Please use this thread, and this thread alone, for off-topic comments, preferably BBC related. Please keep comments on other threads on the topic of that particular post. N.B. this is not an invitation for off-topic comments – the idea is to maintain order and clarity. Thank you.
This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.
Andrew
I too saw that someone (not me) seems to have inserted inserted “And a nutcase” to Yvonne Ridley’s entry at Wikipedia. But I don’t know how long that had been there. You seem to know how to look further back – presumably that will tell you when the changes were made ?
I had simply googled her name and found that the Wiki entry was top of the list – giving the sort of description of her background that the BBC should let its listeners know about. Before seeing the Wiki entry I had not realised how pro-terrorism she is.
Why are the BBC not broadcasting this story about links between the alleged canadian jihadi plot and Britain ? Instead they churn out the rendition stuff.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2215988,00.html
Dumbcisco:
See my link, above. The BBC reported this in their own weaselly way, that is, with the stress on a poor “teenager arrested in Dewsbury” (another of those ‘tight-nit communities’ we hear so much about). Beheading the Canadian prime minister? Al-Qaeda links between Canadian and British muslims? What do YOU think….
Bob
Exactly !
Why isn’t the Manchester arrest a top story, focussing on the links to Canada and the plans to take hostages in the Canadian Parliament and possible beheadings of top politicians ? With ALL the details, not the damn sob stuff the BBC loves to give us.
Cue the funereal music on the Today programme.
One of their heroes has bit the dust.
Today was playing up Ming Campbell at Prime Minister’s QT yesterday. He’s made a recovery, apparently.
However, any idiot would realise that the only reason Campbell “came over well” is that he was talking about rendition, a subject for which he has had numerous run-throughs on the Today programme. Just wait until someone starts to ask him about his new tax proposals, and he will be floundering again.
AL-Zarqawi has been killed.
Iraqi Prime Minister is about to start a press conference.
“David cameron is quite rightly criticisng the hip-hop crap that Radio 1 puts out. The BBC response has been a waffly liberal defence.
There really is no need for Radio 1 to be funded by the licence tax. It is NOT public service broadcasting. It should be privatised to help reduce the licence tax. And in the meanwhile the supine BBC Governors should be getting Radio 1 to clean its act up.”
The waffly liberal defence of cultures which glorify crime and violence always seemes to involve the buzzword:
“Hip-hop has a VIBRANT scene”
Am I alone in being sick of the over-use of the word ‘vibrant’ as a euphemism for ‘dangerous’ or violent ?
Property and business owners should probably also be charging Radio 1 and the music industry for removing hip-hop’s other all-too-visible legacy – the disfiguring and obnoxious (sorry, ‘vibrant’) graffiti ‘art’ which has become a worldwide plague.
Go to any country, and you’ll find a scrawly pseudo-ghetto ‘tag’ written on some wall with a marker-pen or a multi-coloured spray-paint vomit show on the exterior of a train.
“Do I detect a spot of green trumpet blowing there?”
to be honest, not really. if i was Estonian, i’d be talking about the equally dramatic tech boom there. and again it would be for the same reasons – low taxes + good education system.
Shock hawkishness from John Simpson on Today:-
AL-Zarqawi was “fairly distasteful”
anthrax alert – its on yahoo – and its the lead item
http://uk.yahoo.com/
can’t find it on the bbc site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
most odd.
Haditha: Reasonable Doubt
Special from Hawaii Free Press via LGF.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?f882c1b8-aa42-431f-83a6-0066e7629ace
Could The BBC be wrong again? Looks possible!
Al-Zarqawi killed. Great news!!
I’m waiting for the BBC HYS
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed.
Your tributes.
AL-Zarqawi has been killed.
Hmm. Let’s see how the BBC handles that info. They’ll probably glance around furtively to see how other media are reporting it and then consult a few imams for advice on the proper Islamic response to the news.
