First, an apology for absence. Some work took rather longer than I had anticipated and I had to drop the blogging for the week. Here are some emails and posts that caught my eye.
- A commenter writes simply “terrible article” and sends a link to this. It’s called “Israeli poll deepens Palestinian gloom.” I didn’t think much of it, either. Throughout the Palestinians are presented as seekers after peace cruelly thwarted by Mr Olmert and his new Kadima government. For instance,
The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, clearly suspects that genuine negotiations may not be on the Israeli agenda.
I call this technique Bias by Assumed Telepathy.
Of Hamas, the article says,
It considers not only the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza as occupied Palestinian territory – but the whole of Israel too.
Nearly there, BBC, and congrats for bringing yourselves to say that much. In fact if one goes to the Hamas Charter you can learn about the aims of Hamas as described by Hamas:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.
I think it’s safe to presume that the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, subscribes to the Charter of his own organisation, belief in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and all. The BBC as usual did not see fit to mention this fundamental context when it quoted Mr Meshaal as saying that:
“The Zionist position,” he said, “be it that of Kadima or others, is one that buries the peace process, negates its existence and does not give it a chance.”
Incidentally, the linking headline for this story was “From Bad to Worse.”
- Here is a relatively new media bias blog, Newsround, dealing with the BBC children’s news programme of the same name. The masthead says,
BBC Newsround is biased and patronising and non-inclusive, particularly about lgbt issues and homophobia. For over two years I’ve made suggestions to try to get them to improve it, without any success so far.
I expect there are a range of opinions among both commenters and B-BBC posters on how or whether Newsround should treat these issues, but that variety of opinion is no obstacle to my adding Newsround to our links on the sidebar to the right.
- A few days ago someone emailed me thus:
The last few days in Denmark have been a bit of a media feeding frenzy regarding comments by one of the Danish imams who went on the tour of the middle east to whip up the cartoon furore. Caught on a secret camera suggesting bombing a moderate muslim politician who has formed a group of moderate muslims to distance themselves from the rabid imams and their followers, the imam first denied doing it then said it was a joke (having seen it on tv there’s a small smile on his face but no laughter and no criticism from any others).
You can read more on it here: Agora
Suffice it to say the BBC have totally ignored the story.
Since that email was written, the story has had a line or two from the BBC, here. A line or two. And the story was mentioned as having been covered by the Danish press in this European Press review.
An article on overcrowding in UK prisons:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4865004.stm
What is extraordinary is that nowhere in this article is the possibility of building more prisons mentioned. Not once. Instead, it is simply a stage for the left-wing pressure group the “Prison Reform Trust” to state their case. All of the old favourites of the left regarding crime are here, but my favourite is the opinion of this group that the proper job of prisons is to “rehabilitate offenders”, even though the reoffending rate has increased from 51% to 67% during a period when the left has run the Home Office.
For the BBC, even thinking about the idea of building more prisons is completely taboo. It simply cannot be mentioned.
Sorry to kick off the comments here with reference to other stuff, but just a couple of observations of BBC World coverage of the Condi visit:
1) In the first report I saw of the Condi/Straw visit to Blackburn Town Hall, the reporter said that before entering Condi and Straw made a point of waving to a group demonstrating to the side in their support. There was no footage of these ‘pro’ demonstrators from the BBC. There was newsreel of Jack Straw noting that the demonstration in Condi and his favour was of equal size to the stoppers and he commented that such a demo on a visit was ‘unique’.
2) A second report by Bridgett Kendall stated that when Condi and Jack waved they were waving to ‘Stopper’ protesters, no mention was made of a demonstration in their support or its size. As with the previous report news camera footage lingered considerably on the ‘Stoppers’, and treated their demonstration as the main or at least co-equal aspect of Condi’s visit.
Now Bridget Kendall is, certainly in my estimation, an impartial BBC Correspondent, so I would be very interested to know the reason for the discrepancies in her report with the other one (It could well be that the first reporter, whose name I didn’t catch, could have been her, which makes the discrepancies perhaps more intriguing). Secondly, if Jack Straw is right about a demonstration in favour of them and US/UK decision making on Iraq being unique, why no BBC footage of it?
