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Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:
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archduke:
I’ll open a can of “draught” Guinness and toast absent friends from here in Spain.
May the best team win, and “confusion to our enemies!”
“To consider the implications of a changing world for the BBC’s delivery of impartiality.”
Impartiality is impartiality – it does not change with the times.
Nice to see some calm debate beginning on the BBC – I do notice however that the pair point out the over hype by some American Scientists – but not the BBC (or Independent)
“Two leading UK climate researchers say some of their peers are “overplaying” the global warming message and risk confusing the public about the threat.
Professors Paul Hardaker and Chris Collier, both Royal Meteorological Society figures, are voicing their concern at a conference in Oxford.
They say some researchers make claims about possible future impacts that cannot be justified by the science.
The pair believe this damages the credibility of all climate scientists.
Both men hold the mainstream view on climate change – that human activity is the cause.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/6460635.stm
And that is exactly what it is – a view – not proof positive. If the BBC are finally waking up to a more reasoned debate – it has to be welcomed.
IngSoc is Doublethink | 16.03.07 – 11:12 am
A most thoughtful appraisal of Tony Blair. I think that his greatest legacy will be the strong leadership he showed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and his consistency thereafter in confronting the Islamists. (though not without errors,i.e. some of the less than moderate muslim organizations that the Government have invited as advisors, and the continuing fiasco of our immigration and border control policies). Domestically, his legacy does not look great (legitimate criticisms abound on the social/economic policies he has presided over).
However, as he did not have all the boxes ticked in the “BBC”‘s ideal leader profile (probably modelled on Ken Livingstone), they have contributed to his undermining.
“Islamization is not Inevitable”
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1986
This is a vitally important European political issue in Belgium, discussec by Diana West of the ‘Washington Times’; Al Beeb seems to play down the issues here. Why, I wonder?
jon
One of “Professors Paul Hardaker and Chris Collier, both Royal Meteorological Society figures” was interviewed on “Today” this morning and, despite being badgered by Humphrys, refused to say that climate change was the most serious thing facing mankind and reiterated that by going OTT the climate change lobby was damaging its case. He seemed to me (an anthropogenic climate change sceptic) to be in a dilemma: he stated his belief that climate change is mainly anthropogenic – citing the IPCC latest report (despite that report being a policy document not written by scientists). It appeared though that he cannot state unequivocally that this is so since the evidence just isn’t conclusive. He said that the Channel 4 programme’s contrary evidence could be challenged but was not specific.
Then, of course, “Today” – instead of bringing on a sceptical scientist to really open up the debate – introduces a greenie who “debates” by attempting to rubbish the Channel 4 programme as “junk science” (pots, kettles, black) and brings the whole discussion down to a name-calling fest (in which – to his credit – the meteorological office scientist refused to join). Even given an opportunity to provide a level playing field, the BBC – through “Today” – can’t help trying to load the dice. Pathetic – really pathetic.
Martin Belam writes:
“When I visited the BBC News UK edition homepage about half-hour ago there were eight, yes, count’em boys, eight, stories about Comic Relief on the homepage.”
And when I checked the BBC News (sic) front page, what I saw is what I reported. Otherwise, why do you think it might have occurred to me to do so?
It was interesting that even the short news item I read didn’t mention an increase on last year’s figure. What was the problem, do you suppose – had the BBC hype department temporarily run out of superlatives?
As for the figures themesleves, thank you for checking Wikipedia. It hadn’t occurred to me to look there. Oddly, as I said, Google had proved unhelpful, as had a BBC search and the Comic Relief website.
Aren’t Americans supposed to be simple, bull in a china shop folk? Well now they are revealed to be devious, undermining the case for climate change by over-egging it.
At least that’s how it appears from News24 who state that it is US scientists (& therefore only they?) who are being criticised by Hardaker & Collier.
In the online version the US scientists are only an example.
As an example, they point to a recent statement from one of the foremost US science bodies – the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/6460635.stm
Umbongo writes:
“… a greenie who “debates” by attempting to rubbish the Channel 4 programme as “junk science” (pots, kettles, black) and brings the whole discussion down to a name-calling fest…”
It’s very telling how often this happens. Why, even the BBC’s own “John Reith” tried that tactic here, attempting to rubbish the programme by pointing out it was made by a Marxist – as if that had the silghtest possible bearing on its accuracy!
The shrillness adopted by the “Greens” suggests fear of a rational argument and the unconscious recognition that the position they are trying to defend was not arrived at by empirical means at all.
