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.
Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:
Bookmark the permalink.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6190374.stm
Life for killers of City lawyer
Donnel Carty, 19, received 21 years and Delano Brown, 18, was given 17 years as minimum terms at the Old Bailey.
You’ve got to admit it – sometimes a story just begs for those BBC quotation marks :
“Life” for killers of City lawyer
Hamza to stay inside.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6191966.stm
TPO | 28.11.06 – 3:39 pm
Hamza to stay inside.
They should confiscate his WD40 and let him go rusty.
Latest in the Telegraph:
Grade’s defection ‘throws BBC into disarray’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/28/unitv128.xml
Written by a man who should know, Jeff Randall.
Hat tip to the previous poster
As predicted by Steyn and others, Sharia law has arrived in the UK -Islamic ‘courts’ appear to already be in action. And of course free multi-culti propaganda from the BBC. How long before the first amputation, stoning or death is ordered? Anyway, since when could citizens set up their own courts and meet out their own justice?
The end of one law for all?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6190080.stm
the topic of Grade’s move has disappeared from the dHYS front page.
However access still from the news report. “Most recommended” shows why it is now harder to find.
will:
the topic of Grade’s move has disappeared from the dHYS front page.
Didn’t last long did it? Welcome to Oceana. We have always been at war with Eurasia…….
Fascinating seeing the bias BBC in action
BBC (D)HYS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm
Grade (D)HYS erased. Gone.
Meanwhile over at the BBC so-called Editor’s ‘blog’ (I use that term in the very very loose sense) this one was published at 09:40 this morning
Grade Expectations
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/11/grade_expectations_1.html#commentsanchor
It’s now 16:50 and the moderators have found all of 4 ‘comments’ towing the BBC line and acceptable to publish! What a joke. Either that or everyone else thinks the BBC blogs are sh*t too and doesn’t bother with them.
I give it 6 months before we have a choice quote from Grade about the hideous BBC to add to the right hand side column of this blog.
Ritter
Al beeb’s Sharia law article is definitely a ‘thin end of the wedge’ approach, softening people up by comparing sharia law with the Jewish Beth Din courts. This is disingenuous stuff. The Beth Din is not an ‘alternative’ court – it is complementary dealing mostly with Sabbath and dietary issues that don’t apply in British law. (A good introduction is this article by Charles Moore.) The first ruling of the rabbis since medieval times is ‘the law of the land is the law’. The Jewish courts in this country have been around for as long as the Jews in Britain (350 years) and I can’t remember them ever hitting the MSM before. On top of which there is a tiny Jewish population in Britain (probably around 300,000). This simply does not compare with the growing Muslim population of around 2m (probably) and what implementation of sharia law would mean. Charles Moore’s article is worth a read:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/06/17/do1702.xml&site=15&page=0
Nice story here concerning coverage of Jenny Tonge repeating her assertion that the Israel Lobby runs the world and in particular the BBC use of the decidedly non-neutral Chris Davis (called his constituent filth). Also mention by David T at Harry’s Placehere
Don’t laugh….. ok, go on then.
Voluntary code for blogs ‘needed’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6191988.stm
natsy nasty bloggers…..
Regarding separate Laws for different people, I spoke to a medium who passed on a message from Ron’N’Reg.
“Me and the boys used to have our own law in our manor, know what I mean. This wasn’t like Sharia or what not, this was called like Respect and anyone who didn’t show it was tried according to traditional laws and then cut up good and proper.
Now some people say that gangland working people don’t need no different laws from the middle classes but I reckons you wouldn’t say that to me face.”
quite!
Silly me, I missed the obvious.
Grade skips to ITV (must have been planned for 2 or more weeks at least) and the Great Satan (Rupert to you and me) is buying shares in ITV. They must have been cosying up for weeks.
On another point, George Galloway; this is worth a look.
http://drinksoakedtrotsforwar.blogspot.com/2006/11/en-attendant-george.html
Is that insider trading of sorts?
What is “BBC No Home”?
BBC No Home
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nohome/
How does the BBC decide which ’cause’ to spend our licence fee money on? Any ideas?