Lastly, BBC World also carried a debate on Iran and sanctions chaired by Tim Sebastian. Like so many at the BBC, Tim Sebastian adopts the hectoring, hounding approach when asking questions, but unlike so many he is actually impartial. I get the feeling he opts to give a tougher time to those he is in sympathy with to make sure of his impartiality. However, this hectoring, hounding approach acheives nothing, apart from irritating viewers who would like to be able to listen to answers. It’s a huge pity that a BBC Interviewer of Mr Sebastian’s integrity and calibre adopts this approach.
Anyone reckon the BBC would do a hidden camera documentary to trap radical Islamic extremists like this Imam in Denmark? If they do, can they also tell me where and when the synchronised flying pig display will take place?
BBC Bias of the day?
I found this snippet at the end of the Damilola Taylor story;
“But an expert who was a witness for the defence told the court Damilola could have died after falling on to a glass bottle.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4857214.stm
So let me get this straight the BBC are trying to sell the message that maybe, just maybe this poor young child fell on a broken bottle as he skipped and hopped his way home that fateful evening.
Pity that BBC didn’t cast a look back at its own reporting before using the words of a so called expert in which to sell the image that all of this may have just been an accident after all.
“A glass marble was found lodged in Damilola’s mouth during a post mortem examination but the fact was only made public in June last year when a newspaper ran the story.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1855722.stm
hippiepooter Condi and Straw made a point of waving to a group demonstrating to the side in their support. There was no footage of these ‘pro’ demonstrators
Rather than being “pro” anything or being demonstators, perhaps this other crowd were just Blackburn folk who thought that they would mark the rare event of a world famous person person being in Blackburn with a friendly wave.
More cowardice and moral relativism from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4872236.stm
The terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is described as a “militant” and the “most notorious insurgent” in Iraq. Why? Because he is associated with “the bloodiest bombings, assassinations and the beheading of foreign hostages.” Now, to me, that makes him a terrorist. But for the BBC, you cannot be a terrorist so he is simply an “insurgent” or even more bland, a “militant”. Oh, and Israeli MPs in a right-of-centre party are “militants” too according to the BBC, so there you have the BBC’s view: a notorious and unbelievably bloodthirsty terrorist and democratic politicians are both described with the same term.
The Beeb’s many crimes against the noble English language should land its entire management team in the Tower of London.
Gavin Essler in Peru on how George Bush is loosing Latin America.
er, shouldn`t that be the other way round Gav?
And that Newsnight prog is using the anti-Bush moonbat Greg Pelast as one of the reporters – he will be doing the Chavez piece.
The BBC stoops lower and lower.
If it wants to cover a South American issue relevant to the British people, how about enquiring why there are tens of thousands of Columbians in London when we have nil historic link with that country, and the drug trade/serious crime risks are so obvious. How come so many other illegal immigrants from South America ? Do we really want Newsnight droning on all week about South America ?
Greg Palast has a “colourful” entry in Wikipedia. You couldn’t imagine a “reporter” more anti-Bush – he still argues that Bush was not properly elected BOTH TIMES.
It is appalling that that the BBC still uses him. It has no shame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Palast
He is not a reporter. He is a polemicist. Here is an example of how low this scumbag can stoop :
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/view.pl?archive=135&num=8675
Will:
Not according to the first report or what Jack Straw himself said. I had written this.
>>so there you have the BBC’s view: a notorious and unbelievably bloodthirsty terrorist and democratic politicians are both described with the same term.
Here is a critique of Palast’s methods. He grinds ant-Bush and anti-American axes. Well at home with the BBC then.
http://irregulartimes.com/palastdvdreview.html
This thread seems a appropriate place to make a small correction to my post of 9:27 am on ed thomas’ thread of 30/03:
The Iranian who ranted against Israel on Lyse Doucet’s show was not the learned professor of political science and friend of president I’monaJihad.
The prof was relatively moderate for a member of the Iranian establishment, only suggesting that Israel disarm while making no such suggestion regarding Iran.
No, the foul anti-semite was no less a personage than the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA.
Among other fascist utterances, this is what he basically had to say:
The mentality of Zionism is the same as Apartheid racism. It’s a mentality against humanity.
This ambassador for humanity is a representative of a regime that publicly hangs teenagers from cranes for having sex. While the Zionist mentality led the Zionists to offer aid, including teams on the ground, to Iran after their last major earthquake – an offer that was, of course, spurned.
