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The BBC and half the story;
I’ve noticed for a while now how the BBC is very careful over how it reports news when it comes to militant Islam. Yesterday I was going to post a ” Not the Nine O/Clock news” snippet concerning Somalia when I decided to give the BBC the benefit of the doubt of ‘Another 24hrs’ guess what? They haven’t bothered their arse in which to tell the news. So on that note here is the BBC and Not the Nine O/Clock news.
Saturday;
MOGADISHU (Agencies): A powerful Islamic movement on Saturday seized control of a key Somali township, pushing the Horn of Africa nation closer to an all-out war, officials said. As the international community scrambled to avoid fresh clashes, Islamic forces said they had taken control of Dinsoor, about 270 kilometres (170 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu, after pro-government militia pulled out. “We are telling you that Dinsoor is under the control of the Islamic courts,” said Sheikh Abdurahim Ali Muddey, the spokesman for the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS). “We will take military steps if any force violates the area,” he added, referring to transitional government based in Baidoa, about 110 kilometres (69) miles north. Local Islamic officials said plans were underway to impose Islamic law in the township.
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/world/Viewdet.asp?ID=8732&cat=a
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/YAOI-6W67WK?OpenDocument
http://www.dpm.ae/doc_cont.asp?id=104517
Sunday
MOGADISHU — Somalia’s government has sent hundreds of troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers to recapture a strategic southern town seized by the country’s powerful Islamic movement, military officials and witnesses said Sunday, as dozens of families began fleeing the area.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061203.wsomali1203/BNStory/International/home
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061203/ap_on_re_af/somalia
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/03/news/somalia.php
So in a nutshell the Islamists have taken a government town and the Government have sent hundred of troops to retake it. (Does that count as a Civil war BBC?) and the BBC reports sweet F.A on the topic. (Is that news BBC) and instead the BBC reports on the following from Somalia:
The Big picture;
Veiled Somali women, holding AK-47s in the capital, Mogadishu, take part in a protest against a US-proposed draft UN resolution to ease an arms embargo and deploy peacekeepers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/africa_enl_1165248683/img/1.jpg
and this story;
Somali car ban ‘to stop bombers’
Somalia’s weak Baidoa-based transitional government is to ban cars travelling from Islamist-held Mogadishu after two recent car bombings.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6206250.stm
Yup, the BBC presumes that a picture of a few veiled muslim women protesting about America and a story berating the Weak Somalia government for doing what they applauded ken Livingston for doing in London. “Banning cars.” Is what the people of the UK (if not the world) should be hearing coming out of Somalia. (pro Islam, anti western governments)
Oh yes the BBC never even mentioned this story;
Somali Islamists detain Italian journalist
Sun Dec 3, 2006 8:21 PM GMT
ROME (Reuters) – Islamist militants in Somalia detained an Italian journalist this weekend over reports of his they said were incorrect, but eventually allowed him to leave the country after pressure from moderates, the reporter said.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?storyid=2006-12-03T202143Z_01_L03231721_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SOMALIA-KIDNAP.xml&type=worldNews&WTmodLoc=World-C3-More-9
It appears the BBC doesn’t wish for those that cut off heads to get any bad press.
(I wonder if they will interview Koffi in which to get him to berate the radical idiots in Somalia?)
The BBC and half a story.
The BBC and half a story;
Beirut tense after deadly attack
The Lebanese authorities have increased the army and police presence in Beirut as protests against the Western-backed government continue into a fourth day. A protester was shot dead on Sunday – the first casualty since militant group Hezbollah called for the protests. Ahmed Mahmoud, a Shia, was killed by an unknown gunman in a Sunni district, but details of the incident are unclear.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6203546.stm
So according to the BBC “Ahmed Mahmoud” was just minding his own business when somebody stitched him up (literally) last night.
