Andrew McCann has written of his attempts to put his views across to the Beeb over Sweenygate. I am referring, of course, to the bullying, hectoring behaviour (caution, highly entertaining stuff) of the BBC’s fearless sleuth, John Sweeney, as he ventured into the deep hidden danger facing us all from Tom Cruise’s religion, Scientology. McCann’s words are well worth reading. Summary account of the incident here.
He points out the BBC’s complacent reliance on the freedoms accorded them in the US and UK. He demonstrates what true objectivity might mean- the fearlessly equal treatment of all on an equal basis. His analogy was the most obvious one going- between the BBC’s treatment of Scientology and its treatment of Islam- but the point is a deep one.
Talking of his approach to the BBC’s phone-in minders he says:
“I posed a rhetorical question as to whether Sweeney would have lost his temper if treated in the same way by Muslims outside the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. In other words, would Sweeney have behaved that way had it not been for his own prejudices and the environment in which he found himself?”
Indeed. PS. I notice that Sweeney has done investigations in Saudi Arabia, but one does indeed wonder if he treated the Saudis as imbeciles as he did so, or whether it was their religion he was interested in targeting.
On the question of ‘feeding the troll’, I have to disagree. HH’s apercues are the most enjoyable, excrutiatingly embarrassing posts since the golden days of Gary Powell. It’s seldom that witnessing someone so glaringly miss the right tone in such a cringingly embarrassing way has given so much teeth-grinding pleasure. Car-crash blogging at its best.
Oh yes, & let’s not forget: HH has “3 muslim friends”
Did anyone see the show about the middle classes on BBC2 last night ?
God what a horrible lot of hypocrates they are.I wouldn`t want anything to do with them and if they offered me £135 a year to broadcast my opinions I would throw it back in their faces.
Yeah the presenter of that middle England show is such a little [Homophobic insult deleted by the central scrutiniser].
“excrutiatingly embarrassing posts since the golden days of Gary Powell”
What was Powell banned for?
His posts are so extreme I even saved one of them:
“garypowell:
There you go its a done deal you can all stop having your pointless debates with that dishonest BBC employed stool pigeon John Reith.
The BBC is bias we all know it and we all now know why. Robin Aitchen has spilled the beans what really is there left to say?
JR is a paid lier and he knows it. He even had the lieing barefaced cheek to claim to me that he was a Conservative voter.
This site should, as I said a year ago before the site owners banned me for being rude to socialists, spend its efforts on doing something possitive about this very damaging problem facing our nation.
Because wasteing your time on here will acheive LESS then nothing at all. Unless this site becomes part of a national campaign to STOP THE BBC it is only showing what a pathetic shower opponents of the states NATIONAL socialist broadcaster are.
Do you lot not understand yet?
Get off your lazy fat asses, hit the streets and shout very very loudly indead.
Get into your middle class piss smallminds that the BBC is not going to change one little bit, because of a few PC bound self opinated nonentities who spend countless unpaid hours logging mountains of BBC bias, on this or any other blog site.
They dont care, they hate you all. You are all they think that stinks and is rotton in this country. They think the world would be a much better place to live in, if you were all hit by a big red bus. They think you are a bunch of thick racist wankers that use the Daily Mail as your bible, when you are not reading the real one.
Get angry get very very very angry and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Stop these arragant selfselecting authoratarian socialists once and for all by closing down their state funded state propaganda gravy train ASAP.
It may not work but how are you lot or anyone else going to find out if you dont try?
And remember just because the BBC does not understand or realise that it IS and has long since BECOME a NAZI organisation does not mean it is not.
Or that it can not do even more damage then the NAZIs did in the long run to the future of free mankind.
garypowell | 11.03.07 – 4:24 am ”
Bob:
You’re so right.
The Tinkywinky doll is in the post
I see I was completely ignored. Care to address my points? Or are you going to persist in your childish ravings?
archonix:
You were so right, too.
But to show there are no hard feelings – a treat for you…
Christopher Hitchens on Jerry Falwell.
A proper tribute from a man with a proper accent.
Genuinely, the most pleasurable 5 minutes of my life this week.
John Bolton , this morning, on Today, was a tour de force in swatting Grumpy Humphries away… i really enjoyed it.
the bit where he tried to pin Humphrey’s ideology was classic – Humphreys said he had no ideology, to which Bolton replied that therefore that he must have a brain that is empty.
fan-tas-tic!
“Or are you going to persist in your childish ravings?”
