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

  1. Heron says:

    Absolutely right, what sort of evidence would these “ill-informed alarmists” have for their rants? Jeez, anyone would think they’d been bombing and killing us, or trying to impose their laws on us. Have all you infidels not heard, Islam is the religion of peace!! Go to a European city with a big Islamic population, like Rotterdam and Malmo, and see the peace breaking out everywhere!! Enjoy your dinner party, DifferentAnon, make a toast to our new Islamic comrades!

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  2. Keith Thomas says:

    What did you guys make of Rumfield’s little “slip” regarding WMD on World yesterday?

    Does anybody see a vague picture forming?

    Firstly the “relevation” that Germany was providing intel on targetting certain “facilities”.

    THEN

    The amount of stalling that Prodi has made after his “immediate withdrawl” campaign.

    NOW

    A number of commentators are shifting positions from “immediate withdrawl” to a “stagged approach” under the cover of the James Baker report.

    And the sudden urge to speak to Iran and Syria….

    Any guess’s why?

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  3. Roxana says:

    According to MSN your MI5 is aware of some 30 terrorist plots. One hopes they are also planning to do something about them.

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  4. Keith Thomas says:

    Heron

    My former collegue had her apartment in Amsterdam right where Van Gough was killed……

    Mohammed B certianly went to work on that fella.

    But here is something for our more left wing supporters to think about.

    In the Netherlands in the last few days there has been reports of a planned granade attack on the Volkskrant (the Dutch Guardian) on Wednesday.

    So far it remains unconfirmed that Islamic extremists tried to carry out the attack and the AIVD/Police are urgently looking into it….

    Peace indeed huh.

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  5. Abandon ship! says:

    You couldn’t make it up.

    Radio 5 Live.

    Gets on someone from the Muslim Council of Britain to answer Griffin’s charges, then a “human rights” lawyer Louise Christian to denounce Griffin (funny how “human rights lawyers such as Christian are only interested in the human rights of some…).

    Then the Scottish cloned presenter announces, in a shocked and ashamed voice “I have to tell you that we are hearing from people who agree with Nick Griffin”.

    Oh dear BBC, bad case of the echo chamber again?

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  6. Abandon ship! says:

    What’s the matter BBC? No “DHYS” yet about the BNP ruling? Why ever not?

    P.S. Can I make it clear that I also detest the BNP, but I’m not politically correct.

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  7. john says:

    Anonymous:
    Mark Collet, “The BBC are the real cockroaches”..priceless
    Anonymous | 10.11.06 – 3:01 pm | #

    I took a photo of BBCNews24 showing that very quote!

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  8. DumbJon says:

    Talking of Nasty Nick’s aquital, I see the BBC still hasn’t recharged its stocks of quotation marks:

    A small number of anti-Nazi protesters shouted as Mr Griffin addressed the crowd.

    Ah yes, a group of Marxist lunatics who support Islamofascist terrorism, what else would you call them ?

    Yes, that might be what they call themselves, but then Griffith caled the BBC ‘cockroaches’, but I don’t see the BBC reporting that as uncritical fact.

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  9. will says:

    Just watched a 2-way on News24 between deskjockey & BBC security correspondent on MI5 report.

    Every question put from desk to expert was framed within – no real threat, all government scare tactics, but any threat that does exist is as a result of Iraq.

    Can’t the BBC even try to contemplate that the West can’t be blamed for everything?

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  10. DifferentAnon says:

    “If you want demographic stats that counter your pc drivel may I recommend Mark Steyn”

    The census is PC drivel? That’s an interesting perspective. Thanks all the same, K. I think I’ll choose the census over Mark Steyn for my demographic stats.

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  11. will says:

    A man in need of recommendation

    From the (D)HYS “How serious is the threat of terrorism? ”

    Added: Friday, 10 November, 2006, 15:57 GMT 15:57 UK

    Refuse to live in fear folks, 7/7 was probably an operation by our own and possibly other intelligence agencies. adam, grimsby

    Come on Beeb, I know you want to be seen as “right on” and as PC as possible, but can’t you at least filter out the paranoid conspiracy theory clap trap like the above. Funny how though that clap trap like the above and anything bemoaning the war gets through on your moderated forums, but dare to have a non-lefty / appeaser view point and you don’t get published.