“No Home is a BBC season which aims to update views on homelessness in 21st Century Britain. As part of the campaign, the BBC has partnered with do-it.org.uk to offer you the chance to volunteer with local homeless organisations. To search for volunteer opportunities click on the Get involved NOW button.
Call the BBC Actionline on: 08000 839 839 if you have been affected by any of the issues raised in the campaign, or to speak to someone about volunteering.”
Since when was it in the BBC’s charter to run ‘campaigns’ using licence fee money?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nohome/findoutmore/
The BBC. Completely unnacountable.
QUOTE
Don’t laugh….. ok, go on then.
Voluntary code for blogs ‘needed’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6191988.stm
UNQUOTE
This one struck me as well. It is an article about a speech made by a man at the recent race conference that Ken Livingstone did not go to. An odd choice of venue.
“Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin said he opposed government regulation of the internet, saying it should a place “in which views bloom”.
But unless there was a voluntary code of conduct there would be no form of redress for people angered at content.
He spoke during a session on free speech at a London race conference.”
Given the venue I think we all know where Mr Toulmin is coming from.
How will this cover blogs that are hosted outside the UK? The simplest solution would be to set up some kind of government regulatory body that only allows certain blogs to be accesible from UK IP addresses; the BBC is quite hot on that kind of thing:
http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2005/12/the_bbc_gains_an_international.php
http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2006/08/the_new_york_times_and_geoloca.php
The government could then say that it is not altering the content of the internet at all, and that reasonable people are perfectly free to read the vast majority of blogs that do not incite genocide are are thus government-approved.
I wonder if the BBC has fallen out of love with blogging. It was all the rage recently. Perhaps the BBC now percieves blogging as a threat to Britain’s social cohesion, on account of the extremist viewpoints that flourish when people no longer have to be very, very careful what they say.
“Mr Toulmin described the phrases “free speech” and “free press” as relative terms because views expressed on the internet are still governed by laws such as libel and data protection” – i.e. you’re not free anyway, so why complain if you are made less free? Freedom is only relative after all. Iran has produced some wonderful film-makers.
Ashley Pomeroy,
The Register had an article today
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/28/psiphon_bypass_censors/
and I wondered how long until I needed to tunnel out of the UKs state firewall to get Blog news.
Sounds like the BBC et al will be censoring “for our own good” sooner than I guessed.
The BBC polishing turds again, this time in Sudan.
Contrast and compare:
The BBC:
Sudan president rejects UN troops
…
Mr Bashir’s two-and-a-half hour news conference was broadcast live to eight capital cities around the world, including London, Washington, Paris and Berlin.
The BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Khartoum says Mr Bashir believes the Darfur crisis is the invention of the Western media, designed to deflect attention from military problems in Iraq and Afghanistan.
…
The Jerusalem Post:
Sudan’s president spews anti-Semitism
Sudan’s President Field Marshal Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir claimed Tuesday that reports in western newspapers of hundreds of thousands dead in his country’s brutal civil war are all part of an Israeli-led worldwide conspiracy.
In a rambling video-link interview from Khartoum, in which he connected with journalists based in eight different countries, al-Bashir also claimed fatality levels in Darfur were “less than 9,000,” instead of a figure of upwards of 400,000 quoted in much of the media, and accepted by the United Nations.
Al-Bashir asserted that all talk of a serious conflict – and accusations that his Government has supported, trained and armed the brutal Arab Janjaweed militia, which has displaced, raped and robbed an estimated 2.5 million people in Darfur – were a western conspiracy engineered by Israel to divert attention from the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.
…
In statements that appeared to be more in keeping with 1920s anti-Semitism than statesmanship, Field Marshal al-Bashir added that Israeli influence was at the center of the conflict, and all the world’s disputes.
“You cannot at all rule out the Israeli role in any problem that any Arab country is facing because the security of Israel is based on weakening Arab states,” he said.
“Israel would do everything through their media and their different mechanisms – you can’t deny they have such influence in circles all over the world so they can do what they want.”