Why don’t you just ignore the wanker?
QT tonight. bit better than normal.
Douglas Alexander – labour – left wing
theresa may – tory. soft right wing?
chris huhne – lib dem. not sure.
jeff randall – right wing.
clemency burton-hill – blond tottie
writes for spectator. right wing?
right = 3, left = 1 , lib dem – not sure.
qt panel link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/6665795.stm
Hillhunt = pathetic young troll with three muslim friends and an in penetration fixation
therefore
Do not feed!
Hillhunt said “Genuinely, the most pleasurable 5 minutes of my life this week.”
So your Muslim friends went on a “camping” “holiday”? Did they go abroad?
(sorry)
Breaking Bloody News.
Gaza hit by fresh Israeli strikes
Israel has launched new air strikes on what it calls Hamas targets near Gaza City, killing at least four people.
Still no mention of the Kassam rockets showering down on Israel.
Still no balance, still no context, such as:
Direct missile hit to Sderot’s Ohalei Sinai Synagogue Thursday night injures 21 Israelis after more than 30 Qassams fired from Gaza
More than 30 Qassam missiles were fired during the day, most landing in Sderot; at least three aimed against Ashkelon to the north. Two Israelis were injured when a missile struck a school. Fires started in a Moshav greenhouse and a factory.
More than 70 missiles fired in three days have injured scores of Israelis, some seriously, and caused extensive damage. The government Thursday began evacuating thousands of distressed citizens from Sderot to army holiday facilities.
Kassam strikes Sderot synagogue
A Kassam rocket struck a synagogue in Sderot late Thursday night, wounding one person and sending a number of others into shock.
Over 200 people had been at the synagogue only a half an hour prior to the rocket strike, and 20 to the 30 of them were still in the area at the time of the attack, Noam Bedin, director of the Sderot Information Center told the Jerusalem Post.
Interesting to notice the changes in Beeb ‘Have your say’ comments relating to PAL/israeli conflicts over the last several years.
If the BBC are now being fair about the comments they choose to publish, then it is evident that the numerous alternate sources of information on the net are having an effect on its readers.
First of all very many commenters have picked up the obvious fact that the BBC does not report, or under reports,the rocket attacks by the PAls so they can easily condemn Israel of “unprovoked attacks” when enough is enough and they have to act in their own defense.
NOt only that but these comments are also the most highly recommended.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&threadID=6316&start=30&tstart=0&edition=1&ttl=20070518033804&#paginator
Hillhunt = pathetic young troll with three muslim friends and an in penetration fixation
Confirming evidence though….I mean, is’nt it curious how the BBCs champions and supporters are all raving Islamic Fundamentalists or screaming socialists….
Judge the BBC by its defenders….
Biodegradable | 18.05.07 – 2:33 am
chevalier de st george | 18.05.07 – 4:18 am,
Couldn’t agree more. Here’s the Jerusalem Post:
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said Hamas’s opponents are “pro-Zionist and pro-American elements who are working in a systematic, barbaric pre-planned campaign against Hamas and its elected leadership.”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1178708618103&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Interesting quote. Now if BBC hacks were real journalists, they could use that quote as a starting point to actually investigate and report on the Hamas terrorist mentality.
And if they had a tiny bit of curiosity about Hamas’ motivation (instead of blindly regurgitating whatever propaganda Hamas feeds them) then they would ask themselves the following question:
Why are the Hamas rocket attacks on Sderot increasing in direct proportion to the increasing violence between Fatah and Hamas?
Here’s some likely reasons:
*Kassam attacks are simply a violent extension of the “blame Israel” game. A solution to the strife among Palestinians? Attack Israel. (This brings to mind Iraqi scuds falling on Tel Aviv during the First Gulf War, even though Israel was not part of the coalition against Iraq.)
*By attacking Israeli civilians, Hamas portrays itself to its followers and supporters as the heroic and true defender of the Palestinians, simultaneously putting Fatah in a bad light since Fatah is currently not attacking Israeli civilians.
*The inevitable Israeli response gives alleged journalists worldwide yet another opportunity to denigrate Israel and increase sympathy (and funding) for the Palestinians.
But the dhimmi BBC will not even ask similar questions, let alone try to answer them.
Instead it endlessly distorts the facts of the conflict in order to present Israel as the bad guy, as Biodegradable pointed out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6668061.stm
Israel has launched new air strikes on what it calls Hamas targets near Gaza City, killing at least four people.
