Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:


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104 Responses to Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

  1. Yaffle says:

    More on the religion whose name the BBC dare not speak.

    Extensive report on 10 o’clock news last night on female genital mutilation by “Africans”, including those resident in the UK.

    Yet the practice has well-established Islamic roots – see these two MEMRI reports:

    Egyptian female villager: “Circumcision is part of the Sunna of the Prophet.”

       0 likes

  2. marc says:

    For the last two days, I’ve been watching PressTV, Iran’s brand-new, state-run foray into 24-hour broadcast news. As if the world needed any more anti-Western propaganda than what’s already generated by CNN and the BBC.

    http://www.nypost.com/seven/07052007/news/columnists/irans_network_spews_columnists_andrea_peyser.htm

       0 likes

  3. pounce says:

    The BBC, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander and the oldest profession

    Sex clothes anger Kenyan Muslims
    Prostitutes are known for their skimpy attire, but Kenya’s coastal port of Mombasa is witnessing a controversial fashion makeover. The twilight ladies, as the city’s residents refer to the sex workers, have traded their revealing outfits for the more austere buibui – a loose, floor-length gown and head covering favoured by Muslim women. Walking along the city’s main red-light streets at night, one comes across many of the buibui-clad prostitutes. Although most shy away from speaking to the press, a few are willing to talk. “I’m better off wearing the buibui so I look respectable. I can avoid arrest. I am just trying to get some money to live on,” one says. Another claims she wears her buibui to hide her identity. “I know I am sinning, but I’m forced to because I am looking for my livelihood. So to me, it’s acceptable,” she says. Most of her customers are local men, not tourists. She says wearing a buibui helped them to more easily pick out women from the region
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6291100.stm

    Yet again the BBC promotes a story based on its moral sense of honour.

    “But the phenomenon is causing a stir in the predominantly Muslim city where religious women are required to cover their bodies from head to toe.”

    “”I feel so embarrassed that sometimes I contemplate removing my buibui and throwing it away. The buibui has lost its respect,” Mariam Salma says.”

    “”They are not Muslims. Most are from Somalia and Ethiopia. They wear it to avoid public humiliation,” she says.”

    “”I feel so embarrassed that sometimes I contemplate removing my buibui and throwing it away. The buibui has lost its respect,” Mariam Salma says.”

    The message gleaned from the above BBC article is that the poor ladies are not Muslims. That they are giving Islam a bad name and it is all about respect.

    Which is strange as the equal opportunity minded BBC seems to have over looked something on its pro Islamic mores article. Yes the girls who walk the streets may be giving the faith a bad name. (Don’t see them blowing schools, markets or airports up thou) But what about the men who pay for their services. I mean the article does proclaim that Mombassa is an predominantly Muslim city and that the girls punters are in fact locals. So are they deemed non Muslims also or are Muslim Men somehow absolved of any blame according to the BBC code of honour laws?

    The BBC, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander and the oldest profession

       0 likes

  4. pounce says:

    The BBC and it adoration of the noun ‘Criminal’

    2 years ago John Simpson of the BBC exemplified the BBCs stance on Islamic terrorism when he referred to the Radical Islamic Suicide bombers who murdered 52 people in London as ‘Misguided criminals’ The BBC since then has gone overboard in which to present idiots who carry out terrorist acts in the UK as anything bar ‘Terrorists’
    We have had Plumbers, carpenters, teachers, students and now doctors. In almost every case the BBC refrains from using the ‘T’ word in order to shield those who wish to spread fear and intimidation in order to gain RESPRCT for their religion.
    Today the BBC carries on with its whitewash of terrorism in the Uk by referring to those who wish to kill and main for their religious beliefs as ‘criminals’ yet again.
    Failed bomb attacks ‘hurt Islam’
    The attack on Glasgow airport did not harm any passengers
    (Well that’s alright then is it BBC?)
    …………………..
    “The BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, Robert Pigott, said the findings come despite efforts by the government to break any perceived link between attackers it has described as criminals and the religion they claim to represent.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6294148.stm

    The BBC and it adoration of the noun ‘Criminal’

       0 likes

  5. Anonanon says:

    Last year Newsnight did a “world’s best public services” series which included a John Harris report on the wonders of the Cuban healthcare system. Compare the show-clinics which Harris was allowed to film with these pictures.

    (Richard Littlejohn was told by the BBC that it no longer makes ‘authored documentaries’. Films by ‘guest reporters’ are obviously not the same thing at all.)

       0 likes

  6. pounce says:

    The BBC, the lies it makes and the effect it causes.