Here is what I read this morning in the Guardian ref the same story;
Lebanon’s sectarian balance was teetering last night after a man was killed and 20 others injured in Sunni-Shia violence following mass rallies in Beirut.Ahmed Ali Mahmoud was shot dead during a clash in west Beirut that occurred as a group of Hizbullah supporters were passing through a Sunni neighbourhood on their way back from a rally in central Beirut. In another Sunni-Shia clash troops fired smoke bombs to disperse rock-throwing groups of antagonists.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1963105,00.html
It appears that Ahmed Ali Mahmoud and his mates were emulating Ian Paisley in marching down the streets of their religious opposites in which to try and intimidate them. (The only things missing were the bowler hat, pipes and drums).
It seems once again the BBC omits the salient parts of a story in which to please its Hezbollah masters.
The BBC and half a story.
The BBC and not the Nine O’clock news ;
Iran yesterday shut down access to some of the world’s most popular websites. Users were unable to open popular sites including Amazon.com and YouTube following instructions to service providers to filter them.
Similar edicts have been issued against Wikipedia, the internet encyclopaedia, IMDB.com, an online film database, and the New York Times site. Attempts to open the sites are met with a page reading: “The requested page is forbidden.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1963166,00.html
No doubt the BBC in Iran will have a story up and running defending the Mullahs on how they are limiting free speech in the land of the faithful. I do love how the BBC apes the ‘Gerald the Gorilla’ sketch on how it reports the news.
Professor Smith : “When I caught Gerald, he was completely wild.”
Gerald: “Wild? I was absolutely livid!”
Yup the BBC and half the story once again.
And those of you too young to remember NTNON;
The BBC ,CBBC and half a story;
Afghan kids not going to school
More than 7m kids in Afghanistan aren’t going to school because there aren’t enough places or teachers. In 2001 there was a war in Afghanistan. The fighting involved British soldiers and many of them are still there to make sure it doesn’t start again.
Before the war the government – called the Taleban – didn’t let girls go to school. Now they are allowed to go. Loads more kids go to school now than in 2001, but there are still 5m kids missing out on classes. Charity Oxfam says there are not enough classrooms, books or desks. Teachers, especially women teachers, are in short supply.
But Education Minister Hanif Atmar said the situation was not as bad as Oxfam had described.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6180000/newsid_6189200/6189284.stm
So the BBC informs the Great British children population via its BBC children’s website that the reason why &m children don’t go to school in Afghanistan is simply because they are not enough ‘Classrooms, books, desks or teachers. Silly me and there I was thinking that the religious heroes the BBC defends as righteous in their holy war against anything non-Islamic have a policy of burning down schools, murdering teachers and spreading fear amongst the general populace if they send their children (esp. females) to schools.)
And here is a story on the very subject the BBC refuses to mention (mustn’t offend the faithful BBC reported last Tuesday by the guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1958707,00.html
The BBC and half a story.
The suppression of information by the Islamic Government of Iran is nothing new, its been ongoing since the days of that BBC luvvie President Khatami … and the BBCs efforts to water down reports of cenorship in Iran are nothing new either.
Now that the BBC is in the pay of the Islamic Republic of Iran,and the FO you will in the main only see propaganda pieces that are favourable to the Islamic Republic and its allies .. like this piece from Lebanon
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6202350.stm
Happy, Shiny, Mullahs Holding Hands
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/790877.stm
What happened to the BBC reporters?
Was looking to see if Jeremy Bowen was still in Beirut .. wondering how he would put a positive spin on the Hezbollah demonstrations ….
as he had promised us he would …
This is not going to be an easy job. Everything the BBC does from the Middle East is scrutinised minutely by supporters of all the different parties.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/low/newsid_4670000/newsid_4675200/4675213.stm
“We have to stay impartial, but also need to explain what is going on.
That means that at times I will be making judgements about stories which might not make easy listening for some people.”
Which is BBCspeak for I will have to be biased because you plebs are too stupid to make judgements about the Middle East based on facts … so we at the BBC will have to put our spin on the news for you by distorting the facts so that you understand our political line …
After a short search I found the positive story on Hezbollah that I was expecting here …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6201084.stm
It omits key facts to imply that all of a sudden the Lebanese people have taken umbridge at the corruption rampant in their government .. which BTW is the same government that the BBC went to great length to portray as plucky heros against Israeli aggressors less than 6 months ago.
