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.

Bookmark the permalink.

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

  1. Umbongo says:

    Mister Minit

    “If the BBC had a left-wing version of O’Reilly on their news channel, this site would have about 100 post per day”

    Frankly, if I wasn’t forced to pay for it, I wouldn’t care less: the more broadcasters the better – and that includes left-wing ones. How often do we have to say that bias and crap journalism – which go hand in hand on the BBC – is unacceptable because we’re taxed to pay for it?

       0 likes

  2. DFH says:

    Mick – I heard the condensed clip segment on yesterday’s Today, but I can’t find it on Listen Again. I can only assume it was played sometime between 7am and the report on the Arab meeting at 7.09, as that bit is missing. I was still in half-awake mode so I can’t be sure of the time.

    It was an astonishing stunt to pull, splicing together the sound of a series of bomb blasts taken over a long period of time so that they could be played in one dramatic brief snippet (and I realise I’ve done the same with Jermey Bowen but I don’t it’s quite the same thing).

       0 likes

  3. paulc says:

    From Steve E.

    “UPDATE (from Steve Herrmann): I should have said at the start – we didn’t use the Reuters picture on the BBC News website.”

    That’s a bit ****** disingenuous.
    Has anybody (in their right mind) used the Reuters photo? What about other hajj pix, or aren’t we supposed to ask?

       0 likes

  4. DFH says:

    Spelling – Jeremy Bowen.

    Incidentally, does anybody else type Jim Bowen inadvertently and then have to correct it? I do it all the time. In fact, it’s made me think “You can’t beat a bit of bullshit” would be a good catchphrase for the BBC’s Middle East editor.

       0 likes

  5. Dong says:

    (The 14 times ‘Have you threatened to overrule? This is now repeated for the second time: Were Hez holding a copy of Fergal’s passport?

    The background: Another journalist let the cat out of the bag last week. Writing on his blog while reporting from southern Lebanon, Time magazine contributor Christopher Allbritton casually mentioned in the middle of a posting: “To the south, along the curve of the coast, Hezbollah is launching Katyushas, but I’m loath to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist’s passport, and they’ve already hassled a number of us and threatened one.”

       0 likes

  6. Robin says:

    Anybody listen to the BBC`s new series about the origins of the EU last night at 9.30pm(repeated from the morning)?
    It was all woe and if only Britain had been far sighted,not petulant,xenophobic,arrogant and pessimistic.
    The real reasons why we didnt join then(and should never have joined)weren`t broadcast.
    I like the way they said that “Britain knew it would have to join sooner or later”.Britain never thought that,some politicians civil servants and ahandful of others thought that.

       0 likes

  7. pounce says:

    The BBC and how it makes a mountain out of a mole hill.

    The BBC reports on one of those Hezbollah heroes whom it never appears to show fighting

    Tape shows Hezbollah ‘confession’
    The Israeli army has released a video apparently showing a Hezbollah fighter admitting to taking part in a raid on Israel and undergoing training in Iran.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5254742.stm

    In the current climate of dubious photos I must admit to a smile when I read this in that report;
    The videoed interrogation appears to have been heavily edited.
    At a stroke you discredit the film and thus defend Hezbollah yet again from closer inspection of their odious ways.

    But that smile of mine faded when I came across this;
    The Israeli army announced his capture on Sunday, but did not say when he had been seized, according to the Associated Press.
    Once again you attempt to discredit the confession of a Terrorist by saying you don’t have a Scooby do where the IDF picked him up.
    Here allow me (where the BBC and AP have failed)to put you right on where this geezer was picked up.

    “Sleiman surrendered after he found himself alone in a house surrounded by Golani troops in the village of Aita Shaab,”.

    Note Sleiman and Suleiman are one and the same.
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=Hussein+Ali+Suleiman&itemNo=747457

    So it appears that a simple search of the Israeli media could have ascertained where Suleiman was found.

