Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:


Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.

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191 Responses to Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

  1. boblog says:

    Oh my! What a lovely picture of the Met chief on BBC Website. Almost as if they wanted to portray him in a poor light. Surely not. Why would they want to do that?
    We are told that his CBE is drawing flack from politicians and campaigners. Like who for example. Names names.
    Ah. The Lib Dems. OK then.

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  2. dumbcisco says:

    boblog

    Yes – the BBC Today prog gives the criticism of the Met officer’s CBE as the top or second news slot.

    But no names are given. Just the smear.

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  3. marc says:

    The BBC are caught supporting Palestinain terrorists – again!

    http://ussneverdock.blogspot.com/2006/06/israel-one-dead-in-gaza-missile-strike.html

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  4. Charlie says:

    BBC News 24, 0945 today (Sat 17th June), headline:

    ‘More of us are getting older’!

    Good grief!
    What master wordsmiths the BBC journalists are!

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  5. Ralph says:

    I happened accross this on the BBC locally, The Mirror for Princes ‘written amidst the turmoil that unfolds around the author himself, asAl-Muqaffa battles for reform in the midst of fervent revolutionaries, heretic poets, religious propagandists, and a ruler who names himself none other than ‘God’s shadow on earth’’ according to the BBC ‘exposes a surprising number of parallels between a distant moment of Islamic history and the West today.’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2006/05/25/mirror.shtml

    The parallels are clearly with modern Islam and the Middle East but the BBC claim it’s the West.

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  6. will says:

    Campaigners have criticised the timing of an honour given to a senior police officer embroiled in the controversy over the Forest Gate anti-terror raid.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5089750.stm

    Campaigers? Who? The BBC have “campaigners” as the first word of their report, but in an article of almost 20 paragraphs we are given no idea as to their identity.

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  7. Umbongo says:

    will

    “Campaigers? Who?”

    As we saw on BBC News 24 the LibDems in the person of Nick Clegg have jumped on this particular bandwagon which might (if it weren’t so transparent) have done them some good with the “campaigners”. However, I don’t think “pathetic” quite gets the flavour of this particular intervention; maybe “pathetic and opportunistic”.

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  8. Allan@Aberdeen says:

    The ‘campaigners’, in the absence of names, must be the BBC itself.

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  9. Rick says:

    Yes Allan – the BBC often starts its own hares running so it can race after them

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  10. Rob says:

    This week’s Dr Who has a disgusting monster (which sometimes appears in human form and seems to absorb human beings). I’ll give you one guess which paper the foul creature reads – you’ve got it The Daily Telegraph.

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  11. dumbcisco says:

    Talking about PC kids’ TV, are Winnie the Pooh TV progs a BBC product ? They seem to have lost the Turkish market – it is all Piglet’s fault :

    http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19503274-1702,00.html?from=rss

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  12. dumbcisco says:

    Some comments on the Gaza beach deaths where the BBC presented false info that was damaging to israel :

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061501794.html

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  13. gordon-bennett says:

    dumbcisco | 17.06.06 – 9:01 pm

    Why are pigs so unacceptable to people in the Middle East?

    The answer I have been told is that all meat goes off quickly in the hot climate of the ME and pork not only goes off quickly but is particularly damaging if eaten in that condition.

    If you pass a law or issue advice to people prohibiting the consumption of pork it will only partly solve the problem.

    If you say to people that you are being watched all the time by an omnipotent being and that you will not get into heaven/paradise if you are seen eating pork, this is much more effective. Thus is religion born.

    Of course, if this is true then it is redundant in a society with freezers.

    Similar philosophy applies to “the cow is sacred” in India. A cow can only be eaten once but its milk sustains you for a long time. This rule/advice is supported by religion in the same way as for pork.

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  14. gordon-bennett says:

    Leading on from the suggested prohibition of stealth editing on another thread, here is some more info I would like to see the beeb releasing.

    1. Publish all the questions submitted to Any Questions and Question Time.

    2. Given that the QT audience is selected to be balanced, tell us how many of the audience is in each category which the beeb feels the need to balance.

