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

  1. Tim says:

    Tim:
    Baghdad update:

    Announcement on Iraqi TV:

    Saddam will hang tonight at midnight local time GMT +3.

    Of course they ould be wrong, but thought I’d let you guys know first.

    Tim, Baghdad’s unbiased reporter
    Tim | 29.12.06 – 6:24 pm | #

    OK so I was pretty close with that call, if not spot on. At that time the BBC were still waffling on about him still being in US custody.

    It seems that the Iraqi people were told first, the way it should of been.

    For the record, no celebretary gun fire around the city (yet) this morning. This normally happens at significant events (depending on allegiances)

    I will talk with all the Iraqi’s I work with later and post a true feeling of their reaction – So get your news here – Not (It’s all the west’s fault BBC)
    Tim | 30.12.06 – 12:41 am | #

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Can I point out that leaving the EU (European Communities Act 1972) has made the R4 shortlist?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/vote/2006vote/vote_index2.shtml

    And/or phone 0901 5221004 for good measure.

    Spread the word.

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  3. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    GCooper | 29.12.06 – 11:48 pm:
    You add to my comment about leftwing peer pressure within the BBC:
    “The BBC employs a disproportionate number of young people, who have all been recently processed by the UK’s Left-dominated “education” system…”

    At the risk of creating a love-in between us I have to say I agree wholeheartedly. At the additional risk of eliciting rolled eyes and sighs all round I cite the Hamilton affair as the definitive case study that proves your point.

    Whatever the Hamilton affair is, it’s certainly a major controversy that the Left likes to cite to do down the Tories. Whatever my website is, it most certainly deals with the Hamilton affair and it’s certainly polemical. And yet, despite the high ranking that my site attracts in the search engines for phrases relating to the affair, and despite the obvious merit of our findings against The Guardian as established by the many people of distinction who have endorsed our work and findings of fact, in the six years that my website has been online, I have not received a single invitation, not one, to speak at a university about our investigation.

    Meanwhile, City University London has recently engaged the vile, billious, hard-left, lying, literally evil (I’ve checked the definition) Guardian journalist David Leigh – one of the principal conspirators in the Guardian’s cover-up – as Britain’s first professor of reporting.
    http://www.city.ac.uk/citynews/archive/2006/09_september/27092006_1.html
    God help us all.

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  4. Tim says:

    Two quick updates:

    Yes Iraqi TV has shown the full hanging video – Not edited as on the Beeb.

    Also, surprisingly there is not a vehicle ban on the streets in Bghdad this morning. – Not the BBC version – WRONG AGAIN BEEB

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  5. argus says:

    It is indeed a paradox that the feminist/homophiliac BBC should be quite so keen on the Islamic religion, given the latter’s attitude towards women and homosexuals. But the Left is also keen on victimhood, however reactionary and bogus. As far as BBC leftists are concerned, Islamic militants are the new Irish republicans: “innocent victims of oppression” — in between committing their atrocities.
    Also, of course, they are frightened of them.

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  6. Allan_D says:

    I notice in the “Today” programme’s obituary of Saddam Hussein (30 Dec) the start of the Iran-Iraq War was put back two years to 1982 placing it firmly within the Reagan Administration whereas, in fact, Saddam launched his invasion of Iran in September 1980, when Jimmy Carter was still President. A taped quotation from James Baker played out of context implied that the US was Iraq’s chief military backer whereas, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute 68.9% of the weapons by value supplied to Iraq between 1973-90 came from the former Soviet Union, 12.7% came from France and only 0.5% were supplied by the US:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_sales_to_Iraq_1973-1990

    There was also complete omission of the fact that the US had also sold weapons to Iran during that conflict, causing especial embarrassment to the Reagan Administration. In fact, according to the report of the U.S. Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair issued in November 1987:

    “the sale of U.S. arms to Iran through Israel began in the summer of 1985, after receiving the approval of President Reagan.”

    These sales included

    “2,008 BGM-71 TOW anti-Tank missiles, and 235 parts kits for MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missiles had been sent to Iran via Israel.”

    But then factual reporting about Iraq and Saddam Hussein, or indeed anything else, has never been the “Today” programme’s strong point so why bother breaking the habits of a lifetime?

