.
I’ve been trying to get round to this for a long time, and I know other commenters have been noticing the BBC’s pro-Islam coverage in Somalia. The BBC is just rancid on this subject, and there may be good reasons why that is.
I, partly inspired by the great blogger DFH, and commenters here, have been delving into the BBC’s Somalia coverage, and it’s murky.
DFH had a great post up a while back which demonstrated that the BBC’s chief man in Somalia is in fact a businessman supportive of the Islamic Courts, who is seen as partisan by opponents of the Courts.
There can be little doubt of the views of this Mr Yusuf Garaad Omar. I was almost knocked over with disbelief when I read this commentary on the Islamic Courts’ governance on the BBC:
“Fear of a good lashing or having one’s head shaved is keeping drivers in Somalia’s capital on the straight and narrow.”
Oh yes, a “good lashing”‘s something the BBC’s always been behind, isn’t it?
Garaad continued, “Trials are swift and punishments public: publicity is their policeman.”
Oh how nifty.
I now notice that some different sheriffs are in charge, and it seems Mr Garaad’s “news” service is changing tune:
“Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of the Somali capital Mogadishu in protest at the presence of Ethiopian forces backing the interim government.”
When the Islamists were in charge we got only paeans to “law and order”, no interviews with the targets of the punishments, no quotes from the inevitable opponents of such a draconian regime.
Now we’re getting the works:
“Some government troops and Ethiopian forces opened fire to disperse the crowds and my son was hit by a bullet,” Omar Halame Rage told AFP.
“This is unacceptable and an inhuman action. We don’t need those Ethiopian forces with their government soldiers if they are shooting our children,” he is quoted as saying.”
Nice job, though, Beeb, hiding behind the AFP there.
Meanwhile, “Observers say Mogadishu is awash with weapons, and violence has increased since Ethiopian-led troops ousted Islamist militias.”
Funny how Mogadishu wasn’t “awash with weapons” when the I.C. were in charge. It’s such bullshit, such blatantly stupid bullshit designed to increase pressure on the Ethiopians internationally and offer comfort and a future to the ousted Islamists.
In seeing the BBC as biased in Somalia we would not be alone. Many voices have been raised in the blogosphere. An interesting instance can be found here. But really, when the facileness of the BBC’s coverage is considered, it is clear that a massaging of reality has been taking place. It is morally insupportable, and certainly not worth paying for.
“Trials are swift and punishments public: publicity is their policeman.”
Err…, I thought the big beefs the BBC had with the Saddam hanging was the promptness of the execution and the way it was publicised?
I posted a different link about this same story some time ago:
Somalia: BBC radio banned in Puntland
GAROWE, Somalia Nov 6 (Garowe Online) – A motion against the BBC Somali Service radio was introduced in the Puntland Parliament on Monday in Garowe, the Puntland capital.
Some 8 Puntland legislators introduced the bill to ban the BBC Somali Service from operating in Puntland regions. Sources said another 22 lawmakers supported the motion and a debate opened.
The Puntland MPs voted after the debate, with more than 35 lawmakers voting to have the BBC radio banned from operating inside Puntland.
Lawmakers who proposed the motion accused the BBC Somali Service ? the radio with the largest reach inside Somalia ? of being partisan and pro-Islamic Courts, to the detriment of Puntland and other political factions.
anon
Indeed that is what they said. Of course the beef they had was that the court was that they saw a connection with the Americans. They couldn’t say this because the Americans had handed teh proceedings over to the Iraqis. Of course the BBC fetish for internationalism (or abdicating moral responsibility to whoever should claim it in the name of the international community) meant they assumed Saddam’s trial should now be bogged down in a farce in the Hague.
P.S. They also didn’t like Saddam Being executed for murder. Presumably the Sharia court is the only one to be supported for doing so …
“Thieves had their limbs amputated and murderers were executed.
“
I don’t suppose he’s related to the other Al Beeb Islamophile Omar – Rageh?
BBC reports about inter-communial violence from Africa have been biased for a long time:
When the victims are Christian, religion is not mentioned in the news reports at all. When the victims are muslim, its the first thing that’s mentioned.
The BBC has been taken over in a Coup, and is now run by radical Muslims….the gays, lesbians and extreme lefties at the Beeb are shit scared of them, and cower in the corner…….I geuse when the first Gay is hung in Britain, for being Gay…then they will wake up, but of course, by then, there will be nobody left in the UK to save them…..