    3. Given that the QT audience is invited to comment during the programme and that it is considered vital that the audience is balanced, what steps are taken to ensure that the members of the audience invited to comment are chosen on a balanced basis.

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  15. gordon-bennett says:

    Given that (as someone said earlier in another thread) it was 4 to 1 against William Hague on Any Questions today, I think his triumph was all the greater for that.

    Dimblebore was particularly obnoxious and overbearing against William but was neatly outmanoevured and left gasping by WH.

    In this week’s anti-Conservative question (about the EPP) there was much reference to “right-wing nutters” but sadly no reference to the left-wing nutters, such as those who were fellow travellers with the communists (who murdered 56 million Russians) or the Nazis (who gassed 6 million Jews).

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  16. GCooper says:

    gordon-bennett writes:

    “Dimblebore was particularly obnoxious and overbearing against William but was neatly outmanoevured and left gasping by WH.”

    I’d read that earlier comment you referred to, but didn’t actually listen to the programme until today.

    It was every bit as bad as you say. Dimbleby was about as close to the confronting everything Hague said as he could have got without standing up and grabbing him by the lapels. It was a quite astonishing display. The other three rabid europhiliacs were allowed to chant the party line unchallenged, but Dimbleby chose to interrogate Hague as if his (lukewarm) scepticism was one step away from outright madness.

    It’s interesting to see that nothing much changes in the BBC’s unwavering determination to ignore the majority, eurosceptic, view in the UK and pretend the exact opposite.

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  17. boblog says:

    Beautiful BBC barbs by Barry.
    http://www.barrybeelzebub.co.uk/

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  18. archduke says:

    i havent listened to the program in question yet, but why are Europhobes refered to as “right wing nutters”?

    Tony Benn is a prime example of a left winger who is generally hostile to the EU.

    So, with that one example, you can see that the pro-anti EU debate cant be framed in simple left/right terms.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    My God. I never thought I would see the day, that a British government would rob it’s own dead, so much for working all your life to leave something for your children.
    Grave robbing ghouls, that is all New Labour are.- Andy, Lancashire

    Homes of the dead to be seized by the state

    “Bereaved families could have the homes of dead relatives seized under new laws that allow the state to commandeer empty properties. The new rules, which could affect 250,000 homes in England, will come into force next month, according to details slipped out by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly”…read

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=391078&in_page_id=1770&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=NEWS&ct=5
    .

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  20. Gary Powell says:

    archduke
    The simple answer is that the BBC are serious”left-wing nutters.” European Hegemony has been the prime objective of all BIG serious left-wing nutters in European history.

    Napoleon and Hitler are just two examples of authoritarian statist megleomaniacs with a masive superiority complexes, like the BBC.

    “Right-wing nutters” for example Americans just get killed a lot trying to stop European hegemony from succesfully happening. WH just gets repeatedly “nit picked” on QT. Thatcher had her party pulled apart by the BBC on the issue. George Bush goes though arse licking contortions on Tony Blair just trying to keep some control over it.

    We are still waiting for any alive politician in power in Europe to start paying even passing attention to what European PEOPLE think or want at all. But of cause with nationalised therefore LEFT WING broadcasters like the BBC all over Europe they dont have to, so they never will.

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  21. disillusioned_german says:

    South Asians ‘using drugs more’

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5090870.stm

    Islamic inspiration

    Despairing of what they perceive as police inaction and the lack of effective drugs services, a group of local Pakistani professionals decided to patrol the streets at night to confront the drug dealers earlier this year.

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  22. disillusioned_german says:

    Julia Rooke’s report, Islam’s Battle With Drugs, can be heard on Five Live Report on Sunday 18 June at 1100 BST and 1930 BST and will also be available at the Five Live Report website.

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  23. Gary Powell says:

    Anonymous
    I would get used to it. You ant seen nothing yet.

    If Gordon Brown becomes PM and get elected, its the END of Britain as any of us ever thought we knew it.

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  24. disillusioned_german says:

    Why don’t the Beeb just create a “Islam’s battle with…” radio station so they can focus on those battles 24 / 7 / 365 ???

