Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.
While I’m here, a little plug for my next post coming up in a few minutes. It’s about the BBC’s readiness to entertain a foolish anti-Israeli conspiracy theory about the Entebbe raid. My view is that, given that we have had thirty-plus years of Palestinian terrorism, I would really need rather a lot of evidence to take seriously the claim that what appeared to be Palestinian terrorism was actually a plot concocted in secret alliance with its apparent victims. Unlike the BBC who report this claim seriously ‘cos some guy said it.
I am equally sceptical and for the same reason of the claims made by some commenters below that Alan Johnston must have engineered his own kidnap because he apparently set out to meet his kidnappers. He was trying to get a story. That’s how Daniel Pearl was kidnapped, too. Palestinian/Islamist terrorists kidnapping people is not so rare an event as to require convoluted explanations.
And I’ve banned “the_camp_commandant” for nastiness on this subject unleavened by any trace of legitimate debate.
#9 IN A SERIES OF ADMISSIONS OF THE BBC’S INSTITUTIONAL BIAS FROM BBC STAFF AND ITS LEFTWING ALLIES:
COPY AND PASTE INTO NEW DOC AND KEEP HANDY FOR REFERENCE IN FUTURE EXCHANGES WITH BBC BIGOTS
In 25 years as a BBC correspondent, Robin Aitken covered terrorism in Northern Ireland, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Monica Lewinsky scandal; he was also a specialist economics correspondent and sat in the cockpit of the Today programme during the Iraq crisis. … “There is a centre-Left consensus within the BBC that colours its entire output and undermines its solemn pact with the public to present the news impartially,” says Aitken. …
Aitken decided to voice his anxieties to senior executives in the late 1990s, when he began to suspect that New Labour scandals were being soft-pedalled in comparison with peccadilloes of the Major administration. “John Birt just seemed nonplussed. It was the same with Greg Dyke an absolute refusal to consider even the possibility of institutional bias,” he recalls. “Eventually, I went to the governors, who asked me to put together a dossier of evidence. So I produced chapter and verse. I cited, for example, the way Radio 4 employed two successive political editors of the New Statesman as stand-in presenters of The World Tonight, without revealing what their jobs were and that they were therefore Left-wing pundits.
“The governors thanked me for such a well-written submission, which was charming if a little patronising, and passed the dossier back to BBC management, who replied that there was nothing to worry about. At no point was I asked to make any case in person or given the chance to respond.” …
“In a way, it doesn’t bother me that BBC journalists do hold political views. The scandal is that Left-wing voices are not balanced by Right-wing voices. If that is not reformed, then it’s hard to justify allowing the BBC to hold on to its monopoly. “In 25 years I met only a smattering of Tories in the organisation. I stood outside the prevailing centre-Left culture, and that was an uncomfortable place to be.”
(Interview of former BBC reporter Robin Aitken, Daily Telegraph, 14 May 2005)
.
Re: Ultraviolets | 06.06.07 – 12:22 am | #
UV,
As likely futures, you forgot ‘Soylent Green’ – based on a Harry Harrison novella and ‘Logans Run’ – by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.
Logans run is quite interesting (relating as it does to global population demographic problems and possible solutions) – its intro reads –
“The seeds of the Little War were planted in a restless summer during the mid-1960s, with sit-ins and student demonstrations as youth tested its strength. By the early 1970s over 75 percent of the people living on Earth were under 21 years of age. The population continued to climb — and with it the youth percentage.
In the 1980s the figure was 79.7 percent.
In the 1990s, 82.4 percent.
In the year 2000 — critical mass.”
Just substitute another well known group of un-mentionables for ‘youth’.
.
Today
This morning it happened again; when referring to the Great Satan and global warming, the presenter called it “The world’s biggest polluter”, but when referring to China, projected to be the world’s biggest polluter in the future, it is referred to as “will become the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases”.
Subtle eh?
