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Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:
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Hugh Sykes
Has he ever been able to find anyone in Iraq to interview who doesn’t think that the country was much better off under Saddam?
Confused
Confused
Confused
There are some polls that the BBC ignores:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1530762.ece
And there are some that the BBC bases a whole week’s programming on:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6464277.stm
Funny that isn’t it?
Michael Foot interview:
On Today this morning we hear St James of Smug hanging on his every word.
I look forward to the Smug one doing the same for Margaret Thatcher.
Then swiftly onwards to an article on Israel.
Oh dear.
Apparently according to the great and good at the BBC, the greatest threat is not from Hamas or Iran, but from within, from corruption. Corruption in the Middle East – who would have thunk it?
Ah well, you see, it must be “Der Ewige Jude”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eternal_Jew_%28film%29
I’ve been to Doha actually, seemed to be desperately trying to build to keep up with Dubai, but it was all a bit dull to be honest.
Martin Belam | Homepage | 18.03.07 – 11:53 pm | #
Last time I was in Dubai it looked very much like this.
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/69239205
Has it changed much?
By the way anyone, how do you put smileys in?
The BBC is currently screening 3, 1-hour progammes on BBC 2: “The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom?” (by Adam Curtis).
This series seems to avoid discussing such erosions of UK cultural freedoms as the ones discussed here by Hugh Fitzgerald:
“Fitzgerald: A dangerous and self-defeating, pusillanimity” (18 Mar.)
(Scroll down).
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch
Iraq: The country that never had WMD’s, or Al Qaeda, or Chemical Weapons…..
http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=4241392
“In the first incident, near the town of Amiriya, six people including two policemen were killed. A second bomber then detonated a rubbish truck containing a 200-gallon (900-litre) chlorine tank rigged with explosives”.
In a statement, the US military said: “Suicide car bombers have used chlorine against Iraqis in Al Anbar a total of five times since Jan 28.”
So, the insurgents are using CW and nobody questions it?
By now most thinking, living people will find it perplexing that after establishing that TB and GWB “lied” to us about chemical weapon programmes (which for those of the hard of thinking are WMD) , that these attacks are now occurring. I fully expect a drip drip drip of these stories until Tony and George have gone, and then a “re-examination” to help cover up there own incompetence and bias.
IIS,
On that basis the UK has weapons of mass destruction stockpiled at every swimming pool??
More importantly I assume this has been covered a bit further up but headline today is a survey about Iraqi’s ‘pessimism’.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6464277.stm
Whereas most other media has been concerned with an alternative poll of more than twice that one’s sample size which shows that far more Iraqis believe their lives are better than under Saddam than don’t.
Now you can argue that 49% thinking their lives are better than they were under a genocidal maniac and crippling sanctions regime 4 years after a ‘liberation’ ain’t exactly a great result, but this plus the majority opinion that there is no civil war plus much better terrorism stats post big push surely merits some sort of upbeat reporting…
“The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom?” (by Adam Curtis).
Last night to support his assertion that the rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer, Curtis made claims about the change in Hackney over the past 20 years or so.
But his comparison didn’t make any allowance for the changes in the population make up of Hackney over that period. With Curtis’s usual use of hackneyed film clips it is unfortunate that he didn’t illustrate his comments with cheerful Cockney pearly kings’n’queens. Making comparisons over time about wealth in Hackney is surely comparing oranges & lemons.
From Palestinian news agency Ma’an:
The BBC director in Gaza expressed hopes that Johnston will be released soon and said that Johnston was almost a Gazan as he had lived with the Gazans for a long time and cared very much for Palestinians.
Via CAMERA.
Hugh Sykes
Has he ever been able to find anyone in Iraq to interview who doesn’t think that the country was much better off under Saddam?