The BBC is full of cowards and liars……selling the UK down the river of Radical Religious Extremism, and if the British wake up before the BBC does, I can see BBC reporters having to be escorted to and from work, as they will become the most hated people in Britain……if they are not already.
Bullshit. Is that the best example of bias you can come up with?
“Fear of a good lashing or having one’s head shaved is keeping drivers in Somalia’s capital on the straight and narrow.”…”Trials are swift and punishments public: publicity is their policeman.”
This is either true or not. Does anyone dispute it? Certainly those kinds of punishments would encourage me to abide by the law. If you have an opinion about that kind of law, then it is just that, your opinion!
There is no opinion expressed in the statement by the reporter.As with the vast majority of examples quoted here it is opinion. You confuse this, your logic is fundamentally flawed and to quote another ‘is such blatant bullshit’.
The only other point I would make is that the BBC is accused of bias and being infiltrated with spies in every area where there is a controversial and highly disputed conflict ie Sri Lanka,the Middle East etc. No doubt some will say that is because it is infiltrated with spies but that is something than is in your own head and not supported by evidence. I shouldnt really need to point this out. It should be obvious to anyone who reads the article above with any degree of intelligent analysis. My 2 year old nephew could work it out, although in fairness he is particularily bright for his age. Go back to school.
I can confirme that there was a coup in the BBC by gays and lesbians. I personally was held down by two very burly, clean shaven lesbians who demanded that Natasha Kaplinsky be made DG. This will happen in 2010. It is no coincidence that Mark Tompson is also a lesbian, the beard gives it away.
I have to go now, I have an electrotherapy session in ward 12.
“I shouldnt (missing apostrophe between ‘n’ and ‘t’) really need to point this out. It should be obvious to anyone who reads the article above with any degree of intelligent analysis. My 2 year old nephew could work it out, although in fairness he is particularily (mis-spelt) bright for his age. Go back to school.
Homer | 07.01.07 – 1:02 am | #
Homer – It’s not a good site to tell people to go back to school when it’s clear that you are amongst that number. Try again!
And next time, I might review your arguments, such as they are.
Forgive me if I missed it, perhaps someone can enlighten me but why no mention of the Stonewall study that found the BBC biased against gays and lesbians?
The methodolgy was a joke but I thought a report accusing the BBC of bias would feature on a website about BBC bias. Then again maybe that wouldnt fit into the agenda of this website, afterall it really isnt about bias or the BBC but an excuse for right wing bigots and racists to spout thier ill-informed opions. A case of blatant BBCBias bias,me thinks.
I would encourage all to view the report, although I wouldnt expect many of you to be capable of independent thought.
Cant believe your vote is worth the same as mine. Thoroughly depressing. Long live dictatorships!
The URL for that report.
Of course it was written by gays and lesbians so you may not wish to contaminate your eyes.
Allan@Aberdeen: Thats pretty desperate stuff Al my old bean, what what, what. I didn’t realise the correct etiquette was to include apostrophes and spell-check for this blog. Certainly, nobody else seems to. How about addressing the point?
Oh and your response was blatantly biased against dyslexics. (Not that I am you understand, or is that biased of me to state?)
http://www.stonewall.org.uk/media/tuned_out__gay_people_in_the_media/default.asp#Tuned_Out___the_BBC_s_portrayal_of_lesbian_and_gay_people
Reith seems to have brought a troop of his sock puppets here tonight…
Cole | Homepage | 07.01.07 – 1:44 am
The beeb may well be biased against stonewallers but I wouldn’t notice that myself. Managers at the beeb have said that they employ proportionally more homosexuals than straight people.
However, many of us have wondered aloud on this blog why, when the beeb is so supportive of muslims, there hasn’t been a campaign by gays and or feminists to protest about the treatment of their client groups in (for example) Iran, where gays are choked to death just for being homosexual.
So we are not biased against gays as you try to paint us.
Perhaps you can you tell us why the homosexuals at the beeb are so compliant.
Cole – Can you give me a link that supports the Stonewalls Research – Stonewall is a pressure group. One report from one pressure group is not evidence. But if you want to see how much evidence there is that the BBC is bias then you only have to seach the internet to see that it is well supported.
