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Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:
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korova’s pal David Hicks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hicks#Hicks.27s_support_of_terrorism
In the documentary Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land, Terry Hicks reads out excerpts of David Hicks’s letters, in which Hicks says that his training in Pakistan and Afghanistan is designed to ensure “the Western-Jewish domination is finished, so we live under Muslim law again”. He denounces the plots of the Jews to divide Muslims and make them think poorly of Osama bin Laden and warns his father to ignore “the Jews’ propaganda war machine,” [35]
Hicks allegedly told fellow recruits at his training camp he wanted to “go back to Australia and rob and kill Jews”, “crash a plane into a building”, and “go out with that last big adrenalin rush.”[23] “He once told me in Afghanistan that if he were to go into a building of Jews with an automatic weapon or as a suicide bomber he would have to say something like ‘there is no god but Allah’ ect [sic] just so he could see the look of fear on their faces, before he takes them out,” writes former Camp X-ray inmate Abbasi, who had a rivalry with Hicks.[23]
“I got to fire hundreds of bullets. Most Muslim countries impose hanging for civilians arming themselves for conflict. There are not many countries in the world where a tourist, according to his visa, can go to stay with the army and shoot across the border at its enemy, legally.” Hicks stated in a letter to his father whilst serving in Kashmir.[19]
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JR’s contortions on the question of the “3 interviews” (passim – he’s quite touchy on this, which is why it’s so enjoyable to return to it) have been wondrous – and hilarious – to behold. Let’s just recap:
first off, he suggests that brown-nosing Ghadafi is normal practice: he is, after all, a head of state, and it’s the same behaviour you’d expect if the BBC was interviewing the queen.
Then: it springs to mind that the soft-soap questioning of Bush-critic Jimmy Carter may be explained solely because he’s a poor old man.
Then: hey presto! JR remembers that the rough treatment handed out to Bush-ally John Bolton was maintained in past interviews with suidice-bomb-supporter Abu Izz… and traitor George Galloway (note the unconscious bias here, whereby a rightwing American politician is automatically linked to a terrorist supporter).
Next convulsion: digging around in his capacious memory, it occurs to JR that the BBC (some time in the distant past) never quizzed M. Begin on the King David hotel affair in the 1940s…
Lastly (all change!), he gropes in his toolbox and comes up with my favorite justification: Bolton got rough treatment because he was ‘up for a ruckus’! Who wouldn’t be up for a ruckus if they’re confronted day in day out with Humphries’ innate bias? And just because, for example, the head of ‘Liberty’ is NOT “up for a ruckus”, why should she (and all others of her stripe) always be confronted with the Beeb’s regulation turd-polisher?
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Bob.
On the money there Sir!!
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Very good demolition job Bob.
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I am not always a fan of Melanie Phillips – her bellicose style and occasional tunnel vision can make her hard to take seriously as a factual and independent source.
However, for those interested in the Middle Eastern situation, and especially for those who troll on here about Israel and occupation and stealing land, this is essential reading – no polemic, just clear, sober facts:
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1532
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However, for those interested in the Middle Eastern situation, and especially for those who troll on here about Israel and occupation and stealing land, this is essential reading – no polemic, just clear, sober facts:
http://www.melaniephillips.com/d…m/diary/? p=1532
Heron | 30.05.07 – 1:21 pm
Y-e-e-e-e-e-e-s
but, but, but, but she doesn’t mention the water!
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Ah yes, David Hicks. So dangerous he’s only going to serve nine months in Australia. Bet that must make you sick. As far as I am concerned, and I have been consistant on this, Hicks behaved like an idiot and if he was guilty of any crime he should have been tried in a court of law and imprisoned. Not held at Guantanamo for five years. I know, it must be difficult to comprehend. How can I attack Guantanamo and be critical of Hicks? I’ll leave you to work out that little question yourselves.
As for:
I’m sorry-wasn’t it ‘do-gooders’ like yourself that have been propping up the “father of Africa”
Once again you are making a collective assumption. I have no time for Mugabe and never have. Don’t smear me with the mistakes of people who are my supposed ideological equals.
Supporter of terrorism?? And I guess you don’t support any forms of terrorism at all? I look forward to you condemning the financial aid Bush has given to terrorists the past few years.
IiD – Supporter of terrorism.
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Ah yes we have the scandle of the Swiss government with the full backing of its people not allowing the very tiny Muslim population of Switzerland to build new mosques.