Abandon ship! | 19.03.07 – 8:53 am
He was also in full propaganda mode during the Israeli-Hezbollah war.
watched “the trap” last night, and it appeared to be very blinkered – only looking at the US and Britain. it completely ignored the flat-tax revolution in nearly every eastern european country – the wholesale ripping up of communist bureaucracies, turning some countries into laissez faire economies.
his rich/poor divide meme, never even mentioned immigration, and demographic change. if half a million Poles suddenly arrive in just 2 years, then of course it would then appear that the poor are getting “poorer” because of the influx of cheap labour. but that doesnt take account of the Poles moving on to better paid jobs over time.
and finally, the rich are appearing to get richer – mainly because of the influx of rich Russian billionaires, French entrepenuers ,American CEOs, Indian businessmen and Irish property tycoons. if you suddenly have a lot of rich foreigners settling in Britain, then of course it would then “appear” in the raw stats as if the rich are getting richer. Add to that the influx of American capital into London thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley restrictions in America post-Enron.
overall, weakly argued i think, with no real understanding of the growing globalisation of the world economy and worldwide capital flows.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Regulation/hl995.cfm
“The London Stock Exchange has had over 31 different presentations for American entrepreneurs who are considering going public, or for investors, where they brag on every page of their brochure that they are Sarbanes-Oxley•free. “
By the way anyone, how do you put smileys in?
TPO | 19.03.07 – 9:05 am
The easiest way is to click the little “?” above the comments box and up will pop a little window full of smileys from which you can choose.
You can also type colon dash close-brackets which will translate as 🙂
cbs on the economic boom in kurdistan:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/16/60minutes/main2486679.shtml
something you rarely hear about.
Stop Kidnapping Journalists Who Support Us
A confirmation of pro-Palestinian bias doesn’t get more official than this declaration by the PA’s new Information Minister, Mustafa Barghouti. Speaking about the kidnapping of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, Barghouti, was quoted in the Jerusalem Post saying:
“We are opposed to the kidnapping of foreign journalists who serve the Palestinian cause,” he added.
archduke: “and finally, the rich are appearing to get richer – mainly because of the influx of rich Russian billionaires, French entrepenuers ,American CEOs, Indian businessmen and Irish property tycoons.”
And you have some evidence to support that?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879107419&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Others speakers at the event hailed the BBC correspondent as a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and peace and called on the kidnappers to release him immediately.
Father’s appeal for BBC reporter
“This holding Alan is not doing the Palestinian people any favours, quite the opposite,” he said.
“It it is no way to treat a friend of the Palestinian people, and all I can say to the men who are holding Alan is: please let my son go, now, today”
Graham Johnston
The BBC can longer claim to be impartial in its reporting of the situation in Gaza. It has lost all credibility!
“And you have some evidence to support that?
MisterMinit | 19.03.07 – 12:36 pm ”
google for sarbanes-oxley and the flight of american capital to london.
irish property tycoon example:
http://neilmichael.wordpress.com/2006/11/30/irish-developers-behind-400-million-london-landmark-purchase/
“Their big-money purchase of such an iconic building as Battersea Power Station is the latest of a number of recent property “raids” by Irish developers who now own large tracks of London.”
“Limerick man Brooks already owns large swathes of fashionable Bond Street and was the lead bidder for other large London properties.”
Sarkozy woos French expats in London
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a816393a-b090-11db-8a62-0000779e2340,dwp_uuid=e17a8288-890f-11db-a876-0000779e2340.html
“The first mass rally of a French presidential candidate in Britain was a remarkable tribute to the soaring number of French workers in the country, estimated at between 200,000 and 300,000”
London’s billionaires:
http://www.forbes.com/business/2006/11/16/billionaires-london-mittal-biz_cx_pm_1116londonbillies.html
“of the 23 billionaires in London, only 12 are British”
quote:
Non-domiciled resident tax status is a tax loophole that politicians have repeatedly threatened to close but somehow never get around to doing. One reason: There are an estimated 100,000 “non-doms” in the U.K. They’re not all billionaires, but all are multimillionaires, and among them are many strong financial supporters of the main political parties.