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  7. archduke says:

    tim -> the full video is not on the internet yet. are you able to post screenshots somewhere, as the only pic i ‘m able to find are the pre-execution ones.

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  8. Bryan says:

    Re this ludicrous comment from John Simpson:

    Do you think there is some evil, tree-huggin liberal standing over every moderator in HYS telling them which comments to delete to fit their opinion?

    Simpson jumps in here with no idea that he’s among people who have thorough, often personal knowledge of the way HYS works.

    As an example, they posted this comment of mine on a recent topic titled How safe is it to make Hajj?
    Will you be going to Mecca this year?
    :

    Will you be going to Mecca this year?

    No.

    Jews are not allowed to enter Saudi Arabia.

    Well, that’s what they posted. Here’s what I actualy sent them:

    Will you be going to Mecca this year?

    No.

    Jews are not allowed to enter the Apartheid State of Saudi Arabia.

    Why the censorship when HYS moderators allow far worse comments through on Britain and the US?

    Silly question.

    Their Hajj topic was a miserable flop. They published 48 comments which attracted a grand total of ten recommendations between them. It was whisked off the main HYS page after a day’s exposure. I suppose the HYS Islamists were embarrassed by the poor response and so did the typical BBC hide the facts dance.

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  9. Bryan says:

    Er…typo alert: actually

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  10. archduke says:

    foxnews has a three image sequence showing the noose going over his head

    http://www.foxnews.com/

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  11. Tim says:

    Sorry Archduke, Alhurra-Iraqi Television have now reverted to the edited verision as being shown on Sky/BBC

    I’m sure it will be availibe on the internet soon.

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  12. george whyte says:

    look tell me im reading this post wrong.. is this poster saying that sadam was a great person.

    Added: Saturday, 30 December, 2006, 10:25 GMT 10:25 UK
    Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been hanged.This will not change the current situation
    of world ,NO one can be made to under stand the person and persionality of that great person
    mitahli das, mumbai
    Recommended by 3 people
    Sign in to recommend comments

    Alert a Moderator

    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&threadID=5096&start=0&tstart=0&edition=1&ttl=20061230103724&#paginator

    shame on the bbc

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Pinochet and Saddam in the same month 🙂

    Any chance of Castro making it a triple whammy for December?

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  14. Rob says:

    Wot no “Saddam Hussein: Your tributes” page?

    Still, their life of pictures in Saddam manages to avoid any reference to his brutal murders of millions of his subjects, save for in the penultimate photo where the Abu Ghraib corpses are implied to be the fault of the US, not Saddam:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_saddam_hussein0s_iraq/html/1.stm

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  15. john says:

    JBH
    the BBC’s leftwing, liberal, anti-conservative, anti-Christian, anti-Israeli, pro-Muslim-extremist, pro-leftist bias that this blog exposes every hour of every day, is not in fact the product of some gigantic conspiracy within the BBC.

    You forgot to add anti-American. This from the sceptical bishop’s son, Edward Stourton, on the Today Programme this morning:

    “Interesting that they (Bush) regard an execution as a step on the road to democracy”

    Pure BBC bias- this is what they do

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  16. pounce says:

    The BBC and its continuing saga of American hatred;

    Dining around the world
    From dinner at the Elysee Palace, to spit-roast monkeys in the Brazilian rainforest, there are not many culinary experiences our BBC foreign correspondents have not had to grapple with. In a special end-of-year edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme From Our Own Correspondent, reporters reflect on some of their more memorable meal times.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6214445.stm

    The so called correspondents wax lyrically about the food they have tasted
    But reserve their best retorts for Last;
    “My daughter Martha had befriended the daughter of an impossibly wealthy Washingtonian and he had asked us to dine with his family in their summer house.
    Manicured lawns led down to a jetty where not one, not two, but three motorboats were moored. The girls played happily in an air-conditioned Wendy house. We all enjoyed ourselves enormously… and then came lunch. From the barbecue our host retrieved those burgers that scientists warn us against: flat, grey, mean, and filled with the eyelids and entrails of unfortunate animals bred solely for the purpose of providing cheap meat for multimillionaires. The buns looked every bit as appetising: flaccid and tasteless. And to drink: I kid you not… cherry coke.”