Will writes:
“At least that’s how it appears from News24 who state that it is US scientists (& therefore only they?) who are being criticised by Hardaker & Collier.”
Well, if that is the case, they must have been sleeping through the tsunami of rubbish spouting from the very top of our own, dear Royal society!
paddy’s day watch part 2
its now 18:30 , and still no nod to the Irish. look at the front page.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/default.stm
the conservative Daily Telegraph has a big shamrock in its logo:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/index.jhtml
as i said above – this is just a Rorscharch test, rather than me whining about it – i’m ok as i just get all the news on todays parades from the RTE internet site – but its a useful indicator of just how agenda-setting BBC news has become. if its not on the “agenda” its not worthy of reporting.
a truely impartial news operation would at least make a passing reference on the front page of their news site.
get my drift?
also – listen out for BBC radio news , and the tv bulletins for any mention of st paddys day.
if they mention it, i’ll eat a bowl of shamrock.
“pointing out it was made by a Marxist” – in other words if it had been made by a member of UKIP – then it would still be suspect – you cannot win. So was every sentance uttered by the scientists censored, altered or in other ways manipualted making them say things they didn’t actually mean.
I have read on other sites and online newspapers the same scientists saying the same things – is this manipualted too?
The argument just does not stand up – its not as if the maker of the documetary was just talking to camera with his own views.
The “John Reiths” of this world think they can put down every argument by saying “ah well this was said by a Marxist/BNP Supporter/Right winger/ Racist/Sexist/Flat Earher etc.” If you attack the person you do not have to justify the argument – simple and dangerous.
Umbongo writes:
“… a greenie who “debates” by attempting to rubbish the Channel 4 programme as “junk science”
Any idea who this greenie was? It wasn’t our old friend Andrew Pendleton – one time BBC journalist and now an expert in all things from tobbacco smokers of Brazil, AIDS in Africa, to the coming catastrophic causes of man made CO2?.
Anonymous | 17.03.07 – 7:07 pm | # was me.
Rally for missing BBC journalist
Palestinian journalists have rallied outside parliament in Gaza City in support of the BBC’s Alan Johnston, who is thought to have been abducted.
…
Palestinian security officials say Johnston was kidnapped from his car by masked gunmen on Monday.
The BBC says it cannot independently verify these reports.
Efforts to secure Mr Johnston’s release have been continuing.
If the BBC “cannot independently verify these reports” what efforts are being made and involving who?
Reports earlier in the week said Johnston was in good health.
Who reported that?
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya are those who have called for Johnston’s return.
It does look more and more likely that Al-Qaeda have him:
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3939
Many commenters on this site are not just critical of the BBC’s general political stance.
Would you support this?:
“Native Revolt: A European Declaration of Independence”
(16 Mar. scroll down)
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1980
“Palestinian journalists have rallied outside parliament in Gaza City in support of the BBC’s Alan Johnston, who is thought to have been abducted.”
Would they or have they ever done this for journalists from any other news organisation? I think not. Says it all really. The “special relationship” must mean a lot to the palastinians.
“European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso expressed unease with the prospect of a second Dutch constitution referendum. “Referendums make the process of approval of European treaties much more complicated and less predictable,” he said “If a referendum had been held on the creation of the European Community or the introduction of the Euro, do you think these would have passed?”
In other words “democracy gets in the way of the great dream of Europe”
Jon,
It’s the second rally they’ve held since he went AWOL.
Note that also in attendance was “Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti”.
See here for more on Abu Mustafa:
http://backspin.typepad.com/backspin/2005/01/barghoutis_busy.html
Biodegradable: Amazing – the Independant saw the manipulation – but the Beeb didn’t – hard to believe would you think?
“Impartial observers have long recognized that Johnston is particularly anti-Israeli in his reporting. But now the BBC has acknowledged his bias too. The BBC website, in an article about their kidnapped correspondent, includes a quote from BBC diplomatic editor Paul Adams confirming that Johnston wasn’t interested in presenting the Israeli side, but it was “his job to bring us day after day reports of the Palestinian predicament.”
The Nablus TV news agency also acknowledges this. In a report specially located and translated for this website / email list, it says: “The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has issued a call to release Johnston as soon as possible, saying Johnston must not be hurt as he is famous for his opinions which are supportive of the Palestinians.”
http://backspin.typepad.com/
How can this be justified? What more evidence is needed to show that the BBC is one-sided in the coverage of the Middle-East? What does this lot have to do to lose its Charter?
i’m watching the BBC 10 o clock news. my previous bet still stands – if there is a mention of st patricks day, i’ll eat a bowl of shamrock.
admittedly i tuned in around 10 past 10, and so far , i have no reference to it.
ok – ten o clock news ended. my bowl of shamrock is still fresh and uneaten.
