Commenter DG writes:
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/8577/bbc1mt9.jpg
The above link is to a screenshot of a BBC Football webpage. Please do not view the image if you are offended by four-letter swear words.
Sport isn’t covered on B-BBC very often but, certainly in Scotland, the most frequent examples of BBC Bias are in this area, nearly all aimed at Rangers FC (the above being just the latest example).
The article concerns the recent transfer of Kevin Thomson from Hibernian to Rangers, and displays a picture of Thomson in his first outing for his new club. The issue is that the image’s filename contains his first and last names with a choice obscenity in between (which I doubt will be found on his birth certificate).
The obscenity was on the filename on that page for about 12 hours before being changed, but the original filepath is still valid!
Despite hundreds of complaints, no apology has so far been issued or disciplinary action confirmed.
The BBC in Scotland has a history of rank indiscipline as far as Rangers are concerned. Not only are they ultra-sensitive to the actions of Rangers and their (considered un-PC) supporters, they have consistently used the airwaves and website as a platform for snide digs and outright insults poorly disguised as humour.
I could also discuss the travesty of their many undertalented sports reporters setting themselves up as social commentators, but that’s for another post…
The BBC story is here.
UPDATE: The Sunday Mail has a story about this.
Heron and Archonix: what does that have to do with my plea that sportsmen should show a minimum of respect for the rules according to which they are supposed to play?
Cockney:
Find me an unquestionable genius in any pursuit who is unquestionably morally pure also and I’ll be very impressed.
Albert Schweitzer (Organist). The greatest organist I ever heard, and a man who gave up everything at the height of his success to become a missionary in Africa.
Jack Kirby (cartoonist). The greatest comic-book artist who ever lived, as well as a man of genuinely saintly character.
Gilbert K.Chesterton (journalist, essayist, short-story writer, illustrator, poet and historian). He never touched a genre that he did not ennoble, and he never met a person who did not love him. He was the most outspoken political essayist in recent history, and yet he made friends of all his political opponents.
I have a lot more, but there is no need. Besides, the point is not that great geniuses can be very fine people too; it is that there is a problem when people who are talented in a sport also show contempt for the rules that are at the heart of that sport.
FPB 06.02.07 – 6:18 pm
You are quite right about such ‘sport stars’. I have never understood why Maradonna ever needed to cheat as much as he did. He was one of the worlds best ever footballers and yet didn’t seem happy unless he was cheating. maybe it’s a cultural thing.
If anyone thinks this sort of behaviour will not infest Rugby then you are wrong. The more commercialised Rugby becomes the more the pressure on players wallets rises. Football only started to get corrupted in the ’70’s when the tide of commercialism overcame the clubs. Now there are thousands of pounds riding on clean sheet and win bonuses. So it’s not suprising that there is all the diving and play acting.
what does that have to do with my plea that sportsmen should show a minimum of respect for the rules according to which they are supposed to play?
Unsurprisingly very little. You’ll have to excuse me, I tend to go off on tangents.
No matter. It’s difficult to stick precisely to the original subject of the post over dozens of comments. Fabio’s comment on the rules also went off on a tangent.
A little education for you gimps
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6336195.stm
Carl: [deleted]
Edited By Siteowner
I agree with Fabio.
After all, who should we believe? The BBC or our own lyin eyes?
Let me rephrase what I said, that the siteowner found so offensive. Carl, whose insult to every user of this site is being allowed to stand, gave a link to the umpteenth murder-in-Bagdad story. My answer was roughly along the lines of, so Muslims are killing other Muslims. Do you think we did not know this happens? And why do you think it should alter our perceptions in any way?
I find it strange that Natalie should find this offensive, but hey, it’s her sandpit.
Carl pops in to “educate” us with a link to the usual BBC excuse for journalism:
Another charge is that we ignore the fact that many areas outside Baghdad are relatively peaceful.
That appears to be true, although it is very hard to verify because in many smaller towns and cities there are no journalists or other independent witnesses to check.
Words fail me.
But there ARE lots of British soldiers and civilians working out there in the small towns etc who CAN tell us what it is really like but the BBC say they can’t be trusted as they are not independent…yeah right and the BBC is the chief producer of porcine aviators since Tony Blair claimed to be a pretty straight sort of guy!
And BBC “journalists” themselves would never dream of venturing out to find out what’s really going on in Iraq.
The problem in BeebWorld is that Rangers with their Prod, pro Unionism etc represent the vile face of bigotry amongst the great unwashed. Celtic OTOH with their pro republican, Catholic partisanship represent the timeless, sterling working class values of solidarity and thumbing their noses at authority. Or something like that.
Ready!
Don’t forget those “timeless sterling working class values” have rendered Glasgow Britain’s basket-case city, even taking Liverpool into account.
The footballer involved in this thread performed an ill-timed tackle from behind in a recent B international between Scotland and Finland. The victim of the tackle was carried off on a stretcher.
Looks like Kevin Thomson fully deserves his nickname and it has nothing to do with the fact that he now plays for Rangers.
Whether he deserves the name is irrelevant. The BBC isn’t supposed to resort to such childish behaviour.
Alan Man, very funny, we’ll be giving 99% of footballers that nickname then since they’ve all put in a bad tackle from time to time.
The description of Ian Paisley as a ‘man of principle’ earlier on this debate made me laugh. Paisley flirted and frolicked with terrorists for over four decades. He incited hatred and violence and then sloped off stage when the shooting started. Anyone who looking like a rival within his camp has been ruthlessly sidelined. He is just a cowardly bully.
What sad bastard goes round looking up the filename of images anyway…
Tone and his accolytes at the Beeb detest the white working class, and boy, do they loathe the Protestant versions of it.
Mr Barbieri et all, how’s about having a read of Avro Manhattan’s book “The Vatican’s Holocaust” and then compare what’s in it with anything Dr Paisley has said or done?