But then I noticed that for the Middle East at least the BBC website no longer attributes articles to specific BBC “correspondants” – which presumably makes the process of factual distortion easier as it no longer can be attributed to a specific “correspondant”
Glasnost BBC style … the less the plebs know who does what at the BBC the better …
I think the BBC actually got blocked in Iran 2 or so years ago. It’s probably happened other times before that as well.
The BBC has never been blocked in Iran. This is a myth. Occasionally critical articles may have been restricted (although I there no record of BBC articles being censored by the Islamic government of Iran). Why should the Islamic Republic block theBBC when most of its coverage is very favourable to the Islamic dictatorship in Iran. what the dictatorship regularly blocks in Iran are the unregulated free sources of Information … such as Blogs, Wikipedia, YouTube, Satellite broadcasters, …. not the BBC. In fact if anything the Mullah’s take special care of BBC “correspondants” in Iran. Frances Harrsion being the latest in a long line of so called reporters who obsure the true horror of living of living in a theocratic dictatorship by reporting on the trivia of Tehran life usually from the safe and comfortable surroundings of North Tehran where the en-riched Mullah and the Western diplomats live.
The BBC would block your access to certain websites if it could.
The BBC the recipient of billions of UKP and fighting to keep all the power and political/social influence those billions alow it to have.
More BBC and not the Nine O/clock news;
German Foreign Minister Delivers Warning to Syria
Germany’s Foreign Minister arrived in Damascus Monday with a strong warning to the Syrian government against interfering in Lebanese governmental affairs. The visit by Frank-Walter Steinmeir came at the same time hundreds of thousands pro-Syrian supporters continued their fourth day of demonstrations in Lebanon.
“Lebanon must have a chance to develop, based on its own domestic forces and that can only happen when outside interference is ruled out,” the Foreign Minister stated. He previously spoke with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=116800
Iran Running Scared Of The Net
Under hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s religious police have taken on new force: Satellite dishes, recently tolerated, have been cracked down on. Women are stopped in city streets and harassed for not wearing suitable clothes. Western books such as the DaVinci Code – as well as Iranian classics – are being banned and censored with a zeal not seen since the crazed days of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Now comes news that Iran has blocked access to some of the world’s most popular websites, including Amazon and video sharing phenomenon YouTube. The BBC World Service’s Farsi website is also blocked.
http://www.eursoc.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/1260/Iran_Running_Scared_Of_The_Net.html
iraq “civil war” , iraq “civil war” , moan moan moan – thats all i hear from the bbc.
seems as if the Americans are just doing that realpolitik thing and just getting on with it…
have a look at this
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/12/20061204-7.html
“President Bush Meets with His Eminence Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, Leader of [b]the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq[/b]”
abc news tonight. 2nd lead story – bush meeting that Iraqi cleric in the oval office.
the cleric is Shia and tied to Iran.
but lets stand back and figure out who is the real bad guy here – Osama. he’s a Sunni. Saddam – a sunni. the 911 hijackers – all Sunni. the biggest bomb explosion atrocities in Iraq – all Sunni. Al Zaqwari and his chopping off of heads – sunni.
so, its pretty obvious that its the Shia that we DONT have a problem with.
i can see the americans shifting allegance from the Sunni Saudis – and werent a lot of 911 hijackers Saudi? – to a kind of glasnost with the Shia world. Iran desparately needs investment. It has to import petrol for example because its doesnt have enough refineries to process its oil. The Shia are also the majority in Iraq – and if America does a “glasnost” thing with them, then that calms Hezbollah down as well. It’ll piss off the Saudis , but then i really dont think that the Americans , after 911, really give a shit about them.
U.S. to build a giant “laser” . . . on the “moon”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6208456.stm
“Jews started all the wars in the world”
On the Today programme Montaquinn describes this by a drunken Mel Gibson as “a contoversial statement”. Maybe it is in the circles that Montaquinn and fellow Beeboids frequents in north London.
Bush can be blamed for everything.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6207968.stm
OTOH, Annan is never to blame for anything. His incompetence (at best) is under no circumstances to be challenged.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6208774.stm
P.S “The conference comes a week after a BBC report highlighted claims of children being subjected to rape and prostitution by UN peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia.”