Lyse Doucet, it must be said, was getting along famously with the professor. It reminded me of Owen Bennet Jones’ interview a while back with one of Iran’s vice-presidents – a woman who led the students who took the American Embassy staff hostage. The airwaves were fairly crackling with electricity between Owen and his guest.
Which makes me wonder what it is about murderous fascists that so attracts BBC staff. Surely the fact that the Iranians are so rabidly anti-Israel and anti-US couldn’t have something to do with it, could it?
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom on Doucet’s programme. An Israeli from Jerusalem got on the line to explain that Israel was not simply being threatened but was already under three-pronged attack from Iran through Iranian-backed terror groups, namely Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas and that a Katyusha rocket had just been fired into Israel.
He was articulate and Doucet gave him a fair amount of time to speak. But he wasn’t able to make much of a dent in a programme that was basically oriented towards the legitimization of the Iranian regime.
Radical Muslims must really love the BBC. It is such a sophisticated apologist for terror.
Uhh, an appropriate.
Rocking horse Sh1t discovered!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4871382.stm
Soc is nec
Good point. Not only do the poorest people of latin America need the USA more than the USA needs latin America. So do all the poor people of the world need the USA more than their National socialist or communist socialist goverments. But they have no-one to tell them.
How about the BBC doing some real reporting on the poverty the working poor are now enduring in this country. Unless they are earning lots of cash.
Careing Labour have made it a criminal offence for anyone to pay cash to undocumented workers. Thus driving down unofficial piece-work pay to 40p an hour in London and 30p an hour in the North. But has not bothered to stop more legaly “unemployable” people comming here.
If us middle wage earners think there is pressure on our wages and job security. Can you imagine for one moment what Tonys Britain is really like for poor people?
The BBC will not tell you, but I will
There is NO work in this capital city, that pays enough to improve someones life. The lid will blow. Try to be on holiday when it happens.
Oops, there have been so many disasters lately I’m getting mixed up.
On sober reflection it seems unlikely that Israel would have offered Iran help. Especially since, soon after the earthquake, the Iranians stated that they would accept help, “From any country on earth except Israel.”
Nice people. Maybe there is something in the Koran forbidding a Jew to save a dying Muslim.
Could be that’s why Pakistan waited for about a week after their earthquake before accepting Israel’s offer of aid.
Wouldn’t have been any victims left alive by then.
dumbcisco wonders?
“Do we really want Newsnight droning on all week about South America ?”
If only it were just Newsnight! BBC R4 has had its share of the repellent Gavin Esler’s demonstration of the fine art of arse-licking today, too.
Still, if nothing else, this has solved a mystery. Esler’s provenance has always been shrouded in mystery to me, but in a spendid exchange on tonight’s programme with a US government spokesman (whose name I didn’t catch) it was revealed that Esler was pally with the Sandinistas in the past.
The spokesman treated Esler with precisely the contempt he deserves, and in a way few government officials seem willing to do. Nice to hear someone speaking the truth at last. Esler is rabidly anti-American and this was said, in plain English.
All day, Esler has been gushing like a schoolgirl with a particularly unfortunate crush over whichever Latin Leftist he was interviewing at the time – almost literally drooling over the bloody Tango in an R4 snip from Argentina earlier today (I’m not making this up).
But it all falls into place now. Given his age, it seems clear he’s just another one of those tiresome people who grew up at a time when all things Latin American were becoming fashionable – from the impossibly over rated Isabel Allende, to the deadly Sandinistas. The dance! The culture! The politics!
So now, if nothing else, we know why Gavin Esler has barely been able to pronounce ‘USA’ without a sneer for all these years. His heart belongs south of the border.
Personally, I wish he’d stay there. They deserve him and vice versa.
Natalie,
That first article you link to would be written by Alan Johnston, chief BBC propagandist for the Palestinians. He has a curious way of appearing to be objective when what he is really doing is simply pushing the Palestinian line.
Or, let me rephrase that: pushing the radical Palestinian line.
If we can believe the polls, 30% of Palestinians don’t agree with suicide bombing. Maybe Johnston can bring himself to switch over from propaganda mode for once and canvas the opinions of those Palestinians. But that would be too much like hard work, I guess.
And too much like real journalism.
And besides, it might endanger his prejudices and those of his readers. And we can’t have that.
GCooper “a spendid exchange on tonight’s programme with a US government spokesman (whose name I didn’t catch)”
His name was Otto Reich. Was it just me or did Esler relish pronouncing the name to bring out is full Jewishness, in the same way that they enjoy Paul Wolfowitz?