    Malcolm, London UK

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  12. terry johnson says:

    “While what threat islam in general and radical islam in particular poses is worth discussing,”

    Oh, the bored, elitist waffling of the self-hating liberal ! “Worth discussing” is the kind of phrase liberals use when talking about a new exhibit at the Tate. The rest of us are urging ACTION on a situation that the head of MI5 calls an urgent and increasing threat. That 100,000 muslims in this country support the tube bombings is nothing short of diabolical. That, through immigration, these numbers are increasing daily, is a national disgrace.
    And yes, in hindsight, Enoch Powell was right. Our culture is breaking down into immigrant ghettos where Britain is seen as the enemy. “Rivers of blood” is probably how the inside of those tube trains looked last July and from what we have learned recently , far greater slaughter was planned for our nation.
    Smug “liberals” like “Different anon” can sleepwalk their way through the multicultural quagmire that this country is becoming but a lot of us have had enough of this ill-thought out and dangerous social-engineering lab experiment that our elites have created. We are threatened in our own country, we are losing our freedom of speech and worst of all, our enemies are aided by a corrupt broadcasting Corporation that we have to finance. “Worth discussing !!!”
    WAKE UP !

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  13. john says:

    BNP brands BBC ‘cockroaches’
    Clearly such a description will be sympathetically received by an Aljazeera audience, according to Wikipedia:
    “Kamal al-Din al-Damiri and Abu Hanifa ad-Dainuri (9th century) all offered medicines that either suggest grinding them up with oil or boiling”

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  14. pounce says:

    What a stupid question.
    The BNP while having a twisted view on what purports to be English (Pound to a penny there aren’t many BNP idiots who have as many medals serving this country as I and I isn’t white) Haven’t the last I looked blown 52 people up in London, neither have they filled the courts in the Uk with plots to kill as many people as possible. They aren’t even in the same league as the Islamists simply because the rank and file of the BNP are all mouth and no trousers when it comes to suicide attacks and terrorist acts
    They the BNP hope to polarize society in which to take power. But note I say hope, the vast majority (I must be looking at least 95%) of the British people find the views of the BNP repugnant. However the views of Islamists bent on mass destruction find a friendly ear within the Muslim community.
    The Media (and I point at the BBC here) should be promoting the message that not all Muslims are terrorist appeasers, however by continually promoting the view that all Muslims are terrorists (by simply only interviewing idiots when they wish to have a Muslim viewpoint) they polarize those Muslims who sit on the sidelines and who then have no problem supporting those who wish to kill their fellow countrymen. Also I find the BBCs “Only Muslims can be victims” mentality helps polarize those of the Non Muslim British population into supporting the views of the BNP.
    However and I quote however, just because somebody speaks out against Islam doesn’t mean he’s a card carrying member of the far right.
    P.S
    As for my views on the BNP as cowards. I was walking back from the train station the other year when some twit was shouting out “Ain’t no black in the Union jack” and as I walked round the corner he shut the f-k up only after I had walked about 100 metres away did he carry on. His age? About 30. Some hero scared of a Paki with short hair who stands 5 foot 7 on a good day.

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  15. Abandon ship! says:

    Radio 5 Live

    You could make it up:

    Peter Allen reads out e-mail saying “why don’t you read out any of the pro-Griffin messages you are getting?”

    So he does in a “I told you so” voice
    (paraphrased):

    “So much for your multicultural PC outlook BBC – long live the BNP!”

    So, Peter Allen warned us, but we ignored his warning and thought we knew better, and so we were exposed to Nazi scum pronouncements. We are suitably admonished, and in future we should do as we are told by the BBC.