BBC and Annan are fighting UN corruption shoulder to shoulder and will save the world.
On the ‘Jews started all the wars’ front. Did you hear the trailer for Feargal Keane’s ‘Taking a Stand’ compared with the reality? Jonathan Spiro moved from NW London in 1990, became an Israeli citizen and joined the IDF. He was called up as a reservist for the Hizbolla war this summer. In a superbly articulate performance, Spiro managed to give out information about Israel’s involvement in the war that al beeb had assiduously distorted, manipulated and plain lied about. Spiro was an advocate for Israel without being uncritical in the spirit of freedom of expression. How did Fergal Keane trail the programme? As an interview with an IDF soldier completely disillusioned at the “corrupt and cyncial” state of Israel. Just goes to show there’s nothing you can say to al beeb that they won’t try to use against you in the interests of their anti Israel agenda.
bbc working with labour to stuff the country.
A&E campaigns ‘will cost lives’
“Campaigns to save local A&E departments from closure could lead to more than 1,000 unnecessary deaths each year, a report has warned.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said specialist units were better placed than local hospitals to deal with high-risk patients.
The report comes as Tony Blair urged managers to make the case for reorganising NHS services in England.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6207278.stm
Note in the article that the hideously ethnic and hideously left wing bbc has failed to point out that the IPPR are a left wing ‘think tank’. (I smell an oxymoron here)
This is what they say about themselves:
“The Institute for Public Policy Research is the UK’s leading progressive think tank, producing cutting edge research and innovative policy ideas for a just, democratic and sustainable world. Our Director is Nick Pearce and the Chair of Trustees is Chris Powell.”
http://www.ippr.org.uk/aboutippr/
The area I live in (West Surrey) votes in Dave,s useless Tories and guess what, we will be losing the A & E at the Royal Surrey at Guildford. It’s a racing certainty that this is the forerunner of the total closure of the hospital. This is part of the restructuring of something called the NHS South East Coast.
In not too far away Crawley where they vote in the party of vermin they too have a hospital with an A & E. Guess which hospital will definitely be staying open with it’s A & E intact.
More on the above:
Nick Pearce, director of IPPR writes this sort of tosh.
http://www.newstatesman.com/Economy/200509120009
No wonder the hideously ethnic and hideously left wing bbc fawns over the every utterance of the IPPR.
Anonymous was me
When you’ve milked one of Stalin’s useful idiots, Bruce Kent, to death and everyone is suffering from Kate Hudson fatigue, why not trot this clown out.
‘Archbishop questions Trident plan’
“The need, legality and morality of updating the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent has been questioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6208642.stm
I thought the Church of England gave up discussing morality when happy clappy became vogue.
AT least with the Beeboids so thick on the ground in Gaza, they’ll be able to cover this:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881802888&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
But wait….
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22just+swords%22+gaza+site%3Abbc.co.uk&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Tonight on bbc4.
Rageh Omar dispels the myths about the Dead Sea scrolls.
Come again!
Oscar, that Fergal Keane show just goes to show that the Jews have started all the wars in the world.
As Fergal noted, Spiro is a troublesome figure (in Beeboid eyes)since he supports the “right-wing” Likud party.
“they’ll be able to cover this”
Good pun – do you mean the story or their faces?
Something not coming to your hideously ethnic and left wing bbc screen soon:
‘Migrants to be quizzed on benefits but not British history’
“The Home Office yesterday announced that it was extending the scope of the controversial Britishness exam. It will now include questions on what benefits you are entitled to, and how to lodge a claim.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=420490&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments
Can’t find this story on the bbc either.
Crony row as Jowell packs Lottery board with ‘Labour mates’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=420474&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments
Oscar | 05.12.06 – 10:05 am |
On the ‘Jews started all the wars’ front. Did you hear the trailer for Feargal Keane’s ‘Taking a Stand’ compared with the reality?
I agree with you. The trailer was a gross distortion of the whole tone of the discussion. I had expected a poisonous anti-Israel tirade, but Mr Spiro made an excellent case, largely in support of Israel. Keane tried valiantly to make him toe the BBC’s anti-Israel line, but he held firm.