    Yup to the BBC wealth is disgusting, but American wealth is even more disgusting.
    Add a touch of European leftwing bigotry and how they all love to look down on the Americans.

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  17. Bryan says:

    I’m sure the HYS moderators must have really appeciated this comment:

    Added: Saturday, 30 December, 2006, 12:24 GMT 12:24 UK

    im absolutely disgusted by events today. hypocrisy is alive and well it seems. he may have caused terrible suffering to some of his own people, but then again, have the coalition caused less suffering? was there the same lawlessness and lack of security in iraq in saddams time compared to now? will coalition leaders be executed for crimes against humanity? NO
    this is an example of victors justice. its an insult to my intelligence to be told the west is “civilised”.

    dermy, coalisland, co. tyrone, ireland

    Recommended by 3 people

    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=5096&start=0&&&edition=2&ttl=20061230124614

    Sometimes I wonder if those objecting to capital punishment understand the supreme insult that would have been dealt the memory of the hundreds of thousands Saddam murdered, often torturing them to death, if he had been allowed three meals a day, a comfortable bed and TV.

    He was a psychopathic monster and the world is a little less burdened now that he has met his fate.

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  18. GCooper says:

    pounce writes:

    “Add a touch of European leftwing bigotry and how they all love to look down on the Americans.”

    That’s an excellent example of archetypal BBC anti-Americanism and euro-snobbery, pounce.

    There are some distinctly unpleasant (if you’re being fastidious) ingredients in French cooking. How often do we hear BBC correspondents waxing lyrical with distaste at these?

    The imagined superiority of European culture and cuisine is bred into these idiots. One can only assume they were the kind of children who were weaned on Tin Tin and threatened with Superman comics if they misbehaved!

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  19. Tim Almond says:

    GCooper,

    The nature of left-wing attitudes springs from self-loathing. They will support any group that is not like them. Whether that be in language, wealth, culture, whatever. It even extends to species.

    Look at two groups, and who the left backs and you can see it every single time.

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  20. will says:

    BBC accuses commercial radio rivals of not investing in content

    Content such as?

    salaries of presenters for Radio 1 and Radio 2, with Terry Wogan reportedly earning £800,000 a year and Chris Moyles £630,000.

    This fella hits the nail on the head

    Richard Huntingford, the chief executive at Chrysalis, which owns London’s Heart 106.2 station,
    said: “They are distorting the market — pushing up the cost of talent for commercial broadcasters who, unfortunately, don’t have the luxury of a guaranteed, inflation-proofed income stream in the licence fee. Is this really what the BBC is about?”

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-2523173,00.html

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  21. john says:

    I’m still trying to work out whether the BBC in-depth reporting of the hanging of the Koran carrying Hussein, and his request to pass on this copy, to a friend, who the BBC in their beneficence, even name, will backfire? This is the same man who committed genocide on his own people who used chemical weapons on women & children. So, how does this help us understand this little Koran carrying theatrical end? The manner in which John Simpson reported it this morning was as if he joined the ranks of Fox’s martyrs. You couldn’t even hear the slightest whiff of irony, that this evil dictator responsible for the deaths and tortures of millions was embracing the religion of peace at his own death. We know that Tony Blair also carries a copy of the Koran with him- so what’s the big deal? I guess we might see in future a chapter somewhere devoted to “Sadam and the Koran”, rather like Rory Stewart’s book The Places In Between, and his chapter “Blair and the Koran.”
    SO BBC is he a martyr? Or will he go straight to hell? Why cite the fact that he carried a Koran, as if this in itself possessed enough meaning. Now what meaning would that be BBC? We know how they stand on Islamophobia. Ok he takes a holy book with him to the hangman’s noose, but surely objective reporting would wish to differentiate him from the 3 million Koran carrying pilgrims in Saudia Arabia rtight now. Or don’t you? No explanation that an evil mass murderer is clutching it. My observation (and at the same time objection) is that none of the BBC journalists have their collective wits about them to imply that this was a profanation towards Islam in any way! BBC reporters described it as a natural thing to do! Hello! Just imagine if capital punishment had been returned after an historic referendum of the British people and Dr.Shipman had been executed in the UK for his crimes, one of the worst mass murderers. Would the BBC have made a meal about the fact that he may have carried a bible to his death before he was hung, and that Mr Shipman asked for his copy of the Bible to be handed over to Jerry his friend afterwards?
    What would the British public have thought about that? What would Christians have thought? I’m pretty certain right now that for the majority of Muslims in Iraq the sight of this evil man reading from their holy book would have been greeted with the same feelings that vegetarians and non-smokers feel when they are told that Hitler was also one of them.

