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Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:
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I love the idea that Republicans are some how the tough guys, Ill start believing that when they start getting serious about controlling illegal immigration into the US.
Just as our govt blathers on about terrorism but doesnt set default muslim immigration to zero.
Dr.Abdul Bari head of the Muslim Council of Britain needs to reminded that we can soon rustle up 2 million one way tickets for him and his pals. Ideally that would read will rather than can.
Trying to cath up with all the liberal crap.
Here’s a reminder of real life on 9/11 :
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22529_9-11-2006-_Bear_Witness&only
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So this is what they mean by moderate voices
By RICHARD LITTLEJOHN
They never miss an opportunity to advance their own agenda. It always the same old song. They utterly condemn terrorism, you understand, but unless we give them exactly what they want, they can’t be held responsible for the actions of the more excitable members of their community.
Criticise them and you are damned as an ‘Islamophobe’. When I described the MCB as a ‘self-appointed bunch of chancers’ a few weeks ago, Bari’s ridiculous Mr Bean-lookalike press officer Inayat Bunglawala wrote accusing me of being a bigot.
The fact is that this jihad started long before 9/11, years before Iraq and Afghanistan. The first attack on the World Trade Centre was in 1993.
And I still fail to understand how the mass murder of thousands of people, among them many Muslims, could inspire anyone to become ‘radicalised’. You’d expect it to have precisely the opposite effect.
More
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/newscomment.html?in_article_id=404746&in_page_id=1787
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BBC Radio is reporting on the attack on the US embassy in Syria.
The attackers (or they may have been gunmen – certainly not the t-word anyway) were chanting “religious slogans” as they went about the job.
Buddhist chants was it? Christians reciting bible passages maybe? Whats the one with the line “Alluh Akbhar death to the indifel” – one of the psalms perhaps …?
“Bari’s ridiculous Mr Bean-lookalike press officer”
dear god. how childish.
personal insults really do divert away from the lunacy of the MCB types. there’s plenty of stuff to really pin those loonies on without resorting to cheap shots like that. it kind of undermines the argument.
but i’d like to add, that Littlejohn really does hit the nail on the head with his arguments (childish insults aside)… somebody should mail a copy of the Civil Contigencies Bill to Mr Bari.
(Patriot act? pah! what a wimp-out. you should see our CCB…)
dumbcisco, nice lgf link. Thanks.
Astonishing how a report broadcast throughhout the day yeasterday on BBC Radio, by Gutto Harri, spoke of planes crashing into he World Trade Centre (no they didn`t, they were crashed Mr Harri) and of people dying, no they didn`t, they were murdered Mr Harri.
In the entire piece, the following words were never used;
Terrorist
Islam
Islamic
Saudi
Murder
Mohammmed Atta
Osama bin Laden
Harri may very well have been reporting on the anniversary of an awful accident.
I used to think that this was all a bit of fun but now the BBC is beginning to frighten me.
Its unfair to always castigate the BBCs coverage on the Middle EAst when they can come up with this type of keen insight! The video (linked at the bottom) is excellent! (Hat tip: Wishbone.)
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22516_BBC_Staff_in_Trouble_for_Potentially_Offending_Muslims&only
On the BBC website – Syria ‘foils’ US embassy attack.
Why put the ‘foils’ in parenthesis ? Is to somehow suggest there was no real attack, maybe the three gunmen just happened to be going past the US embassy en route to somewhere else.
When the BBC can’t tell out and out lies, they twist the truth.
“Harri may very well have been reporting on the anniversary of an awful accident.”
look out for the word “tragedy” as well – as if it was just a bad accident.
As far as the syrian embassy attack is concerned it was suggested, as the most likely possibility, that Syria itself might be behind it.
I heard this on French public radio this lunchtime.
What do you think of the chance of hearing this on Al BBC?
“Contemporary journalism is afflicted by sheer amnesia. It is has no grasp of grand history. That is axiomatic. Journalists don’t even pretend to know history. They also don’t know the sheer facts of yesterday, and this they do purport to know. Which means they interview fools and knaves as if they were wise and good.”
http://www.tnr.com/blog/spine?pid=37054
Malcolmcog | Homepage | 12.09.06 – 1:48 pm
“On the BBC website – Syria ‘foils’ US embassy attack.
Why put the ‘foils’ in parenthesis ? (sic) Is to somehow suggest there was no real attack, maybe the three gunmen just happened to be going past the US embassy en route to somewhere else.
When the BBC can’t tell out and out lies, they twist the truth.”
The word ‘foils’ was put in quotation marks (not parentheses, still less parenthesis) because it was a claim attributed to Syrian officials. As was clear from the story.
Do you think the BBC should present claims by Syrian officials as established fact?
Do you think the BBC should present claims by Syrian officials as established fact?
