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‘Media stars back ad for BBC man’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6516315.stm
“We, the undersigned, demand the immediate release of BBC Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston” – hey – isn’t that language a bit inflammatory? The UN certainly thought so when it came to their statement showing ‘concern’ for our hostages in Iran. The full page ad in today’s Media Guardian is signed by a dazzling array of BBC faithfuls and assorted media groupies. I’m sure the average hostage taking group operating in Gaza always likes to sit down to Monday breakfast with their copies of the Media Guardian and obey demands made by a bunch of imperialist infidels and occupiers. But who cares when all you want to do is show off your media cred to your Guardian reading mates? And I wonder who paid for it.
TPO | 02.04.07 – 9:36 am / bob | 02.04.07 – 10:39 am
jr You seem to be keeping your head well down on this one, perhaps if you’re reading this you could let us know what you think of Butler and why he should be allowed to remain in his job.
Just seen it.
If he said what he’s alleged to have said, in the way he’s alleged to have said it, then I’d boot him out the door with an unambiguous never-to-return instruction pasted to his backside.
That said, it appears that the only evidence against him is an article in the Mirror • a newspaper that hasn’t proved wholly reliable in the past, as the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment remember.
Not having spent a night in Birmingham for nearly forty years, I‘m afraid I’ve never heard of Mr B. But judging from his Wikipedia entry, I think commenters here are going to have a problem casting him as a stock, trendy-leftie beeboid. It would appear that Tony B has been in trouble with the boss class before: once for allegedly pulling a disabled person out of his chair and the other time after Wolves complained he’d made racist remarks about a black player. Not exactly Mr PC, then -as BaggieJ confirms.
He appears to be a prime example of the WWC that Jon and others think the BBC doesn’t put on air enough. Mmmm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Butler
As for the ‘Alan Johnston fan club’ • the messages seem to be so transparently fake that I assume they’re put up there by people on the (dis)Honest-Reporting e-mail tree or other even less responsible hasbara groups. I’ve tried running some of the names through the electoral register and BT directory enquiries, but haven’t scored a hit yet.
TPO | 02.04.07 – 9:36 am
Good Morning John and fellow travellers.
I hope we can maintain a modicum of decorum from now on because I think this is too important to be “mucking about’.
John from where I am sitting,the Iranian Blue Peter efforts are running rings around you.
I ACTUALLY want this to be constructive and meaningful.
My questions remain:
*Comments by Tony Butler of BBC West Midlands
*That after much “outside pressure” we finally get a “report” from your Tehran correspondent. Why has the BBC chosen to ignore the caveats about monitoring or other journalistic pressures in a country which has a well known record in press suppression AND is actively carrying out information and propaganda warfare?
*That according to the Jerusalem Post regarding the kidnapping of your correspondent Alan Johnston on 13th March that:
“According to the sources, Palestinian journalists working with the international media in the Gaza Strip were linked to previous abductions of foreign journalists.
“We have evidence that some local reporters helped the kidnappers of the foreign reporters,” the sources said. “These journalists don’t want the foreigners to come to the Gaza Strip because they are taking their jobs.”
“Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said the kidnapping hurt the Palestinian cause.”The kidnappers have no nationalism, they want a cheap reward,” he said. “They are well-known, and we hope he will be found today.” Hamad spoke at a protest in front of the BBC office, where 30 Palestinian reporters called for the journalist’s quick release.”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Sat…ticle% 2FPrinter
Thank you
My fellow B-BBers
The man has every right to speak and make his case.
What ever our feelings this needs to be reasoned debate.
Also remember to be circumspect in what we are saying because peoples lives are on the line.
Thank you.
As for the ‘Alan Johnston fan club’ • the messages seem to be so transparently fake that I assume they’re put up there by people on the (dis)Honest-Reporting e-mail tree or other even less responsible hasbara groups.
John Reith | 02.04.07 – 11:43 am
So it was the Jooos!
And there you were accusing me of libel not so long ago. You really stink “John Reith”.
Foxtrot Oscar!
If he said what he’s alleged to have said, in the way he’s alleged to have said it, then I’d boot him out the door with an unambiguous never-to-return instruction pasted to his backside.
That said, it appears that the only evidence against him is an article in the Mirror • a newspaper that hasn’t proved wholly reliable in the past, as the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment remember.
John Reith | 02.04.07 – 11:43 am |
Thanks for your response jr.