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  16. milesinfront says:

    I received a prompt response to my complaint from the BBC Middle East newsdesk.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6135526.stm

    E-mail to BBC:

    The statement that the 100-150,000 dead is ‘far more than previously
    accepted figures’ appears to be deliberate BBC spin. The recent Lancet report, which the BBC attached great weight to, estimated deaths at 650,000. Indeed, in the same article, you state that counts have ranged from 50,000 to 650,000. 150,000 is clearly at the lower end of the scale. Your so -called ‘impartiality’ is nowhere to be found in this report. It would be far more correct to state that the recent figures are ‘far less’ than previous estimates. You are painting a false picture to your paying audience.

    BBC:

    Thank you for your comment.

    The line you point out refers to the fact that Iraqi and American
    officials had dismissed the counts and estimates at the top of the
    range, but had informally endorsed a death toll in Iraq of approximately
    50,000. This the first time a senior Iraqi official has accepted such a
    high figure.

    Best regards,

    Middle East desk
    BBC News website

    My response:

    Thank you for your prompt response.

    With respect, this was not the impression that the article gave. ‘Far more than previously accepted figures’ is a broad statement that implies that the general consensus across the board was that the death toll was far lower. If the BBC is to be taken seriously as an impartial broadcaster I would suggest that details such as this are paid attention to.

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  17. Ralph says:

    From the BNP verdict it is clear that the BBC (or CPS) meaning of ‘racist’ isn’t the man on the street’s one. In doing what it did the BBC has given the BNP an audience much larger than it deserves and a valid claim that it is being singled out for attack by left wing hacks. It isn’t hard to discredit the BNP so you wonder why the BBC made such a mess of it. The reason is that they are now so out of tune with the public that they see a case where none exists.

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  18. terry johnson says:

    Poor al-BBC – a jury of Britons has decided that telling the truth about Islam is no offence. Interesting that the PC hacks at al-beeb then run to Gordon “bleeding heart” Brown for comfort. The gutless Scot then shows his disdain for the British people as this line from al-BBC online shows …

    ” Speaking to the BBC after the acquittal, Chancellor Gordon Brown said race laws may have to be tightened. ”

    In other words the Stalinist PC control of the British must continue even if new laws have to be used to crush dissent. So much for Brown’s view of “freedom of speech” — he and his political class are going to keep using the Law until they get the result they want. The multicultural experiment must be protected from those on whom it was dumped.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    Under the following title…

    “The reality of MI5’s work
    By Gordon Corera
    BBC security correspondent”

    al-BBC online devote 350 words to MI5’s worries over the Islamist threat to our nation. Strangely though , two words are missing from this piece. Two words that one would think were vital to understanding where this “terror threat” that MI5 are so concerned about is coming from. Can we all guess what the two absent words are ? Yep, MUSLIM and ISLAM. Looks like the islamists at al-Beeb are determined to give us only half the story – and they wonder why people are turning to the BNP to get the truth.

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  20. Pete_London says:

    It isn’t hard to discredit the BNP so you wonder why the BBC made such a mess of it. The reason is that they are now so out of tune with the public that they see a case where none exists.

    Out of touch, absolutely, and arrogant in the extreme. It just doesn’t occur to many a London liberal in the BBC, the CPS and elsewhere that their worldview isn’t shared by the majority of Britons. I doubt that it occured to them that they might not secure a conviction in this case.

    And let’s be clear; it was a politically-motivated prosecution. It was a third-world, two-bob persecution of two free-born Britons, brought about by a remote and arrogant liberal elitist junta.

    I have the same views of the BNP as others around here. They’ve dropped the racist rhetoric from their speeches and literature, but we know what’s in their heads and hearts. However, this is a damn good day for justice in Great Britain, a country where justice and the law become ever more estranged. The Left set up a show trial and the people slapped them down.

    What with this and the commie swine Markus Wolf dropping in to Hell, this is a good evening to sink a few.

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  21. Alan Man says:

    “Marcus Wolf was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, and enslaved millions of people for decades through the Stasi.”

    The regime that Markus Wolf served was criminal indeed and the organization that he was part of was clearly responsible for crimes against humanity.