“it was revealed that Esler was pally with the Sandinistas in the past.”
Or had he been briefed by his pal Palast?
Esler was ridiculously aggresseive towards Reich, giving him a barked “Answer the question” within the first 10 seconds, as Reich queried why every question put by Esler to Humala was about Bush.
Pleased to hear the (socialist?) Peruvian writer that Esler interviewed later more or less echoing Reich’s points re spread of S American democracy.
Still on Newsnight/S.America
Newsnight gave us a visual reprise of Bush & “mission accomplished” with this message
Ironically, by invading Iraq, George W Bush has boosted oil prices and effectively transferred billions of dollars from American consumers to the Venezuelan government.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4871938.stm
Funny, I thought that the current high oil price was due to high world demand & supply disruptions other than in Iraq (eg Nigeria, post-Katrina etc).
The BBC go on to lick their lips over the possibility of continued high oil prices (“for US SUVs” per Newsnight) engineered by Chavez, sitting pretty because
Venezuela’s deposits alone could extend the oil age for another 100 years (Well that lays to rest the “world running out of oil” scare usually so loved by the BBC)
The BBC do acknowledge that
The US agency also identifies Canada as another future oil superpower.
But don’t mention that the “US Agency” has also noted that with high prices comes the viability of
“The vast extent of U.S. oil shale resources, amounting to more than 2 trillion barrels”
compared to the Canadian superpower status with
“175 billion barrels of oil from Alberta tar sands to Canada’s proved oil reserves.”
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/npr/NPR_Oil_Shale_Program.html
Esler’s hectoring interview with Otto Reich was ridiculous. Reich was correct to slap his bias and arrogance down.
I don’t think Esler had direct dealings with the Sandinistas, but he sure seemed to be singing their song. Another sharp example of anti-Bush bile.
I wish the Bush administration would cease any contact with the BBC. I know it can’t be done, indeed they seldom get the proper time to put their case. But there needs to be some explosive moment, as with the Israelis, when the gauntlet is thrown down. “Play fair or push off”
The BBC is coming across like Helen Thomas ! Preaching and whining all the time about the Devil Globaliser. Untutored arts graduates like Esler trying to argue that capoitalism and liberal economics is not the answer to improving human conditions.
Still on Peru
The presidential frontrunner is Ollanta Humala, a retired army commander who led a failed military uprising in October 2000 and who is now ahead in the opinion polls.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4861320.stm
Would that be a coup if carried out by nasty right wing military types?
Add no C word to M & T.
I switched over from Newsnight after about 30 seconds of Esler’s obvious relish at the prospect of rubbing our nose in left-wing victories in S Amer. Sorry to have missed the Oscar Reich interview – perhaps I’ll see it via the web.
Watched the interview with Freddie Forsyth followed by “Day of the Jackal”. Pity about the ending. (only joking.)
If I recall corrrectly Sherlock Holmes used to grade his cases by the number of pipes he had had to smpke. A 1 pipe problem or a 2 pipe problwm, and so on.
I’m thinking of grading beeb programs in sickbags. For example, watching a Newsnight interview with Hugo Chavez would be a 5 sickbag event.
The US agency also identifies Canada as another future oil superpower.
as if they had not previously noticed Alberta or the gas pipeline down to California……………..?
If us middle wage earners think there is pressure on our wages and job security. Can you imagine for one moment what Tonys Britain is really like for poor people?
I read that wage rates for jobs like shelf-stacking are lower in Central London than outside London because of the “pool of labour” which the government has imported.
They operate like true Marxists – commoditising manufactured goods through CHinese imports; holding down wage costs through importing labour; and creating the dictatorship of the proletariat through illiberal legislation and creation of an apparatchik class
d_cisco:
I wish the Bush administration would cease any contact with the BBC. I know it can’t be done…
Why can’t it be done? Bush’s communication skills likely aren’t up to it, but the arguments are clear enough. Also, the First Amendment doesn’t protect the BBC.
Pulling Frei’s visa — on camera and with much fanfare — would be a good start.
Pulling Frei’s visa —
Not easy – there are special rules on journalists in most countries which make this impossible
Esler’s hectoring interview with Otto Reich was ridiculous. Reich was correct to slap his bias and arrogance down.
