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Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:
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Typical leftist interview by Humphreys of someone from Sainsburys and someone from the NFU. Utter contempt for the supermarket owner whilst giving the NFU man an easy ride, even when he suggested that supply-and-demand economics are “simplistic”.
No suggestion that cheap milk is the result of oversupply in the market. Just all the normal “cheap food is bad”.
[audio src="http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/radio4/today/today_20070226-0800_40_pc.mp3" /]
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Tim
I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy for the NFU even though my stepfather is a farmer and ex-NFU rep but the price of milk is not sustainable for smaller farms.
The economics are complex but ultimately the problem is the lack of co-operation between farmers. If farmers came together (and some have access to huge amounts of capital) then they could dictate prices to the supermarkets.
Unlike many EU countries the UK uses fresh milk daily. There is little chance that the supermarkets could find the fresh milk resource on the continent to satisfy all its customers.
The co-operative farmers of France, who are so successful at draining our cash from us via the CAP, understand that working as a block is financially efficient. It is about time our farmers did too.
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I posted the following comment on the “Newsnight” blogsite in response to Monday (26 Feb) night’s programme. As I strongly doubt it will appear I am posting it here rather than let it vanish into cyberspace. Vain I know but I never like to let the product of useless activity go to waste:
“I found the item on private equity companies funding the Labour Party quite nauseating and another example of sloppy journalism. It seemed to cover three betes noires of the BBC- capitalism, tax breaks and Jews. There is no suggestion that private equity companies are operating illegally in this country yet Stephanie Flanders’ report had a constant implication that they were. She at one point suggested that if the tax regime were changed many equity fund managers would no longer be UK residents for tax purposes although no equity fund manager was produced saying this and no other evidence was produced for this assertion.
Michael Crick’s statement that Ronald Cohen would be “Gordon Brown’s Lord Levy” i.e. the in-house Jew I found deplorable and this kind of innuendo should be deemed unacceptable but unfortunately anti-semitism seems to have migrated from the right to the left and is now de rigeur on the BBC (I notice the programme also featured the usual attack on Israel in the piece on the Bedouins without balancing the item by looking at how the Bedouins are treated, or mistreated, by the surrounding Arab states).
The item on Abu Qutada is not only another example of how the BBC regularly pours cold water on the “alleged” war on terror (the BBC’s phrase) but how also friendly Muslim countries, such as Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who are allied to the West and have been victims of islamist terrorism are portrayed as oppressive states that regularly use torture (although no evidence is ever provided for this). Jeremy Paxman might have pointed out that Al-Qaeda, whom Qutada appears to support, regularly employ torture and the most barbaric execution methods (which they film for public consumption) on their captives (who generally are guilty of no crime at all except being in the wrong place at the wrong time). Once again, however, the evil-doings of terrorists were put in the shade by the supposed evil-doings of friendly Arab governments.”
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I’ve just started a Telegraph blog and posted this evening on Robin Aitken’s fantastic book Can We Trust The BBC?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/feb07/bbcbias.htm
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How to bury bad Islamic press the BBC way;
(Hide it in the middle of a “Those nasty Jews” story.)
One shot dead in West Bank raid
A Palestinian man has been shot dead and another wounded during an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian officials have said.
The centre of the city has been under curfew since Sunday in the largest military operation in the West Bank for several months.
Tens of thousands of residents are confined to their homes, but many have been watching events from rooftops.
Israel regards Nablus as a stronghold of Palestinian militancy.
Eight residents were wounded by rubber bullets in fighting on Saturday and about 30 have been detained throughout the raid.
The military said it uncovered a second explosives laboratory and pledged an open-ended mission.
Palestinian officials said the raid was a threat to possible peace moves.
Palestinian security sources said troops broke into a local television station and confiscated equipment and arrested the owner. The Israeli army did not confirm the reports.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, an Israeli settler was stabbed to death by Palestinian militants on Sunday, police said.
The body of the man, named as Erez Livnon, 42, was found by local Palestinian residents in an area between the settlement where he lived and the village of Beit Omar. “He was stabbed repeatedly by a knife all over his body. Based on a preliminary investigation there is no doubt he was the victim of a Palestinian terrorist attack,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP news agency.
Closure
Nablus governor Kamal al-Sheikh has demanded the Israelis lift a blockade on one of Nablus’s main hospitals, to allow medical staff to carry out their work.