John Reith | 12.09.06 – 3:33 pm |
No, only claims by Hezbollah officials
No, only claims by Hezbollah officials
Roland Deschain | 12.09.06 – 3:41 pm
and “Palestinian” ‘witnesses’
and the ICRC
and the UN
and HRW and its ‘experts’
and CARITAS
😆
Eamonn:
I disagree with your quote. I think most experiences journalists know history just fine thankyou very much. It’s just that their livelihood depends on no-one else knowing it.
Indeed
BioD
You’d be pleasantly surprised……..
Here’s the BBC using quotation marks on a HRW claim
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5206908.stm
….and even on a Hezbollah claim
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4787179.stm
Funny no mention here yet of the Guardian Readers’ Editor’s in-house investigation of a complaint about the Red Cross ambulance story.
Ian Mayes writes:
“The report was filed from the southern Lebanon city of Tyre by one of the paper’s most experienced foreign correspondents, a former Jerusalem correspondent,SuzanneGoldenberg
Her report was compiled from information provided on the morning after the incident by the Red Cross in Tyre and from interviews with ambulance workers and others in hospital who said they had been injured in the attack. The ambulances were seen by the Guardian’s staff photographer, Sean Smith, on July 25 (the day the Guardian report of the incident was actually published). He was able to see them before they were removed from the site where the attack was said to have taken place. Smith, who now has considerable experience in war zones, remains in no doubt that the ambulances had been subjected to a recent attack consistent with what had been reported.
A Guardian picture archivist with a special interest in images from areas of conflict, who carried out extensive research for me, concluded that there was cause for doubt about the nature of the munitions involved and the manner of their delivery, but not in the reality of the attack. Suzanne Goldenberg told me: “I remain confident that the story was true.” She points out that she and Sean Smith reported the story first hand and independently and did not rely on what purported to be amateur video footage of the incident…….
Roland Benjamin-Huguenin, the UK spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross … was in south Lebanon throughout the present conflict. He said he and other ICRC delegates had worked daily alongside the volunteers of the Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre and elsewhere in Lebanon. He had seen the ambulances and saw no reason to question that they had been subjected to an attack. He told me that the Red Cross “categorically rejects and denies” the version being circulated on the internet.
The zombietime version invites the conclusion that the Lebanese Red Cross conspired in an elaborate anti-Israel propaganda plot to dupe the world’s media. I do not think that is proven at all.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1869371,00.html
The zombietime version invites the conclusion that the Lebanese Red Cross conspired in an elaborate anti-Israel propaganda plot to dupe the world’s media. I do not think that is proven at all.”
So you are saying that the Guardian who never bend the truth or leave out stuff?
For example:
“Choosing a strong secretary general who enjoys broad support is crucial for the future of the UN, whose reputation has been battered by the Iraq war, the failure of peacekeeping operations and a US-inspired campaign to undermine Mr Annan.
‘US-inspired campaign’, but nothing about any Oil-for-Food scandal.”
http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2006/09/after_kofi.html
I believe the Daily Star rather more than the Guardian some days….
“cause for doubt about the nature of the munitions involved and the manner of their delivery”
It’s already been shown on impact the Kinetic Energy of the munition alone would have destroyed the vehicle. The story changed from helicopter to plane to drone. We can rule out an attack from the air.
“, but not in the reality of the attack”
No one doubts the ambulances had been attacked it’s just the small problem that is wasn’t Israel who did it. They’d been attacked by Hezb’Allah to frame Israel.
Daily Star: Fake tits.
Grauniad: Fake news.
“Five years to the day after the al-Qaeda attacks in America, the man who invited Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan in 1996 has been captured. Afghan and Coalition troops acted on intel that Gulbuddin Hikmatyar was in his compound and the Hizb-i-Islami commander and al-Qaeda ally was arrested in eastern Afghanistan today, reports are beginning to show.”
This is very interesting news as it may help lessen the attacks as Hizb-i-Islami may stop…so how come I can’t find it on the BBC Middle East or any other page? If the Hizb collapses, this will be a significant help to the Afghan government. They will really be able to concentrate all their efforts in the South and the Southeast. So why is this not reported? Oh wait… it doesn’t tally with the ‘we’re all dooooooomed’ meme of the BBC and others!
“Bari’s ridiculous Mr Bean-lookalike press officer”
Excuse the quick and dirty Photoshop (despite Adnan Hajj, the programme is still the standard for image editing) but I couldn’t resist. Bean is the gentleman on the right. Bung on the left.
Funny no mention here yet of the Guardian Readers’ Editor’s in-house investigation of a complaint about the Red Cross ambulance story.