    Mind you that smile returned when I read this comment of yours:
    In the footage, Mr Suleiman appeared to have light bruises or wounds on his cheeks and lips.
    I wonder if the person who wrote this BBC report ever watched Not the Nine O/Clock news” and the sketch with Gerald the Intelligent Gorilla
    “When I caught Gerald, he was completely wild.” Gerald replies, “Wild? I was absolutely livid!”
    I don’t think a machinegun toting Terrorist would simply have come quietly . Go to any peace protest and watch how peaceful the tofu eaters are when arrested by the old bill. Now contrast that with every captive taken in the Middle East and made to condemn the west on TV. I don’t think the quote “appeared to have light bruises or wounds on his cheeks and lips.” Would do them justice .
    Once again the BBC making a mountain out of a molehill.

       0 likes

  8. dave t says:

    http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/2006/08/one-side-is-held-to-exacting-standards.html

    Rummie talking sense – we know however that the BBC will not agree and thus not report this….

    “Taking note of the differences between the way the United States and terrorists fight, Rumsfeld said, “one side puts their men and women at risk in uniform and obeys the laws of war, while the other side uses them against us.” We have seen that in the world’s reaction to Guantanamo Bay prison and Abu Ghraib. Terrorists use torture and murder and no court of public opinion or judicial entity holds them accountable. The rare instance of abuse by American soldiers is punished.

    Rumsfeld elaborated on the difference between the two sides: “One side does all it can to avoid civilian casualties, while the other side uses civilians as shields, and then skilfully orchestrates a public outcry when the other side accidentally kills civilians in their midst. One side is held to exacting standards of near perfection; the other side is held to no standards and no accountability at all.”

       0 likes

  9. dave t says:

    http://expatyank.blogspot.com/2006/08/we-await-this-other-protest.html

    Wonderful stuff!

    “However, for some reason, we don’t hear of similar “anti-war” protests directed at the other side, and as a result haven’t come across the likes of stories reported like this. . .

    Anti-war campaigners claimed they boarded an aircraft at Imam Khomeini International Airport, outside Tehran, on Tuesday – the site’s third security breach in three days. Iranian “Rockets To Kill Zionists” officials said five activists managed to break through the perimeter fence and get on board an Iranian air force plane just after midnight.

    According to the protesters, the group managed to search through documentation on the aircraft before attempting to examine another cargo plane. They were then stopped by airport workers, who acting in the name of He the most powerful (peace be upon him), immediately executed them.

    The latest stunt comes less than 24 hours after eight people were hanged after they allegedly managed to boarded a cargo plane at the same airport.

    And on Sunday four other people who managed to get on to the main runway were also hanged…

    . . . and one can only wonder why not?”

       0 likes

  10. pounce says:

    The BBC and how it tells half a story
    I see those nasty Serbs are up to their old tricks of being bloody obstinate according to the BBC;

    The Serb delegation from Kosovo has boycotted a session of talks about the future of the province.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5257566.stm

    So why did the Serbs boycott the talks about the future of Kosovo?
    Could it have something to do with refusing to be classed as a minority in their own country simply due to the higher birth-rate of Albanian immigrants who now are the majority want Kosovo to cede from Empire and join the Islamic country to the south?

    But what gripes have the Serbs have apart from been classed as a minority. I mean according to the BBC it is only that .

    So for the BBC snoop (evening) here are a few salient points you appear to have left out from that Whitewash you class as NEWS

    Mobs of angry Albanians in Kosovo have burned Serbian Orthodox churches and homes on a second day of violence which is showing no sign of a let-up.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3525168.stm

    NATO rushed 1,000 extra troops to Kosovo last night – 750 of them British – and Germany announced it will send 600 additional troops amid fears that the Balkans were again sliding towards a conflagration that could suck in neighboring countries.
    With at least 23 dead in two days of ethnic rioting that have pitted the two million Albanians against the small Serb minority, and with dozens of churches and houses reduced to smoking ruins, Western efforts to impose peace appeared about to unravel.