Main routes into the city have been closed, witnesses say. Schools and a university in Nablus have been shut in response to the raid. There are reports of bulldozers piling up rubble on main roads, making them impassable. About 100 vehicles, including bulldozers, went into Nablus early on Sunday. An Israeli army spokesman said troops used rubber bullets and tear gas against Palestinians throwing rocks and cement blocks. The army said two of its soldiers were slightly wounded by an explosive charge.
Human shield
Soldiers announced over loudspeakers that a curfew would be enforced in the centre of Nablus, which is home to about 30,000 people.
Associated Press television filmed a group of soldiers forcing a Palestinian youth to lead them into one building being searched.
Israel’s Supreme Court has banned the use of Palestinian civilians as “human shields” during searches by the Israeli army.
The raid came a day after troops discovered an explosives laboratory in the town, a spokeswoman said.
The Israelis are searching for eight Palestinians said to be from the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, which is linked to Fatah, the political party of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6396471.stm
Did anybody else spot how the BBC covers for the wicked murder of a praying man (Yes BBC I checked up on how Erez Livnon was stabbed to death by 2 young Muslim men for the sole crime of being “Jewish”) buy burying the story amongst a an outrage over how bad the jews are. Complete with picture of nasty Jewish soldier firing his gun. (Strange how it kind of ties in with the title)
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How the terrorists get by with a little help from their friends at the BBC.
New Iraq honour for ex-policeman
A former policeman from north Wales has revealed there was a $5,000 price on his head when he was in Iraq helping to rebuild the country’s police force
…………
Mr Hughes-Jones, who is from Llangefni but lives in Rhyl, said he had several brushes with death during his time working with the United States Department of Justice team attached to the Ministry of Interior in Iraq.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/6397235.stm
Great BBC, just great no-wonder the Terrorists of this world are more than happy to invite you in for a chat and tea. They know you would rat on your own mothers in order to appease them.
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Two reasons for the Taliban to take heart
As long as the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan remains porous, extra deployment of troops is unlikely to prove decisive. The scale of the task is daunting.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/02/27/dl2701.xml
.
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Tories secure commanding lead over Labour in latest poll
The Tories are on course to win the next General Election with a thumping 100-seat majority, according to a startling new poll.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=438767&in_page_id=1770
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Tim Almond – how very bizarre to suggest that giving the NFU ‘an easy ride’ is ‘leftist’! We NFU members are about as right-wing as you can get. You wouldn’t be mistaking the ‘union’ bit of NFU for the old fashioned ‘aspirations of our members’ type of union, would you?
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pounce – hilarious – perhaps you will be putting the same question to the Queen from when she gave him his MBE?
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Andy Tedd (exBBC):
pounce – hilarious – perhaps you will be putting the same question to the Queen from when she gave him his MBE?
Wow – what scathing wit. Truly, the BBCers have massive intellects.
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Although, Anon, at least we generally put our names to our witticisms, however poor you might think them 😉
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will | 26.02.07 – 7:50 pm | #
The report is perfectly clear that the section the reporter is with are laying down covering fire so other British troops can “safely” withdraw from a more advanced position.
For those of you who havent the time to follow the link, the report shows British troops in a favourable light in difficult circumstances, and features one Afghan who is pleased they are there.
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” BBC unveils ‘luxury’ new Manchester base” (27 Feb.).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
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Here is a rather different slant to the overall dhimmi perspective on Abu Qutada, presented on Al Beeb’s ‘Newsnight’, last night:
” The Terrorist We Can’t Kick Out ”
http://www.express.co.uk
As Home Secretary said about this case – the security concerns of the British people take precedence over that of Abu Qutada.
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Re: Manchester move – from the same article – “the BBC is not paying for the building of the new state-of-the-art premises……Land owners Peel Holdings, who will rent the property to the BBC, has just submitted a planning application to Salford City Council in what is being described as phase one of the site. The site is being developed by by Peel Holdings with public sector bodies.”
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jr
Been very busy and unable to find the time to post recently. Do however try to read every now and then. Disturbing trend beginning. Appears your protege Andy Trot running out of control and reverting back to his previous incarnation as DifferentAnon.
Will respond to his muddled thinking about the hideously ethnic/homosexual/Dyke issue if I get a chance this week.
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Have to disappear again however – just a quickie ref BBC Ceefax report on attack on base in Afghanistan.