I asked myself what exactly Mr Spiro was ‘taking a stand’ against, since it was not, as the BBC’s trailers claimed, a stand against Israeli policy. Then it dawned on me that it was best described as ‘taking a stand’ against the BBC.
Well done that man.
Jonathan miller
Can you imagine the heartsearching and questions at Beeboid House when Spiro’s case was put forward as a possibility for Keane’s series?
Shocked!
By the story and by the prominence the BBC is giving to the story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6208642.stm
Jonathan Miller and Abandon Ship
Spiro did really well – got across the fact that Israel had the capability to carpet bomb the south of Lebanon had they chosen to, but showed restraint. Also did well to slip in the fact the friend who was killed by Hizbollah was an Iraqi Jew. We need a lot more of this kind of information. Keane’s pathetic attempt to get Spiro to say Israel would no longer exist in 50 years – and wasn’t worth the struggle, only exposes the BBC’s mindset. The beeboids must have been wringing their hands (but Fergal you told us Spiro was taking a stand AGAINST Israel not FOR it…)
Cockney
50 murders a year in a nation of 60m hardly constitutes ‘carnage’ unpleasant though it is.
It’s about 5% of all murders, though, and presumably a pretty preventable 5%. So why isn’t the government preventing it?
The Conservatives did indeed implement the care in the community approach, and this is often vilified by the left as an example of Tory heartlessness. But anyone who has experienced the mental illness of a close relative or friend will know that putting depressives and schizophrenics into loony bins embeds their conditions, institutionalises them, and makes them worse, and that they are massively better off in a normal environment.
We heard a great deal from this government in opposition about how awful care in the community was, and how evil the Tories were for saving money in this way. Since 1997, they have had plenty of opportunity to fix this, but show no inclination to do so.
I am sure you understand why this is damning. It is all very well raising taxes to improve public services, but it is quite another to raise them in order to purchase votes in Scotland so you can impose direct rule upon England, while those public services England has paid for get ever worse.
The retrospective hypocrisy is repulsive, and instances like this are most of the reason why I have always felt the Labour Party to be utterly, utterly evil.
Bijan Daneshmand | 04.12.06 – 10:36 pm | #
“The BBC has never been blocked in Iran. This is a myth. ”
Yes they have. The Iranians started trying to block access to Persian service web pages in December last year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4644398.stm
re the Fergal Keane programme: if the trailer really did make out people were going to hear an IDF soldier criticize Israel, that could be a good thing, as it would get people to listen who might have never have listened if they thought it was going to be pro-Israel. Then bingo, they hear the arguments they don’t usually hear. Let’s have more pro-Israel programmes with anti-Israel trailers!
Lessons we could learn from America
Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, will hold a full committee hearing tomorrow on “Climate Change and the Media.”
The hearing will look at how the media has presented scientific evidence regarding predictions of human-caused catastrophic global warming, the senator’s office said
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061205-121929-8314r.htm
O/T Channel 4 Christmas message to be presented by veiled muslim woman
I barely watch the BBC these days, but I just caught a trailer for some current affairs programme or other (possibly only in Scotland): “Private companies are increasingly involved in running the NHS. Are their interests in your health or in their profits?”
As if there was a conflict.
The sooner it goes, the better.
The quotes from Andrew Marr at the top of this website, are priceless.
As someone with a foot on both sides of the pond, forgive me for repeating another of my favourites:
“America is often portrayed as an ignorant, unsophisticated sort of place, full of bible bashers and ruled to a dangerous extent by trashy television, superstition and religious bigotry, a place lacking in respect for evidence based knowledge. I know that is how it is portrayed because I have done my bit to paint that picture…” BBC’s Washington correspondent Justin Webb
source: http://ussneverdock.blogspot.com/
‘The hearing will look at how the media has presented scientific evidence regarding predictions of human-caused catastrophic global warming’
Lessons we could learn from America – let’s not study the scientific evidence for or against a proposed phenomena which, if the majority view in the scientific community is correct, might be catastrophic for humanity (or alternatively might be a crock of sh*t wasting us billions). Let’s look at how the media presents it instead.
Pleeeease lets not learn that lesson (or indeed anything to do with the utterly hopeless US congress).