And the impression that Israel is lying, and is really just targeting Palestinians indiscriminately, is reinforced here:
Israel said the raids were in response to Hamas rocket attacks on its soil.
And here:
A military spokesman said the force was on a “defensive operation”.
As chevalier de st george points out, people are educating themselves on the internet and are no longer easily fooled by the likes of the BBC.
Professor Manuel Hassassian
Palestinian ambassador to the UK, interviewed on Today this morning by John Humphrys. As expected, Hassassian blamed Israel for all the trouble in Gaza at present.
7.20am:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/
However, the most interesting thing to note is Humphrys friendly, accepting tone this morning, compared to yesterday morning see “Bolton rampant” at http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/
But we know that the BBC would NEVER acknowledge this, but the difference in Humphreys tone, aggressiveness etc is “bleedin’ obvious”, as they say. Maybe this comes of having an “empty brain”, as John Bolton amusingly put it.
[Homophobic insult deleted by the central scrutiniser].
whatever next
imaginary guitar solo’s….
Bolton -v- the BBC
As a demonstration of the astounding prejudices of the BBC mindset, the loaded nature of its questioning and the assumptions it makes about its interviewees, and the circular fact that by definition such a mindset makes it simply impossible for it to acknowledge even the possibility that it might have descended from the summit of Mount Objectivity into the gutter of twisted journalism, the spat could hardly be bettered. The BBC is now a totally closed thought system, and if John Bolton didn’t know that before, he certainly knows it now.
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/
PS Welcome back Archduke
Just saw BBC Report on Israeli retaliation:
Gaza hit by fresh Israeli strikes
Israel has launched new air strikes on what it calls Hamas targets near Gaza City, killing at least five people, four of them fighters loyal to Hamas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6668061.stm
It’s really sad to see how BBC Journalists protray Israel. They are absolutely biased and it’s clear they haven’t learnt anything from Alan Johnston
pounce | 17.05.07 – 6:22 pm
Pounce for Prime Minister.
First job, outlaw trolls.
News 24 last night was running a story about the Kassams and covered the Israeli side pretty well, I thought. It showed the school/classroom that was hit, and some poor sod being lifted into an ambulance (obviously in a bad way).
It mentioned very clearly that the rockets were designed to kill – I can’t recall them using the tired old ‘crudely made’ mantra either.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Perhaps the online news teams should take a look?
Posted by me on the BBC message boards today – if it gets past the moderator.
More knee-jerk anti-Israeli guff.
I’m not sure where the opening poster is coming from. If he/she wants to get a good handle on whether BBC news reports have shown bias towards or against the Israelis he should read the Balen Report on precisely that subject.
Except he/she can’t read it because the BBC have spent £200,000 of license-payers’ money ensuring that license-payers can’t read it.
I was interested to hear a news report on the BBC last night which went something like ‘Israel has attacked sites in Gaza in response, it says, to Hamas rocket attacks’.
There was a nice heavy emphasis on the ‘it says’. What does that mean? Is the BBC saying there haven’t been Hamas rocket attacks? You’re a news agency – you tell us whether there have been rocket attacks.
I see on the BBC website today there is more of the same.
‘Israel has launched new air strikes on what it calls Hamas targets near Gaza City, killing at least five people, four of them fighters loyal to Hamas.’
‘It calls’?????
Are they Hamas targets or not BBC – you tell us.
Guys. Some focus again.
Can it be only three weeks since Andrew posted, with hearty commendations, that rallying call from the “respected technology website” The Inquirer, Andrew Thomas’s devastating critique of al-Beebo? And yet how quickly have we forgotten its central tenets?
I have strived manfully – if perhaps a little too persistently – to carry forward its key message on regionality. Enough of that for now.
But there is also the matter of the perversion of BBC News in the manner of “spouting forth in some hateful modern argot about some soap star’s new hairstyle.”
I have been endeavouring since I read it to mount a state-of-the-art media monitor of the Beeb’s excesses in this regard. And now a big confession – I fear I am failing.
There’s just too much output for one man, however well-intentioned.
JBH – give the investigating a break for just a bit. Archonix – put down that bible. Pounce – I applaud your investment in anger management, but a rest never did anyone any harm.
Let’s apportion the watch. I’m on Today and Newsround. Sign in with your least favourite bnews outlets and let’s crunch some numbers.
Together we can maje a difference!
!. Just to thank Naughtie for warning us that Richard Perle (interviewed in defence of Wolfowitz) is a “neo-con”. Unfortunately he forgot to tell us the political stance of the US think-tank whose representative gave a statement about Wolfowitz.