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  22. Anonymous says:

    “the BBC’s leftwing, liberal, anti-conservative, anti-Christian, anti-Israeli, pro-Muslim-extremist, pro-leftist bias”
    – all happen to be the opposite of how you feel, what a coincidence!
    Could it be that you a tad jaundiced yourself?
    Your complaints have no merit and it is obvious to any sane, rational person where the bias lies.

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  23. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    Anonymous | 30.12.06 – 3:28 pm:

    Eh? Let me see if I have this right. What you’re contending is this: that for me and others on this blog to disparage and denounce the various manifestations of leftist bigotry that the BBC routinely exhibits is to betray ourselves as being bigoted in the opposite direction? Is that what you’re saying?

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  24. Anonymous says:

    Could it be that you a tad jaundiced yourself?
    Your complaints have no merit and it is obvious to any sane, rational person where the bias lies.

    For all the nitpicking that people like John Reith and others do on this site, one thing they cannot cite are numerous examples of where the BBC has been pro-Conservative, pro-Republican, pro-Israel etc. etc.

    Also. no pro-telly tax views are expounded by right-wingers. If the BBC were truly unbiased, right-wingers would be clamouring to keep it.

    That tells you all you need to know about the BBC.

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  25. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    Anonymous | 30.12.06 – 3:49 pm
    I take it you’re not the same Anonymous that posted at 3:28 pm. This could get confusing…

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  26. deegee says:

    :?:The BBC and Science

    10’s of thousands of scientific papers are published ever year. Most add very little to real human knowledge, being produced solely to fulfil academic and tenure publication requirements. Some are written in languages other than English. Some promising ideas are shot down by peers within months or years. Some, published in obscure journals, are effectively not read. Papers in one discipline, say quantum physics, may be unreadable to scientists in another discipline, say cell biochemistry.

    Does anyone know, how does the BBC separate the wheat from the chaff?. If today the next Einstein, Mendel or Frisch published would the BBC have the expertise to know?

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  27. deegee says:

    Could it be that you a tad jaundiced yourself?

    Of course I am but I have no legal charter that requires me to be neutral and no one compels anyone to pay a license fee to support me.

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  28. Anonymous says:

    I’ve been reading and occasionally posting on this site for what feels like a couple of years now.

    What strikes me is that until relatively recently there appeared to be very few supporters of the BBC.

    Whilst I fully understand why any right thinking person might find the BBC (biased or otherwise) intellectually
    objectionable, I cannot understand why
    anyone should support it.

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  29. Arthur Dent says:

    deegee, the media in general only read press releases from the scientific community, most of which are written with the intention of getting the institute or funding body into the public eye. Since the writers of said press releases know that journalists are inherently lazy they can count on the most outrageous drivel being broadcast. A little work, now and again from the journalists would make a big difference as would some quality science output.

    Since Horizon was dumbed down years ago there is little to see in terms of serious scientific interest compared to the much larger amount of programming related to art and classical music. No one is sugesting that science programmes should be broadcast at prime time BBC1 but with the myriad of channels now available you might have thought that some time could be found occasionally.

    The only time serious science emerges on TV these days is if it can be portrayed as either a scandal or an argument.

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  30. Anonymous says:

    I’d love to know how many BBC employees have science degrees or even degrees in subjects which are traditionally considered hard.

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  31. dave t says:

    Wot like media studies….? At my uni the final Media Studies exam was to watch a Danish film with subtitles then do a three hour essay on it….