TCC
I agree with everything you say but I can’t see your solution apart from a very very vague ‘stop spending tax subsidising Scotland and start spending it on other stuff’ type thing? What would you do?
The Trident “DEBATE”.
1.Bruce Kent
2.Tony Benn
3.Joan Ruddock
4.George Galloway
5.Micheal Foot
6.Michael Meacher
7.Jeremy Corbyn
8.Kate Hudson
9.Billy Bragg
10.Ben Elton
11.Alexi Sayle
12.Peter Tatchell
13.Simon Hughes
14.Friends of the Earth
15.Greenpeace
All of the above where card carrying CND(AKA Stop the War) members during the eighties,or are idelogically twinned,and when not been wined and dined by the very best Markus Wolff had to offer,better known as the “East German Peace/Trade/Cultral deligation”,then they were sipping herbal tea with the WI and the local Spetznaz survalliance squads at Aldermaston.
Ooop I also forgot to mention are quite often seen on Politics Today,NewsNight et al.
Funny back in the early eighties these people also thought the Iraq was a “progressive socialist secular state” and that Isreal,US,UK were the enemies of peace.
The more things change huh….
In fact so much so now Mark Steele is retelling old Qusay jokes as told by his old mucker George Galloway…..
But you are really know your in it when CND helpfully place this on there front page:
“The Prime Minister’s website now has a petition facility you can sign,as HIGHLIGHTED on the BBC NEWS website. One of the top petitions argues the PM should champion the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and not replace Trident, so let’s keep it at the top of the agenda.”
http://www.cnduk.org/
Funny no mention of ITV or C4?
Am I mad but do I vaguely recall something about biase and a charter?
Funny enough Stop the War has the same people,same links,same pals.
But you can bet your digital box sets that AL BEEB will be “keeping it at the top of the agenda.”
So expect more capers by Neo Nazi Jews in Spooks,more fun and games in the “Sate Within” and more “ïnfotainment” (notice “news items” plug films with no effort at all now)by Al Beeb.
Nothing like being told “the truth” by a bunch of Mukhabarat/Stazi “useful idiots”.
Cockney
The planet has always warmed and cooled.
The current hysteria whipped up by a compliant media is for the single and solitary purpose of stealing your cash.
Ditto road pricing (traffic is self regulating)
Ditto “race relations” (people get on in thier own ways)
Ditto the War on Terror (if governments had taken security seriously in the first place, there would be no need for more cash)
Ditto the benifits of the EU (now costs more than the value of membership)
Ditto the welfare state (see Clintons reforms of Welfare payments)
Governments are ruthless in their persuit of your money.
Given that the BBC is the propaganda department of the Labour Party and the Herbivores to the left of it, you can expect no such scrutiny of the media in the UK.
Soc Is Nec.
I’m not sure that I agree with you on Al Beeb being a tool of Nu Labour.I think nowdays the “left wing press” no longer takes its cues from no 10 but it follows its own agenda.
It’s no accident that Blair has taken a bashing from the champaign socalists in Broadcasting House over Iraq,Isreal etc,they do it because it does rub us up the wrong way and DISCOURSE SELLS.
And of course why worry about the 60 million licence payers in the UK when you can get 3 billion Muslim viewers from across the globe.
More and more “ex-liberals” like myself are finding it harder and harder to swallow the trash that is regarded as “news/current affairs”
Less and less I see decent reporters like Mark Urban or even Jezer Paxman,and the more I see the likes of the Simpson/Bowen partnership of talking utter jibberish.
So even “former Blairite voters” in BBC speak(center left/right) are sickend by the farce that Al Beeb is.
The BBC and not the Nine O/Clock news;
Kuala Lumpur – A town in Muslim-majority Malaysia has threatened to fine non-Muslim women for wearing revealing clothes, angering women’s groups and some politicians.Authorities in northeast Kota Baru, which calls itself an Islamic city, will slap fines of up to 500 ringgit $140 on women who expose navels, wear body-hugging outfits, mini-skirts or see-through blouses, the Star newspaper said on Tuesday.”Such outfits are prohibited here as it smears the reputation of Kota Baru and affects its status as an Islamic city,” the Star quoted municipal council spokesman Azman Daham as saying.The council’s decision to use an existing by-law against indecent dress to curb non-Muslim fashions has infuriated some women’s groups. In Malaysia, almost half the population is non-Muslim and the national government is secular.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw116531460124B254
Shria Law in England anybody?