Am I alone in being sick of the over-use of the word ‘vibrant’ as a euphemism for ‘dangerous’ or violent ?
Nope. Me too. The BBC is a world leader in mangling the English language for the sake of PC. They really have a way with words – that is, they know how to render them meaningless.
On Ridley, luckily I didn’t have a big breakfast before I sat through that video. The woman is a hate-riddled devil:
Israel is America’s watchdog, festering in the Middle East.
Condoleeza Rice is a war-mongering, blood-soaked….
[Or something like that.]
It’s incredible that the BBC gives this woman the time of day. Oh…hang on, I get it.
The BBC’s view will be something like:-
This is significant but it won’t affect the underlying spiral of violence/chaos/quagmire/edging towards civil war
Ha! Already on the Radio 4 news we have had:-
“some think he is not as significant a figure as the Americans make out”
Meanwhile the BBC website hits back:-
This is currently top billing on the International page. I mean, why bother about headhackers when we have squaddies to toy with?
“MoD investigating Iraq shooting
Claims that British troops killed a 13-year-old Iraqi boy after firing at an angry crowd are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5058224.stm
Well at least the World Service understands that this is a big story. They’ve suspended regular programming to bring us a special briefing on Zarqawi.
The newsreader was careful to give Zarqawi his full abu blah blah blah title, but a couple of analysts have just been on who just called him ‘Zarqawi’.
Hmmm, but they spent less than ten minutes on it and then moved on to Sri Lanka.
Zarqawi has been killed. I thought this was great news and turned to Ceefax page 107. They reported him as saying on video that the us was’arrogant’. Only thing he was supposed to have said. Nothing about urging civil war, or urging the Sunnis to kill Shia. They’ve updated the page now, but it made me furious. No wonder that The Labour Party prefers to watch Sky News as the BBC are regareded as the enemy. Next time you visit the Treasury, look what TV channel they have up. It’ll be Sky not BBC 24.
On HYS:
What will al-Zarqawi’s death mean for Iraq?
The alleged leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been killed in a US air raid. Send us your comments.
Is this the BBC’s way of sticking its tongue out at America and saying, “See, you can’t be sure you’ve got your man.”
Is there really any doubt that the terrorist scumbag was the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq?
Zarqawi gone – “Aluha Akbar!!!”
Well well well.
In their lead story the BBC somehow manages to avoid calling Zarqawi a terrorist.
And our friend Mr Paul Reynolds was involved in the story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5058304.stm
No T word in the “Obituary” either :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5058262.stm
Thoroughly Pissed Off,
You beat me to it. I too am waiting for “BBC HYS: your tributes to charismatic insurgent hero”
How can the BBC say he was just the “alleged” leader of Al Q in Iraq ?
That truly is ridiculous.
Do the BBC have any genuine doubt ?
Are they worried he may not be dead and will sue them for defamation ?
Bloody idiots. They really are pathetic.
I’m very disappointed in the online News Player video coverage. I thought I’d be able to see him actually being killed:
Watch coverage on BBC TV coverage as militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is killed.
The Today prog did not report the news of Zarqawi’s death until almost 8.30am our time.
But ABC started to carry the story at 7.41am our time.
That suggests it was on the wire services such as AP by 7.30am or before. The Iraqi PM’s press conference had been set up long before 8.30am – Ian Pannell’s reply to James Naughtie at 8.30am indicated that the press conference was over by then.
Blogs were carrying the news by 8am. Why couldn’t the BBC – even witrh a caveat ?
BBC. The biggest news organisation in the world.
Last with the news ?
(Unless of course it is a bunch of speculation critical of the Coalition. Then we’ll be first.)
Maybe they get slowed down by having to excise the T-word from all their copy – plus inserting “alleged” a few times.
Or maybe they were trying to get Yvonne Ridley on line to lead us in mourning her hero.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5058262.stm
“a shadowy figure associated with spectacular bombings”
what crock. they werent “spectacular” for the hundreds of Iraqis killed and maimed.