    They have enough money to run and subsidise such a station, don’t they?

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  25. Socialism Is Necrotizing says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5089942.stm

    I dont wish to be pedantic, but why the bloody quotaion marks again?

    Was he killed, or did someone tell him a cracking good joke?

    Useless BBC bastards.

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  26. Socialism Is Necrotizing says:

    More quotation marks

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5090982.stm?ls

    seems to me this was a hijacking fair and square.

    Did I mention the useless postmodern relativist bastards at the BBC?

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  27. Socialism Is Necrotizing says:

    A quartet is a foursome and there are four here why the quotes?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5091460.stm

    Usls Bstrds

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  28. will says:

    Dimblebore was particularly obnoxious

    I particularly liked his unnecessary swipe at the Mail & the Sun (& by inference, their customers), claiming that it was only they that were concerned about criminals receiving sentences that were too lenient.

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  29. Socialism Is Necrotizing says:

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2231293,00.html

    more BBC uslessness.

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  30. Andrew says:

    Gary Powell, before you post any more comments on any threads please get yourself back to this comment thread and apologise to A. Lurker and everyone else for your awful remarks about gold teeth and murdering people for their beliefs. We are not having that kind of nonsense here. I won’t ask again, and I don’t expect to be ignored a second time. Thank you.

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  31. disillusioned_german says:

    SiN: I suggest we use the term ‘BBC’ from now on.

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  32. David says:

    Hot announcement just on BBC1 – Billy Bragg on Sunday AM at 9 today. Aren’t we lucky! I think I’ll get out in the garden a bit earlier than I had intended.

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  33. Bryan says:

    Religion & Ethics

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/features/350/

    had a report on the 350th anniversary of Jews being readmitted to England.

    I thought the end of the article was a little strange:

    Now 350 years after their return to the UK, Britain’s Jewish community owes a huge debt to those who championed their rights more than three centuries earlier.

    What debt? Those who pushed for the return of the Jews – who were expelled purely on the basis of the fact that they were Jews – simply corrected a grievous wrong committed by their forefathers.

    Tony Blair gave a very moving speech at an event celebrating the Jews’ return. It was warm and evidently heartfelt. I tried to access it on the BBC, but after I got to the page

    http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?q=Tony+Blair+addresses+Jews+on+350th+commemorations&scope=all&tab=all&recipe=all&x=106&y=14

    and clicked on the video and audio of Blair, I was denied access because I’m not in the UK.

    So I don’t know how – or indeed whether – the BBC reported the speech.

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  34. dumbcisco says:

    SiN

    Here is the ‘BBC’ profile of the Chechen just killed.

    As usual, the T word is nowhere in sight – unless used by the Russians to describe what the ‘militants’ do.

    The ‘BBC’ report you posted says the Russians describe these guys as Wahhabis. But they ARE Wahhabi – this W word is another one that the ‘BBC’ finds very difficult to use. It is Saudi-funded Wahhabi doctrines that inflame so much of the Islamist movement, here as well as abroad.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4336445.stm

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  35. dumbcisco says:

    Bryan

    The BBC reported just 5 sentences of Blair’s speech at the commemoration here :

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5076642.stm

    This was surely a very significant event for the Jewish community in Britain. But this is the only coverage on the BBC website. I heard nothing about it on the BBC TV or radio. The BBC’s religious focus seems to be elsewhere these days.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5076642.stm

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  36. dumbcisco says:

    Bryan

    and this article gives an indication of the huge contribution Jewish people have mad in so many walks of life in Britain. Another reason the commemoration should have been given more prominence. Where is the ‘BBC’ respect for diversity here ?

    The article also stresses that from the outset, in spite of all the travails of being a small minority, the Jewish community accepted the civil law of Britain, and respected the civil authorities.

    Hmmm – a few lessons could be learned from them ?

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/06/17/do1702.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2006/06/17/ixop.html

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  37. archduke says:

    it’s spot the islamic crescent time:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/default.stm

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  38. archduke says:

    anyone here realise that a tsunami wave hit one of the balearic islands this week?

    http://www.majorcadailybulletin.es/
    (scroll down to “Tsunami hits Ciutdadella”)

    i didnt catch it on the BBC.