Re. “One report from one pressure group is not evidence. But if you want to see how much evidence there is that the BBC is bias then you only have to seach the internet to see that it is well supported” – 1 report by two University professors and a pressure group isnt evidence that is noteworthy of mention on the site? Thats this site’s obvious bias when Joe Blogs can submit such ‘evidence’.
I can search the internet and find lots of websites and testimonies about alien abduction, doesnt mean it happens. Doesnt mean it doesnt of course, but it is hardly evidence.
The evidence for Cole and Homer’s attitude is in their tone. They are not here to discuss, just to overwhelm us with their contempt. Hardly a word has been spent about the issue – the BBC’s viciously biased coverage of the disastrous, conniving, terroristic and collapsed regime of the Islamic Courts, late of Mogadiscio and Chisimaio and currently of any bush that will hide them. Keep to the point, stupes. I have had a few hard things to say about this or that poster here, but you do not seem capable of understanding what debate is about – it is usually about something.
Thats pretty interesting. I thought the BBC kind of inveneted the whole “homophobic” lable and the rest of the worlds media followed on?
Why the thread got divered away from it’s topic is clear to see, the BBC can’t hide it’s pro jihadi islam agenda.
This article should be titled “Academics and the BBC protest against Trident”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6237499.stm
The BBC have effectively given anti-nuclear weapons campaigners a free article for their views here, and the ‘balance’ is two pathetically short references to how the jobs benefit the local economy. One of the moonbats makes the assertion that Trident “breaks international law”, but no evidence is required to support this and no effort is made to find an opposing source.
The BBC were massively pro-CND in the 80s and nothing has changed.
‘One of the moonbats makes the assertion that Trident “breaks international law”, but no evidence is required to support this and no effort is made to find an opposing source.’
They do the same when some radical Muslim uses the ‘if it wasn’t for X then all Muslims would be peaceful’ argument.
Rob
The BBC have effectively given anti-nuclear weapons campaigners a free article for their views here …
I’ve mentioned in here before how you can usually google the names of these people that the BBC just happens to come across at these kind of events. From the BBC piece:
Anne-Marie O’Reilly, 22, an Oxford graduate, said she hoped the weekend’s activities would make the government sit up and take notice.
So I googled her name and came up with a page on oneworld.net: Welcome to OneWorld UK. We aim to provide the UK’s best online coverage of human rights and sustainable development.
The heart sinks. It’s the bloody human rights crowd again, commies to the last man and lesbian. Also mentioned in that BBC piece is a Professor Lynn Jamieson. A googling shows her as being a sociologist and no stranger to Scottish CND. We don’t have a new service in the BBC, it’s the left’s most lavishly funded campaign group.
“Reith seems to have brought a troop of his sock puppets here tonight…”
Thats becasue he is losing, and needs reinforcements……….
But he is losing, becasue he knows he is wrong, and so he and is puppets will continue to lose, and the BBCs power will continue to fade……
Bye Bye BBC, you won’t be missed……bring on the sackings….lol. 🙂
Matt Bryden, the former head of the International Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa project is no friend of the Islamic Courts. He wrote this about them:
There is no question that the dramatic rise of the Somalia’s Islamic Courts poses a potential security threat to the region and requires a robust international response.
Yet even he, writing on the website of the Centre for Strategic & International Studies, also wrote this …..
whatever their political attitudes vis-à-vis the CSIC, most ordinary Hawiye {the main tribe of Southern Somalia} are grateful for the peace, security and social services that the Courts have restored after years of anarchy.
http://forums.csis.org/africa/?p=18#more-18
Ed Thomas writes:
When the Islamists were in charge we got only paeans to “law and order”, no interviews with the targets of the punishments, no quotes from the inevitable opponents of such a draconian regime.
But is this true? What about this BBC article?
The Islamists are fast squandering the public goodwill they earned since they ousted the hated warlords.
Liberal-minded Somalis feel uncomfortable with their puritanical creed. Islam in Somalia has traditionally been moderate, relaxed and tolerant.
But not only have the UIC’s moral vigilantes raided cinema halls, but they have also stormed wedding parties and mixed-sex gatherings.