    BBC apologises over Queen clips
    The BBC has apologised to the Queen after clips implied Her Majesty walked out of a photography session with Annie Leibovitz during a documentary. “In this trailer there is a sequence that implies that the Queen left a sitting prematurely,” the BBC said.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6294472.stm

    The BBC yet again promotes a lie in order to present our way of life as not one compatible with its leftwing dogma. The problem is the BBCs message has now travelled around the world in which the Queen is seen as relic of a bygone era and needs to be replaced more fitting with the mores of the Leftwing politic elite.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=467754&in_page_id=1770

    http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/07/12/britain.queen.ap/index.html

    http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1165970820070711?rpc=401&src=071107_1437_DOUBLEFEATURE_snapshots

    I just wonder if the BBC would promote such an image of say the leader of Hamas, Hezbollah or even Iran. Something tells me they won’t as they and not the Queen of the United Kingdom really do stand by the words “Off with their heads”

    The BBC, the lies it makes and the effect it causes.

       0 likes

  7. pounce says:

    The BBC and burying bad news.

    Anybody else notice this little snippet surreptitiously hidden by the BBC on the South Asian board.

    Afghan civilian deaths ‘inflated’
    The Afghan government and Nato have said publicly that figures for civilian casualties after military action are often exaggerated or fabricated. Officials say insurgents are exploiting the issue to pressurise the government. The remarks came amid continuing regular (BBC) reports of high numbers of civilian deaths or injuries as a result of foreign military strikes.
    ………..
    Lt-Col Carl said accounts of civilian casualties after military engagements often turned out to be inflated or completely fabricated. She gave recent examples, including village elders’ accounts of more than 100 civilian deaths in western Afghanistan a few days ago. Lt-Col Carl said it was now clear that no civilians had died there, saying that in fact foreign and Afghan forces had moved villagers to safety. Gen Azimi from the defence ministry said the Taleban regularly forced villagers to phone media outlets with inflated figures, threatening to behead them if they did not do so.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6293356.stm

    Which begs me to ask the question how come these so called dead beat villages stuck in the middle of no where not only have access to a phone, but know just who at the BBC to call.(Remind me again of how close the BBC and the Taliban are in the region?)
    Credit to the BBC for reporting this information. However they do bury it with stories of how the Pakistani folks are burying their radical dead and how red tape is hindering the due process of a misguided doctor.

    The BBC and burying bad news.

       0 likes

  8. will says:

    The BBC yet again promotes a lie

    They are being very determined to push this lie, it’s in Bowen comment pieces & now in a HYS.

    Lebanon war: One year on
    The 12th of July marks the one year anniversary of the war between Israel and Lebanon, which killed 1,200 people and devastated large parts of Lebanon.

       0 likes

  9. Steve_Mac says:

    Have Your Say

    Lebanon war: One year on
    The 12th of July marks the one year anniversary of the war between Israel and Lebanon, which killed 1,200 people and devastated large parts of Lebanon

    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=6823&edition=2&ttl=20070712153547&#paginator

    Added: Thursday, 12 July, 2007, 03:05 GMT 04:05 UK
    BBC, you need to stop spinning words into lies. Israel did not go to war with Lebanon but with a terrorist group holed up throughout southern Lebanon that the Lebanese government was not effectively controlling or ridding themselves of. Again, it has been a year since Israel invaded south Lebanon to stop terrorist missile strikes into its borders, but Israel did not go to war with Lebanon, if so Beirut would now be under Israeli occupation. Get your wording right, or don’t tell “news” at all.

    [mdl-pa-us], Pennsylvania, United States

    RECOMMENDED

    Recommended by 104 people

    Added: Wednesday, 11 July, 2007, 21:40 GMT 22:40 UK
    I think you mean war between Israel and Hezbollah, not Lebanon.

    Anon

    RECOMMENDED

    Recommended by 75 people

       0 likes

  10. Sam Duncan says:

    I don’t usually read the open threads, so I don’t know if this has been brought up before, but it’s been a big story in the non-Microsoft world for some time, and it’s bias of a sort:

    BBC Chooses Microsoft DRM Platform (Slashdot, June 26)
    BBC Trust to hear open sourcers’ iPlayer gripes (The Register, today, July 12)

       0 likes

  11. tom atkins says:

    Blimey – the BBC led with a “mia culpa” on the PM prog re the handling of HM Queen’s “trailer”.

    I’m sure the Queen followed the normal channels via the OFCOM web site’s online complaint form.

       0 likes

  12. indigenous says:

    The BBC/Frank Gardner line – “Young British Muslims have been radicalized by the Iraq War” – Not according to Mr Justice Fulford they haven’t –
    In mitigation, some of the defendants said that they were angered by the Iraq war. But the judge pointed out that Ibrahim had had terrorist training in Sudan before the start of the war. He added that some defendants “cynically played the Iraq card in the hope of finding sympathy and purchase with members of the jury”.

    Cynical heh? BBC News then?

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2062009.ece

       0 likes

  13. indigenous says:

    Today’s admission will cause embarrassment to the corporation, as its trailer was given widespread coverage on television and on websites yesterday, and in newspapers today.

