It’s been a long-established BBC tradition that where a foreign national commits crimes in the UK, his nationality and immigration status should be downplayed or ignored entirely in their news reporting.
Hence we see the Algerian illegal immigrant transformed into a man from ‘Shepherds Bush‘, the Moroccan drug dealer (obsessed with beheadings and al-Quaeda videos) who becomes a man ‘from Lisson Grove, north-west London‘ (with no notable habits), the Somali ‘of Small Heath, Birmingham’, the Nigerian nationals and illegal immigrants who become ‘South Londoners’ (see next paragraph for the links).
There’s one notable exception to this rule – if the foreign national is American the BBC goes to town on the story. Even if he’s a naturalised British citizen he’ll always be American to BBC news.
Yet BBC coverage of the latest UK terrorist attacks is going out of its way to emphasise the ‘non-Britishness’ of the attackers.
None of the suspects involved in the Glasgow attack and the foiled London car bombings are British in origin.
“British in origin” ? It’s the “in origin” bit that gets me. Only a year or two back a politician using language like that would be getting the John Humphrys treatment on the Today programme. Are they channelling Norman Tebbit here, or Nick Griffin ?
‘Terrorist’ suspects ‘not Scots’ : Mr MacAskill said the suspects were not “born or bred” here but had lived in Scotland for a “period of time”.
The BBC has learned those arrested are believed to be of varying Middle Eastern nationalities.
According to his father Jamil, he obtained a medical degree in Jordan in 2004 and came to the UK in the same year to gain a specialisation in neurology. Dr Abdulla is said to have qualified in Baghdad in 2004 and first registered as a doctor in the UK in 2006.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing if the BBC are straight with the licence payers when it comes to reporting the nationality and immigration status of alleged or convicted criminals. It’s just such a departure from previous practice. Have some major decisions been taken in editorial conference, or are they following the SNP “they’re not Scots” lead instinctively, like pilot fish keeping up with a shark ?
UPDATE – “the men, who are not believed to be of Scottish origin“
“Iraqi Bilal Abdullah will be taken to Paddington Green police station … Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, who was brought up in Jordan“
Beecause it may not be relevant,…
Uhh, yes it is. And I told you exactly why:
Which conflicts with the usual pumping of “diversity”.
To explain it again: it is relevant because without it, readers cannot make an informed judgement about the value of “diversity” — the tradeoffs.
Maybe you can explain then: why are other ‘irrelevant’ details often included? Like color of clothing (which can be easily changed), or color of a car. I cannot count how often I see that: color of clothes, color of car, but no skin color.
Again: censoring the news — which is the purpose of any such policy — is needed to sanitize “diversity”. Otherwise, people would more easily ‘put 2 and 2 together’. For example, regarding indiscriminate immigration of Blacks. Which is, to those paying close attention, obviously creating a disproportionately criminal black underclass in the UK (among other things). This would be (more) obvious to even those not paying close attention if the media would regularly include race/ethnicity as just another fact — a fact as relevant as what color of ‘hoody’ was worn — in crime stories.
Excuse me, but now I need to go check to see what “French youth” are up to. I hope those “French youth” haven’t been burning cars etc again.
eh:
If you really want to know whether or not diversity is a good thing, reading fragmentary accounts of news stories will not tell you. One story might catch your eye; several others won’t. One might feature a black perpetrator, others might not. So what?
If you lived only in Kensington, you might assume that a high proportion of the British population drove fancy cars. If you travel widely, you’ll realise they don’t.
Even when the aggressor in a crime is of a different race to the victim, it tells us nothing about motive. If a man with a knife demands my wallet, he wants my wallet.
If he calls me a white-skinned scumbag into the bargain, I can assume that part of his motive is racism. Merely knowing that one man was black and the other white, or yellow, is not a reliable guide to racial motive.
You also assume that the media are deliberately ignoring important details released by the police. If the cops have a pretty good idea who did it, they are not necessarily asking for help and do not necessarily release all details. Some details are held back in the interests of gaining a conviction.
Yes, clothing can be changed, but the cops might be interested in tracing eye-witnesses who saw a person in a yellow top running away from a crime and might have remembered more about them than the victim. Where did they go? Did they have accomplices? Did they remove the top and throw it in a bin? Did they get into a vehicle?
The police release the detail they judge will help them catch perpetrators. I honestly doubt that the media would cover up the fact that a suspect was black if it was part of a police appeal…
Hill*unt;
shows us what a grade A GCSE in “making patronising and desperate barral scaping excuses” can acheive these days.