    However, Wolf himself was head of East German foreign intelligence and was, in a matter of fact, very good at his job. He was responsible for planting Günther Guillaume to Chancellor Willy Brandt’s office.

    The only crime Markus Wolf can be accused of is the fact that he served a criminal regime and probably believed in socialism enough to be convinced that he was doing the right thing. Considering the fact that he was probably ill informed of the reality in the West, he can be excused.

    The real villains are the head of the SED Erich Honecker together with head of Stasi Erich Mielke. Both of them passed away long before Wolf.

    GDR was a client state of the Soviet Union so the ultimate villains could be found in Moscow.

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  22. Bob says:

    Pounce at 5.48 is bang-on. The BBC are the real instigators of “Islamophobia”, purely by virtue of the fact that they fill the airwaves with extremist/terrorist bile from the most raving-nutter islamic element they can find at the drop of a hat. If no one had any opinion on Islam before the BBC started, they certainly will have now. And it won’t be friendly. Thank the BBC for that, all you soft-liberal different anons!

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  23. TPO says:

    will:
    A man in need of recommendation

    From the (D)HYS “How serious is the threat of terrorism? ”

    Added: Friday, 10 November, 2006, 15:57 GMT 15:57 UK

    Refuse to live in fear folks, 7/7 was probably an operation by our own and possibly other intelligence agencies. adam, grimsby

    Will, I’d say a man in serious need of psychiatric help. Too much cannabis I think, or like Will Self, a crack-head.

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  24. alan says:

    When one is called ‘islamophobic’,
    (as many of us on this site may well be, by by islamists and their thought-police defenders) a handy reply is: ” I’m no more an islamophobe than you are an islamofascist.”

    Maybe even that sort of reply will be made illegal,if Brown gets his dictatorial way.

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  25. TPO says:

    Anonymous:
    Under the following title…

    “The reality of MI5’s work
    By Gordon Corera
    BBC security correspondent”

    I’m not going to go into specifics, but I can tell you that no journalist in the BBC knows anything about the ‘reality of MI5’s work’.
    Suffice to say that I sat bolt upright one night when the BBC’s main story on the 10pm news was fronted by one of their prats saying that ‘one of his inside sources in ‘MI5’ had told him about a certain plot and how they had foiled it.
    The reality was that it was other agencies in this country and the US that had done the job. I was in a position to know that whoever had primed the BBC prat had been a hinderance from start to finish.

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  26. archduke says:

    ” Susan | 10.11.06 – 3:17 pm |”

    i stand corrected. seems like you have some problems over there.

    But to be honest, returning California to the Hispanic world, isn’t exactly on the same level as the what the Islamists want to do in the UK….

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  27. archduke says:

    “Maybe even that sort of reply will be made illegal,if Brown gets his dictatorial way.
    alan | 10.11.06 – 8:34 pm | ”

    and gordon brown’s response – “tighter laws”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6137722.stm

    and yet , under his government’s watch, Islamists were ALLOWED to parade in London calling for the beheading of infidels.

    what an utter c**t .

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  28. K says:

    Different Anon:
    “The census is PC drivel? That’s an interesting perspective. Thanks all the same, K. I think I’ll choose the census over Mark Steyn for my demographic stats.”

    No, a census fine. I’m happy to agree that there’s only 2% muslims in the country. But you’d have to agree they’re punching/bombing above their weight.

    The pc drivel is what you infer from that stat, i.e. “move along, nothing to see here”

    Look ahead. Do you really think muslims are bringing peace to Europe (or India, Thailand, the former Soviet Union, Africa)? Ever heard of a common denominator?

    The BNP are nowhere near the threat Islamists demonstrably are. And you still haven’t answered my question. So let me put it another way. Let’s assume you do work for the BBC ergo you are a sympathiser for islamist fascists. Unless of course you’d like to correct me.

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  29. paulc says:

    The Census.
    That would be 2001?