Appearing to believe that western media are controlled by their governments, Field Marshal al-Bashir claimed that America and Britain had asked Sudan to recognize Israel and hinted negative coverage of the Darfur conflict could stop as a result.
“Since we took power, these messages have never stopped. They (America, Britain and Israel) would like to divert the Arabs from the central cause of the Arabs, which is Palestine.
“This is a camouflage for what is happening in Iraq, in Palestine, in Afghanistan.”
OT: The Worst Burglar Ever – some light relief.
‘Since when was it in the BBC’s charter to run ‘campaigns’ using licence fee money?’
1926.
Extended every ten years since. Last extended in 1996. Maybe the new charter will exclude ‘campaigns’ – doubt it.
More here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/edguide/editorial/socialactionpro.shtml
QUOTE
The Register had an article today
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/28/psiphon_bypass_censors/
UNQUOTE
From the article:
“Psiphon is an open source software program using the GPL license, and will be free to download from 1 December.
It works when a net user – or psiphonode – in an uncensored country downloads the software onto their computer, which in turn creates an access point through an encrypted connection to a proxy server.”
The government would simply forbid possession of this exclusionary piece of hateware on pain of a big fine or a criminal record. Or people would have to apply for a government permit to own this software, because it is wrong for people to have it.
Can I patent the word hateware? I would define hateware as any piece of software that enables the creation, storage, and dissemination of hatespew, which I would define as anything that makes liberal people feel uncomfortable. I have come to believe that we are headed for a dark age of censorship that will be sold to us as a perfectly reasonable consequence of increased freedom, which itself will be an illusion.
This blog is of course hatespew because it is the enemy of the greatest and most righteous force for truthtopowerist social inclusion in the culturosphere.
“The Press Complaints Commission enforces a code of practice for the UK newspaper and magazine industry, covering accuracy, discrimination and intrusion, amongst other things.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6191988.stm
Really???!!! Is that why the BBC calls the terrorists “militants” or “activists” or “ferocious fighters” ??? hmmmm I guess the BBC must be using their own dictionary
What about the Lancet Report???? Was that a source of “accuracy”??? hmmmmm
And why did the BBC censor my comment telling them the actual number and providing a link to that number??? hmmmmmm
oh oh oh and Why does the BBC say that the Human Rights violations by the regime in Cuba are “allegations” when the UN Human Rights Committee has found Cuba guilty almost every time since it was established??? hmmmm
Well, I guess that, according to the BBC, language is relative, relative to those they like and favor.
Amazing huh, they can’t even get newspapers to publish accurate and unbiased articles and they still dare to want to regulate bloggers. What a bunch of hypocrites!!! They can go regulate their own trash cause no government has the right to regulate or censor free speech as long as they don’t infringe other’s rights and that is up to the private bloggers’ webmasters to decide and enforce.
“Voluntary code for blogs ‘needed'”
maybe we should send that blithering idiot this photo:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/images/dprk-dmsp-dark.jpg
north : no freedom
south: freedom
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=4834&edition=1&ttl=20061128225119&#paginator
It’s still around. Unexpectedly, the public seem to regard the Grade affair as a complete non-event! How can the public be so fickle about the important move of an important exec?
To be serious for a mo, after it led the Today program on the 8am news, Naughtie navel-gazingly chats away and crazily tries to bring in Murdoch as a player in the BBC license negotiation. The interviewee couldn’t understand what he was getting at. This is dire output, BBC. They spent 12 minutes talking about themselves.
Listen to the logic of Naughtie at 10 mins 37 on the clip
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_grade_20061128.ram
archduke
I’ve seen that picture of North Korea vs. South Korea from the National Geographic. The south is all lit up while the north has very few lights.
What is interesting is that the North Korea region actually had more natural resources than the South before they divided, but because South Korea had freedom it developed more and it progressed. That’s the real proof that capitalism and individual freedom work.
Nice piece just in from Newsbusters:
” ‘The Beeb’ Can’t Hide Bias In Report on Bush Keynote At NATO Summit”
http://newsbusters.org/node/9309
.