    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0319-08.htm

    On Friday, April 28th, Serbian Orthodox Good Friday, a time bomb set by Albanian terrorists blew up “St Petka” Church in the Fillage of Grncar in Dosovska Vitina district. exploded 30 minutes early -7:30 AM. It had been timed for 8:00 AM when the Albanian Muslim Terrorists expected the Church would be packed with Serbs.
    http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/may00/hed84.shtml

    International intervention to halt the persecution of Christians in Kosovo is a “complete failure,” according to a former diplomat and other political analysts who briefed Capitol Hill staff late last week, pointing to the destruction of 150 churches and the simultaneous construction of 200 mosques.
    http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=%5CSpecialReports%5Carchive%5C200508%5CSPE20050815a.html

    So much for this ending at the end of your little news article on Kosovo BBC
    On Monday, a human rights group said the UN and the international community were failing to protect the rights of Kosovo’s minorities.

    “Nowhere [in Europe] is there such a level of fear for so many minorities that they will be harassed or attacked, simply for who they are,” a report by London-based Minority Rights Group International (MRGI) said.

    Why did you not explain just who the minority is in this case/

    The BBC and half a story

       0 likes

  11. pounce says:

    The BBC and Balance.

    The BBC allows its readers to ask questions to citizens of Israel and Lebanon.
    Israel;
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/5255496.stm
    Lebanon;
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5211976.stm

    I’ve already written on how the BBC made the latter look a right goody two shoes. (But that is another story posted else where)

    Anyway let’s look at the questions raised.
    To the former we have these succulent questions asked;
    Siham Aboudou, Morocco: Hello Sharon, Why don’t you leave Israel? You seem to appreciate the British way of life and you have British nationality so why don’t you live there?
    And
    Raja Al-Khatib, UK: I have dual Lebanese and British citizenship. My family is currently in a village near the south of Lebanon. I’m trying to understand this madness. My question is: How can you live in a war-mongering nation and support it? How did you feel when you saw the children of Qana? I am curious as to how Israel justifies this.
    And
    Dave Fish, Middlesex, UK: Hi Sharon, given the very high death toll in Lebanon, what are your feelings about the justification for the war and what was initially a response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers?

    Now contrast that with the questions raised against the Lebanese girl. Who isn’t asked about Hezbollah isn’t asked to leave and isn’t asked about the rise of militant Islam in Lebanon.

    The BBC up to it’s old tricks of demonizing Israel yet again.

       0 likes

  12. pounce says:

    A friend of Mel Gibson perhaps BBC?

    Iraqi man ‘filmed terror targets’

    An Iraqi man filmed video footage of potential targets for a terrorist attack on London, a court was told

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5257070.stm

    He said he was not anti-Semitic.

       0 likes

  13. pounce says:

    Ref one of my earlier posts:

    About how the BBC came out with this line;
    “In the footage, Mr Suleiman appeared to have light bruises or wounds on his cheeks and lips, and the tape was edited with some of his answers cut off in mid-sentence, AP reported.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5254742.stm

    Well lets have a butchers at Mr Suleiman on that video shall we.

    http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20060808/capt.320dfec9b38645b995f0f81746c6512c.mideast_fighting_captured_guerrilla_lon801.jpg?x=380&y=292&sig=Y5_RnlGhZdJd8.KTekg.aQ–

    Taken from;
    http://news.yahoo.com/photo/060808/481/320dfec9b38645b995f0f81746c6512c&g=events/wl/080601mideast;_ylt=AsFwkzG1VZw3NbqLW0stvlUUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3bGk2OHYzBHNlYwN0bXA-

    And I did wonder why you lead with this photo on that story BBC;
    http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41976000/jpg/_41976496_video_203afp.jpg

    The BBC and visual terrorism.

       0 likes

  14. Anonymous says:

    Still no comments at the BBC Editor’s blog on the Cana photos :

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/08/trusting_photos.html

    12 hours and not a bone in the truck.

