on active service in Afghanistan, the fourth and fifth such deaths in the course of a week. Their deaths were reported as the second item on this evening’s BBC Ten O’Clock News bulletin. What story was judged by the BBC as being more important than the sacrifice of two British soldiers?
Yes, you’ve guessed it – the BBC’s fifteen minute long Ten O’Clock News programme was led by a full five minutes on the resignation of David Beckham as Captain of the England football team, with filmed pieces about the return of the squad (oh look, an aeroplane landing), the disappointment of Sven Goran Eriksson and an obituary style review of David Beckham’s time as captain, “those legendary free kicks”, and so on, even though Beckham has made it clear that he’s staying on as an England player.
The Beckham story is a big story – a big sports story – but it shouldn’t have led the Ten O’Clock News on any but the slowest of news days, and certainly not on a day with sad news like today. It’s not as if England’s football disappointment wasn’t fully covered yesterday, over and above the deaths of sixty people in a Baghdad bombing.
The producers of the Ten O’Clock News should be ashamed of their choice this evening – the British Broadcasting Corporation should know better.
It was really nice to see the Daleks and Cybermen about to square off. I’ve been waiting for this since I was 8 years old!
cybermen can go down stairs.
daleks cant.
its a no brainer – but the kids will love it.
getting back to the real-life daleks in this world:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150885884391&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
“Meanwhile, Hamas’s armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, on Sunday threatened to attack infrastructure facilities inside Israel, including schools, hospitals and universities. ”
how brave of them.
@archduke,
Worst of all, the hamas millitants are only armed with crude, improvised home-made weapons.
We at the BBC can but sympathise with their misfortune and hardships.
From: Hot air
Perspective check: Ludicrous bias in British TV’s Gaza coverage:
As bad as the American press is, odds are you’ll never see something here as shamelessly slanted as this Channel 4 report on Israel’s incursion into Gaza. It’s nine minutes long but stick with it; it gets worse as it goes, culminating in an interview with the Israeli ambassador to the UK that has to be seen to be believed. I’d call it pure propaganda except that it’s actually more disgusting than that: I doubt even Hamas would go as far as Jon Snow does in callously dismissing Qassam rockets, which have killed 13 people (including two infants) since 2001, as harmless little nothings.
In all, one of the more disgraceful episodes to come out of the Arabist British media in recent years — which is really saying something. Naturally, MPAC is ecstatic.
http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/07/02/perspective-check-ludicrous-bias-in-british-tvs-gaza-coverage/
I tried the ‘daleks can’t go upstairs’ line at my 11-y-o son’s b’day party and got laughed out of the room. Daleks can now levitate, apparently, rendering the the ‘run upstairs’ escape route useless!!!
British media go into overdrive in support for the Pali’s. That C4 report is appalling.
Here’s Al Guardian having a swipe.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,,1811259,00.html
One reason for Israel’s assault is military. Israel has been desperate to put an end to the homemade rockets launched from northern Gaza at the Israeli town of Sderot, which lies a kilometre from the Gaza strip in the north-west Negev desert. Sderot is Peretz’s home town.
These rockets have so far not killed anyone but they are a very considerable irritant. The city’s municipality is up in arms at the state’s inability to offer adequate protection. In response to the rockets, Israeli shelling and air strikes have in recent months killed some 50 Palestinians, including several children, and wounded more than 200.
What planet is he on?
I am wondering if a kind british reader could send in a note to the Guardians public editor and have a retraction printed?
Today is still moaning about the 5 British dead in Afghanistan, “lessons of history” , “moan moan moan”.
you’d never know that our boys have whipped Taliban butt anytime they’ve engaged with them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,,1811259,00.html
good god – from reading that you’d think that the Israeli’s are firing shells randomly into civilian areas.
Mr Seale must be on the same deluded planet that the Islamists are on. You know – that planet where the evil Zionists control the world.
I shoved this onto the end of the last open thread, however I don’t want jr to miss it as I would be interested in his response:
I may be nit picking, but I find the BBC’s continued use of the word ‘rockets’ to describe the deadly missiles fired by Hamas terrorists into Israel as another piece of spin and manipulation.
Rocket is almost benign, conjuring up images of Guy Fawkes night, or of a millenium celebration.
My dictionary defines ‘Rocket’ as a cylindical projectile that can be propelled to a great height or distance by the combustion of its contents, used typically as a firework or signal.
Presumably Hamas are trying to brighten up the lives of those living on the Israeli side of the border, or maybe trying to signal something.
‘Missile’ however is described as an object which is forcibly propelled at a target, a weapon that is self-propelled or directed by remote control, carrying conventional or nuclear explosives.
jr, as a journalist, broadcaster and, no doubt, a commentator for the BBC, wold you care to comment on this minor anomaly
some statistics and projections about the ongoing debate in the US on immigration.
Not the sort of statistics I have ever heard on the BBC.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_4815032,00.html
TPO,
There’s a very long waiting list on John Reith’s desk. Man is completely snowed under.
Bryan
I’m not holding my breath
Just heard on BBC R4 news bulletin that six detainees picked up in Afghanistan who were released from Gitmo are about to go on trial in Paris for terror activity.