Archduke, I take your point about the BBC1 news TV coverage, rather than the online and BBC4 coverage where as I pointed out the BBC is doing Saint Patrick’s day stuff.
But I’m entirely unsure why you think that the BBC’s tv news *should* make as a leading item one strand of one religion on one island having picked one particular saint’s day to focus on selling beer…but there you go.
@GCooper – And when I checked the BBC News (sic) front page, what I saw is what I reported. Otherwise, why do you think it might have occurred to me to do so?
I don’t know why it occurred to you to post that, and I’ll accept that I was wrong. As far as I can tell from the archive, at the time you posted your comment there were only 7 articles about Comic Relief on the BBC News UK edition homepage, not the 8 that I claimed. My bad, sorry.
http://www.dracos.co.uk/work/bbc-news-archive/2007/03/17/11.45.html
Never mind about the St Patrick’s day debate – spot on to the Irish lads who have just knocked Pakistan out of the cricket world cup.
Martin Belam writes:
“I don’t know why it occurred to you to post that, and I’ll accept that I was wrong. As far as I can tell from the archive, at the time you posted your comment there were only 7 articles about Comic Relief on the BBC News UK edition homepage, not the 8 that I claimed. My bad, sorry.”
I went to the BBC News front page. That’s what I saw. That’s why I posted about what I saw.
I can only assume we were looking at different pages.
Incidentally – could someone please explain to me what all this “@GCooper” stuff is about as per Martin Belam’s recent response to me?
Where does the “@” come from? I’ve started seeing it used and have no idea why.
How can this be justified? What more evidence is needed to show that the BBC is one-sided in the coverage of the Middle-East? What does this lot have to do to lose its Charter?
Jon | 17.03.07 – 9:33 pm
I pointed that out here too:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/4756361538831297466/#332973
Biodegradable: This comments page is getting rather long – its quite easy to miss something – as indeed I did.
GCooper – I persume @ before a name means that they are refering to you personally (I may be wrong).
‘@’ means ‘at’.
Jon:
Biodegradable: This comments page is getting rather long – its quite easy to miss something – as indeed I did.
Sure, I wasn’t complaining, just agreeing with you that something like this exposes BBC bias, and the fact that they’re quite happy about being biased, proud of it even.
Hey look, the BBC wants you to think about death
And then it wants you to go here.
Watch George Galloway lose his temper, live on TV
http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2007/03/i_thought_you_m.html
.
BBC backstage revolt
Yesterday (21st Feb) at the future of webapps there was a Panel Debate about what Europe could learn from American in regards to the startup culture. We captured the whole debate on a small camcorder. Including the part where one of the most prolific voices of silicon valley, Michael Arrington from TechCrunch.com. Voiced his feelings for the BBC’s efforts online. He added…
The BBC should be dissolved
Watch it here – http://blip.tv/file/154710
enjoy
Suddenly the BBC have developed an appetite for making dramas about Iraq:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/world_drama.shtml
Any chance of a pre-Invasion drama set in Saddam’s Iraq?
“But I’m entirely unsure why you think that the BBC’s tv news *should* make as a leading item one strand of one religion on one island having picked one particular saint’s day to focus on selling beer…but there you go.
Martin Belam | Homepage | 17.03.07 – 10:45 pm | ”
not a leading item -just a passing reference would suffice, in the summary of the news say. and its not just the Irish Republic that celebrate it – 1 million Unionists, your fellow countrymen, and the Irish Guards Regiment of the British Army also celebrate it. Not to mention the enormous 5th Avenue bash in NYC, and all the other cities in America that go green for a day.
you will also notice that the Rio Carnival has come and gone without a mention. The next one to look out for will be the 4th of July.
These are just Rorscharch tests to reveal biases in terms of what the BBC deems “important” or not. Rather than giving us the news , the BBC chooses to agenda-set.
Cash card to help immigrants transfer up to £5.6bn a year out of Britain
Immigrants are being offered cash cards by a Labour donor hoping to profit from a rush by workers to transfer billions of pounds out of the UK.
Iranian-born Ali Sarikhani, a friend of Tessa Jowell’s husband David Mills, has set up the Tuxedo Blue Diamond card for people without bank accounts who have money to send abroad to friends or family.
But the launch of the scheme raises fresh doubts over the Government’s claims that immigration boosts the country’s gross domestic product by £4billion a year.
Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch UK, said: “The main beneficiaries are the immigrants, who are able to send home about £10million a day, not the host nation. It is a loss when that money leaves and we have to buy foreign capital to make it up.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=442931&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=
anyone remember this being reported on bbc tv/radio news bulletins?
riots in hungary, march 15th
http://www.caboodle.hu/nc/news/news_archive/single_page/article/11/updated_news-1/
seems to have gone down the same beeboid memory hole as the Utrecht 3-day riots.
Good Morning B-BCCers….just a quick note today.
Thank you KDB for your kind comments!!
Archduke: top day all round for the Boys in Green overall.Apologies for the delay,but here’s to St Paddy and Tir Na Og….
Just seen Thompson squirm with Marr this morning, but it does seem that B-BBC (and the stirling work that our bloggers do)is starting to challenge the Beeboid mindset in public.
I don’t want to get into the “meat” of what he had to say,but I think those who have contributed to these boards are now starting to see the friuts of our labour.
IMHO B-BBC is starting to become a major player in getting fair and balanced news reporting on the political agenda.I think there are also signs that we are being taken seriously by the powers that be,as well as providing a broad church of centre/centre right viewpoints which is so needed in the UK.
I think we should pat ourselves on the back for a really good week for B-BBC.
TOP STUFF!!
Have a great weekend everyone,and lets see if we can get a push on next week.
i think you might be right Ingsoc – for example Jeremy Vine’s questioning of a Lib Dem (on the issue of phone-in quiz shows) took a decidly right of centre tone (i.e. Vine was argueing the case for the market sorting it out , rather than more Lib Dim regulation)
however, there is a long long way to go, in terms of getting the BBC to actually report the NEWS (st paddys day, utrecht riots, budapest) rather than news about its own pet agendas.(global warming , Pallywood etc)
Archduke,TPO,Jon,will,Baggie et al.
A great debate on TB and the Tories,and one in which I feel could be explored more.
Speak to you all tommorow.
archduke:
The war has just begun my friend 🙂
But looking at this thread alone,you can see B-BBC was some pretty sharp minds.
Must go,people to do things to see…
Take it easy and take it all.
IiD
“but here’s to St Paddy and Tir Na Og….”
thanks for the greetings mate. still recovering from last nights bash in the local Irish centre. it was jam packed, and the english accents seemed to outnumber the irish ones. great to see the english just joining in -even if it was only their great-great-grandmother who came from kerry…
here’s hoping the english get a proper St Georges day holiday in the future. its badly needed.
usually, the BBC jumps on any UN report that fits its Pallywood/Global Warming/Islam agenda.
yet, when the UN reports on mass migration, in the millions, from the third world into Europe by 2050, the BBC is strangely muted.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/15/wimm15.xml
no banner headlines, rolling coverage or (dont) have your say on this one.
“So much for the BBC’s repeat-free zones”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk (18 Mar.) (go to ‘News’).
Brief extract:
“‘The Good Life’ the 1970s comedy series about a fictional couple and their life based on – ironically – recycling, is the most repeated show.
“Each of the 30 episodes, made between 1975 and 1977, has been repeated on BBC1 or BBC2 at least 10 times.”
oh dear. the Red Nose Day reactions arent going the BBCs way:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=5801&edition=1&ttl=20070318114053&#paginator
BBC, are you reading all these comments?
Listen to your lisence payers. We’re so “over” being preached to by millionaires and has-been celebrities. We’re fed up with your “begging” on behalf of Africa. We are fed up with has-beens using these events to “get their faces on tv” for the first time in months.
We, the public, are not uncharitable. But we are not idiots either.
Suffolk Boy
Recommended by 166 people
“Cash card to help immigrants transfer up to £5.6 billion a year out of Britain” (‘Mail on Sunday’, 18 Mar.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk (go to ‘News’.)
Memo to Al Beeb: don’t forget to report and analyse the massive financial costs, like these, of UK immigration policy.
(Note the mention here of Tessa Jowell, her husband, David Mills, and the role of Iran-born Ali Sarikhani.)
The comments of Sir Andrew Green, of Migrationwatch here, are spot on.
Jon writes:
“GCooper – I persume @ before a name means that they are refering to you personally (I may be wrong).”
Yes, I’d guessed that – but *why* do they do it when it’s perfectly obvious to whom they they are referring?
while JohnofBorg write:
“‘@’ means ‘at’.”
Umm… yes,indeed.
But why this strange ‘@fredsmith’ affectation?
Is it a young person’s thing? 😉 And, if so, could we start giving out those nice Mr Blair’s Asbos to anyone who does it?