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  39. dave t says:

    http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-blair-is-killing-our-soldiers.html

    MoD making our lads use unarmoured or lightly armoured Land Rovers rather than the RG31 which is British built and would have saved many of the lads who have died – around a quarter of the lads killed were in these Rovers.

    Why don’t the BBC report this sort of thing? Why aren’t Tory MPs in an uproar?

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  40. Socialism Is Necrotizing says:

    Good News everyone!

    Billy bragg says its ok to fly the cross of St George.

    Speaking to Andrew Marx on (Socialism This) Sunday AM, BBC 1 9am, the great and the good have agreed that it is no longer and act of National Socialism to display the flag of England, indeed, The great Bragg has two on his own car!

    The Great Mr Bragg conceded however, that he flys a Trinidad & Tobago flag from Bragg Hall in deference to his Trinidadin wife.

    We are not worthy your Royal Highness.

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  41. dumbcisco says:

    Channel 4 is aiming to launch a radio news service – and has attacked the BBC Today team for being too clubby, too inbred – “they may be incredibly rude in interviews, but they sound as if they all went to the same dinner party last night” :

    http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,,1800402,00.html

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  42. dave t says:

    Well if Bragg says it is OK then it is! After all why DO we bother electing people to positions of power when we should all just see the light and listen to Bragg the Bragger?

    Next up: Britney Spears advises mothers everywhere on how to raise ‘ickle chilen’

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  43. gordon-bennett says:

    dumbcisco | 18.06.06 – 10:08 am

    What nasty, childish specimens these radio people are.

    No wonder their programmes are so small-minded.

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  44. Bryan says:

    dumbcisco,

    I read the article. It seems like a fair summary of what Blair actually said. That said, I’ve no doubt that if Muslims were celebrating something of great significance to themselves the BBC would be trumpeting it to the rooftops.

    How has South Africa changed since Soweto?

    South Africans are marking 30 years since the Soweto uprising, a student protest which proved pivotal in the fight against apartheid.

    Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described South Africa’s record, since the end of apartheid, as mixed, adding that the country’s impressive stability was threatened by “dehumanising poverty”.

    What has South Africa achieved since the end of the apartheid era? Could the poverty experienced by the majority of South Africans result in recognised successes being diminished? What must the country aim for? Send us your views and experiences.

    Published: Friday, 16 June, 2006, 10:16 GMT 11:16 UK

    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2178&edition=2&ttl=20060618110353

    They haven’t exactly published a lot of comments on this topic. Could be that there isn’t much interest or else they are editing it very carefully.

    But the editing of one particular commenter appears non-existent, even though he’s completely off topic, turning it into an Israel and America-bashing fest and breaking HYS House Rules into the bargain:

    Added: Saturday, 17 June, 2006, 15:33 GMT 16:33 UK

    The American People and government played a major role in applying political and economic pressure to the prior government to force change.

    Mark, USA

    Where America played minior role to apply political pressure to subjucate others with Apartheid policies? Pleas tell Mark, is it in Iraq, Palestine, Viet Nam, Latin America? By the by, have you finished erecting the wall between you and Mexico?

    C. Sachidananda Narayanan, Tirunelveli, India

    Added: Saturday, 17 June, 2006, 15:16 GMT 16:16 UK

    They have taught everyone that peaceful transition is possible among reasonable people. The American People and government played a major role in applying political and economic pressure to the prior government to force change.

    Mark, USA

    Sure, they taught everyone. But the Americans practice it differently in Iraq and help Israel build Apartheid wall till today. A pride indeed!

    C. Sachidananda Narayanan, Tirunelveli, India

    Added: Saturday, 17 June, 2006, 14:40 GMT 15:40 UK

    The American People and government played a major role in applying political and economic pressure to the prior government to force change.

    Mark, USA

    Hi, Mark, laughter the best medicine and it is your good comment indeed. we know how america is applying political and economic pressure to the israelis to encourage apartheid in building separation wall and bulldozing innocent peoples’ home in the holy land. keep it up Mark!