Original Ceefax report said “The Taliban phoned the BBC claiming responsibility” (Now stealth edited)
The Taliban ringing the BBC – says it all really. When they’re not gouging people’s eyes out, chopping off their limbs, murdering women school teachers they’re have cosy tete-a-tetes with some beeb dhimmi.
More soon on a new word to enter the BBC lexicon – “Whinging” and when its use is permitted and when not.
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Rushing again … should have been whingeing above
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Andy Tedd (exBBC):
Is was a fair report last night,but my real bug bear is that the report was shown on World as well.
Nothing wrong per se with that.
But its context thats missing.
But it’s very rare that Al Beeb acknowledges that these operations are co-ordinated with our other allies as well-The Dutch and Canadians,both of whom are fighting hard.
However the overiding impression I was left with yesterday is that the UK and Yanks are the only involved in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
You might argue that you are “naturally looking at it from a UK perspective”.
Others of a more cynical nature when ,regarding the BBC,would suggest that the ommittion only reinforces “Anglo-Saxon war-mongering” and the UK being “America’s poodle”……
BTW-To show how utterly cretinous “political interviewing” has become-watch Alan Little and David Lammey on “Hard” Talk….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/6396877.stm
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Re: John Hughes-Jones said he was armed at all times in Iraq
I wonder if he really did carry a Kalashnikov, or something more likely to be issued to UK and US forces?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_east/6397235.stm
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Expect more “insights” from Mr Frei on how “draconian” the American Right has become:
US 200-year porn sentence stands
By James Westhead
BBC News, Washington
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6399471.stm
Now you could be forgiven that by looking at the headlines that this man went to jail for having Mayfair under his bed but wait:
“The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER from Arizona sentenced to 200 years in jail for possessing CHILD PORNOGRAPHY.” (My bold)
“Morton Berger had claimed the sentence was so disproportionate to his crime it breached the constitution”.
(Oh poor man……I’m sure Ms Chakrabarti will be sending somebody over)
And it appears that Mr Westhead has nether heard of the Eigth Amendment or that “cruel and unusual” is something that Mr Berger would be familer with ?
For those of you who want to wade through the court ruling here it is:
Click to access 06-349.pdf
The lazy editoring and the stench of anti-Americanism is nauseating.
What do we pay Mr Westhead to do?
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Bio:
A man like that sadly tucked away on the Welsh page…..
Nothing like winning “hearts and minds” in Wales huh.
Instead of talking to him, Al Beeb preferes the “Ray Mears” approach to war,as seen on last’s nights 10 o’clock folly.
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Hmmm…Bio: Does he look like the type of man that would say “US-led administration”…..
I’m sure Reith and Tedd from Minitruth will have plenty of doublethink for us…..
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Sounds familar:
“US-led invasion”
“US-led sanctions”
“US-backed rebels”
“US-backed government”
You can smell the dogma from here…..
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This tosh passes for BBC ‘news’ from the US:
Sharpton slave link to US senator
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6396673.stm
Sharpton’s racist views are well documented.
Now read this comment that appears on Damian Thompson’s blog about BBC bias.
Terrifyingly the information in this comment does not appear to meet the BBC’s criteria as newsworthy.
‘BBC And Their US Allies
In the US, we have the New York Times and their blatant left-wing bias, with the most recent non-reporting of the former President of the Virginia chapter of the ACLU (darling of the left) who was arrested by Federal agents for purchasing and downloading videos and images from child porn websites onto CD-ROMs (admits it), depicting graphic forcible intercourse with prepubescent girls who are “seen & heard crying and being bound by rope. He has subscribed to multiple child porn sites for years and coaches various youth sports teams. Absolutely not reported by NYT and other papers, but most certainly would have been if he was a Preacher or Republican.’
Maddie at 27 Feb 2007 05:08
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/feb07/bbcbias.htm
Not a peep from the BBC. No comparison need be drawn to the BBC reaction had the offender had been a Republican.
Apologists for the BBC who post here may care to comment. Alternatively they may care to hang their heads in shame and indulge in a moment of quiet reflection.
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Ingsoc is doublethink:
How apt that you should post on this, in light of my post above on the non reporting of the ACLU paedophile.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6399471.stm
I particularly like Westhead’s parting shot:
‘The Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal and gave no reason but the case has highlighted stark differences in sentencing policy across the US.’
I suppose much the same as the BBC’s reporting policy across the US has such stark differences.