Today was notable this morning for
1. Number of references to Iraq in items not about Iraq
2. Degree of anti-Americanism throughout the programme
For 1, we had new words for the national anthem (comedy item supposedly) with the last word of the anthem being “Iraq”. Then we had Ken Clarke talking about cabinet Govt with endless references to Iraq bu cleverly without mentioning the word Iraq (“catastrophic decisions” being the euphemism). Then we had Thought for Today with an Anglican priestess fresh from reading the Independent describing a new artist’s picture of the Blairs, naked with the body parts of Iraqis on one side and a soldier on the other. Original or what? She then warbled on about the spititaul significance of something or other…
For 2, we had an American yoghurt manufacturer who told us that he counted the minutes until the nightmare of Bush was over…..after being allowed this diatribe, the Today interviewer simply said, “Thankyou very much”.
Another of those substitute one word for another on the BBC and see how it sounds (a la Charles Moore in the Telegraph). Try it for the way Putin’s comments about nuclear weapons have been described in various articles on the BBC including Today. Substitute “Bush” for “Putin” and see that it just don’t sound right.
Just imagine the outrage in the BBC newsroom if Bush had said anything like Putin.
“08:45 Today turns 50 on the 28th October, and we are looking for people who were born on the first day we broadcast. The Economist Marian Bell shares her memories with our reporter Polly Billington.”
Paraphrased
“My parents didn’t want us to visit Spain when Franco is in power. They supported the boycott of apartheid South Africa”
Just the sort of people Today likes to give lots of airtime to.
Just the sort of people Today likes to give lots of airtime to.
Abandon ship! | 06.06.07 – 9:27 am
I noticed that too – and did you spot her final statement about how good independence for the Bank of England had been – i.e. Gordon Brown is a great bloke. That plus yet more lengthy reports on the state of Castro’s health (who they seem far more bothered about than John Prescott) – I’m sure they’re signing the ‘get well soon Castro – all our love Auntie’ card as I write.
Anyhow this caught my eye on UCUs boycott of Israeli academics – some lessons here for the BBC perhaps?
You really must envy the U.K. far-left for its blindness. Its consummate inability to see more than one side, which is to say, its demonstrated refusal to see Jews as fellow human beings, is only exceeded by its exquisite sense of timing.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=865499
People without TVs ‘intimidated’ by licence reminders
While not being renowned for agitation, the television refuseniks are growing restless. Not because they are bored of a life without Coronation Street or The Apprentice, but because of the “harassment” they say they are receiving from the authorities. The TV Licensing authority, that is, which keeps sending them “intimidating” letters demanding to know why they do not have a television licence – despite living in a care home.
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2617437.ece
Abandon ship! | 06.06.07 – 9:27 am |
My parents didn’t want us to visit Spain when Franco is in power.
Talking of Spain, I popped into my local off-licence the night before last and noticed a new lad behind the counter. He wasn’t the normal surly type whose mantra is “I don’t have to do this job you know”. No, he had a pleasant disposition and a smile on his face. I realised that he wasn’t from around these parts. A view that was reinforced when I detected that he had a Spanish accent.
We got chatting and it transpired that he and his family had fled Cuba a couple of years ago. You know the place. It’s where stinking champagne socialists like Margaret Hodge go for holidays to marvel at ‘the workers paradise’.
I asked him specifically about their health system seeing as the BBC chose to give it such flattering coverage recently. His eyes nearly came out on stalks when I told him how the BBC reported it. For the first time he frowned, then he dismissed, in complete contempt, their version. It is all illusory. We managed to chat about some other things before the next customer came in.
Just as I was leaving he said something very interesting which I didn’t grasp until I got back in the car.
Very occasionally he can get through to his brother who couldn’t escape with them. They spoke a couple of weeks ago and his brother said that Castro had been on the radio ranting about three British nuclear submarines that were threatening Cuba.
If that was the case (the radio broadcast), and I will go back and ask him again, then it’s odd that the BBC haven’t reported it.
Some time ago, during the course of my work, I went to the BBC Monitoring Unit at Caversham Park. They work in conjunction with the US to monitor radio and TV output from around the world, particularly in trouble spots, and pool what is gleaned.
If I can confirm it, then wouldn’t it be odd if the BBC chose to ignore such a news item.
Perhaps some of Cuban exiles who live in Miami and who recently contributed to Biased BBC posts might be able to throw some light on this.
I noticed the voice of one of ther BBC’s mouthpieces become a little perkier when he said that “President” Fidel Castro had recovered from his recent illness even though the Americans had described him as being at death’s door.
Normally, a president serves a term of office but a dictator is for life. Would JR advise what should be the appropriate term when discussing the head man in Cuba?
Wednesday, 6 June 2007: Now this is NEWS (for the anally retentive):
BBC celebrates three Webby awards
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6725369.stm
Oh hang on wasn’t it actually trumpeted here on Tuesday, 1 May 2007
BBC scoops three Webby awards
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6611559.stm
Don’tcha just love the word ‘scoops’.
Good grief we got an award now lets bang on about it forever and a day even if it’s not NEWS.
Tipton Three lied to media.
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/L/lie_lab/programmes_1.html
I’m sure the media will just give this the massive attention the Tipton islamic terrorists got.
The Law of Diminuishing Dead Jews.
Yesterday I commented on the BBC reporting only two Israelis killed by Qassam rockets while really there are three, the third being a severly handicapped 13 year old boy.
Today BBC only count one, and misinform about two dead “Palestinians”.
Israelis kill two Palestinian men
Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians, one an elderly man shot in the West Bank and the other a Hamas militant in Gaza hit by an air strike.
The army said it responded to fire as troops entered a house in Hebron. The 67-year-old man was killed and his 65-year-old wife was seriously wounded.
…
In May an Israeli woman was killed by a Qassam rocket, the first fatality since November 2006 from almost daily Palestinian rocket fire.
The Israeli military said troops in Hebron opened fire on a man who tried to assault them during an arrest raid.
Officials said occupants in the house threw a gas canister and other household objects at them. It said two wanted men inside the house were arrested.
A Palestinian security source said soldiers came to a house before dawn and shot dead the man who answered the door, afterwards shooting his wife.
Family members quoted by Israeli newspaper Haaretz says the soldiers fired on them after a verbal confrontation, and that they had not attack (sic) the soldiers physically.
So, only one dead Jew as a result of all those Qassams and as usual the IDF shooting at old Arabs. Or is it?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/867726.html
The IDF said that soldiers who entered the house on an arrest raid were attacked by Palestinians who threw a gas canister and other household objects at them.
One of the Palestinians grabbed a soldier’s rifle, forcing troops to open fire, the military said.
Just a minor detail I suppose, but I call it bias by omission.
Allan: BBC protocol for addressing Castro? Well, according to JR’s checklist, he’s over 80, hates Bush, is a dictator, and (presumably) isn’t “up for a ruckus”. Let me see, that’s double double plus plus! I’m sure Jim is reaching for his fabled turd-polisher as we speak…
TPO
The BBC does not content itself only with regurgitating its three webby awards a second time perhaps trying to leave the impression that it has won them twice.
It seems to be a policy of using the olds and calling it the news.
I have referred on several threads to the wholesale cutting and pasting of most of previous articles and proclaiming them as new stories.
I put in liks to these so please go back to them if you want to see this BBC ‘technique’ of reporting in ‘action’.
The constant presence of “in depth: muslims in europe” when it is very rarely updated and proclaiming it in depth news is perhaps the crowning ‘achievement’ of this cost saving policy of olds for news.
BaggieJonathan writes:
”
It seems to be a policy of using the olds and calling it the news.”
Which raises the question, did they learn it from Campbell and ZaNuLabour, or was the virus tranmsitted the other way?
GCooper
Good call, but I think it was around before.
Campbell just became the ‘master’ of it.
However he’s long gone now.
So the field is left open the BBC to add to its already rich portfolio and fill his gap too and that’s exactly what they do…
Egyptian pilot: We felt humiliated
Israel wiped out much of the Egyptian Air Force on the morning of June 5, 1967, the first day of the war. Egyptian pilot Mustafa Hafez was stationed at one of the 11 Egyptian air bases that were targeted.
He told military historian and BBC website reader, David Nicolle, what happened that day.