So far I have not seen anyone, anywhere, forecast who will be the successor to Grade at the Beeb. Any suggestions? Piss poor salary, so who would want it and why?
I nominate David Elstein to start the ball rolling. Experience, intelligence and ideas. Already rich.
The French urban “guerilla war”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061127/lf_nm/france_police_dc
funny how you’ve never heard about this on Al Beeb.
The bias shown against Bush regarding his NATO speech is astonishing even by Al-Beebs standards.
The opening paragraph:
US President George W Bush has berated Nato members reluctant to send troops to Afghan hotspots, demanding they must accept “difficult assignments”.
Nowhere in his speech does Bush use this phrase. he doesn’t use the word “assignments” at all and the only time he uses “difficult” is in the following sentence: By helping to equip the Iraqi Security Forces and train the next group of Iraqi military leaders, NATO is helping the Iraqi people in the difficult work of securing their country and their freedom.
The lying gits then add this below the headline link:
The US president scolds Nato members reluctant to send troops to Afghan hotspots, as a key summit opens.
I’ve read the entire speech and there isn’t the slightest hint of any “berating” or “scolding”. Take a look and correct me if I’m wrong:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061128-13.html
The Biased Bastards Corporation should be strung up! Complaints department here I come.
I nominate Orla Guering.
Fair, balanced, married to a Palestinian, a woman. No stranger to conflict scenarios, she’d be an invaluable asset to the BBC in their so called WOBLA – War on British license-fee avoiders.
She’s hideously white though.
Is it possible that the BBC was referring to a different speech or perhaps some remarks to the press? If not, that report is a complete fabrication.
Oh bugger. You’re right Frank.
He did say “difficult assignments” whilst in Talinn, Estonia before flying next door to Riga, Latvia.
It still doesn’t warrent the decriptions using ‘berate’ or ‘scold’ but I guess he was ‘urging’ NATO members.
After listening to the Today programme this morning, I now consider Carty and Brown to be victims of our hideously white negative energy. Now what was it they were supposed to have done?
In other news we find that George Bush is evil. Ha! Thought so.
Which reminds me, did anyone hear Patrick Cockburn on BBC radio yesterday, to talk about “the disaster that is Iraq”. He was introduced as an author. That’s funny, because I know him mainly as the Independent’s anti-Iraq war reporter and anti-Bush and “his poodle” cheerleader.
But why believe me? Instead read one of today’s letters in the Independent:
“Blair’s doleful legacy in Iraq
Sir: Once again Patrick Cockburn is to be commended for his courage in reporting the reality of what is happening in Iraq (28 November). The disaster that Blair has consistently reported as progress has had appalling consequences both in Iraq and throughout the region.”
Interesting; why do the BBC think it relevant not to mention Cockburn’s main job? To avoid accusations of bias? On the other hand, if Melanie Philips is interviewed, do you think the BBC would refer to her as an author (of Londonistan) rather than the BBC pejorative description of “Daily Mail columnist”. I think not.
Re : Ritter | 28.11.06 – 5:22 pm | #
BBC and regulating bloggers, somehow I don’t think so. See —
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/story?id=2656356&page=1
Aahh, the Beeb — what a bunch of ‘tossers’ (to use an in vogue phrase).
Personally I think they have the aroma about them of ‘British Leyland’, ‘British Steel’, ‘The NUM’, ‘The Clyde Shipyards’ etc. etc. etc. — remember them ?
“Last spasms”, “final throes”, “rapid decline” are descriptors that spring to mind.
Give them all Polonium 210 butty’s I say and lets have done with it.
File this under ‘Dhimmi, us ?’
The BBC has a headline reading as follows:
‘Custody victory for Misbah mother’
Who ? Actually, it’s Molly Campbell. Not only was custody awarded to the mother, the self-same story’s actually reporting that mum’s won again, this time in Pakistan – the equivalent of Rotheram dumping Arsenal out of the Cup. If the BBC must report only one name, then it is surely the one she is known by in Britain, given by her mother ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6192406.stm
maybe we should send that blithering idiot this photo:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wm…k-dmsp- dark.jpg
north : no freedom
south: freedom
archduke | Homepage | 28.11.06 – 11:03 pm
You caught them on a good day, I can see a light on in Pyongyang, must have been the great leader’s birthday.