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  30. GCooper says:

    Alan Man writes:

    “The only crime Markus Wolf can be accused of is the fact that he served a criminal regime and probably believed in socialism enough to be convinced that he was doing the right thing. Considering the fact that he was probably ill informed of the reality in the West, he can be excused.”

    Nonsense. Try substituting ‘Eichmann’ for Wolf and ‘Nazi’ for socialist.

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  31. Allan@Aberdeen says:

    The BBC was quite interesting tonight. On Radio 4’s Any Questions, it was asked whether Saddam Hussein should hang. martin Narey, former head of the prison service said that “we are always against the death penalty in this country”. Really? And when did ‘we’ get to vote on the matter? (I am generally opposed to the death penalty because it is a penalty which our police and judiciary are unfit to impose – Stefan Kisko; but Saddam IS guilty and should hang)
    The subject of Nick Griffin’s acquittal was discussed and the left were united in condemnation of NG and his words etc. But what if it can be demonstrated in open court to a jury (which reads newspapers) directly from the koran that islam is a wicked , vicious faith? That particular point always escapes the BBC.

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  32. will says:

    Newsnight’s Ms Wark interviews a Hizb ut Tahir man about the terrorist threat in the UK.

    Of course it is all to do with Iraq (& occasionally, Afghanistan thrown in quietly on the side).

    The Hizb is allowed to get away unchallenged with stating that no terrorist strikes occured in the UK before Iraq. Ms Wark didn’t see fit to point out that earlier plots had failed. Plus I guess we should ignore the attacks on the US in the previous decade. As long as it is not here, huh? The Londonistan thing.

    Hizb also claims the radicalising effect of the continuing deaths in Iraq as if Muslims have nothing to do with them.

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  33. will says:

    Allan@Aberdeen “Stefan Kisko”

    That poor, poor man. There might have been less pain for that man if he had been executed. A simple, mild mannered man locked up for 16 years & treated as a child killer by guards & inmates. He then dies a few months after his sentence was quashed.

    & nobody held accountable for the miscarriage of justice.

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  34. Socialism is Necrotizing says:
  35. little black sambo says:

    Jon Snow said he would not wear the poppy because it was a “statement”. A statement of what, exactly? Was he afraid that the poppy seemed to say, “I do not read the Guardian and I am patriotic”?

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  36. Ralph says:

    ‘The only crime Markus Wolf can be accused of is the fact that he served a criminal regime’

    Isn’t that enough?

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  37. Allan@Aberdeen says:

    Stefan Kisko.
    I remember reading of this shocking case a few years ago. His ‘defence’ barrister was David Waddington, later Lord. Kisko was medically infertile yet the semen found on Lesley Moleseed had potency and therefore could not have been produced by Kisko. But Waddington pursued pleas in mitigation that Kisko had suffered a rage and was remorseful for what he had (NOT) done etc. Kisko was jailed, assaulted in jail: Waddington’s political career flourished, cabinet, Bermuda and he got away with it – THE BASTARD!
    This is what I remember to this day and that is why I would oppose the death penalty being available to the authorities: not because of some spineless moral hang-ups like the idiots in parliament, but because the authorities are utterly incompetent and Waddington personifies them.

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  38. Socialism is Necrotizing says:

    Even at the Guardian, the comments are not going according to plan!

    http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/laura_smith/2006/11/a_tale_of_two_trials.html

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  39. archduke says:

    SiN -> to be fair to the guardian, there are rather a lot of “Euston Manifesto” types on the left. The Harrys Place blog is good example.

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  40. archduke says:

    “Jon Snow said he would not wear the poppy because it was a “statement”. A statement of what, exactly? Was he afraid that the poppy seemed to say, “I do not read the Guardian and I am patriotic”?
    little black sambo | 10.11.06 – 11:25 pm”

    my Irish great grandfather died in WW1. killed in action. he was a piece of low life “paddy” scum , who was killed in an utterly senseless war.

    that’s why i’m wearing a poppy. so that people like him are remembered , rather than John F**king Snow.