French Guantanamo six go on trial
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5139622.stm
Ritter,
and you can see the angle al beeb is lining up to take:
“Prosecutors allege they received training in a camp near Kandahar but the trial is likely to put the spotlight equally on conditions at Guantanamo.”
according to the BBC, the biggest story coming out of France right now is the French gitmo six
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/default.stm
(no surprises there)
But look were “Le Monde” place the story
http://www.lemonde.fr/
(hint: its right at the bottom)
Le Figaro does have it as a lead item, but at least they have the balls to place it in the “Terrorism” category
http://www.lefigaro.fr/
Rather than “Coalition win battle” or “Taliban forces defeated”
instead Al-BBC has the headline of
Militants ‘killed’ in Afghanistan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5139718.stm
why the scare quotes? Do BBC think that the U.S. military make this up?
Here is a blogger in Iraq talking to an Iraqi General. The sort of stuff we never get from the BBC :
http://boredsoldier.blogspot.com/2006/07/interview-with-iraqi-general.html
French Gitmo Six?
Why not terrorist Six?
Welcome back pounce!
pounce
The BBC can’t label them as the terrorists they are – because the BBC won’t ever use the T word to describe anyone from the Afghanistan conflict.
I don’t think they call Osama a terrorist, for example. Here is their profile of him :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1551100.stm
And here is a recent report where he is a fugitive – not a terrorist :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5137302.stm
And here is a BBC security correspondent avoiding the T word :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4937232.stm
How ridiculous can the BBC get ? The self-confessed leader of the crowd that planned 9/11, with links to many other groups such as Zarqawi’s and trhe Bali bombers – and the BBC still won’t call him a terrorist.
Indeed, welcome back pounce, fancy a saucer of milk?
yet another sob story from the propaganda wing of Hamas, otherwise known as the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5136988.stm
Jackie Ashley aka Mrs Andrew Marx (Yes, he of (Socialism This) Sunday AM, BBC1 9am) shows herself to be as much an Authoritarian Socialist as her hubby.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1811270,00.html
What a ghastly household that must be. Can Social Services be alerted if both parents happen to be Socialists?
I’ve recently seen 2 Horizon programmes on human evolution. They are being screened in the am (for schools?). Today’s was dated 2003. I am surprised I never saw the programmes broadcast in the evening?
They go out of their way to make snide oblique comments about “god”. I wonder if that got them shelved for normal viewing, but good for schools?
The first programme suggested that at one time the evolutionary tree showed no branches from Lucy (3+m years) to modern man – i.e. a linear progression. Subsequent discoveries showed branches, so relief, man evolved as other creatures after all! (the programme ignored neanderthals, which surely would have blown their original contention.)
Today’s programme stated that the discovery of cave art in Europe dating from 40K years ago was originally explained as a “genetic hand of god” – a mutation that had the effect of making man, for the 1st time, a thinking being.
Later discoveries in Africa pushed back the origins of art/thinking.
Conclusion – man evolved gradually over time, no “genetic hand of god”.
Surely the mutation theory didn’t in itself challenge evolution.
& the Neanderthals? – possibly wiped out by diseases spread by the newcomers, like …… American Indians.
Dave T wrote;
‘Welcome back pounce!’
Thank you. I’ve been away for the best part of 4 weeks.
3 weeks in Scotland and 1 week in Poland.
Hanrahan does his usual “Let’s blame Israel” routine on the World at One.
He sets up Margaret Beckett to try to get her to agree that really, those pesky Jews are really beyond the pale. Imagine them responding to the killing and kidnapping of their soldiers in such a way!
This approach just highlights the hypocrisy of Hanrahan and the BBC in general: they never use a similar approach when dealing with Palestinian violence; it is always, ultimately Israel’s fault. Still, what else can you expect from a race like the Jews?
“I am surprised I never saw the programmes broadcast in the evening?”
my major gripe with BBC tv output is the woeful decline in science output at more normal times. in the race to chase ratings, so pretty good stuff gets pushed to the graveyard or early morning shifts.
kirsty wark’s travelog program (about culture/politics/art in various european countries) comes to mind – if you get past her leftist bias, it actually wasnt that bad a program – but unfortunately it was put on after newsnight.
“Hanrahan does his usual “Let’s blame Israel” routine on the World at One.”
heard that one – and Beckett, to be fair, did her best to swat it off, rather like swatting an annoying gnat.
You see, Beckett operates in the real world now that she is Foreign Secretary, and not in the Beeboid parallel fantasy world of Pallywood.
Notable also that the BBC and other media are going full out for the “collective punishment” narrative. No doubt the massacre” narrative will begin once any Palestinians are killed, but are probably treading cautiously after the Jenin non-massacre.
Funny how in Beeboid land the Israelis do “collective punishment”, but the Palestinans never do. I would have thought that the indiscriminate targetting of Jews by rockets or suicide bombings is far more of a “collective punishment”.
The BBC is gulity of killing Muslims……blood on its hands….
It encourages them, and says that using women and children as humman bombs is ok, if your “oppressed”……..