Clearly the issue is did he or didn’t he, not what his politics are.
Totally agree with you about the Mirror though, which leaves me a little nonplussed about why the BBC are always inviting Kevin Maguire into the studio…….??
Anonymous | 02.04.07 – 12:06 pm |
Sorry above was me.
“As for the ‘Alan Johnston fan club’ • the messages seem to be so transparently fake that I assume they’re put up there by people on the (dis)Honest-Reporting e-mail tree or other even less responsible hasbara groups.”
John Reith – that is a disgraceful piece of opportunitistic mud-slinging without any foundation whatsoever. As for the electoral register it is clear that most people on the Have Your Say site do not post under their real names. In fact the names are often transparently pseudonymous. This is more an indictment of our increasingly ‘Big Brother’ society and usual practice on blog sites. In addition some of the names on the Alan Johnston tribute site are only too well known, such as John Dugard, the Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories for the UN Human Rights Council whose anti Zionist beliefs are well known and documented. Your attempt to deflect attention from the obvious message of the AJ site is completely dishonest. That site leaves any doubt whatsoever about where AJs sympathies lie and the pro Palestinian mission of his journalism.
Someone asked what you have to do to get fired by the BBC. Ask Robert Kilroy-Silk.
P.S. John Reith, I agree that his comments sound right-wing rather than liberal left. Even so, his comments are extremely disrespectful towards our troops (a charge levelled at both the BBC and the liberal left) and unintentionally give some validity to the Iranians (take out the unintentionally and there’s another charge levelled at both the BBC and the liberal left). It was an unbelievably crass thing to say.
By the way, what are your views on Brigstocke’s rant?
Biodegradable
Great minds … At least JR has made absolutely clear the contempt and smear tactics the BBC use when it comes to pro Israel campaign groups. Unlike the huge influence exerted by the Stop the War lobbyists (for example) – who are held in such ‘respect’. JR usefully reveals the completely prejudiced outlook of BBC staff.
Natalie et alia:
Re: The Mark Steyn post. Mark Steyn is a consistently insightful – and often controversial – commentator on many matters brought up on this site. Indeed I discovered this site through Steyn’s recommendation of Natalie on his letters page. A link to http://www.steynonline.com on the sidebar would be a welcome addition, methinks.
Oscar,
Any person with a smidgeon of intelligence would realise that the pro-Palestinian comments posted at (D)HYS come from Jihadi supporters – what possible advantage could Israel gain from all those posts lauding AJ?
But no, “John Reith” claims that the cunning Jooos are up to some evil and perverse anti-propaganda propaganda.
We’re so devious you see.
Here’s his latest attempt to dig himself even deeper into the hole he dug for himself:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/5226604718258340207/#335927
JR usefully reveals the completely prejudiced outlook of BBC staff.
Oscar | 02.04.07 – 12:21 pm
Not to mention their ingrained and primitive antisemitism, for all their claims that some of their best friends are Jews it doesn’t take much for the mask to slip to reveal the same old same old.
As for the ‘Alan Johnston fan club’ • the messages seem to be so transparently fake that I assume they’re put up there by people on the (dis)Honest-Reporting e-mail tree or other even less responsible hasbara groups. I’ve tried running some of the names through the electoral register and BT directory enquiries, but haven’t scored a hit yet.
John Reith | 02.04.07 – 11:43 am |
jr I’ve just twigged what you wrote earlier. I’d never heard of hasbara until you mentioned it & I looked it up.
Do you have any evidence to back your allegation?
I must say though that the BBC website HYS appears to be falling victim to bizarre and extreme rantings posted by the likes of ‘John Jones’ from ‘Cardiff’.
Someone, I forget whom, who posts here supplied a link which shows that some Islamic nutters are using Anglo-Saxon pseudonyms when posting extremist nonsense.
Seems the BBC ‘moderaters’ have taken leave of their senses when failing to remove some of the more dangerous comments that these people are posting.
By the way don’t you think you should change your pseudonym now following the revelation that the real Reith had a very unhealthy infatuation with a girl 40 odd years younger than him. What next, an expose al J Edgar Hoover and a penchant for wearing dresses..??
Alan.
Interesting piece about censorship in Iran…..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4286050.stm
Or shall I call you “John Reith”….. ?
Mark Steyn, although mildly amusing and certainly stimulating is a bit of a clown whose outpourings frequently bear little resemblence to reality. A slavish adherence to his writings would contradict the much claimed and usually well earned reputation of B-BBC commentors as if not centrist certainly open minded and reasonable observers of the media.