    Pathetic

       0 likes

  15. will says:

    A collection of Fergal Keane’s props

    http://www.slublog.com/archives/2006/08/the_passion_of.html

       0 likes

  16. archduke says:

    amazing.

    newsnight right now – about eastern european migration:

    Polly Toynbee is coming to the same conclusion as Nigel Farage (!!!)

       0 likes

  17. archduke says:

    anonymous – that “buring tires” fraud is incredible.

    U.S. magazine cover:
    http://hotair.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/usnews.jpg

    err.. its a rubbish dump on fire
    http://hotair.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/usnews2.jpg

       0 likes

  18. archduke says:

    “The BBC up to it’s old tricks of demonizing Israel yet again.”

    actually pounce – you could look at it another way.

    if the BBC allows the Islamonutters ask such questions – then that reveals to the rest of us their viseral hatred of Israel.

    much better to have this exposed than hidden away, dont you think? we have to remember that there ARE some israeli sympathisers at Al Beeb – what better way to damage the Jihadists by exposing their nuttiness?

    just a thought.

       0 likes

  19. mick in the uk says:

    DFH:
    I think the condensed clip was in a the news report, which means (apart from the disclaimer) it could be taken as the true sound of a massive bombardment.

    That type of behaviour is as bad as the photo editing cheating…to make the bombing appear worse than it is.

       0 likes

  20. Ryan says:

    Another BBC 10 o’clock news with no report from Israel on any in bound Hezbollah attacks. Presumably Israel is taking unilateral action, and Hezbollah are innocent?

       0 likes

  21. dumbcisco says:

    This article at IBD – required reading for any US investor – really savages Reuters :

    http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=239841568183848

       0 likes

  22. Bryan says:

    dumbcisco | 08.08.06 – 1:36 pm,

    Thanks for the info. Will check it out tomorrow.

    Steve E. Yes, I see that the honourable Steve Herrmann, Editor, BBC News website, has still not posted any comments to his article.

    Maybe he’s editing them.

       0 likes

  23. archduke says:

    re pounce’s post
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/5234830.stm
    Sharon Healy

    thats an Irish name. she’s probably married to a Irish guy – maybe 2nd generation, and officially “british” , but Irish all the same.

    no “honour killing” threat so from the Elders of Zion because she’s married to a non-Jew? Has she had to go into hiding because her Jewish family have threatened to kill her for marrying outside of Judaism.

    err. no. of course not.

       0 likes

  24. dumbcisco says:

    Bryan

    It only stays up a day. Tomorrow after about 7am they show tomorrow’s running order for Today.

    Just like today they only carried yesterday’s Today until 7am.

    If you get my drift….

    On the lack of movement at the Editor’s Blog – heaven forfend any idea that publicly-paid staff don’t have high productivity !

       0 likes

  25. dumbcisco says:

    Bryan

    Of course, by 7am tomorrow today’s edition of Today will actually be yesterday’s. And tomorrow’s will be today’s. Today’s yesterday has already gone down the Memory Hole – but the BBC are good at that.

    Meanwhile Fox’s main anchor talking about Reuters is their main “Featured Video” clip today :

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207358,00.html

       0 likes

  26. pounce says:

    Archduke wrote:
    if the BBC allows the Islamonutters ask such questions – then that reveals to the rest of us their viseral hatred of Israel.

    That’s one way to look at it. But the problem is, the steady drip, drip dripping of bile from the BBC onto Israel has resulted in a situation where it is perfectly acceptable in which to demonise Jews as a whole.
    Any demonstration around the world which berates the jew is given prominence by the BBC. We are currently overwhelmed by accounts of just how bad Israel is. Those questions which were asked were somewhat loaded when it came to the Brit. Tell me just where does the BBC get off in allowing people to tell a woman to return to her own country (England) that she is living in a war mongering nation (Israel) and the very high death toll because of Israeli action.
    The youth of today have no problem slagging off Israel as a belligerent nation.
    Why?
    Because the steady dripping of hate from the BBC has become embedded in the national psyche. Just as the young of today equate Maggie Thatcher as evil (because of the long term spin by the left) so do the folks of today see Israel as evil.

    Trying to say that it allows us to see Islamonutters at work is only relevant when the nutter is a Muslim. What do we do when the person throwing the bile is white,and a non muslim;
    Israel responded to an unprovoked attack by Hizbullah, right? Wrong

    The assault on Lebanon was premeditated – the soldiers’ capture simply provided the excuse. It was also unnecessary

    George Monbiot
    Tuesday August 8, 2006
    The Guardian

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1839280,00.html

    I read that this morning. But unlike the BBC I choose to buy the Guardian and thus therefore don’t feel I can bitch about how it reports the news.

       0 likes

  27. john says:

    on C4 news this evening at 7pm there was a short admission that Hezbollah had approached all the journalists and camera people the day before in Tyre (it looks like they are all based in the same hotel) to ask them not to film them shooting rockets into Israel. That was it. Short but sweet at the very end of the package-you could have missed it. Has the bbc admitted this too? If not why not, and do they intend to follow Hezbollah’s orders? For some reason they are very reluctant to tell us that what they show us is actually restricted, they like to give the impression that they can roam around and film as they please. The truth is very different. I find it outrageous that the MSM journalists are complicit with Hezbollah.

       0 likes

  28. AntiCitizenOne says:

    BBC in investigative journalism.

    I thought it was impossible, but the BBC have found THE ONLY CASTRO SUPPORTING CUBAN IN MIAMI!!

    What is it with authoritarian dictators that left wing views as news love so much?

       0 likes

  29. GCooper says:

    dumbcisco writes:

    “Big media losing credibility.”

    Glad to see Thomas Lifon making exactly the same points I was making here last night.

    While part of what has gone wrong with the MSM has been the Leftist hegemony at work within its ranks, another part has been the wholesale outsourcing of the reporting footwork to cheap freelances.

    Now, as a good capitalist, I’m all in favour of freelancers – but not when cheapskate news agencies are hiring any twonk with a Canon and a Hezbollah headscarf and passing him off as an ‘unbiased journalist’.

    The question this raises, of course, is whether the hiring of activists is accident or design. Either could be true. FWIW, my guess is that both are. Leftist editors find it useful to employ stooges. So do short-sighted ‘managers’ who like cheap labour – whatever that does to shareholder value once they get caught with Photoshop all over their hands.

       0 likes

  30. dumbcisco says:

    as mentioned on another thread – it gets even worse than that ! :

    http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-york-times-busted-in-hezbollah.html

       0 likes

  31. archduke says:

    i swear to god – i’m now looking at every AP/Reuters lebanon photo half expecting a photoshop or staged job. and if photos are being faked, what about news reports?

    MSM credibility has just gone down the toilet in this war. big time.

       0 likes

  32. dumbcisco says:

    after 24 hours there are still no comments on that Dteve Herrman BBC editors’ blog about the photos.

       0 likes

  33. john says:

    Those NYT photos are more damaging than Reuters- heard nothing on bbc this morning( they went domestic). Clearly what is going on is Tyre is outrageous. Strange that the bbc, itn & c4 journalists play along so. Perhaps they are too scared to say anything in case Hezbollah do something to them. Tyre is now more or less isolated. Perhaps, as we saw in former Iraq, Hezbollah are standing in the rooms observing the journalists and listening making sure they say the correct things, but the journalists are too scared to report this. C4’s admission last night that Hezbollah visited the hotel and made demands to the MSM was a cry for help.

    Journalists as human shields & unable to report the truth? How ironic!

       0 likes

  34. s.h says:

    rottweiler puppy has a good bbc story
    well worth a look,not sure if this link will work.

    http://rottypup.com/?p=637

       0 likes

  35. dumbcisco says:

    more Reuters photo shenanigans ?

    http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/184242.php

       0 likes

  36. Oscar says:

    Re. Slublog’s ‘passion of the toys’, did you notice one of the pristine cuddly toy shots is credited to Reuters’ Issam Kobeisi: aka Adnan Hajj? (See Dumbcisco’s link above.)

       0 likes

  37. PW says:

    Does anyone know where to find the BBC clip from South Beirut about a fortnight ago where the Middle East “editor” Jeremy Bowen bends to lift a teddy bear that just happened to be there when he walks through the area on guided tour?

       0 likes

  38. Umbongo says:

    As archduke notes, on “Newsnight” last night Polly appeared to be worried about immigration. She might be but her slant is the neo-Marxist “it’s all the fault of big business”. Apparently “big business” uses immigration to put pressure on wages and save money on staff training (as if you could train the illiterate proletariat produced by the education system of which Polly is such a big fan).

    To discuss immigration the BBC puts up a NuLabour ex-minister (celebrating the vibrancy/diversity produced by unlimited immigration); your statutory loony (in BBC terms) – Farage of UKIP; a representative of IPPC the “left-leaning” policy grouping; and Polly.

    So we have three left-wing panellists who broadly welcome the unlimited immigration of the past and are not very worried about unlimited immigration for the future (except Polly whose objections to immigration would be mollified if the minimum wage was put up to £20/hour). The contrary opinion is represented by somebody not in the studio and whose comments the IPPC representative trashes (to the applause of the chatterati) because UKIP is anti-EU and thus beyond the political pale.

    This is another small but significant glimpse at the way the BBC approaches “controversial” subjects. The BBC can point to Newsnight and say that “yes indeedy we discuss immigration frankly and fearlessly”. In reality, the programme acts as a conveyor belt for the opinions of the bien pensant “let’em all come” brigade.

       0 likes

  39. archduke says:

    Umbongo -> despite Farage not being in the studio, he made his point well, in spite of the 3 to 1 against him.

       0 likes

  40. Umbongo says:

    archduke

    So he did – but not being at the table he (physically) and his comment were marginalised: so the BBC can claim a discussion with all sides represented (which, strictly speaking, they were) but the impression – on this viewer anyway – was that it was a 3-way discussion in the studio among the grown-ups and a naughty boy at the window blowing raspberries.

       0 likes

  41. dumbcisco says:

    Umbongo

    It’s called “staging”.

    The BBC is expert at it – it is its standard way of operating. Staged chats with an unbalanced panel, staged chats in a Tyre cafe, staged walkabouts accidentally finding a teddy bear, swallowing any amount of staged propaganda material from Hamas/Pallywood and Hezbollah and the terrorists in Iraq. Even the Gilligan scandal started with a staged chat between Humphrys and Gilligan.

    What they DON’T do is report the straight news if it does not match the bubble mindset. The didn’t report Blair’s staterment in the Commons after 7/7 straight, they don’t report Blair’s or Bush’s or Rice’s or Israeli news conferences straight. They don’t report about our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan straight. And if they film a protest they filter out the really offensive banners and the Hezbollah or whatever flags.

       0 likes

  42. will says:

    I expect you visit Stephen Pollard, however –

    He has a leaked copy of an internal self-satisfied BBC staff bulletin on the best in the world coverage of the ME. Pollard remarks

    If this is the the level of rigour to which the BBC subjects its journalism, things are clearly worse than I imagined. It reeks of Soviet ‘tractor production up’ propagnada.

    http://www.stephenpollard.net/002797.html

       0 likes

  43. Umbongo says:

    will

    Despite being leaned on by the pro-Israel establishment in the UK and the US (and having learned valuable lessons from the Governors’ Inquiry into the reporting of the Pal/Isr conflict http://www.bbcgovernors.co.uk/docs/rev_israelipalestinian.html ) the BBC fearlessly reports the truth and the stark unembroidered facts which, but for the BBC, would be hidden from the public. All stand! All applaud! Prolonged applause!!

       0 likes

  44. archduke says:

    interesting article here
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3287351,00.html

    about female IDF soldiers, directing Israeli gunboats.

       0 likes