It says that Israel is always the agressor, which encourages the Muslims into thinking that they are “right”………and worst of all in a fundamentalist…”Just”……
But of course, the USA and Israel don’t listen to the BBC and their moaning left wing bleating….so when the Muslims come charging in, they get the crap blown out of them…be it in Iraq, Afghanistan or Israel…when it comes down to it…these un-trained Muslim terrorists, HAVE to target children and women, becasue the BBC has told them it’s ok and that they must “fight” back………….but they know damn well that a straight fight with “the west” will result in a terrible anhialation of Muslims “fighters”………so they bottle it, and send in women and children, to kill women and childred…..(Has ANY MUslims “leader” lead from the front??)
And the BBC is encouraging this…….the BBC is saying “Charge” to the “Oppressed” Muslims…and they are charging in, and dying by the 100s a day…….
Nice work BBC, history will judge your downfall like that of Hitlers…….a disgrace to humanity.
P.A. indoctrination of children, encouraging them to become suicide bombers
http://www.pmw.org.il/tv%20part1.html
why do we not see this on the BBC?
why are no hard questions put to P.A. representatives about this?
“I tried the ‘daleks can’t go upstairs’ line at my 11-y-o son’s b’day party and got laughed out of the room. ”
Please…I saw that episode…..and a Stana Stair Lift could out run one of them trash cans coming upstairs……it was pathetic….
They are from the 1960s……the BBC offers nothing new, just the same old re-runs and re-hashs….It has served it’s purpose, and could now die, and 300,000 people a year in the UK would’nt face going to court and being labled CRIMINALS…………
What about their Human Rights???……
very odd choice of words on the front page right now
http://news.bbc.co.uk
“Images of 7 July
The story behind some of the day’s most
memorable photos.”
memorable? bit of a odd choice of word.
archduke:
P.A. indoctrination of children, encouraging them to become suicide bombers…
That’s exactly the kind of thing that Arafat, and Abbas after him, have ‘promised’ several times to stop as part of the various ‘agreements’ signed with the Israelis.
Q: How can you tell when a “Palestinian” is lying?
A: His lips move.
interesting contrast between sky news and bbc news 24 re reporting on the valencia train crash:
bbc news 24 are talking to someone from Costa Blanca news i.e. not a bbc person.
sky news have THEIR correspondent in Madrid phoning in.
15:06 bbc news 24 have already moved onto Afghanistan
sky news , understanding the seriousness of the spanish crash, are still reporting on it.
(understandable , considering how many Brits are out there )
15:09 news 24 are back to valencia after breaking to afghanistan.
now they have their correspondent in Madrid phoning in.
meanwhile, sky had an advisor to the transport select commitee on the phone.
15:10 sky break to afghanistan – spend about 30 seconds on it.
More pointless propaganda:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5141310.stm
cuckoo – look at the title of the video, top right
“hear how the situation in afghanistan has deteriorated”
ahem.. we weren’t in Hemland Province before. we had no presence there. none.
now , our boys have moved in , in order to kick some Taliban butt (and doing a bloody good job at it), our BBC says the situation has “deteriorated” , rather than pointing out that we’ve repulsed Taliban attacks and basically made mincemeat out of them.
pathetic.
Here we have a prime story for the MSM to cover. These traitors managed to get off the hook for previous misdemeanours, we shouldn’t let it happen again. Come on BBC, you can always add it to the Pali news section.
UK Islamists: Make Jihad on Israel
British Jihad group declares ‘Israel is cancer, Islam is answer,’ calls on followers to carry out holy war
Yaakov Lappin
Radical Muslims in Britain have blasted Hamas for failing to carry out a “real” Islamic holy war, and have called for a Jihad against Israel following the recent escalation of the Israeli • Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3269847,00.html
Does anyone have an itinerary for the Islam-Expo event on July 7th, and will they be observing the silence for the victims of Muslim terrorists there?
mick in the uk,
http://islamexpo.info/
They probably have to pray, so silence of sorts. Bet they will be cheering inside themselves.
This event was funded by Al Ken & his mates to the tune of £200,000 by London taxpayers. Disgusting! He knew what the date means to many people & still chose to fund it!
its spot the word time
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5142908.stm
or rather the lack of a certain word.
Barker John -> Red Ken probably thinks that Mossad* were behind it
(* tm: Zionist Worldwide Conspiracy Ltd)
“Does anyone have an itinerary for the Islam-Expo event on July 7th, and will they be observing the silence for the victims of Muslim terrorists there?
mick in the uk”
there’s an idea!
how about getting in touch with the folks that did that pro-Danish cartoon demo earlier this year?
http://marchforfreeexpression.blogspot.com/
anyone got an Israeli flag – or know where i can get one?
“Radical Muslims in Britain have blasted Hamas for failing to carry out a “real” Islamic holy war,”
great stuff. I’d wave them through, let them go to Gaza, and have a “chat” with the Hamas heavies.
return ticket wont be required.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ISRAEL-ISRAELI-5ft-x3ft-100-POLYESTER-FLAGS-FLAG_W0QQitemZ7773815142QQihZ018QQcategoryZ13883QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem