors of the Today programme for us? They prefer to remain hidden from view.
OT: nothing to do with bias – i just thought that this breaking story is fascinating:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4790126.stm
Yup, that is interesting.
This is too: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4793198.stm
However, it’s factually incorrect to describe creationists claims as ‘Theories’. They are not theories, they are idle speculation – and the leader should read:
Creationist “theories” about how the world was made are to be debated in GCSE science lessons in mainstream secondary schools in England.
Strange really, because the whole point of the article is that schoolkids should learn what makes for good science, and what makes for mumbo-jumbo.
May the BBC journalist should go back to the science class too ?
Totally OT
I note that no arrests have yet been made in respect of the cartoon demo on 3 February. My bet is that any arrests will be of the bystanders who were “warned off” at the time by our glorious Met for offending the demonstrators.
I note that no arrests have yet been made in respect of the cartoon demo on 3 February.
Oh I’m sure that will eventually happen — say, around the same time that Blair deports all those radical Imams he promised to kick out of Britain 8 months ago.
I wonder if the BBC would ever do an expose on the Muslim community,revealing that they are like that alleged society in their Kinsey documentary?
Maybe Susan…….but i suspect those radical imams are on Blair’s resignation honours list to enter the House of Lords
A classic example of “projection” of the BBC and governing classes own sexual activity. As we the British males who dont have power that exceeds our own abilities, we know life just ant like that. We all knew that AIDS would never spead like our masters predicted, because getting sex from females is never that easy or cheap. Even from a prostitute. Working men dont have the looks, the time, the money or most importantly of all, the opertunity, for sex, with anybody but their girlfriends or wives. However,University professors, MPs and BBC producers do, and they make the best of it. I think that nothing has changed much in this respect for thousands of years. Getting more and better sex is the main reason why men and now women MPs want all that power so much in the first place.
SiN mentioned that the Ba’ath Broadcasting Corporation has been squawking about the gap between the rich and poor in the US.
I think it’s more interesting to look at the rather smaller gap between the poor in the US and the rich in the EU. Anyone remember a study released a couple years ago showing that if the EU were a US state, it would be poorer than Alabama? BTW that’s the “rich” bit of the EU, not including the ten countries that joined recently.
I can’t imagine why the BBC did not give this study more publicity at the time. [/sarc]
Tony Blair has probably converted to Islam by now.
And when he was talking about God inspiring the war on Iraq the other day he probably meant Allah.
On that subject, any way of finding out what percentage of BBC staff is Muslim?
I hear tell the BBC has Muslim prayer rooms. Does it also provide accommodation and cover for terror cells plotting suicide bombing?
And if it doesn’t, how long will it be before the terrorists pressure it to provide such facilities?
I’m pissed off, can’t you tell?
Roger Bolton’s Feedback prog asked for an interview with Humphrys himself about that appallingly rude and uninformative interview with David Cameron. This was refused. (They fielded that DEPUTY editor who has actually mad ethings worse by his stupidly dogged defence of Humphrys.)
Later on in the prog, Radio 3 were asked for an interview on some classical music issue. They refused, preferring to give a statement. This often happens.
So, we have the Feedback prog which is meant to be the listeners’ chance to raise complaints and comments, chaired by a very experienced broadcaster, Roger Bolton. But all too often the BBC treats the prog – that is the listeners – with contempt. After all, the listeners are useless, totally unnecessary except for the small fact that they pay the wages.
And we pay for that fop Peter Barron of Newsnight !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4794096.stm
“Two men involved in a multi-million pound operation have become the first in Scotland to be convicted of the specific offence of money laundering.”
“Over a seven month period, £2.2m of drugs money was delivered in plastic bags”
“It was then banked and transferred, mainly to Pakistan.”
“When customs officers swooped they seized £384,000 in two holdalls ready to be sent overseas.”
“Assad….was the son of a man who owned the other half. His father lived in Pakistan.”
“None of the private individuals who were sent the money were ever traced.”
Perhaps the BBC should put a journalist on the case to find out where the money went.
Considering the funding of terrorism, I would have thought that this was a pretty big story. I suppose the BBC found more important ‘stuff’ to broadcast.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=365062006
If you are a real socialist beware;
one unintended consequence of the BBCs bias, could be to destroy the Labour party as a governing force forever. The BBC by its lack of real reporting and scutiny of the goverment, has left them complacent lazy and corrupt, for to long. As the full weight of BBC propergander will not save them forever, the reaction when it comes, might well sweep them into oblivion. The BBC itself will be so discredited by then, they will not be able to help them anymore. Cheer up Lib Dems, you might just, come in usefull for something. Other than talking lotts and saying nothing.
Maybe I am just dreaming.
xj
Agree
I have been to black trailer park crack houses in the southern states of America. Believe me its grim. However that sort of place is grim anywhere.
In general the poorest people in the southern states of the USAs quality of life, exceeds that of a working nurse in London. By a distance.
And we pay for that fop Peter Barron of Newsnight !
I have to admit, before Peter Barron, it never occurred to me that you could make pizza without cheese! How do you keep the other stuff from falling off of it without the cheese?
So, the BBC has educated me — who says it’s useless? 🙂
Dubai Ports
“Some, especially on the left of the political spectrum, raised uncomfortable questions over the Bush family’s ties to the United Arab Emirates.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4791248.stm
So the BBC, who are not “on the left” are prepared to suggest that unspecified references to “Bush family ties” are uncomfortable for the President.
Why are they “umcomfortable”? Is the BBC doing its job in deciding that they are “uncomfortable” without telling us the substance of the allegations?
Or are the BBC happy to give wider credence to anti-Bush conspiracy theories that have no substance?
Time to get out of the EU now dear British friends:
http://agora.blogsome.com/2006/03/10/eu-minister-considering-arab-demands
EU ministers consider submitting to Arab demands to censor blasphemy against Mo.
Oh lovely, it’s the 13th Century come calling on 21st Century Europe!
When do the stonings commence in Trafalgar Square?
“it never occurred to me that you could make pizza without cheese! How do you keep the other stuff from falling off of it without the cheese?”
Tomato sauce. And when I say tomato sauce I mean tomato sauce, and not blood; I know that a lot of people jokingly say tomato sauce when they are talking about flowing red lifeblood – and in this case a clotting agent would be handy, for keeping the other stuff from falling off without the cheese – but I do not and I am not, in this case.
Susan, “When do the stonings commence in Trafalgar Square?”
Already begun: Haven’t you heard that the guy standing on the pillar in the middle of it lost an eye! 😉
Bryan
Yes It would be very interesting to know how many Muslims there are working at the BBC. How many commited socialists and conservatives there are, would also be fun. They will never tell us this, as the infomation I am sure would stun people.
Lord Bernstien famously said that ” he had never knowingly employed a conservative,” and it showed. He was a commited communist, when, the then Labour goverment, gave him Granada TV.
The BBC would never knowingly employ a convincing Tory, also. The reasons why any Tory has for the last 25 years worked at the BBC are. The BBC made a mistake, or the Tory was very ugly, thick, and a public school boy that needed the cash, that was very good at making a compleat arse of themselves in public. The word Portilo comes to mind.
Ashley wrote:
“I wonder if he knows a waitress, on a social level? Has he ever had a conversation with someone who did not go to university? With someone who works in a supermarket? I imagine that he holds working people in contempt.”
Did Mr Barron not consider that the waitress in question might actually be an undergraduate working her way through uni?
not tv only phrases i hate
“it is said”
“… is believed by some”
“some have said”
“is known to be/have”
“he admitted/confessed” (unless he’s been openly-with-bias-for-all-to-see accused)
…because they are often, i believe, used to insert, anonymously, someone’s opinion/agenda
definitely off-topic
(but you’re unlikely to see this tidbit published by ‘Auntie’ – and not for those with a ‘dicky’ constitution)
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/890
A undergraduate working though university? Not much anymore, I think. While our undergraduates get lazy and learn very bad finacial habits. Our retired people are going back to work in thousands, because they can not live a dignified exsistance on the state pension.
These young people will be working untill 110 to do this, if some of them dont wake up.
paulc
If Europeans will not vote for thier cultures, they deserve to lose them.
It really is that simple.
paulc
We can already see that happening in the UK in a lot of areas -especially when fraudulent postal votes are relatively easy.
Susan,
I went to New York when I was 19. On the first night we went to quite a post pizza place. Non of the pizzas had cheese on them. To be honest, I thought it was all a bit ‘poncy’ and not as nice as the ‘usual’ kind.
His e-mail is actually quite interesting. It gives you a good insite into his mind. As people have pointed out, he is only writing for himself and other people like him. He has no concept of how ‘the other half’ (95%) live.
The fact that he mentions cheese on pizza is an Americanism is also a subtle/subconscious dig at America. I doubt he would be seen dead in McDonalds (and criticising McD’s is sooo passe), so instead he finds something from within his ‘life’ that ‘America has ruined’.
It’s all very subtle. But I’m sure if you went out with him for dinner, he’d lecture you on what a bunch of arses Americans are for introducing cheese on pizza, and what plebs the rest of us are for eating it.