No, not stopping the building of mosques – just minarets.
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Oh yes, Bio:
writes former Camp X-ray inmate Abbasi, who had a rivalry with Hicks.
Now, I am not saying Hicks didn’t say those things (and he should be condemned if he did), but doesn’t that make you think ‘Mmm, questionable source’??
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Now, I am not saying Hicks didn’t say those things (and he should be condemned if he did)
But you don’t condemn him do you?
Instead you campaign for his freedom.
There are plenty of quotes from his own father, do you doubt his credibility too?
You support terrorists – be proud and don’t try to weasel your way out of it.
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Today’s dose of historical revisionism from Al-Beeb (recommended by terrorists everywhere)
In pictures: Christian Peacemakers, Hebron
Hebron is the only place in the West Bank where a small community of Jewish settlers lives in the heart of a Palestinian city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron
Hebron is one of the most ancient cities in the Middle East, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Hebron was an ancient Canaanite royal city, which according to archaeological findings was probably founded in the 35th century BCE, and mentioned in the Bible as existing during the 18th century BCE.
Hebron is mentioned as being formerly called Kirjath-arba, before being conquered by Joshua and the Israelites (Joshua 14). Hebron became one of the principal centers of the Tribe of Judah, and the Judahite David was anointed King of Israel in Hebron and reigned in the city until the capture of Jerusalem, when the capital of the Kingdom of Israel was moved to that city. Jar handle stamps bearing Hebrew letters dating from 700 BCE, the oldest known inscription naming the city, have been found in Hebron
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Interesting that you dismiss what Hicks has said, but you are happy to quote another ‘terrorist’ as trustworthy evidence. You’re not a terrorist sympathiser are you?
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Interesting that you dismiss what Hicks has said
No I don’t. I believe every word he said:
In the documentary Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land, Terry Hicks reads out excerpts of David Hicks’s letters, in which Hicks says that his training in Pakistan and Afghanistan is designed to ensure “the Western-Jewish domination is finished, so we live under Muslim law again”. He denounces the plots of the Jews to divide Muslims and make them think poorly of Osama bin Laden and warns his father to ignore “the Jews’ propaganda war machine,” [35]
I’m sure you condemn that too, but…
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..but it’s not a criminal offense. No matter how offensive and repulsive it is.
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Never met an anarchist who could spell. Still waiting
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jg:
Hillhunt
Do you think someone can be unbiased when they work for a left wing paper and have a partner working for the BBC.
This is the kind of person who sees no BBC bias…surprise surprise lol
jg | 29.05.07 – 3:18 pm | #
Almost right jg, except that the not even the gruniard would pay for his output. He’s reduced to unpaid verbiage on their comment is free section. Looking at his post here it’s not difficult to understand why:
hillhunt said…
At last Wendy knew why all her young men woke screaming in the night with peeled testicles.
“Dad!” She shrieked. “That new jacket… it’s made of…”
“Scrotum skin,” he snarled. “And I don’t care who knows it.”
May 01, 2007 9:46 PM
Found on this bizarre site:
http://www.monkeyfluids.com/2007/05/crack.html
I really don’t know why so many of you are all still indulging the clown.
Jr, are you doing his wife a favour by harnessing the dork?
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Still no word from the BBC about the stinking socialist pig with his snout in the public funding trough.
Prescott stretches ‘junket’ into family holiday
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=WCYST0PUHNFPLQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/05/26/nprescott26.xml
The farewell itinerary
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=35TIYZTOPB0EHQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/05/26/nprescott126.xml
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Anonymous:
Never met an anarchist who could spell. Still waiting
Anonymous | 30.05.07 – 2:18 pm | #
You should see the crap that some of your ‘friends’ have posted on mine.
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An interesting site: Angry harry on BBC Bias
http://www.angryharry.com/esSomeBBCPropagandaTricks.htm
Must off to feed the goldfish, so much more rewarding than trolls. When the fish open their mouths you get more sense out of them.
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ps anon – what spelling mistake?
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get a dictionary.
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korova:
..but it’s not a criminal offense. No matter how offensive and repulsive it is
In some countries it would be classed as a “religious hate crime”, “incitement to violence” etc.
But why exactly do you campaign for his freedom instead of condemning his “offensive and repulsive” utterings along with his proven connections to bona fide terrorist groups?