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  41. will says:

    Allan@Aberdeen – you may not have seen, but someone has recently made a first court appearance charged with the murder (Lesley Molseed) for which Kisko was convicted.

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  42. will says:

    Talking of Harry’s Place see this

    Pilger: Andrew Marr complicit in crimes against humanity

    http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/

    You see when we complain about the BBC we have to accept that they are minor league players compared with the likes of Pilger.

    Pilger wants Marr & Witchell in the dock with Saddam, Blair’n’Bush. Their crime? Reporting favourably on the fall of Baghdad.

    (Pilger also wants Hurd & Rumsfeld for arming Saddam in the 1980s, but somehow manages to leave Russia, China, France & Chirac off the charge sheet.)

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  43. will says:

    Tim Montgomerie writing at

    http://britainandamerica.typepad.com/britain_and_america/2006/11/the_bbc_celebra.html

    comments on another Gavin Esler article in the Daily Mail that shows Esler’s anti-Republican bias.

    Montgomerie is concerned about the biased BBC’s reach into the US, via BBC Online & its influence on US journalists. He makes this observation

    As I listened to the BBC Radio 4’s midnight news on Thursday morning I heard two BBC correspondents inform their listeners that the election results amounted to a repudiation of the whole Iraq strategy. Perhaps the correspondents were partly right but I can’t remember the BBC reporting that Bush’s 2004 win over Kerry amounted to a vindication of the Iraq strategy. When it fits the BBC’s worldview they are trigger-happy to draw big conclusions to their audiences’ attention. At other times they are strangely silent. Funny that.

    Via Instapundit

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  44. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    Will:
    Alan@Aberdeen:

    The Stefan Kisko case was truly gut-wrenchingly shocking. I remember his release being covered on local TV by BBC NW. The shot of Stefan walking in the park linked arm in arm with his very elderly mother on one side and his similarly elderly aunt on the other actually moved me to tears at the time. All three were dead within months. Thank God they had some joy in their final days.

    The police and prosecuting authorities in this country are given to amazingly reckless, lazily-researched prosecutions, on the basis of “The jury will sort it out”.

    Well, juries in this country are increasingly incapable of “sorting it out”, especially in cases where there have been media witchhunts.

    Sion Jenkins (for the murder of Billy Jo Jenkins), Barry George (Jill Dando) and Michael Stone (Lin Russell and her daughter Megan) are just three other very disturbing cases. Colin Stagg would undoubtedly have been another on the list had it not been for the judge’s incredibly brave (and at that time hugely unpopular) decision, during his trial for the murder of Rachel Nickell, to boot the case out of court.

    The recent trial of Nick Griffin (for whom I hold absolutely no brief) appears to be the exception and we should all take cheer from that. Maybe the jury in that case was more aware of the BBC’s capacity for untruthfulness.

    It’s for these reasons, plus my experience of the N.H. affair, why I too am against the death penalty. Not out of any bleeding-heart consideration for the guilty animals that get caught, more out of complete lack of faith in our posturing, self-serving, media-sensitive police and justice system.

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  45. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    For “trial” in the Nick Griffin case mentioned above read “acquittal”

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  46. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    I’ve just come across this brilliant article by Boris Johnson on the media’s power to pervert justice.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/06/22/do2201.xml
    I commend it and the comments posted to everyone.

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  47. JeffDuke says:

    Pounce, was that post really from you? You’ve always seemed a well balanced type of guy, now I think you’re an utter moron.

    The BNP are all mouth and no trousers? So the BNP go around mouthing off that they’re going to cause terror do they? I’ve never heard any such claim and I’ve never read that in their manifesto.

    And when somebody shouts ain’t no black in union jack they’re automatically a member of the BNP are they?

    I know many ignorant, insular, racists that vote labour. Where does that fit in with your narrow minded posting?

    News for you, 95% of the population do not find them repugnant. Nearly a million that voted, voted for them in the Euro elections. If you’re going to state stupid, unfounded, made up figures, get a job at the BBC. Once again, you’re a moron.

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  48. Ralph says:

    ‘Pilger wants…’

    Help?

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