The rich keep London’s real estate agents in work. Foreign buyers bought more than half of the London homes that sold for more than £2 million last year.
when you get inward capital flows of that magnitude, on top of a sudden increase in immigration by poor East European workers, then its quite obvious that the rich/poor gap will apparently widen.
Extra 1.7m plunged into poverty by soaring energy bills
More than 1.7 million new households have been plunged into fuel poverty in the last two years amid soaring utility bills, it was claimed today.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=443253&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments
Promising not to recognize Israel and refusing to return a kidnapped Israeli (on top of
killing hundreds of Jews in terror attacks) has earned Hamas the respect of Norway.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
GCooper:”the BBC, if it is as unbiased as apologists like MrMinit, Cockney, Reith et al pretend”
When have I ever said that the BBC was unbiased? In fact, if you had been paying attention you would have noticed that I have said exactly the opposite.
archduke: “when you get inward capital flows of that magnitude, on top of a sudden increase in immigration by poor East European workers, then its quite obvious that the rich/poor gap will apparently widen.”
Widen sure. However, you used the phrase “and finally, the rich are appearing to get richer – mainly because of the influx of rich Russian billionaires, French entrepenuers ,American CEOs, Indian businessmen and Irish property tycoons.”
So how much of this widening as a % can be attributed to the reasons that you describe?
And you’ll find that I am actually a “BBC hater” by the way:
http://flyingrodent.blogspot.com/2006/06/us-v-euro-media-primer-for-mentally.html
Pessisimism ‘growing amongst Iraqis’ crows the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6464277.stm
Then, looking at the details of the poll we find…
Do you think your children will have a better life than you, worse, or about the same?
Better 42%
Worse 37%
About the Same 21%
and
What is your expectation for how things will be for Iraq as a country overall a year from now? Will they be much better, somewhat better, about the same, somewhat worse, or much worse?
Much Better 14%
Somewhat Better 26%
About the Same 26%
Somewhat Worse 21%
Much Worse 13%
Now I’m no psephologist, but don’t these numbers indicate a somewhat more optimistic view about the future than a pessimistic one?
“So how much of this widening as a % can be attributed to the reasons that you describe?
MisterMinit | 19.03.07 – 4:25 pm ”
the influx of American capital because of Sarbanes-Oxley – and the resultant City bonuses , and the knock on property rises – add that all up and i would say a substantial percentage.
all i’m saying is that none of this complexity/global flow of capital/immigration was never mentioned in “the trap”. it was just the simplistic “rich are getting richer” arguments that we’ve heard for over a century now.
MrMinit writes:
“When have I ever said that the BBC was unbiased? In fact, if you had been paying attention you would have noticed that I have said exactly the opposite.”
Codswallop! You’re entire history here has been almost nothing but a series of nitpicks of other people’s criticisms – almost always supporting the BBC’s line.
” Steve E | 19.03.07 – 4:54 pm |”
how can you ever trust the validity of such a “poll”, when the Iraqi being polled has neighbour across the road is who is a member of a Shia death squad, and the other guy next door is a member of the Mahdi army? and he suspects that his other neighbour is a member of Al Qaeda? And meanwhile the Iraqis brother in law was kidnapped and shot by Sunni death squads last Tuesday.
its preposterous to be conducting polls in such a fraught situation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6464277.stm
funny how the bbc ignores the most telling aspect of the “poll”. the last table.
question 54: Do you think that the following countries are or are not actively engaged in encouraging sectarian violence within iraq?
syria: yes 66%
iran: yes 71%
saudi arabia: yes 56%
“Codswallop! You’re entire history here has been almost nothing but a series of nitpicks of other people’s criticisms – almost always supporting the BBC’s line.”
Yes, I certainly challenge what people say when I think that they are talking rubbish. If I heard an unfair criticism about Hitler that I challenged, it would not mean that I loved Hitler, right?