2. Good to see that Tom Fielden – “Today’s” very own climate change commentator – identifies the drop in CO2 absorbency of the Southern Oceans as due to MMGW (a claim which I didn’t hear one of the researchers, also on “Today”, make). More to the point, TF didn’t take the intellectual leap to the possible conclusion from the research that an increase of CO2 is thus a consequence of global warming not a cause. Mind you why should he? He’s not there to provide enlightenment or disinterested comment or impartial analysis. He’s a BBC journalist after all.
OK Hillhunt you cover today, newsround, the fimbles, two stupid dogs, etc.
We will cover the grown up stuff.
No metaphors or similes for you or your three muslim friends to get confused about there.
BaggieJonathan:
Welcome aboard.
Not good news yet. Not a feather-cut, a plait or a pageboy to report. Zilch.
Still, early days, eh?
Why don’t you just ignore the wanker?
When someone pulls out their willy and starts waving it at you it’s very hard to ignore.
When someone pulls out their willy and starts waving it at you it’s very hard to ignore.
Archonix | 18.05.07 – 11:17 am
ROTFLMFAO!
Off with it then I say! 😆
Bryan
YOu mention the rise in qassam rocket attacks coinciding with increased inter Hammas/fatah hostilities.
Is it not possible that the purpose is exactly to get Israel to attack so that their activities can again be focused on their mortal enemy .
Without the attacks from Israel they are in fact doomed to destroy each other.
They need israel to attack them to survive.
Archonix:
That was my Tinkywinky. But thanks for the compliment.
Radio 4 – Today
0720 The Israeli air force has attacked Gaza, killing at least six people and wounded many more. We speak to Professor Manuel Hassassian.
0845 Violence in Gaza seems to be getting worse. Elements of the Hamas and Fatah Palestinian groups are fighting; Israel has launched missiles against targets in Gaza. We hear from Mona el-Farra a doctor working at a refugee camp who lives in central Gaza.
No mention of the Qassam attacks on Sderot, no interview with Sderot residents or Israeli spokespeople.
Where’s the impartiality and balance John Reith, where’s the commitment to report both sides of a story?
Hillhunt
FYI four comes after three.
Three inches
Three brain cells
BB3B
Three bears
Three muslim friends
Breaking News:
News 24 talking about a bob! Is this the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for?
Oh… it’s someone’s name. Shame.
Still, shows the radar’s working. How are the other fronts?
Biodegradable | 18.05.07 – 11:29 am
Where’s the impartiality and balance John Reith, where’s the commitment to report both sides of a story?
Well it’s there • but you are too busy expostulating to listen.
Tim Franks was reporting from Sderot yesterday and this morning on Radio 4.
This doesn’t inspire confidence:
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=49376&in_page_id=34
Well it’s there • but you are too busy expostulating to listen.
Tim Franks was reporting from Sderot yesterday and this morning on Radio 4.
John Reith | 18.05.07 – 12:10 pm
And what did Tim Franks say?
The news website, last night’s Newsnight and today’s “Today” DO NOT report the Qassam hitting a synagogue nor are there details ANYWHERE on the Israeli injured.
None of this is reported:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/7399363947323754777/#349057
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/7399363947323754777/#349111
You simply cannot deny (although I’m sure you will) that “Palestinian victims” of Israeli air strikes are being given more prominence than Israeli victims.
I predicted days ago that there would be no reporting of the attacks on Sderot until Israel struck back and I’ve been proved correct.
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/7399363947323754777/#348905
Where’s the impartiality and balance John Reith, where’s the commitment to report both sides of a story?
Well it’s there • but you are too busy expostulating to listen.
I was referring to the Toady programme – was there balance in that?
It’s not just my opinion John Reith:
http://neozionoid.blogspot.com/2007/05/do-headlines-and-context-matter.html
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Buried_By_the_Media_Watch_Sderot_Under_Attack.asp
The other day I witnessed an example of typical BBC bias from that most unlikely of sources: Jeremy Clarkson.
Thanks to the Internet I had the chance to view one of the programmes of the Jeremy Clarkson Meets The Neighbours series, the one dedicated to Spain. Having missed this series when it was aired, and being an admirer of his shows on motoring or engineering, I was looking forward to it.
I thougth the program was quite disppointing, little else than a collection of stereotypes, but one thing in particular caught my eye.