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..but it’s not a criminal offense. No matter how offensive and repulsive it is.
No mistake there. I guess you mean my use of ‘offense’.
http://www.answers.com/topic/offense
No, can’t be that. What could it be…..
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Further to revisionist history and erasing Israel from the map of “Palestine”:
http://backspin.typepad.com/backspin/2007/05/slinging_dirt_o.html
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Are we seriously going to continue to allow these two trolls to set the agenda and run this blog?
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Wow, such importance given to us. We set the agenda over here?? Great.
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Oscar – yeah, it seems it probably was a technical glitch. I kind of thought it was as I couldn’t see why there’d be a bias against those two individuals inparticular.
What I said would happen – Benn and Hain’s votes going up – has happened. Hain’s pre-glitch vote was just over 6% and as of 3:15 it is 7.79%, so it went back up, and even higher than before. Benn’s vote however, has only gone up to 9.84%, although it was hovering around the 17% mark pre-glitch. Also, after the “glitch”, Cruddas’ vote went up to 45%, whereas before it was 39%. Now it is 35%. Everyone else has stayed roughly the same.
I think in all, roughly 50-odd votes were deleted, and most, if not all of these, were for Benn and Hain. That may seem like not much, and with nearly 3000 votes now counted I suppose it’s not, but I think if became came onto the site and intended to vote for Hain or Benn and saw them with 0% or something only slightly higher (immediately post-glitch) then they may have been swayed to vote tactically for someone else. Voting patterns over the whole time the poll has been opened haven’t really changed, apart from for Hilary Benn, who was on roughly 17% and was pre-glitch fighting it out for second place with Johnson and Harman. Now, it looks like he’ll end up in 5th place. So it could be argued that the poll-glitch had an effect.
Anyway, sorry if this seems pointless. I just don’t like the idea of the BBC messing about with polls. Some may say this is incredibly trivial, but this result will be read out on Newsnight and the broadsheets love to fill column inches making predictions from polls, so I think it is noteworthy.
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“Group-think – have you ever succumbed to it? I know I have.
You share experiences and interests with the rest of a group, you reinforce each other’s assumptions and beliefs, you embrace the apparent consensus – and then you’re taken aback when you discuss it with outsiders who turn out to have a very different perspective on the issue involved.
It’s not an unknown phenomemon in the BBC.“
Martin Rosenbaum, BBC Open Secrets blog.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/opensecrets/2007/05/commonthink.html
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it’s the water stupid!
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‘During my time at university (studying English Literature and …………)’
Left off the (Failed) bit did we?
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Hahahahahahaha….no.
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The best line in Good Morning Vietnam is when Cronauer says “I’ve never met a white man more in need of a blow job”
I suppose with you it’s a dictionary rather than the blow job.
Living proof that the education system in the UK sucks.
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I think you are the one in desperate need of a dictionary given that you think I made a spelling mistake in my earlier comment.
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Let others more erudite than yourself be the judge of that.
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Must go now, unlike you I have a job.
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you lucky bastard. see you later mwah!
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When will the BBC take notice of it’s own vox pop?
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=6444&edition=2&ttl=20070530153507&#paginator
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korova…..ROTFLMAO!!!
And who says I “support” Bush…
I’ll tell you what try having another go!!
😉
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korova…..ROTFLMAO!!!
Funny, I did the same with your comments about going to Spain at talking to the people who were actually there.
ROTFLMAO
ROTFLMAO
ROTFLMAO
ROTFLMAO
😉
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This is great-it like being back at college….LMAO
So your “one” of those who dosn’t like Mugarbe…..well how about that then…
I guess you were never a member of CND either-handing over names of East German dissidents to the Stazi,when not helping the “Iraqi Trade Union movement” efforts to Stop that Damn War…..
Nor would you be one of those people who fly of to “socalist” Cuba that funds the Cuban security forces including the use of torture.
Nor would you be one of those who quite happly provide “fair trade” agreements to every dictator in Africa.
No you ONLY have your fellow human wellfare at heart-thats why you call them “Rightwing shitheads”….
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No, you’re right. I am not one of those people.