Also, if I disagreed with someone who said “St Paul’s Cathedral proves that the Earth is round”, I wouldn’t necessarily be saying that the Earth is not round.
No doubt Al Beeb will soon be commissioning a new tv series based on Andrew Roberts’ new book: “A History of the English-speaking Peoples since 1900.”
“Bush’s Book List Gets More Islamophobic” (19 Mar.)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36955
cor – and there I was thinking Bush couldn’t read. Lots of people on the BBC say so.
/
BBC Bias by omission:
While the BBC tells us cheerfully that Aid chief unhurt in Gaza attack they don’t tell us that U.N. Pulls Staffers From Gaza After Gunmen Try to Kidnap Mission Chief
While the BBC tells us about the Mixed reactions to Haniya cabinet they don’t tell us that Egyptian authorities have detained a would-be Hamas suicide bomber next to the Israeli border as he was awaiting instructions to carry out a terrorist attack inside Israel or that Hamas claims responsibility for shooting near Karni.
There’s plenty more going on, but we’ll only ever get half the story (if that) from the BBC.
Alan – i like the third paragraph. it leads on from the recent discussions on here about the recalibration of ideology in the 21st century to left meaning “statist” and right meaning “anti-statist”. (thus making the BNP and Islamism part of the statist “left”)
and i quote:
******************************
Roberts, an avowed Thatcherite who proudly declared himself “extremely right-wing” in a recent Financial Times interview, repeatedly advised the president, according to Irwin Stelzer, one of the neo-conservative attendees, to ignore rising anti-U.S. sentiment abroad and opposition at home in pursuing his war on terrorism — or what the historian has called “the Manichean world-historical struggle” against fascism, of which “Totalitarian Islamic Terrorist Fascism” is only the latest.
********************************
So if Andrew Roberts calls himself “extremely right wing” , which is encouraging President Bush to fight fascism, which is supposedly also on the “right”? Well, its entirely self evident that his stance is not hypocritical , if you recalibrate left/right divides into state/anti-state, with the “extreme right” being the ultra libertarian , free marketeers, of which Roberts is one.
The alliance between the likes of Respect, the SWP and the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas also starts to make sense – for they are now all on the extreme pro-statist “left”.
Old Labour party pseudo-communists voting BNP also , makes sense if we recalibrate. thats just left statists voting for other left statists.
and anyway – i thought Bush was too dumb to read books. or at least, thats what the BBC “comedy” shows on radio 4 keep telling me.
sorry typo:
So if Andrew Roberts calls himself “extremely right wing” , and who is encouraging President Bush..
Hamas militants wound Israeli civilian
KARNI CROSSING, Gaza Strip – Hamas militants on Monday claimed responsibility for a shooting that wounded an Israeli civilian near the border with the Gaza Strip — the first serious violence after formation of the new Palestinian unity government.
Israel said the attack proved the coalition was flouting international demands to renounce violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and accept past peace accords.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070319/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians;_ylt=AiPO9gJV8ht4ldWiigxau97MWM0F
“Alan – i like the third paragraph. it leads on from the recent discussions on here about the recalibration of ideology in the 21st century to left meaning “statist” and right meaning “anti-statist”.”
I don’t think that those left-right semantics are tied to a particular century or a recalibration. I think that it is more of an Americanism that has spread over to here only relatively recently.
sometimes, i sense that Channel 4 can sense the public mood far far more than the BBC.
after the “climate change swindle”, right now we have a pro-GM documentary, presented by a BIOLOGIST. yes. a scientist.
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/A/animal_farm/index.html
on right now, on C4.
could this be the beginnings of a fight back for rationality and science? i sure as hell hope so.
“I think that it is more of an Americanism that has spread over to here only relatively recently.