Petty traders are also unhappy with the high taxes imposed by the UIC. There have been protests, some bloody, in UIC-controlled towns such as Jowhar, north of the capital.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5381826.stm
And even the piece by Yusuf Garaad Omar that forms the basis of Ed’s post actually puts the other side of the argument:
On Tuesday, a distraught football fan phoned up the BBC Somali Service from Jamame, near Kismayo, begging them to include La Liga match details in their sports reports the next day as he said the screening of football matches had just been banned in his town.
These creeping edicts may be the courts’ undoing….. Dissenters argue that this authoritarian attitude is eating away at Somali culture and traditions, from dulling their dress code to muting their music.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6106398.stm
> The BBC were massively pro-CND in the 80s and nothing has changed.
And CND were mainly funded by the Soviet Union i.e. a soviet front group. Something the BBC has never seemingly got around to mentioning…
John, from the end of your last article:
But for most this is an argument for another day.
For now, Somalis are basking in the novelty of moving about freely, the novelty of seeing a woman behind the wheel, the novelty of militiamen greeting them politely at checkpoints, the novelty of leaving their guns at home.
It ends on a positive note. It does offer some coverage of the opposite arguments but these are framed in the context of a positive assesment of the impact of the UIC’s presence in the country. Of the three articles you posted, two use this same narrative argument, placing criticism of the courts in a wider context of apparent good brought about by them. Even the second, overtly negative article is less a criticism of the courts per se than a critique of splits between the main power blocks. It seems to play a fairly neutral tone, though favouring the “moderate” – who is really nothing of the sort – over the extremist – who is little different from the moderate.
It also lacks context. The “Qutub” mentioned in the text is one Sayyid Qutb, creator and leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and inspirer of Bin Laden, amongst others. They neglect to mention that the “moderate Mr Ahmed” is ideological kin to “Mr Bin Laden”. That in itself is bad journalism.
So a mere 25 CND nutters get front page spreads etc etc but the millions who want to complain about nutty liberals and the way they’ve destroyed our society never get a mention….no bias here!
“I would encourage all to view the report, although I wouldnt expect many of you to be capable of independent thought.
Cant believe your vote is worth the same as mine. Thoroughly depressing. Long live dictatorships!”
Nice of yet another humourless wishy washy liberal who fails to show any tolerance or wish for a balanced debate to pop in and confirm just why people are getting fed up with their patronising ‘I know better than you but I won’t actually follow the rules I lay down for the riff-raff ‘ attitudes…
It is BECAUSE we are capable of independent thought that the ruling classes in the Beeb and LabLib political spheres are panic stricken!
The URL for that report.
Of course it was written by gays and lesbians so you may not wish to contaminate your eyes.
Other blogs by the Biased BBC writers:
http://biliousyoungfogey.blogspot.com/
sean – I cannot see what you are getting at – I have read the report that one of your collegues linked to. Have you read it? Can you tell me what you thought of the methodolgy?
Cole:
The URL for that report.
Of course it was written by gays and lesbians so you may not wish to contaminate your eyes.
Cole | Homepage | 07.01.07 – 1:31 am
sorry jon,my post was directed to this misguided bigot,by suggesting the people on this board are a bunch of homophobes,when in fact one of its contributors bilious young fogey is in fact gay.
sorry sean – I see the conection now- I was just a bit confused.
I wonder if the BBC will get round to reporting this story about attacks on Sudanese Christians by the Sudanese Police in Khartoum’s Anglican Cathedral on New Year’s Eve?
http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article5260
When shall we hear their interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury about the suffering Christian community in Sudan?
Come to think of it, I wonder whether the Archbishop of Canterbury himself will bother to make a comment about this attack?
Fran – Dear Rowan is too busy with ‘the wall’, Bethlehem and blaming it all on the joos (on telly again tonight) to mention persecution of Anglicans in Sudan. The entire Anglican leadership in Iraq were murdered last year and he didn’t utter a word about it.
As for BBC coverage of Somalia, even by their standards, it beggars belief. Did anyone hear the report on From Our Own Correspondent which made out ‘American backed’ Ethiopian forces were the enemy destabilising Islamists who had brought law, order and security to the country. The reporter went on to blame Britain for not speaking out against the Ethiopians.
The From Our Own Correspondent was Peter Biles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6234007.stm
The murder of the lay Anglican leadership in Iraq took place in September 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1801772,00.html
Peter Bile?…..is that his real name?