“Zarqawi has been accused of leading the rash of kidnappings and beheadings of foreign workers.
It has been suggested that he appeared personally on one video posted on the internet, cutting off the head of a hostage. ”
Really BBC….did not Zaqibaby admit to this on several cocasions only to backpedal when his PR gurus (ex BBC staff by any chance?) said he was losing the PR war….
“If it significantly weakens the al-Qaeda structure in Iraq, it could open the way for easier contacts between the government and other insurgents, who are more Iraqi nationalists than Islamists seeking to set up an Islamic state not only Iraq but across the region.
It might also lead to a lessening of tension between Sunnis and Shias, whom Zarqawi targeted. ”
Since most if not all of the terrorists killed are foreigners how can BBC say the insurgents are mostly local?!!!!!!! AQ are the main group and the majority are foreign; add the Iranian backed militia of AL Sadr and you have yet more foreign interference in Iraq by Islamist ‘militants’. The bulk of the “local” insurgency are criminals or former Ba’ath stirring things up not an Iraqi resistance so beloved by Mcihael Moore and John Pilger!
I’m watching the live coverage streaming in RealPlayer.
Comments that viewers have phoned in.
“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”
Sheesh, how many times do we have to hear that?
A caller from Tel Aviv, Israel:
“Freedom fighters do not torture and behead innocent people”
That’s more like it!
… unbelieveable!
They left the camera on and the mic open in the studio while they presumably ran the titles and such on air in the intro to the 11 o’clock news… I caught Martine Dennis wiping tears from her eyes telling somebody, “I’m quite sad really”.
Incredible!
(D)HYS:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2085&&&edition=2&ttl=20060608110738
Added: Thursday, 8 June, 2006, 09:44 GMT 10:44 UK
I guess many of you BBC journalists will feel a deep miss in their heart (your sympathies with the “resistance” is public domain) but I’m pleased, I hope many of zarquawy’s friends will go to hell, where they belong. Please spare us hypocritical comments; another resistance Hero may soon come to fill your needs and kill more people.
Fuchs Charles, Florence, Italy
Recommended by 5 people
this is a wind-up, right?
my comment was to Biodegradable – based on the Martine Dennis allegation. This is a wind-up, surely.
No D Burbage, I swear I heard her say that. Of course I couldn’t hear what anybody else in the studio was saying so she may have been talking about her cat having died. I don’t exclude that when these people are off camera they talk about mundane things and don’t comment on the news they’re presenting on camera.
This is the link to the stream I’m watching:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/live/nb/rm/video/now4_nb.ram
Galloway is on Question Time tonight.
be interesting to see what weasel words he’ll say about that Al Zaqwari scumbag
I have just caught up with the 8.40am interview with John Simpson.
His description of Zarqawi as “fairly distasteful” will get a lot of opprobrium, I hope.
Simpson goes on to try to minimise the importance of Al Q in Iraq.
Yet earlier he had said that the death of Zarqawi is as significant as the capture of Saddam.
But at least we were spared any further prediction that Iraq is on the tipping-point of civil war. Be thankful for small mercies, I suppose.
What a shocker!
Terrorist cell in Bethnal Green. BBC in denial. What to do?
Phone Gobshite George and get him in QT to educate us all on how ‘It’s all our fault’ and ‘The Police are to blame’.
archduke
I was predicting yesterday that Galloway would be invited to appear on Q Time.
The BBC is SOOOOOOOO predictable. It is like a kneejerk with them.
I just wish there is a voluble Iraqi in the audience to tell him that he does NOT speak for Iraqis.
Better yet – put an Iraqi on the Q Time panel. Or a real fierce critic of Galloway who is able to chop his lies apart, Hitchens-style. Not some token leftie Tory. Why doesn’t the BBC get Louise Ellman on the panel, for example – someone who could counter Galloway’s bluster ? Someone who coud say what the Repsect party comprises, who runs it, how they are basically the enemies of Britain.