I’m not sure what Esler hoped to achieve by his rant because anyone with a little objectivity would have seen it as a reporter bullying a critic. What it does show is that Esler and his ilk have no fear of being criticised by their editors.
Gavin Esler (born Glasgow, February 27, 1953) is a BBC television presenter.
Gavin Esler is currently one of the three main presenters on BBC Two’s flagship political analysis programme, Newsnight. He joined the programme in January 2003; he replaced Jeremy Vine who left to take over from Jimmy Young on Radio 2.
Educated at George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh, Esler completed a BA in English and American literature and a further MA in Irish literature at the University of Kent. He first entered journalism on the Belfast Telegraph in 1976.
Source: Wiki
Bill
Your point about editorial control is important. Was the interview on the rooftop and across to Washington live ? If it was, how many tens of thousands of complicated dollars did that caper cost ?
If it was not live, why didn’t a Newsnight editor adapt it so that it was not so blatant in the way Esler paraded his anti-Bush bias ? Answer – because the think such bias is an acceptable norm.
We haven’t really commented yet on Greg palast’s performance. I only saw the replay from the website – it was DIRE!!! What a creep that man is. I am surprised he wasn’t wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt.
Interesting how the BBC is positioning itself in our Brave New World.
The World Service is no longer broadcasting in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Thai languages as of this month:
http://news.billinge.com/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4374130.stm
And, according to World Service director Nigel Chapman, quoted on the World Service on Sunday in a nostalgic programme called ‘London Calling, this termination of broadcasts will only affect 3 million listeners and will free the World Service up to provide Arabic language TV to “a potential audience of 250 million.”
‘London Calling’ also had someone on who said there was much more to this than numbers and that the BBC was “turning it’s back on Europe.”
Brave New World Service?
And we also learn that al-Jazeera is launching a 24-hour English language channel this spring.
Hmmmm. Looks to me like a recipe for an Islamic conquest of the airwaves, in a sort of pincer movement. The BBC will bravely spearhead it in Arabic from the west while al-Jazeera will employ its eastern army in its assault on English speakers.
And I learnt somewhere on this site that the BBC website will soon be subscription-only for international surfers.
That’ll count me out, because there’s no way I’m going to pay to be fed crap all day.
…as of this month.
Oops. Make that as of last month.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4874518.stm
We all know Tony doesnt like Gordon, but why isnt this headline news? its brilliant stuff..
Bryan – BBC World Service does what the Foreign Office pays for………………it is Blair who wants to broadcast to Arabs………we had stations on Cyprus which operated black propaganda in the 1950s…………..but the Govt having created Al-Jazeera by starting up then cancelling a BBC Arab Station now want a second crack at it.
Bryan
The sad thing is that “This is London calling” was the intro to years of BBC broadcasts during WW2 – an aural message of hope to conquered Europe.
For people who want to tune in to US talk radio free, rather than paying for access to BBC stuff, try googling KRLA and KABC as examples of stations with tough presenters like Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt.
OT
I keep hearing this catchy tune on the US airwaves :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=TCCRFZIDAFQQRQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2006/04/04/njowell04.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/04/ixhome.html
even better article today…this is great…so now he admits what we all knew…
Mills and Jowell sitting in a tree, counting their cash in ING..
http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/course.cgi?show=90336
“Notable dignitaries including Cherie Booth QC and Ken Livingstone ”
HARDLY…
so now it becomes clearer, the word that Cherie and Ken are far closer than people think….so it is all a game, them pretending not to like each other..
very interesting..
The BBC is happy to give glowing references to Chavez of Venezuela and cheer him on in his attacks on Bush – at a time when he continues to seize privately-owned oil assets :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/04/wchavez04.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/04/ixworld.html
Rick and dumbcisco,
Thanks for that info. I didn’t realise that Tony was at the helm here.
Er… that was me.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4871456.stm
great article here..i think it raises key points about the extent to which the British public have been taken on a joy ride across the political divide between No.10 & No. 11..
How much do they really like each other?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4875026.stm
but the BBC should be congratulated for this one, as it demonstrates just how reformed and fresh the Conservative Party has become..
DC is spot on.
although i must say, the BBC should really stop changing its headlines once a story is published, its seems rather cheap really..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4875026.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4870896.stm
this is the real worry, that our PM and Chancellor are wrecking Britain for their own gain…