The real detention center one never hears about in the media.
My Trip to Gitmo
At our next stop, the Camp Library.The BBC journalist audaciously asked if the political books espoused a pro-American viewpoint. Much to his apparent satisfaction, he was told that the library selections include multiple political points of view.
Congressional Democrats who are demanding the closure of Gitmo and advocating that terrorists be held in mainland U.S. prisons are misguided. Ask former New York Metropolitan Correctional Center guard Louis Pepe, who was the unfortunate victim of an al Qaeda terrorist housed in a civilian prison. Pepe was blinded in one eye, partially paralyzed and has difficulty speaking as a result of a brutal one-hour attack with a sharpened comb purchased in the prison commissary.
Terrorists who have the will to decapitate and amputate, blow themselves up, fly planes into buildings, use women and children as human shields and shoot infants in the back are prepared to commit extreme acts of violence to escape confinement. Confining them to an offshore detainment facility in the middle of the ocean with a tyrannical dictator outside the gates is an ideal solution to a difficult problem.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27608
TPO,
The moderators have the ability to check if the posters IP address comes from the location they claim. They either won’t or don’t do basic checks like that on plainly fictional names.
IiD –
Tony Butler was from Wolverhampton and I believe he used to attend Molineux regularly when younger (ironic given his later ‘problems’ with them).
He also seemed to have a penchant for Aston Villa.
He was notorious for siding against West Brom so I can hardly be said to have an axe to grind if I defend him at all.
He has certainly had ‘issues’.
He was forced to leave his job after the ‘wheelchair incident’ and appeared afterward at the BBC.
I am afraid JR’s ‘research’ let him down – he was taken on AFTER the incident so he can hardly be using it as a stick to beat him with. Obviously the IBC had looked at the case and found he had nothing to answer or they would not have taken him on, isnt that right JR?
However even as JR said all I have heard about this is from the Mirror, hardly reliable when it comes to reporting the middle east or our armed forces.
I would like to hear more than that before I rush to judgement.
Local radio has generally remained as the BBC.
I would like to see it privatised but it does manage some sort of service.
Alas the same cannot be said for local midlands television which has gone almost more IBC than the Londonistan ‘national’ version.
Bio
Thanks for the JR link – the man certainly likes to dig himself into holes.
Thats a niffty piece of deconstructing there BJ.
So no stranger to the moonbat orbit,I assume that very few people take him with any gravitas?
And problems with Wolves….my my Al Beeb has really rubbed a lot of footy clubs the wrong way.
What happend with Wolves?
Baggie.
I just wonder how many other ‘lefty’ jorno tho’are really having there “Nick Cohen” moments.
And you can almost sence Al Beeb reading our posts…..errr…its so “creepy”.
No doubt about it Butler is a wummer full time – this is just one example of many threads by locals about him (before this current story about him)…
http://forums.icbirmingham.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=5459
As I said before it is no surprise for him to court ‘controversy’.
But given the nature of his remit I would like to see if he has been (mis)quoted or taken out of context.
Someone, I forget whom, who posts here supplied a link which shows that some Islamic nutters are using Anglo-Saxon pseudonyms when posting extremist nonsense.
TPO | 02.04.07 – 12:35 pm
I did, so did somebody else.
Islamist Website Instructs Mujahideen in Using Popular U.S. Web Forums to Foster Anti-War Sentiment among Americans
Of course even the most stupid Jihadist would realise he could just as easily substitute American for British:
Indicate You Are an American
“Obviously, you have to register yourself using a purely American name… Choose an icon that indicates that you are an American, and place it next to your nickname [in the forum].”
…
How to Make Americans Feel Frustrated With Their Government
“You should enter into debate or respond only if it is extremely necessary… Your concern should [only] be introducing topics which… will cause [them to feel] frustration and anger towards their government…, which will… render them hostile to Bush… and his Republican Party and make them feel they must vote ton bring the troops back from Iraq as soon as possible.”
If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, calls itself Donald from Dewsbury, it’s probably a Mujahideen.
The moderators have the ability to check if the posters IP address comes from the location they claim. They either won’t or don’t do basic checks like that on plainly fictional names.
Ralph | Homepage | 02.04.07 – 12:59 pm |
Thanks for that Ralph.
I see you have a witty sense of humour.