    C. Sachidananda Narayanan, Tirunelveli, India

    Don’t HYS propaganda functioning at maximum efficiency.

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  45. dumbcisco says:

    12 noon news on ‘BBC’ – “US and Iraqi forces are starting a major operation in Ramadi – here is Hugh Sykes reporting from Baghdad.”

    Baghdad ? From the hotel ?

    Can’t the ‘BBC’ embed a reporter with OUR SIDE in Ramadi itself? Or haven’t they got an agency feed from Ramadi itself ? Why not hire one of the milbloggers who will be close in to the action ?

    But maybe the ‘BBC’ will be relying on feeds from THEIR SIDE about coalition brutalities.

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  46. Biodegradable says:

    How has South Africa changed since Soweto?
    The Evolution of Israel’s Africa Policy

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  47. will says:

    Further to the prominence given by the BBC to unnamed “campaigners” who oppose a gong to the Met policeman. The BBC’s attempts to whip up opposition to the authorities’ anti-terror efforts seems to fall on deaf ears.

    Nick Cohen writes in The Observer on the lack of enthusiasm among the “Muslim Community” for joining these mysterious campaigners.

    Speaking of the honour’s list, the Liberal Democrats were furious that Andy Hayman, the anti-terrorist officer in charge of the Forest Gate raid, had been given a CBE.

    Nick Clegg, who is thought by many to be a future leader of that aimless party, admitted that Hayman was a brave man with a distinguished record. But he insisted that he should not have been honoured because the raid had brought ‘enormous anger and anxiety’ to Muslims.

    But, interestingly, it hasn’t. An anti-police demonstration was given huge advance publicity in the media, but in the event, only a hundred or so people turned up, many of whom were white Islamists from the Socialist Workers party. Since then, nothing.

    I really feel the British Muslim community is letting everyone down. The papers, the broadcasters, the Liberal Democrats and the Trots are all desperate for a display of fury, but the stubborn Muslims refuse to oblige.

    http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1800359,00.html

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  48. sean says:

    melanie phillips on sky with adam
    boulton and asghar bukhari from muslim public affairs.talking about her new book.nice balance one on one.i’d say asghar got well and truly trounced.

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  49. will says:

    Observer foreign affairs editor, Peter Beaumont, discusses the pressure put on the BBC & other liberal MSM by the Left.

    … after my review of Chomsky’s latest book I am expecting another Medialens-ing. .. But I’m in very good company. John Simpson has been turned over, Jon Snow too, and my colleague Andrew Rawnsley

    It is a closed and distorting little world that selects and twists its facts to suit its arguments, a curious willy-waving exercise where the regulars brag about the emails they’ve sent to people like poor Helen Boaden at the BBC – and the replies they have garnered. Think a train spotters’ club run by Uncle Joe Stalin.

    In their peculiar version of the world, the BBC is chief propagandist for the government (I’m sure the ministers sliced and diced on Today each day – as Simpson points out in his reply to Medialens – would not agree).

    Beaumont’s views on Medialens would presumably apply equally to we zealots at B-BBC

    Which leads to the question, what is the aim of these self-appointed media watchdogs? At first, I thought there was some use in them. The media too often has a tendency to be arrogant and insular and, yes, is sometimes too close to power. There is a tremendous value in a debate between media workers and concerned readers.

    But that is not what this is all about. In truth these groups – and Medialens is a good example – have discovered that, through the increasing presence of print and broadcast media on the internet, they can exploit their ‘critical relationship’ with the media to create a virtual soap box for their views. For journalists like myself, the voice of the disgruntled left we hear is not that of the silent hundreds of thousands I marched with against the war in 2003, but the small, shrill, squeaky voice of an extreme.

    http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1800328,00.html

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  50. Anonymous says:

    During the Ghana-Czech Republic game, a Ghanian pulled out an Israeli flag…

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150355513691&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

    …Which, naturally, al-Beeb chose not to include in their photo coverage of the fixture:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5061450.stm

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