John Reith | 12.09.06 – 5:22 pm
You mean this story?
http://backspin.typepad.com/backspin/2006/09/ambulance_anoma.html
also covered here:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22533_Al-Guardian_Shills_for_Ambulance_Story&only
I find this much more interesting:
http://dailyablution.blogs.com/the_daily_ablution/2006/09/greetings_all.html
I think John Reith is trying the Clinton defense (“Who are you going to beleive, me or your own lying eyes”).
zombietime.com/fraud/ambulance/
None of the journalists saw
the ambulances on the day the damage happened.
Where’s Sean Smiths photos?
Smith and the “Guardian picture archivist” disagree about the attack method!
He told me that the Red Cross “categorically rejects and denies” the version being circulated on the internet.
So that’s why they removed the picture of the hoax ambulance attack from their website.
Reith To convince people your going to have to
a) Name a weapon.
b) Name a delivery method.
c) Explain the inconsitent story.
a bunch of grauniad assertions isn’t fooling anyone!
.
Those Savages:
But the apparent softening of Hamas’s stance was undermined by the killing of an Israeli soldier by the group’s armed wing during an ambush in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2353914,00.html
.
.
What does islam have to offer the west?
“DAMASCUS, Syria – Islamic militants attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy in a brazen attack Tuesday using automatic rifles, hand grenades and at least one van rigged with explosives, the government said. Syrian security forces killed three of the attackers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_on_re_mi_ea/syria_gunfire
.
Malcolmcog:
On the BBC website – Syria ‘foils’ US embassy attack.
it would appear that John Reith has now had it stealth edited – the BBC now does believe that the Syrians foiled the attack.
Syrians foil US embassy bombing
John Reith.
Aussie Dave at Israellycool also gives that al-Guardian piece a jolly good fisking.
Dave is a lawyer BTW so when he says “I rest my case” he means it.
http://www.israellycool.com/blog/_archives/2006/9/12/2319682.html
Re the BBC spoof video
What I want to know is whether that ‘journalist’ having his goodbye party does actually go to Al Jazeera, or whether they now rescind their job offer to him!
Also, it’s fascinating to speculate whether Al Beeb’s editorial line is really unpopular with many of its staff and results in some of them behaving like a corked wine, the cork just has to pop out some of the time, and get expressed in this sort of ‘humorous’ way.
And anyhow where is the English version of Al Jazeera, its launch was postponed from April to June, then September, nu – where is it now?
Hazel
“And anyhow where is the English version of Al Jazeera, its launch was postponed from April to June, then September, nu – where is it now?”
It’s probably the new BBC policy
Arabic Lessons!
‘Biodegradable’ | 12.09.06 – 6:47 pm |
…..hey, you’re catching on. For so long as claims by Syrian officials (or anyone else) remain UNSUBSTANTIATED, they’re treated as unsubstantiated claimants – hence quotes. Once the story is stood up…..then it’s fair to take the quotes off.
i.e. responsible, impartial journalism…..the very opposite of bias.
Can’t see why you object to this methodology given the supposed purpose of this site.
OT , but C4 has an interesting segment on right now about iTunes and their competitor emusic.com
they had a clip of somebody from Napster UK saying that the “future” is be able to download any music file and to play it on any device.
hmmm.. i must be living in the year 2010 so.
BioD
Never trust a lawyer.
Your mate Dave, for instance, does this weaselly try-on:
“What is really interesting is that while Goldenberg claims first-hand experience, this is not borne out from her reports. The incident occurred on the evening of June 23rd, yet her report the next day made no mention of it, even though it did mention Red Cross ambulances.
You would have thought that if Goldenberg had witnessed the incident first-hand, it would have been the first thing she would have reported. Especially given her anti-Israel proclivities. But she only reported it the next day (June 25th)”
Now, my recollection is that the incident took place at 11.30pm on the 23rd…..so the soonest SG could have interviewed anyone was the 24th….and her report appeared on …the 25th.
Dave….being a lawyer and all….must know this.
But because he’s writing for the blogosphere he slyly elides over the well-known fact that for the dead tree press today is yesterday.
Actually, John, that is the point. She claimed she reported the incident first hand. But as you admit, she must have interviewed people for the story.
So thanks for backing up my main contention.
BTW, I am not a lawyer. I just happened to graduate from law school, but chose a different career path.
the “future” is be able to download any music file and to play it on any device.
Good job journalist know that MP3 files and Ogg Vorbis formats won’t exist for another 4 years.
Neither will the BBC
It is obsolete, and technolgy is outpacing the old Dinosaur….
It will no longer be acceptable to lock up people and take away their human rights for 6 months, just to force feed greedy BBC celebs……
Technolgy will kill the BBC
The BBC is obsolete, and the people who support are sad fatty TV Junkies…..yesterdays people.
Huzzah! Anonymous Huzzah!
You can smell the BBC glee in this story can’t you? ‘Evil’ private companies and all that – making profits? How dare they!