‘The BBC remains too middle class and highbrow and needs to be driven downmarket.
Too many references to Trollope in Eastenders then?’
http://somedoubts.blogspot.com/
IiD I see you have shortened you moniker.
Just for the newer members TPO is the short for Thoroughly Pissed Off.
Bio – thanks its my old age and memory retention deficit disorder
Baggie and TPO
Tony Butler:
He says: “It’s a funny old world. I’m back doing the BBC WM football phone-in, which I was responsible for creating! I hosted the first ever one in the UK, so at least I can say I will go down in history!
“But, being a modest chap I can say I’m better than ever and I’m working for the champions of broadcasting!”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/bbc_wm/tony_butler.shtml
ROTFLMAO!!!!!
This is f*cking Partidge!!
As for the ‘Alan Johnston fan club’ • the messages seem to be so transparently fake that I assume they’re put up there by people on the (dis)Honest-Reporting e-mail tree or other even less responsible hasbara groups.
John Reith, you’re hitting rock bottom here. Remember that BBC hack who proudly proclaimed a few years ago that he was “waging the struggle shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people?” Johnston is evidently in the same league. Instead of spouting vile accusations without a shred of evidence to back them, why don’t you find us a BBC man who is waging the struggle shoulder to shoulder with the Israeli people to balance Johnston’s gross bias?
Thought not.
Honest Reporting does an excellent jopb exposing the bias of alleged journalists from the BBC and other alleged media. Getting under your skin a bit, are they?
Bio – thanks its my old age and memory retention deficit disorder
TPO | 02.04.07 – 1:46 pm
I have the same problem, I call it Selective Short Term Memory Loss 🙂
Bryan, of course Reith and the BBC hate Honest Reporting – they awarded the BBC The Dishonest Reporter ‘Award’ 2005 and 2001
http://www.google.com/custom?cof=AH%3Acenter%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.honestreporting.com%3BAWFID%3A21a4c883229cc039%3B&domains=www.honestreporting.com&sitesearch=www.honestreporting.com&q=BBC
Remember that BBC hack who proudly proclaimed a few years ago that he was “waging the struggle shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people?” Johnston is evidently in the same league.
Bryan | 02.04.07 – 1:53 pm
Scroll to the bottom here:
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Dishonest_Reporting_-Award-_for_2001.asp#bbc
BBC’s bias is perhaps summed up best by one of its own employees, Fayad Abu Shamala, the BBC correspondent in Gaza for the past 10 years. Speaking at a Hamas rally on May 6, 2001, he declared:
“Journalists and media organizations [are] waging the campaign shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people.”
In the face of this blatant violation of journalistic ethics, BBC mustered a pathetic response: “Fayad’s remarks were made in a private capacity. His reports have always matched the best standards of balance required by the BBC.”
If that is the standards of balance required by the BBC, then there is no doubt: BBC has justly earned the Dishonest Reporting “Award” 2001.
This is f*cking Partidge!!
IiD | 02.04.07 – 1:52 pm |
Talking of Alan:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/6228661.stm
Biodegradable | 02.04.07 – 1:59 pm |
Now there’s an idea – how about a B-BBC awards ceremony. We could have categories;
1. Most blatant piece of agitprop
2. Most cunning use of the blood liable
3. Most anti-American reportage
4. Most fawningly pro-muslim piece
etc
Hours of fun to be had !
Yes…..
Been doing a little reading up on him:)
Alan is SMERSH agent number one.
Unless of course he wants to have a chat?
Tell us Alan….what’s the mood in CBBC today? Planning any documentries on the plight of “those poor journalists”?
ITV giving you the run around?
Re: Tony Butler, there is an apology in today’s Metro, but I can`t find it in the on-line edition.
The station claimed they had only received 3 complaints.
bbc dumbing down
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/02/nbbc02.xml
on the plus side, it looks as if the “Today” programme is on the way out.
archduke.
Yes indeed the review MIGHT not go the way of the “serious” BBC journalist out there.
All those tragic job cuts…tut tut tut.
Certainly wouldn’t be the need for a web-blogger if CBBC are taking over.
Of course if some in the Beeb were to “reach out” and give us a little peek into there group think…..
archduke
may i refer you to this:
TPO | 02.04.07 – 8:10 am |
B-BBC’s
I’m starting not to like Order Order, ever since last week’s debacle.
He sounds so bitter and twisted.