“military historian and BBC website reader, David Nicolle”?
Is the BBC being economical with the truth?
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/author_detail.php?author=A2403
Born in 1944, David Nicolle worked in the BBC’s Arabic service for a number of years before gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. He has written numerous books and articles on medieval and Islamic warfare, and has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years.
Anyhow, the memories of this Egyptian pilot are quite illuminating.
Of course I was angry and frustrated because I was unable to shoot down that Mirage. There was a switch in the cockpit that changed the armament from rockets to guns, but I had not been trained for that particular modification.
Not trained to throw a switch!
Flies a ‘plane but doesn’t know what all the switches in the cockpit do!
Poorly trained would be an understatement, I almost feel sorry for him.
Just a minor detail I suppose, but I call it bias by omission.
Biodegradable | 06.06.07 – 1:20 pm
I heard about the Hebron incident on Israel radio and read the account on the BBC website. With the BBC’s distortions and omissions, I didn’t realise it was the same incident.
That’s the BBC. Revising history as it’s being made – in order to bow before its Islamic masters. I have an idea that BBC “editors” are enormously proud of their website. It takes a lot of hard work to twist and turn and deceive by omission and distortion of facts until you have a neat little dhimmi site dedicated to portraying Islamic terrorists as victims along with all the other BBC deceit. They have a helluva lot to answer for.
I heard about the Hebron incident on Israel radio and read the account on the BBC website. With the BBC’s distortions and omissions, I didn’t realise it was the same incident.
Bryan | 06.06.07 – 11:02 pm
If you’d only read the BBC account you’d come away with the impression that the IDF routinely force their way into “Palestinian” homes and shoot harmless elderly people. Which of course is what the BBC and their “Palestinian” handlers want us to believe.
If the “gas canister” thrown at the troops was anything like the ones I have at home it weighs maybe 50 kilos when full and not a lot less when empty – not one of those little blue things you use to power your camping stove and something that can potentially cause a lot of harm to a human body – an object that could also be modified to become a bomb.
Two wanted terrorists were arrested in the house so it wasn’t like a normal home where everybody was sitting around playing Scrabble until the IDF arrived.
One of the Palestinians grabbed a soldier’s rifle
Not a good move.
Biodegradable,
Yes, the BBC has swallowed the Palestinian “narrative” here and is regurgitating it for its readers. This is deliberate misrepresentation. Actually, it’s outright lying.
How long will it take for the BBC website to become identical to a Palestinian publication in its reporting on this conflict? Or is it already there?
Not trained to throw a switch!
I like it. It is a standing joke excuse in my household to claim, “I haven’t been trained”.
How long will it take for the BBC website to become identical to a Palestinian publication in its reporting on this conflict? Or is it already there?
Bryan | 06.06.07 – 11:44 pm
I think it’s pretty much there already.
Most of the content of its reports are from the “Palestinian”, side; witnesses, spokespeople, hospital staff, “security” sources, and stringers, all presented as unquestionable truth and making up the bulk of the reporting.
Meanwhile, anything coming out of the Israeli side is subject to salient facts being edited out, as in the example above, and presented as “claims” or sneeringly as “although Israel says”.
Plus of course the now obligatory bottom line, often nothing to do with the story but essential to leave the reader with the desired bad taste of Israel in the mouth.
Blue sea, beautiful fish, long water plants here. This is the adventure in the 20,000 meters of the seabed; I am here on the freedom of living, I was here only Mermaid, I am from where and I will go where in the future. I do not know those, I just only know that I dominated this piece of blue heaven and earth. I live in the maple mesos, and many people will come here to see me every year, so I never feel lonely.
I had to complain with him again and again. He felt sorry to me and gave me a lot of sro gold as apologize.
But he appeared and took me to exercise and buy Asda Story Gold for me to improve my equipment.
Breguet watches and replica Breguet watches made with swiss movement ! so cheap and high quality ! accept paypal ,and 14 days money back without reason !
If you have mabinogi money and buy mabinogi gold and mabinogi online gold…You will experience a better life of the game!what are you waiting for?