Bile: Bitterness of temper; ill humor; irascibility.
lol……it’s all in a name……
Mogadiscio sounds like a blast – how do I get a ticket.
Natalie,
I don’t know if you can help, but I’m starting to get a little bit concerned about DFH. If you have his private email address, could you drop him a line and see if he’s OK.
Thanks,
Anonymous – yup Biles (plural) is his name. Very fitting for a BBC reporter. (or maybe the reaction to one….)
Grimer | 08.01.07 – 8:26 pm:
You raise a vitally important issue. Just why should we be so coy about who we are and from whence we come?
I accept “Drinking From Home” is a principal blogger, but seeing you’ve raised the issue, I’ve not seen “BillyQuiz” for quite some time and I used to enjoy his keeping the score betwixt JR and me.
So where the hell is BillyQuiz? Has he been hit by a bus? Succumbed to MRSA? Or just got busy with other things?
For that matter, supposing any one of the many contributors to this blog befell some awful calamity. Would we not all want to convey our feelings to that person, or, in the event of a fatality, our respects and condolances to his/her survivors?
I’ve said previously on some long gone thread how this blog seems to forge a sort of kinship among its contributors. Accordingly I just think it’s silly and, frankly, a shame for us all to keep one another at arm’s length.
Here endeth the B-BBC “Thought For The Day”.
Grimer – I did mention this a while ago – DFH last post on his blog was November 22, 2006.
OH SHIT….THE BEEBOIDS AINT GONNA LIKE THIS>>>>>>LOLOL
http://www.newsdaily.com/TopNews/UPI-1-20070108-20084800-bc-somalia-usstrike.xml
Hmmm, al-Beeb is presented again with one of those “Who do I side with?” stumpers that tie up the enforcers of PeeCee in such Gordonian knots.
Ethiopia? They’re Christian (shudder!), but, OTOH, they’re black. Really black. Hmm. One strike against, one strick for.
Somalian Islamists? Well, obviously they’re Muslim. And black too. But not as black as the Ethiopians, who outclass them on the blackness scale. A bit of a sticky wicket there, but the Somalians win because — well because being Muslim trumps about being almost anything under the sun with al-Beeb, except maybe being the long-lost love child of Hugo Chavez and Nelson Mandela.
It doesn’t matter to the new, improved BBC that the Ethiopians outclass the Somalis on the blackness scale. The BBC has submitted itself so completely to Islam that even a hideously lily-white Muslim would no doubt trump the blackest of black Christians in the BBC’s game.
And when it comes to a conflict within Islam, Arabs trump blacks, even when Arabs are committing genocide against blacks.
Witness the BBC’s appalling coverage of Sudan.
Al Beeb’s Somalia Courts Broadcasting Corporation may not be aware that Sainsbury’s is offering:
‘ETHIOPIAN ground coffee, Medium Dark Roast, from the Ethiopian highlands – one of the original homes
of Arabica beans. A full bodied coffee with a winey flavour and floral overtones’ at £1 off, when you
buy 2 packs (227 grams).Total discounted price: £3.50 for 2 packs.
JBH
I’ve not seen “BillyQuiz” for quite some time and I used to enjoy his keeping the score betwixt JR and me
I’m deeply hurt. I thought I started that trend.
Perhaps this site doesnt allow the opinion of an actual Somalian but I’ll risk it.
Everytime a Western country decides to make executive decisions in Somalia the situation gets worse. We as a people have experienced colonisation, the cold war by proxy, numerous violent interventions, the US financial support for the War lords possible the most horrible group of individuals you can imagine(before you jump down my throat the foreign office has admitted that this was a “lapse of judgement”)
The final development follows the usual imperialist trend and now we are saddled with an unelected “interemn” government that was formed in KENYA (imagine a government formed in Mexico now sitting in Washington) that has no intention of ever holding elections. Forget the capital city or the rest of the country This “government” was so deeply unpopular that before “intervention” was about to be kicked out of the only city they ever had control over. And the “Government” and “President” Yusuf Abdullah are praying for foreign might because the people he hopes to rule over cant stomach or stand him. He may as well call himself His highness Yusuf King of Somalia.
Now I know that the only “News” you all seem interested in goes something like this: Ethiopian troops battle UIC and have now succesfully installed “Democracy and freedom for all”.
I for one refuse to live in a fictional world.