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  32. Roxana says:

    Saddam’s dead!

    I suppose three cheers would be in poor taste – especially as the Liberal Media is busy donning sackcloth and ashes.

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  33. pounce says:

    The BBC and how it edits stories to promote its Radical Islamic bent.

    Ethiopian troops head southwards
    Ethiopian and Somali troops are reported to be heading south towards the stronghold of Islamist fighters driven from the capital on Thursday.
    ” There is fierce opposition to Ethiopia in northern Mogadishu”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6219763.stm

    Fierce opposition BBC? Would that opposition consist of a few harsh words from lets say a very religious person in the region. The fact that the latest rulers of that neck of the woods have upped sticks and headed south for a showdown with the BBCs ideological heroes tells me that, that opposition can’t be that bloody fierce.
    What next from the BBC.
    “That almost all Somalis are Muslim, and after years of lawlessness many were happy to have some kind of law and order under the UIC.”

    Silly me they already wrote that.
    Here is how Reuters reports on the very same story;

    Road to Mogadishu tells story of swift Somali victory

    MOODE MOODE, Somalia (Reuters) – The bloated corpses of Islamist fighters and an unbroken line of tank tracks along the Baidoa-Mogadishu highway tell the story of a swift advance for the Somali government and its Ethiopian allies.For at least 80 km (50 miles) east of the government’s base Baidoa, spent shells from heavy guns litter the road along which the battle for control for the Horn of Africa nation has played out over the last 10 days.At least two dozen bodies of Islamist fighters, swollen by the sun, lie in the thorny bush of Moode Moode, the closest the Islamists reached to the government seat before being thrashed back by combined Somali-Ethiopian military might.

    Some 50 km (30 miles) east of Baidoa, residents of Buur Hakaba said the gunmen of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had left the town far faster than they arrived.”We thought they would be fighting back and equipping themselves, but they were busy changing clothes,” said 40-year-old local Deros Mohammed Ibrahim.

    At one filthy camp where two SICC fighters were gunned down, empty water bottles, food wrappers and half-eaten bread lay scattered on the ground.There was also a box of dates marked “Gift from the Government of Saudi Arabia”, perhaps lending credence to a United Nations commission report accusing at least 10 foreign nations of fuelling the battle for the anarchic nation.

    But residents — who complained the SICC had drastically cut the highway commerce the town survives on and imposed a brand of Islam too harsh for local customs — said its fighters had been quick to swap their fatigues for civilian clothes.

    Many said they were happy to see the back of them.

    “I am very glad. I did not expect them to lose so swiftly and I thank Allah for their failure,” said one local. Another resident, 56-year-old Sheikh Ali Hassan, agreed. “They have been here 65 days and I have never seen such abuse and harassment,” he told Reuters.

    “We have been Muslims for thousands of years. We have not been missing religion, we have been missing a government.”

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  34. pounce says:

    Arther wrote;
    “The only time serious science emerges on TV these days is if it can be portrayed as either a scandal or an argument.”

    Well I for one enjoy watching the Royal Institution christmas lectures every year on the telly.
    http://www.rigb.org/christmaslectures06/

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  35. joe bonanno says:

    “… and as the daily violence intensified some even argued that Saddam Hussein’s ruthless dictatorship had at least been more predictable.”
    Bridget Kendall BBC World Service.

    Lest anyone was in any doubt where the BBC stood on all this.

    Bridget, dear, when you were putting Bunty over the 3′ jumps at the Kingsclere annual Gymkhana, Saddam was gassing the Kurds. OK.

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  36. Anonymous says:

    I did not know she came from that neck of the woods.

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  37. Connoisseur says:

    I wondered why I fancied her – must be the horsey thing………..she always seemed like a girl you could have a conversation with in the morning

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  38. Voyager says:

    I’d love to know how many BBC employees have science degrees or even degrees in subjects which are traditionally considered hard.

    I should rather know what proportion have a degree in English, and then have that broken down into male: female ratios.

    Then I should like to know how many are related to each other or have mixed bodily fluids

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  39. deegee says:

    Voyager:

    or have mixed bodily fluids
    eeooouw! :o(

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  40. Jack Hughes says:

    The Royal Institution lectures are fantastic.