Good morning everyone.
Julian Clary gets my vote for the bbc’s vacancy.
lets try that link again
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wm…k-dmsp- dark.jpg
Not working
See archduke | Homepage | 28.11.06 – 11:03 pm
For over the top liberal guilt, moral equivalence, “we must understand those who want to slit our throats” and “big business is evil” type stuff, go no further than Libby Purves and “Midweek”.
Truly awful stuff.
Molly (Misbah!!!!) ordered by Pakistani court to return to UK.
DumbJon:
Should have looked first.
DennisThe Menace:
Personally I think they have the aroma about them of ‘British Leyland’, ‘British Steel’, ‘The NUM’, ‘The Clyde Shipyards’ etc. etc. etc. — remember them ?
“Last spasms”, “final throes”, “rapid decline” are descriptors that spring to mind.
I do wonder if the BBC knows it’s in trouble. Is it expanding into the US for global domination or because it thinks the plug is going to get pulled soon in the UK? Besides, if BBC America is expanding then it must be doing well so shouldn’t they be making more money and reducing the license fee?
I think a lot of people in the US still think the BBC is great. They get exposed to 1 BBC show a year (the 1 good one the BBC made that year) and praise the BBC, not realising that the British public has sat through 999 crap shows to get that 1 show. Look at BBC America, 50% of the lineup is ITV, Ch4 or Sky stuff but pro-BBC Americans are tricked into thinking its all BBC material. The other 50% is basically from the BBC archive.
And those stupid “This is what we do” ads. Why do they use The Office, that was from 2001. What did the BBC do in 2005?
Abandon Ship
Couldn’t agree more – Midweek is nauseating. Did you hear one of today’s moronic guests saying he “swallowed his pride” and appeared on Fox news to much appreciative sniggering arond the table. The BBC and impartiality. Not.
On that subject here’s Nick Clarke (from his book ‘The Shadow of a Nation’) – so mourned by his colleagues – on the subject of how the BBC conduct vox pops:
“…nothing can now detract from the misery of the worst job in television: the vox pop. We reporters pretend that we genuinely wish to listen to ‘the voice of the people’ (vox populi) as we lurk on street corners, preying on the unwary. In truth, we have a predetermined idea of what we want to hear and are compelled to pester passers-by until somebody ‘performs’ satisfactorily by delivering a witty, succinct soundbite … Despite its pretensions, the vox pop is one of the most artificial kinds of broadcasting ever devised”
A tactic the BBC have now extended to the HYS columns (taking out the ‘wit’). Clarke also has some revealing things to say on “false events”.
Notice the difference
‘Molly must return to Scotland court rules’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IWTBNYMOVB1MXQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/11/29/ucampbell129.xml
‘Custody victory for Misbah mother’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6192406.stm
Naturally BBC calls the girl Misbah Rana also known as Molly Campbell.
In the Telegraph article she is called Molly Campbell also known as Misbah Rana.
billyquiz JBH
The news busters story is wrong. Bush made the remarks in Estonia, not Latvia. It wasn’t exactly “berating” though.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nato29nov29,1,3647368.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true
that last one was me.
D Burbage:
Thanks for that. (I couldn’t access the LAT article as I’m not registered with them.)
‘compelled to pester passers-by until somebody ‘performs’ satisfactorily by delivering a witty, succinct soundbite’
A friend (who loathes the bbc more than I do) was caught by a bbc film crew once at Waterloo station when they were doing a story on commuter misery.
He asked who they were and when they said the bbc my friend delivered a witty, succinct soundbite.
They never used his witticism.
On the homelessness campaign, “Today” had Ken Loach on its 7:52 slot today, on the pretext that he’d made “Cathy Come Home” 40 years ago. He took the opportunity to push the busted-flush communism which one can only hear nowadays on the Beeb. He was entirely unchallenged.
Just a thought: has the Beeb “explored the link” between homelessness and immigration? Or is there no link at all? Just wondered.