Ofgem warns gas firms over bills
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5340432.stm
Perhaps OFCOM could ‘go after’ the one broadcaster whose ‘price’ goes up every year without fail, has no competition and everyone has to pay up or go to jail?
No? Didn’t think so.
BTW, I am not a lawyer. I just happened to graduate from law school, but chose a different career path.
Aussie Dave | 12.09.06 – 8:07 pm
Welcome Dave, good to see you here! 8)
My wife also graduated in law but doesn’t practice – that makes you both the best kind off ‘lawyers’ in my books.
John Reith:
BioD
Never trust a lawyer.
Well you know how that old story goes. If you win the case and get off your lawyer says, “We won!” but if you lose your lawyer says, “Sorry, you lost.”
You lose JR, go to jail and miss a throw. 😉
Somewhat I feel sorry for J.R. Does he really think he can convince us that Al Beeb is not biased when the actual multi-million pound propaganda machine isn’t able to indoctrinate us?
Even if Al Beeb weren’t blatantly biased there’s still plenty of reason to detest it… after all they’re trying to make us convert to islam.
Make that “somehow”
try posting any thing ani muslim here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbreligion/F2213236
My last post didnt work. I blame IE 7.
It was regarding the BBC negative coverage of the space walk today. And if you go to the NASA web site, you can get the true comments from the mission controlers.
Odd how the BBC cant even do that… doh.
Rob J White
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/central/
oh and pick up the NoScript extension.
AntiC1-
Sorry chap, hated it. My choice. I’ll stick with m$.
Wonder if the BBC will report this…
“STS-115’s Rock, Knob and Third Solar Array”
http://www.space.com/news/060912_cs_sts115_solararray.html
“What we’ve done is made several little packages that we’ve wired four cells together and distributed them to schools throughout the country,” said Ferguson. “We’ll be doing some work up there, just a demonstration-type thing, to show the kids what you really can do with solar power.”
Death cult members celebrate missing mans birthday.
In pictures: Iran celebrates Imam’s birthday
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/5331142.stm
I’d like the BBC to stop glorifying this fascist cult and their deadly ways. Please?
The “9/11 Newsnight Special” last night made great play with the numbers killed in the “so-called” (this phrase is now routinely used in all BBC news bulletins including those on News 24 with instructions, presumably, to have a sarcastic sneer when pronouncing the phrase) War on Terror and how they outweigh those killed on 9/11. What “Newsnight” omits to mention is that there were a large number being killed, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq before 9/11. The Kurds, Marsh Arabs and the Shia’s were the particular object of the Saddam’s wrath as well as the high infant mortality rate which BBC programmes such as “Newsnight” used to ascribe to UN sanctions, that now no longer apply, but which now “Newsnight” presumably wishes had been continued had Saddam remained in power. Saddam initiated an eight-year war against Iran which cost a million and a half lives as well as occupying Kuwait in 1990 which caused another war in which even Syria participated in alongside the US. 300,000 corpses were found in mass grabves when coalition forces entered Iraq in 2003. There may have been no evidence of WMD found but there was certainly plenty of evidence of mass destruction by whatever means.
Similarly Afghanistan has been in almost constant upheaval and civil war since 1973 when the king was deposed. Soviet forces occupied Afghanistan at the end of 1973 to prop up a communist-led government that had been installed as a result of a coup. The Soviet forces remained in occupation until 1989 when they left after a fierce resistance aided by the West. Not only did the Soviets lose 60,000 of their own troops (equivalent to US losses in Vietnam) but almost 1 million Afghans were killed and several millions more were displaced. What then followed was a period of chaos and civil war in which the Taliban emerged and fought, aided by the foreign Arabs of Al-Qaeda, for the control of Afghanistan against the largely pro-Western forces of the Northern Alliance. After 9/11 the balance was tipped in favour of the Northern Alliance by the intervention of the US and UN-sponsored forces.
You would have understood this had you been watching the American ABC film, “The Path to 9/11” which preceded the “Newsnight” broadcast but “Newsnight” itself made no mention of the history of either Iraq or Afghanistan prior to the 9/11 strike choosing instead to perpetuate the left-wing mythology that both countries were a kind of Switzerland, oases of peace and plenty, before the brutal US & UK chose to disrupt their calm.
In fact, although all deaths are deplorable, the death rate in both Iraq and Afghanistan has actually gone down since 9/11 occurred but you won’t be hearing that on the BBC.
Ritter: From the caption of the first picture you’d guess that Al Beeb believe this geezer will come back after 1000 years.
Come on, Beeb… let’s focus on Santa Claus a bit more enthusiastically when the time (December) comes. We all believe in Santa, don’t we?
Seriously though – I wish they’d reserve that crap for their Arab edition. I’ve got it up to here (you can guess where).
allan_d -> historical perspective is not , shall we say, the forte of the beeboid media types.
year zero happened in 1997.