    But on the whole, the BBC sees science as boring, or dangerous, or both.

    The mere mention of anything remotely scientific is usually the cue for nervous giggling on BBC programmes.

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  41. Fabio P.Barbieri says:

    Just to prove to “Anonymous 1” that there is no groupthink over here, a good few posters in the last two-three dozen posts have spoken like fools. There is the person who claims that there is little science broadcasting “as opposed to arts and classical music”. As opposed to what? When Radio 3 is being reduced to a weak clone of ClassicFM, when nobody ever sees a classical concert or opera on TV except at Christmas or the Proms, when programmes about the arts are only accepted if they have some shocking element, I would say that lovers of the arts have as much to complain as admirers of science. At any rate, I like to think I am both; and that as both, I have nothing but complaints to make about the BBC. Not to mention my chief interest, history; and my old and never secret love, comics; both of which all British broadcasters treat abominably.

    This takes me to the second point – the person who implied that there is some sort of superiority in “Superman Comics” over “Tintin”. To begin with, this is a comparison of apples and oranges. Superman is a brand, and while it has occasionally been handled by giants of the artform – Jack Kirby and Alan Moore spring to mind – most of its sixty years of publication are fairly uninspired. Tintin is the work of a single great artist, Herge’, and it is a masterpiece of comics; and the authors of Superman comics, masters and hacks both, would be the first to admit it. Any cartoonist would. If you cannot see its merit, you are a poor judge of comics. In fact, there have been mutual tips of the hat, if not between Tintin and Superman, between Superman and Asterix (an even better comic than Tintin).

    The dumb idea that America can somehow be alternative to Europe, let alone better, reaches the height of folly in the post which defends burgers and Cherry Coke. It is not about being pro- or anti-American: Cherry Coke is a vile drink, just as some American wines are as good as anything this side of the pond. To be plain, let me state that the USA are just another European country, neither more, nor less, and that to oppose them to “Europe” is as moronic as to oppose Germany, Russia, or Spain, or Luxemburg to “Europe”. And that, in order to pursue this foolish line of argument, the person concerned even saw fit to attack French cooking only convinces me that Cherry Coke – and, to quote an European drink, ginger beer – is all he is fit for. Good food is good food, and bigotry should not be allowed to interfere with its appreciation. (Of course, as an Italian, I have an unfair advantage over most Britons…)

    Having said all that, I must say that today has seen the lowest point I have ever seen BBC news reporting reach. I do not know which I find worse, the mental laziness, the bias, or the mere ignorance and rotten reporting that has dominated the news. When the blonde Barbie doll fronting the corporation’s six o’clock spot said something like “hopes that Saddam’s death would bring peace look likely to be dashed,” I was literally shouting at the screen in my rage. Who, mademoiselle, has been stupid enough to hold out such “hopes”? Nobody. Everyone knew that the violence would go on or increase, whether or not Saddam lived. This is a pure invention by someone who has no idea of the facts (not that I blame the Barbie doll; she was only reading what had been probably written by someone else). And do I detect an attempt to con the Great Unwashed so frothingly in evidence in BBC comment threads, those who think that Saddam is as bad as Tony Blair, by insinuating an idea that someone had been foolishly optimistic – and that someone, of course, must be Britain and America – in the holes where their brains ought to be?

    Then there is the lazyness. This is big news; therefore it must take over an enormous slice of news time. For most of the day, BBC News and BBC 24 never got off Saddam at all. And yet this is not a slow news day by any means. In Spain, the terrorist group ETA has broken its truce with a major outrage, and the government’s policy of negotation has been exposed as a failure. In Indonesia, hundreds of people have drowned in a ferry accident. In Somalia, the Islamic Courts are trying to organize a last stand around the southern city of Chisimaio. In America, a woman has been convicted of castrating a man by squeezing his privates to destruction at a drunken party. In Rome, the Vatican refuse to discuss a letter to the Pope from President Ahmedinutjob. In London, a Polish contractor has been killed in an industrial accident. All of these, and probably many more, are news that would easily make it on national news, some near the top; instead we have to have everlasting Saddam waffle. This is not journalism, it is the refusal of journalism.