Oh I do so love the stench of hypocrisy in the morning.
Really must off now. The little one has been suffering from chicken pox.
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Appears your protege Andy Trot running out of control and reverting back to his previous incarnation as DifferentAnon.
TPO | 27.02.07 – 10:47 am
Google is our friend, or on the internet nobody knows you’re a dog.
http://www.makeitusable.co.uk/intranet.html
BBC Intranet
“Make it Usable conducted a detailed piece of work, evaluating the top 100 tasks on the BBC’s intranet. I have been able to use this report to plan and prioriise usability improvements for the coming year”
Andy Tedd, Director
Interactive Products and Services
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A19460630
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Bio
I knew it… he hangs around with lycra louts.
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@TPO
Go take care of the wean! 😉
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“Not the 9 O’clock News” exaggerated to make a point. Now, in the crazy PC world of the public sector, it comes true – with the victim a man of unknown colour –
A fire-service controller whose career was destroyed by a string of spurious complaints by a female colleague was awarded more than £100,000 in compensation yesterday.
Sarah Kelly, a fellow controller, made 16 formal complaints, including one that Mr Owers should not have taken a holiday in August and another that he had failed to attend a colleague’s leaving party.
No action was taken against Miss Kelly even though she continued to complain about Mr Owers. Of the 16 complaints, 10 were rejected as too trivial to investigate. The other inquiries found no evidence that Mr Owers had done anything wrong.
Among the complaints was one that Mr Owers had stared at her and another that he had addressed her boyfriend, a fire-fighter, as “mate”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1443802.ece
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Will:
Good grief.
I dread to think how much public’s money (and I can only assume from the central kitty of Devon Fire Service),is gone into this?
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WATO on Radio 4 covered the bizarre Brown suggestion of community service for new immigrants.
We heard from Blunkett (Labour) and one Bernard (?) Crick (Labour crony). Not a squeak from any other party or pressure group – or even any challenging questions.
Then we heard from some kind of focus group – a little vox pop. There was no context at all to the questions asked of these people. “Do you think the community service plan is a good idea?”. Well – good for what and good compared with what ?
All against the background that immigration was a given – inevitable, unstoppable, a good thing anyway.
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Jack-
Take a leaf out of the Dutch book,even the centre left (“Blairites” in Beeboid language) is now fully awake to the dangers of multicultralism:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,684068,00.html#article_continue
What Fortuyn did was kick the “establishment” to introducing a “Netherlands First” policy.
Yet the Netherlands (except for a 30% rump of socalists and “greenleft”) also understands that the West must take the iniative and fight the extremists in there backyard.
Of course the only “European” viewpoint you guys from Al Beeb get is from a pro-Brussels stand.
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Credit where due: As mentioned earlier, a BBC reporter in Cuba lost his accreditation. Here’s the AP story. Unfortunately, the article also says that the BBC is negotiating with the dictatorship.
Here’s the principle the BBC (and other news organizations) should follow: If a reporter can’t file honest stories from a country ruled by a tyrant, then the reporter should leave, rather than practice self-censorship.
(By way of Newsbusters, which has a good discussion on how CNN covered Cuba for many years.)
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Jim….
I’m sure there will be plenty in Al Beeb looking for a job in “sunny socalist paradise”
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The BBC never mention the reporting restrictions in places like Cuba but do when the US or UK army impose them.
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This reference is particularly for Messrs Marr and Humphrys; it’s an article about their Islamist ‘chum’, TARIQ RAMADAN.
Title of piece: ‘The Propagandist’;
Author: Hugh Fitzgerald (25 Feb.)
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm?blog_id=5881
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Ingsoc,
You’ve highlighted another problem with the BBC news and current affairs output: although it’s relentlessly pro-EU, that never seems to go as far as covering news stories and issues from our european neighbours and allies. Its almost a news blackout.
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Name calling and bringing up points nothing to do with what’s being discussed? Good work girls. That will really help sort the ‘problem’ out.
I wonder what I would find out about people here if they used their real names?
Nothing very interesting I expect, although it would be interesting to find out the exact nature of TPO’s relationship with the Shere WI. 😛
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TPO – with regard to your post about the porn – are any other UK news organisations running the story? I cant find mention of it.
The ‘bias through ommission’ tack is always going to be a bit tricky, as it is easy to include stuff that they didnt include that proves the other side of the story eg the ‘US generals to quit if Iran’ invaded ‘story’ that the Sunday Times had on its frontpage.