MisterMinit | 19.03.07 – 10:32 pm”
it could well be that – it could also be the influence of the eastern european economies, where former communists have gone laissez faire, with supposedly “right wing” nationalist parties wanting to preserve the state in some cases. the traditional left/right divide has gone topsy turvey in those cases.
good bit in that c4 docu.
apples are clones.
why? cos the best trees are snipped/grafted (as any gardener would tell you) to make new trees – hence a clone. we are already eating cloned food – and have been doing so for hundreds of years.
When have I ever said that the BBC was unbiased? In fact, if you had been paying attention you would have noticed that I have said exactly the opposite.
MisterMinit | 19.03.07 – 4:23 pm
Are you the same MisterMinit who was claiming recently that people here unfairly cherry pick examples to prove the BBC left wing, and that you could prove it right wing using the same tactics?
And the same MisterMinit who then shrank from the challenge to go ahead and prove the BBC right wing?
If you really are anti-BBC it is hardly apparent from your comments to this blog.
jeremy bowen on the bbc news – “iraq was supposed to be the beacon of democracy in the middle east. but 4 years later nobody wants to be like iraq”
he interviews a saudi – brother of the king.
no mention of syrian, iranian, AND saudi involvement in the islamist terrorism in iraq.
no mention of Kurdistan.
no mention of the numerous Saudi terrorists who have been been causing terrorist bombings in iraq.
no mention of the iranian munitions finding their way into iraq.
pathetic.
its all “blame the usa”. he’s now reporting from the deck of the USS Eisenhower(!!!). here’s hoping they throw him overboard.
nice fancy graphics on this bbc report
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6451841.stm
but question 54 is curiously left out.
in case you didnt get it(mentioned above) here it is:
q54: do you think the the following countries are or are not actively engaged in encouraging sectarian violence with Iraq?
Syria: Yes: 66% No : 34%
Iran: Yes: 71% No: 29%
Saudi Arabia: Yes: 56% No: 44%
oh dear. the iraqis are blaming surrounding states for their woes, rather than the Americans. sssh – we really mustn’t point that one out , shall we?
newnight on the iraq poll. they are analysing the results by dividing them into sunni and shia responses.
but where are the Kurdish responses?
kurdish woman on newsnight has just raised my point! she also pointed out that the Kurds are “Sunni”, so who were the anti-American Sunnis that the BBC were polling?
one figure newsnight threw up was “will my childrens future be better” and only 6 per cent of Sunnis agreed.
but thats impossible , if you include the boom-time Kurds. hmmm.. maybe this poll is starting to fall apart. The Kurdish woman also wondered where were the Assyrians and Turkmen in the poll? (not to mention the Iraqi Christians)
I’m sorry, but there seems to me to be something disgustingly masturbatory about the amount of time the BBC is devoting to a survey it carried carried out (with fellow Leftwing broadcaster ABC).
I mean, did anyone really expect a poll commissioned by the BBC to report anything positive about the situation in Iraq?
May I just add that the state haloscan is in at the moment (whether due to the vast size to which this thread has grown, or just its usual dysfunctional state, I can’t say) is making it very difficult to read and extremely hard to make comments.
In case it could help, will one of the moderators please start a new general thread?
I’ll even swear if it might get someone’s attention.
Don’t expect to see this poll on the BBC
“The malaise gripping the European Union as it approaches its 50th birthday this week is highlighted in a new poll which shows that 44 per cent of citizens think life has got worse since their country joined the club.
The poll suggests the bloc’s 27 leaders have their work cut out to revive enthusiasm for Europe’s project of “ever closer union” when they meet for official anniversary celebrations in Berlin next Sunday.
The FT/Harris poll, conducted in the EU’s five biggest countries and the US, found that only 25 per cent of the Europeans questioned felt life in their country had improved since it joined the EU.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3ecee064-d578-11db-a5c6-000b5df10621.html
I liked how Radio 4 mentioned that it is “Iraq week”. It’s been “Iraq 4-years” for the BBC, and the needle has been stuck on the same record.