    As for the way it has been covered – don’t let me get on that. These are people who, wanting to prove that there is a certain nostalgia for the “order and stability” of Saddam’s days among some Iraqis, go and interview… a member of Saddam’s legal team. Parody does not make it; it is defeated and made useless by such displays, not even of bias, but of the complete inability to see how a thing would be seen by any sane human being, centre, left or right. If I were in charge of personnel at the BBC, almost everyone who took a part in today’s shambles, beginning with John Simpson, would be sacked in short order; no private company could ever survive such a public display of ineptitude.

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  42. Anonymous says:

    “Libya has declared three days of national mourning” (for Saddam!):

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6219765.stm

    Meanwhile in other news, the foreigners who worked in Libya’s filthy hospitals still face execution:
    “Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has rejected calls for the release of six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting children with HIV/Aids.

    Those who committed crimes must accept the consequences, he said.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6219027.stm

    With leadership and consistency like that it is no wonder that the Islamic world is an economic basket case.

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  43. Anonymous says:


    “Muslims believe Mecca was founded by the Prophet Ibrahim”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/820515.stm

    Any relation to the Prophet Abraham?

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  44. Fabio P.Barbieri says:

    Actually, Anonymous, to Jews and Christians Abraham is not a Prophet: he is a Patriarch. The two Biblical categories are quite separate, with only the pivotal figure of Moses joining them. It is typical of the confusion with which Muhammad approached the older religions, that he and his followers should apply the inappropriate name of “Prophet” on the patriarch of patriarchs.

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  45. Jack Hughes says:

    Interesting discussion on the BBC “editors’ blog” thing:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/12/the_cross_and_the_veil.html

    Including:

    “Yes I do feel sorry for you, it must be terribly difficult being the lone voice of sanity with views unmatched by any other organisations, that seem to ensure that you remain alone, with your own unique viewpoint on the world.

    My idea for 2007, how about you simply report the facts of events that take place, using words that exist in the english language. Words which mean what the dictionary defines them as. Try treating your audience as intelligent, without worrying whether they are going to think that some words are a barrier to understanding when that is not in fact what you are there to do. Use words in the dictionary.
    If a person blows up innocent civilians for an ideological or religious reason, this man is a terrorist. Don’t call him a militant when this is not what the word means. Stop changing the definition of these words when they don’t mean what you’re trying to make them mean.

    If a person is taken against his will,by a group of peeople who are not a sovereign army, this person is kidnapped. he is NOT captured.

    Stop revealing your own prejudice through your “impartial” reporting.

    [and many more]

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  46. James says:

    Meanwhile in other news, the internet is still totally screwed in Asia by the earthquake in Taiwan. The BBC news is one of the few western sites I can access.
    And I don’t even pay a license fee.
    Hahahahahahahaha to all you impotent license-paying complaining fuckers!
    Why don’t you just appreciate something good going on rather than whining all the time?

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  47. Allan@Aberdeen says:

    Fabio, you spelt ‘laziness’ incorrectly. Prepare for Reith’s attack on that error of spelling – but he will avoid attacking your arguments.

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  48. David Gregory says:

    Hello! I’m a regional Science Correspondent for the BBC and I popped by here earlier this year when a collegue alerted me to a discussion about one of my stories, when I hope I was able to clear up some concerns about it.
    I’ve dropped by now and again since then but when I saw you were discussing science coverage I felt I should “delurk”!
    I’m always interested to hear what people think of science coverage on the BBC, feel free to email me direct if you wish.
    Cheers Dave!

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  49. Anonymous says:

    Hi Dave

    I don’t suppose you could tell us what in the hell has happened to “Horizon”……this used to be “Must See” television for people with brains…..now, it’s a sad reflection of what it was…..now its more of a “production”, using flashy graphics, music and dramatic scripting to try and make it interesting, when the interest should come from the detail of the subject matter…not just the idea itself…….

    You should be above the dumbing down we see around us, due to the unique way you are funded…yet all I see is bilge that I can get on 10 other channels…….negating the need for a BBC completely…….

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