John Reith
I see you are back but still insistent on spreading pro-BBC disinformation.
“Yes they have. The Iranians started trying to block access to Persian service web pages in December last year.”
Had the Islamic Government of Iran wanted to block BBC Persian service they would have done so … end of story. Just as they have blocked a whole host of Independent Persian blogs and jammed opposition satellite news. The fact that you state that they tried to block the BBC gives lie to your/BBC claims that the out put of the BBCs persian service is somehow at odds with the wishes of the Mullahs that run Iran.
If anyone bothers to read the BBC article that you link to they’ll see that there is no reference to any ongoing effort by the Islamic government to block the BBC.
The fact is that the British FO in its efforts to suck up to the Mullahs in Iran is now sponsoring to the tune of £15 million an Al Beeb satellite service in Farsi with the blessing of the Islamic government of Iran. This is part of a largere Media deal that the BBC has tied up with teh Islamic regieme to help it disseminate its propaganda.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/10_october/10/farsi.shtml
Providing this type of service is not something that the FO would fund if they believed that there was any chance that its broadcasts would be dissapproved by the Mullahs.
The so called blocking was is stunt pulled off to add credibility to the BBC who as every Iranian child knows has been in bed with the Mullahs since before the Revolution in 1979.
Despite your claims and the BBC claims, the BBC Iranian service is widely distrusted on all political matters by Iranians who view it as nothing more than a propaganda arm for the Mullahs.
John Reith
Here is your editor Richard Sambrook spiel on the tied up with Iran.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/10/speaking_to_iran_1.html
Have a look at the comments posted in response to his statement at the end.
say what you will but the BBC and the British FO are probabley the two most distrusted organisations in Iran. All Iranians both young and old believe that these organsiations work hand in glove with the Islamic Government of Iran.
The BBC and Not the Nine O/Clock news;
Ethiopia Says It Is at War With Somalia
By James Butty
Washington, D.C.
05 December 2006
Ethiopia said its involvement in Somalia is part of self-defense because of what the government called a repeated declaration of jihad on Ethiopia by the Islamists in Somalia Bereket Simon is advisor to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. For the first time, he said Ethiopia has declared war on Somalia. “Technically, we are war with Somalia. Everybody knows it is them who declared jihad on Ethiopia. So technically speaking, we are at war with them based on their declaration of war. Now, we have asserted our rights to defend ourselves,” he said.
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2006-12-05-voa11.cfm
Somali leader says war is unavoidable
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Somalia’s prime minister told The Associated Press that war in the Horn of Africa is unavoidable because radicals control the Islamic movement that in recent months has taken over much of his country.
Prime Minister Ali Gedi indicated war was imminent, but said his government will continue to take part in all peace efforts. In the interview late Monday, he added that his government was preparing to defend itself against attacks by the Council of Islamic Courts, as the movement that has taken over most of southern Somalia is known.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061205/ap_on_re_af/somalia_prime_minister
Somali journalist arrested in Puntland, three Italian journalists expelled from Mogadishu
Reporters Without Borders is worried by deteriorating working conditions for journalists in Somalia, after the arrest of Somali journalist Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled of independent radio Voice of Peace, based in Galkayo, Puntland, in the north-east, and the arrest and expulsion of three Italian journalists from the capital Mogadishu.
Radical Islamist militia on 2 December seized Massimo Alberizzi, special correspondent for the privately-owned daily Il Corriere della Sera with freelance journalists, Emanuele Piano and Marco Ricchello and later forced them onto a plane to Nairobi.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20003
And what does the BBC say is transpiring in the region?
“Veiled Somali women, holding AK-47s in the capital, Mogadishu, take part in a protest against a US-proposed draft UN resolution to ease an arms embargo and deploy peacekeepers.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/africa_enl_1165248683/img/1.jpg
The BBC and Not the Nine O/Clock news;