You do not seem to understand what is our general problem with the BBC.
WE DO NOT TRUST THE BBC ANYMORE.
The BBC is like an expensive trophy wife that you have caught in bed with every one of you best friends and several times with many of your worst enemies as well. She promissed to reform her behavior every time, but no improvment was ever noticed. After years of trying to trust her for the sake of the kidds, and listening carefully to her constant “heartfelt” reassurances concerning her future fidelity. You later find out 4 out of 6 of your children are Bastards and she has also given you and them every type of very nasty sexually transmittable disease know to medical science.
Hillc*nt is like the mother-in-law that still thinks, ” butter does not melt in her little angels mouth, and its all your fault.”
When I here the BBC weather report these days telling me its going to be bright and sunny all month. I take my unberella with me everywhere I go.
TRUST is like virginity. Once lost it is lost forever.
garypowell:
When I here the BBC weather report these days telling me its going to be bright and sunny all month. I take my unberella with me everywhere I go.
Explains a lot, Gary.
.
Don’t forget, the bbc(granted, along with nearly everyone else) reported that this summer was going to be the hottest and driest on record. 😉
I see HillHunt(BBC) is back. Obviously yesterdays “all hands” meeting of BBC News staff is over and its business as usual now that Mr Johnston is releases.
“If you really want to know whether or not diversity is a good thing, reading fragmentary accounts of news stories will not tell you.”
Absolutely. Especially where whole gangs of youths are wandering around stabbing people and the only things that they appear to have in common are:
They are male,
They are
Hill*unt
Its called a sense of humour. Which is another thing the BBC and its appologist lost a long time ago.
“Don’t forget, the bbc(granted, along with nearly everyone else) reported that this summer was going to be the hottest and driest on record”
One year MMGW = drought and the next year MMGW = floods. They will tell you that deserts are made by MMGW when for years we were told that it was due to wind blowing sands over productive land or good soil being washed or blown away. Then they wonder why no-one believes in it anymore.
@David Gregory: Do you think that TV reporting of MMGW as being the root of all weather related problems is [1] reasonable [2] likely to help with the theory’s credibility?
From the Wall Street Journal Online: http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110010296
It seems that dispite their ‘diversity’ the bombing suspects did have something besides medicine in common – can you guess what?
I don’t know about the Beeb but here in the good old US of A the enlilghtened media hesitates to report the color of minority violent criminals for fear of inflaming the passions of the racist White majority who we all know are ready to riot, burn, loot and kill at the slightest provocation – no, wait – isn’t it the *OTHER* guys who riot etc.??? But hush, we aren’t allowed to talk about that either!
@David Gregory: Do you think that TV reporting of MMGW as being the root of all weather related problems is [1] reasonable [2] likely to help with the theory’s credibility?
Ryan
But I don’t!
@David Gregory: I didn’t say you did. I only asked you for an opinion.
Ryan: As I’ve said before it’s all too easy to confuse weather with climate.
@David Gregory: So I take it your answers to question [1] and [2] would be NO.
The thing with the BBC is, as we all know, that all news (not matter what has happened) is bent to fit an agenda. So, a Muslim commits a terror offence and they are DESPERATE to say he aint British (because no immigrants hate us per se, you understand).
An immigrant rapes or murders someone, he’s from “Sheffield” and his colour is NEVER mentioned. Can’t risk a “backlash” now can we?
A BBC journalist is kidnapped. Good gracious, a fearless seeker after truth has been violated? Whatever next.
A doctor, nurse, security guard, engineer, soldier, techinican is kidnapped. The imperialist/aggressor/careerist/profiteering bastard gets what they deserve. How dare they?
A Jewish American is beheaded. No mention that in his final words he was forced to condemn himself as a Jew – only that he was beheaded for being American, which is OK.
NHS problems. Never, EVER bone-idle lazy uncaring bastards. Always “angels put under too much pressure”.
We all know all of this so should not be surprised.
Have a good weekend all.
Neither must we forget the EU journalists are called in where racism is discussed.
A negative story mainly regarding muslims would be better played down after all when 2010 arrives and with it more muslim countries to enter the free trade agreement it won’t do if we object.
Nine countries more imagine that!
Don’t tell anyone though we’re not supposed to know about it.
Funny never a mention on the Beeb not even the world service, but then i often think this is a service more to promote islam than anything else.