Mr Clarkson taeaches us how when the Spanish are not too busy sleeping the day away they are depleting our fishing stocks with our own funds or charging us for using the motorways we paid for. But, funnily enough,he leaves the Basques of the hook,and, following the PC doctrine, treats them as if they were a totally different country.
So while the “Spanish” ere lazying about the virile Basques apparently lifting and pulling heavy stuff for kicks, thanks, according to Mr Clarkson, to thier innate strenght that comes from the Stone Age, or some pseudo-scientific claptrap. Never mind the fact that the Basques, thanks to that compulsion of theirs to kill people, actually recieve a disproportionately high share of the Spanish European funds, which go, would you believe it, to things like building motorways and paying fishermen to deplete our stocks.
Thw way he deals with the ETA problem was also quite telling. For a start he
puts the blame on the Civil War, when Basque Nationalism predates the war and has its roots in the xenophobia of the Basque upper classes towards the workers arrived from other regions.
He interviews one of the ETA heads, who gives us the usual speech, but remarkably he fails to show the point of view of the other side. Their only presence in the programme actually, was in the figure of a unionist councillor who has just been blown up in his own car by a booby trap, and this is done with in a matter of seconds. That’s a good metaphore for the treatment of ETA terrorism in the international media. ETA gets the camera time and the only thing the other side gets is blown up.
Is Jeremy Clarkson a Michael Moore in the making?
mick in the uk:
They are crude home-made rockets, how could they possibly kill anyone?
I noticed today that Kassam rockets have progressed (regressed?) from crudely made to home-made on the BBC World Service.
Kassam rockets are manufactured in workshops using metal turning machines. They are definitely not home-made.
Biodegradable | 18.05.07 – 12:23 pm
I was referring to the Today programme – was there balance in that?
Franks was on the Today programme.
Interesting to compare the extent of BBC coverage/prominence of the Wolfowitch $000s with the son of Kofi (& other UN bigwigs) $Bns.
deegee:
When I came under fire in Beirut as a lad, it mattered most to me to know whether the incoming had been knocked up in a garden shed or a slightly larger unit.
Let us all salute your resolve to focus the BBC on the details that really matter in a news report.
If nothing else shows up, your posting is in pole position to win today’s Tinkywinky Doll of Truth (in hounour of “Dr” Jerry Falwell)
Franks was on the Today programme.
John Reith | 18.05.07 – 1:01 pm
Not here he wasn’t:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/
And by the way, the 0845 slot was not as advertised either:
0845 Violence in Gaza seems to be getting worse. Elements of the Hamas and Fatah Palestinian groups are fighting; Israel has launched missiles against targets in Gaza. We hear from Mona el-Farra a doctor working at a refugee camp who lives in central Gaza.
Not a word from Dr. el-Farra, it was wall to wall Jeremy Bowen blaming it all on the Jews, as usual.
Note also that, as I’ve already pointed out, even in the summaries there is no mention of Qassam attacks on Israel, only Israel has launched missiles against targets in Gaza without an explanation of why, and the previous 0720 slot in which Professor Manuel Hassassian explains that “Palestinians” are killing each other and firing rockets at Israel because Gaza is “occupied”… pretty much what Bowen says too.
Give up Reith, the BBC’s claim to impartiality is a sham.
Oh, and while Professor Manuel Hassassian also blamed the violence on the “boycott” why does nobody ask him how it is that the PA has received 3 times the aid it previously received before the “boycott” and where it’s gone?
http://backspin.typepad.com/backspin/2007/05/wheres_the_mone_1.html
Perhaps some of it went to building and furnishing the home of the Fatah “security chief”?
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42932000/jpg/_42932995_shbak_ap.jpg
When I came under fire in Beirut as a lad…
hillhunt | 18.05.07 – 1:05 pm
Pity they missed.
Can we really not ban this imbecile?
Rod Liddle on BBC interview techniques.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/30628/sweeneys-rant-at-the-scientologists.thtml
BioD
Not here he wasn’t
Well he was. I heard him.
From memory, the gist was: Humphrys aasked why Israel was mounting military actions in Gaza. Franks said Sderot had come under bombardment. That he’d been there yesterday and that the people of the town and its mayor had said the intensity of the rocketing was tantamount to war and that they thought the IDF should respond with all the vigour appropriate to a war situation.
John Reith | 18.05.07 – 1:32 pm
As you can see Franks is not available to “listen again” and what is on offer is plainly one-sided, as is the coverage on news.bbc.co.uk
I rest my case.