I doubt if the BBC gave the sort of airtime to Oswald Mosley that they give to Galloway. Respect gets airtime way out of proportion to its national vote.
The question remains – how many Respect supporters are there among the BBC news staff and at the news website ?
dumbcisco – “we were spared any further prediction that Iraq is on the tipping-point of civil war”
The war is lost – the insurgents have won and the coalition are defeated. So reported John Simpson, if I remember correctly. No need for civil war now!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5058304.stm
Zarqawi killed in Iraq air raid
….Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was not a global mastermind like al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, says the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner.
Instead he was a bloodthirsty and violent thug, who made enemies and several mistakes that might have contributed to his downfall….
help me here please BBC. Does that mean that Osama Bin Laden is not bloodthirsty, and is not a violent thug?
“fairly distasteful” – amazing. Is there no level to which J “Homer” Simpson will stoop. I wonder how bad a “really distasteful” terrorist would need to be? How about “extremely distasteful” one…. maybe you’d need to kill a few million innocent people to be “extremely distasteful” as – balanced opinion, remember – a comment from the esteemed senior reporter? With his recent Ishaqi exclusive, is this the best we can expect for 3 billion a year?
D Burbage,
Indeed it is. I made a recording of Simpson’s declaration.
Al Q in Iraq is now confirming the death of Zarqawi.
I bet they didn’t say “our alleged leader”….
I bet there are tears streaming down Barbara Plett’s face right now.
I suppose the BBC will do an Al-Zarqawi Special bringing together all his friends and family to mourn his passing – and dig out all the old Parkinson Interviews and Ken Livingstone will moan the loss of a great democrat
Does that mean that Osama Bin Laden is not bloodthirsty, and is not a violent thug?
Of course not he’s a Yemeni with rich Saudi relatives not a Jordanian………there is a class structure you know
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
updated – zarqawi gets the full maximum headline treatment.
hys:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2085&&&edition=1&ttl=20060608120311
he still the “alleged” leader of al q in iraq.
oops.. looks like somebody has been doing a quick edit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
“The leader of al-Qaeda in iraq”
amazing. i wonder who put in the “alleged”
Quite a good couple of days really.
BBC has been telling us that there is a huge groundswell against the Repubs, they will be decimated in the autumn Congressional elections. Whoops – the wheel fell off that BBC wagon when the Repubs retained the San Diego seat up for actual election. Dems stopped in their tracks. Oddly – I heard no report on this from the BBC.
A large number of jihadis arrested in Canada – with links to Britain, apparently, that the BBC disguises. But the BBC can’t trot out Iraq as a “root cause” on that one.
Iraq has appointed a defence minister and an interior minister. Great news, the logjam shifted. But the BBC will be able to smother that good news a bit with all the Zarqawi rule.
Zarqawi killed – there is nothing the BBC can do to minimise this good news, no matter how much they use the word “but…..”
And now Mark Malloch Brown, Kofi’s deputy, has picked a fight with John Bolton, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Middle America et al. Just at the point when the UN is trying to get the US to pay for the second half of the year – in spite of failing to reform itself. Watch out for Congress to block or cut further funding. Nice one, UN. Real diplomatic. How to make friends and influence people.
Interesting to note that Yvonne Ridley’s second marriage was to a guy named “Ilan Roni Harmush” (according to Wikipedia). Ilan is a very Jewish/Israeli name. I wonder if it goes anyway to explaining her hatred for Jews, whoops – I mean Zionists? Something went wrong with the marriage so she blames the people best representative of her ex-husband? Just a theory, but I’m sure Freud would have a lot to say about it.
Archduke,
It’s still there.
Nicely hidden we have: ‘The alleged leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been killed’.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2085&&&edition=1&ttl=20060608121658
You could have knocked me down with a feather. What’s this doing here?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5052020.stm