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Jack you might want to bookmark this page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/default.stm
If you want to read a story that isnt “relentlessly pro-EU” you might like this one:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6400525.stm
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Alan | 27.02.07 – 5:17 pm
Thanks for the link to that article Alan – Fitzgerald’s remarks further confirm the impression I have of Tariq Ramadan.
As predicted he was yesterday’s Muhammad biographer on Start the Week, but Marr’s brown-nosing surprised even me.
Andrew Marr: So your message is reconciliation and peace, and you’re not allowed into America at the moment to spread it are you?
Ramadan: Because you have some people in the current US administration who don’t want peace and reconciliation. They want polarisation and wars. This is why I cannot go there.
Andrew Marr: Mmm.
And that was that little exchange over and done with.
When the Swiss grew bored of Ramadan in the 90s he latched onto the anti-globalisation crowd in France and became the darling of the idiot French left. Nowadays it’s climate change that sells, and Britain is a brand new market. And lo and behold – he has reinvented the founder of his religion as the proto-environmentalist. Marr lapped it up:
Marr: You were talking right at the beginning about environmentalism as being one of the sort of motivating ideas of the coming age as it were, and there’s an environmentalist aspect to this. You portray him in the desert but surrounded by creation, surrounded by a sophisticated network of growing things to which he is particularly responsive.
It’s called farming Andrew, and I believe it had been around for a few years before Muhammad arrived on the scene.
Ramadan also states, “Jihad is not the way towards war, jihad is the way towards peace… but there are conditions to peace and the first one is of course education and justice.” Sounds all nice and fluffy but what does it actually mean? What form of peace is acceptable? Who has to be educated. What sort of justice? Peace under Islamic rule, with the people “educated” into becoming Muslims or dhimmis, perhaps?
It’s classic Islamist doublespeak from the sneaky Ramadan but Marr was too busy with his cultural cringing to notice.
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Jack Hughes/IngSoc
Example of the case against multi-culturalism:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4295318.stm
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Andy Tedd
Your quoted piece notes that Civitas is “right-wing” whereas the IPPR is . . er . . the IPPR. Also which is the only “community” organisation given a say? Why – surprise, surprise – representing the BBC’s minority of choice – it’s the MCB.
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Example of the case against multi-culturalism
And what the BBC thinks of it:
The report from right-wing think-tank, Civitas…
It has often been noted here that when the “think-tank” is left-wing we’re not told.
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“Left-wing think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Research put the figure at 56,000.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6221979.stm
By bizarre coincidence the phrase ‘left-wing think tank’ the phrase ‘right-wing think tank’ both return 500 pages of search results.
That seems too much of a coincidence, Martin might have a technical explanation?
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“Nothing very interesting I expect,” Well Andy Tedd – I do use my real name, but I have not had a celebrated life like you – no doubt being ex BBC and a Director makes you much more intelligent than the rest of us.
Well I left school at 15 without a qualification to my name (and without a penny) – I worked in all kinds of jobs with real hard working people, I saw the ugly face of the communist left in the steelworks in the 1970s. I have since got a MSc and am working in IT. And unlike you I think that people of all backgrounds should have a voice – not just the lefty trendy,s, and champagne socialists. That is what democracy is all about (or it was until the BBC and NuLabour started to take it away).
Its ironic that the new left stick up for the middle classes and damn the workers – Keir Hardie will be rotating in his grave.
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Andy Tedd (exParasite): “… are any other UK news organisations running the story?”
So the BBC’s omission of a story omitted by the rest of the MSM constitutes evidence of its impartiality?
I think your ALU must be malfunctioning mate 🙂
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Hi,
I just wanted to mention that having avoided BBC news like the plague for ages (in part, thanks to the many instances of bias highlighted on this forum) I had just stopped a vid to find myself watching the 6 o’clock news and decided to give it a chance.
A piece entitled “love across the front line” – a story of how israelis and are palestinians as just as cruel and heartless as palestinians when it comes to a lovestruck young muslim-jewish couple.
Q: If Israelis are as bigoted as Palestinians then how come plenty of Israeli muslim arabs enjoy freedom in Israel while jews in the Occupied Territories, hmmmm, where are they all?
I think I’ll be skipping the Beeb for a little while yet. And when they switch analogue off I’ll be refusing the licence fee as well.
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