Does anybody else think so?
http://www.order-order.com/2007/04/traffic-surprise.html
Biodegradable | 02.04.07 – 2:18 pm,
Bryan, of course Reith and the BBC hate Honest Reporting – they awarded the BBC The Dishonest Reporter ‘Award’ 2005 and 2001
Yeah, I remember. I get the HR communiques in my inbox.
Maybe John Reith and co.should look at it from another angle: they should be proud that their spin is vile enough to be noticed and awarded above everyone else by HR.
the nauseating hyprocisy of the liberal media chatterati…
piers morgan (PM) tears into Alan Rusbridger (AR), editor of the Guardian:
PM: What’s your current salary?
AR: It’s, er, about £350,000.
PM: What bonus did you receive last year?
AR: About £170,000, which was a way of addressing my pension.
PM: That means that you earned £520,000 last year alone. That’s more than the editor of The Sun by a long way.
AR: I’ll talk to you off the record about this, but not on the record.
PM: Why? In The Guardian, you never stop banging on about fat cats. Do you think that your readers would be pleased to hear that you earned £520,000 last year? Are you worth it?
AR: That’s for others to say.
PM: Wouldn’t it be more Guardian-like, more socialist, to take a bit less and spread the pot around a bit? We have this quaint idea that you guys are into that “all men are equal” nonsense, but you’re not really, are you? You seem a lot more “equal” than others on your paper.
AR: Er… [silence].
PM: Do you ever get awkward moments when your bonus gets published? Do you wince and think, “Oh dear, Polly Toynbee’s not going to like this one.”
AR: Er… [silence].
PM: Or is Polly raking in so much herself that she wouldn’t mind?
AR: Er… [silence].
read it all here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2411713.ece
” TPO | 02.04.07 – 8:10 am”
ah yes TPO. my apologies. you picked up on that one first. the honor is yours.
“IiD | 02.04.07 – 3:16 pm”
there is indeed something hypocritical about being a blogger who constantly complains about the westminster lobby and the elite in the MSM – only to take a Newsnight carrot in pursuit of higher blog traffic.i found it somewhat , nauseating.
he was well and truely royally stitched though.
ah yes TPO. my apologies. you picked up on that one first. the honor is yours.
archduke | 02.04.07 – 3:28 pm |
sorry – my fault that wasn’t the point I was making. It’s this:
‘BBC should dumb down, says own report.’ What do they mean.. Should? (It already is)
Challenge to all western politicians.
Name me one country in which Muslims are living in peaceful coexistence with their neghbors? They can’t even live in peace when they are the only game in town
“Taliban deploy thousands of suicide bombers: commander
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Thousands of Taliban suicide bombers have been deployed across Afghanistan to attack Western troops and the government, the group’s military chief said on Monday
“And we will turn our motherland into the graveyard of the U.S forces and their families should wait for their dead bodies. The Taliban’s war is only for the freedom of Afghanistan from the enemies of Muslims.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070402/ts_nm/afghan_taliban_dc_3;_ylt=AsqMeEg0G5oRjtZYvUTxCRHOVooA
Sky News are proudly showing a ceremony to commemorate the Falklands Anniversary
Not any of the ones going on on the Falkland Islands themselves.
No they are showing the one going on in Argentina. They have just broken off from doing their headlines so they can play you the Argentinian National Anthem and have stuck with it because there is a nice military parade going on.
Even the Beeb won’t sink that low…
Anybody have any reommendations for the more ‘apolitical’ readers…
I find Guildo crass as well.
free the navy 15 blog
http://freethenavy15.blogspot.com/
protest outside the iranian embassy on Wednesday.
” IiD | 02.04.07 – 3:49 pm ”
anti-jihad:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/
http://www.jihadwatch.org/
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/
brain workout/high quality:
http://www.cato-unbound.org/
On matters European and military:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com
http://www.brusselsjournal.com
podcast radio:
(put the following links into whatever podcasting software you have):
hugh hewitt (right wing American talk)
http://www.townhall.com/talkradio/podcasts/4e30b10c-64d4-4d39-b459-81a5039c6c55.aspx
free talk live (U.S. libertarian)
http://freetalklive.com/netcast.xml
diggnation
geeky tech news , with beer (and its funny)
http://revision3.com/diggnation/feed/mp3.xml
Amazing.
Balls & Brown appear to have been lying throught their teeth about the pension raid fiasco. Now the CBI is challenging their version of events.
On the BBC website?