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Useful Idiots: An Endangered Species, Part 2
Looks like the BBC didn’t appreciate a recent column by the Wall Street Journal’s Brett Stephens we blogged here. Stephens wondered if Beeb bias contributed to allowing Alan Johnston to remain in Gaza long after other western journalists left. Fran Unsworth responds on The Editors blog. But Tom Gross raises a variation of Stephens’ theory:
Stephens’s view, however, is widely accepted among reporters covering the Middle East, including myself. It is common knowledge that Johnston, who was abducted in Gaza on March 12, was one of the most pro-Palestinian reporters in the region. However, sources tell me that some in Hamas may have felt that his reporting had become too pro-Fatah, which is one possible factor in his abduction by a Hamas-connected group, and also a possible reason why (despite the BBC’s repeated claims that the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority is doing everything in its power to secure Johnston’s release) in fact the Palestinian Authority has been doing next to nothing to help release the kidnapped BBC man.
(See original for links)
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“It is common knowledge that Johnston”
Everyone in the world knows it, …..exceptReith and others still come here to say it is’nt so….
Will they ever wake up to the real world? or will they forever deny the undinable?
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The BBC and how it has no problem berating an alleged human rights abuse by America. (No evidence what so ever other than rumours) and how it remains silent on an actual human rights abuse by China.
Firm sued over secret CIA flights
A US civil liberties group is suing a subsidiary of Boeing for allegedly helping the CIA fly suspects to secret overseas jails where they were abused.
…………..
The US administration has faced criticism from legal experts and human rights activists over its policy on detentions of terrorism suspects.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6705319.stm
Now contrast the above story with this one;
China’s drastic solution to drugs scandal
Zheng Xiaoyu used to be one of the most trusted men in China. He was in charge of making sure his country’s food and drugs did not kill anyone. But, on Tuesday morning in Beijing, a court found that he had failed – badly. He was found guilty of accepting bribes and of lowering safety standards. For his failure, he will be shot dead.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6703597.stm
and does the BBC bring out the human rights brigade in which to attack China on his punishment. Well no but it does go out of its way (What about the carbon footprint BBC?) in which to interview two families who are more than happy to see this man shot.
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“The UK last held a referendum on 6 June 1975, two-and-a-half years after joining the European Community, on whether to remain a member. Two-thirds of those who voted said “Yes”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3954327.stm
No Britain did not vote in favour of the European Community Britain voted for a Common Market – market being the operative word. No one mentioned a community in the socialist sense. It was all about trade.
“What did the government say the Common Market would mean to us? In the 70’s I remember the talk about the Common Market, no one in the street understood what it was all about other than it was some trade agreement meant to make it better for us.
Now we have grown and I can see that it meant a whole load more than that. Despite our history of having one of the best thinking governments we now have to comply with hundreds of laws and regulations not even made by ourselves. Worse still, our wealth slowly filters away to help the poorer member states. No one ever told us it would mean this, surely this alone would make the legality of it a little suspect.”
http://www.weeklygripe.co.uk/quickgripes.asp?mgID=67
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The only people that love the BBC are extrmeists and leftists….thats why they will never crack America..and why millions are turning away in the UK…..
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BBC website Middle East news-
‘Lebanon charges 20 people over fighting’
Twenty people allegedly linked to fighting around a refugee camp in Lebanon are charged with terrorism.
Compare with:-
‘Israel seizes Fatah legislator’
Israeli troops have detained a member of the Palestinian parliament said to have close ties with a militant offshoot…..
Jamal Tirawi was seized……
Spot the difference.
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Obstacles to peace.
History of failed Peace talks
There were several peace plans following the 1967 war, including one by Yigal allon, an Israeli general who proposed that Israel give back to Jordan the highlands of the West Bank, while retaining a defensive line along the JOrdan Valley.
However, nothing happened until after the war in October 1973…..
I wonder why ‘nothing happened’.Could the BBC not tell us? Did everyone just forget about the proposal, or is there a different reason- maybe the Arabs/Palestinians/ Jordanians rejected it??I would really like to know, but the BBC won’t tell me.
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OT post
Here’s a good libertarian blog
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TPO | 30.05.07 – 2:35 pm |
Yes, even the gruniad won’t pay the little hunt, and is it any wonder. On his blog
http://davehill.typepad.com/claptonian/
he has 10 posts on his front page with a grand total of 4 comments, popular guy!
Notice also that his comments have to go through moderation before being posted…oh yes, the freedom of speech so loved of the left lol
So a left-winger married to a BBC staffer sees no bias. It would be funny if it were not so sad.
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