    You cannot embarrass fools, they cannot see that they are idiots.

    http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article2064329.ece

       0 likes

  14. indigenous says:

    Silly me, I thought the BBC would be unable to peddle a line on the Red Mosque but I was wrong, they appear to smear Musharraf by saying “The President has defended his actions” as if HE had done something wrong.

    http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/186507.html

       0 likes

  15. doesNotCompute says:

    Yet more exceedingly biased “reporting”:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2007/iraq_surge/default.stm

    Attempts to portray the American build up in troops as having no effect, conveniently omitting the data PRIOR to the start of the build up so we’d having something to compare with. Current deaths per week, 3 weeks after the end of the build up varies between 175 and 375 deaths per week.

    Weeks prior to that were 680 deaths per week, over 2500 deaths per month both in May and the start of June:
    http://www.iraqbodycount.org/editorial/weekiniraq/

    BBC does not want you to know this.

       0 likes

  16. meggoman says:

    NotaSheep | Homepage | 11.07.07 – 10:05 pm | #

    The Allen comment was made sometime between 5.30pm and 5.45pm or thereabouts on 11 July.

       0 likes

  17. TomTOm says:

    Attempts to portray the American build up in troops as having no effect

    Even more blatant on the PM News Headlines tonight at 5pm….announcing that The Surge had failed on 8 of 18 measures….then in the story later saying the Iraqi Government had failed on 8 of the 18.

    They could not miss a chance to spin a headline. This, coupled with the vicious editing to try to attack The Queen; and the Blue Peter deceit on children….should give Brown time to think about reducing the icence fee settlement further.

    The BBC is simply untruthful and staffed by compulsive liars

       0 likes

  18. meggoman says:

    Can’t help thinking that the misrepresentation of the incident involving The Queen was done deliberately in an attempt to embarrass the photographer who is an American. After all some of the newspaper headlines this morning were pretty scathing of the photographer. It’s all part of the BBC’s hatred of everything and everyone American.

       0 likes

  19. pounce says:

    The BBC, attacking a mosque and half a story.

    Inside the Red Mosque

    The bullet-riddled walls and roofs of the Red Mosque’s interior tell the story of a fierce battle. Much of the Red Mosque complex was badly damaged in the battle
    The mosque, located in a central district of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, was stormed by troops two days ago to clear out Islamic militants holed up inside.
    The government says 10 soldiers, one policeman and 75 militants were killed in the fighting and the week-long standoff that preceded the final assault.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6896192.stm

    Yet again the BBC plays the victim card for a bunch of misguided criminals who were not only armed to the teeth but willing to use force in which to force their moral standards onto others. But what is missing from the BBCs report is how the Mullahs wanted the troops to go in and kill as many as possible in order for a public backlash to take place and replace the current incumbent in power with a radical Islamic one. I do like how the BBC presents the image that the criminals inside the Masjid were lightly armed here are a few photos the BBC doesn’t want you to see.
    http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070712/i/r2082019286.jpg?x=285&y=345&sig=nwh0R6yHkLtUQ5T5x6hMsQ–

    http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20070712/2007_07_12t151525_450x300_us_pakistan_mosque.jpg?x=380&y=253&sig=jRgjHOYPLEe19HGgkXdUgQ–

    http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070712/i/r1540692925.jpg?x=380&y=266&sig=cazhaAivwCbQ8rHpo9oSGQ–

    http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20070712/i/r1723265746.jpg?x=380&y=251&sig=7K_CafKZ_qkNSClottMGCw–

    http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070712/capt.xdg11007121341.pakistan_radical_mosque_xdg110.jpg?x=380&y=253&sig=T1kNMG2IxZ_6_thbWSelXQ–

    Strange how when Islamic countries use overwhelming force in which to remove religious thugs with guns from the gene pool the BBC remains somewhat more silent than when the Brits or the Yanks do the same.

    The BBC, attacking a mosque and half a story.

       0 likes

  20. JohnBosworth says:

    I wonder if the pro-Islamic bias in the BBC began with the setting up of the “Asian Unit” in BBC Birmingham? It has a record of self-justification.

       0 likes

  21. pounce says:

    The BBC, terrorism and Scooby Do

    Mumbai marks a grim anniversary
    ndia’s commercial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), has been observing the first anniversary of the serial bomb blasts on commuter trains which killed 187 people and wounded more than 700 others. The railway authorities repaired and relaunched one of the seven train coaches which were badly damaged by the blasts. Their aim was to send out a strong message of defiance and resilience.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6288916.stm

    Anybody read that excuse of a story from the BBC. If so could somebody please point out to me just what kind of people carried out those train bombings which murdered 187 people? It was a terrorist act carried out by terrorists yet the BBC refrains from saying as such. I mean they allow KP Raghuvanshi, chief of Maharashtra state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad to speak. Yet fro some reason the BBC continues to refuse to call a terrorist act a terrorist attack unless of course its some ethical latte drinking tree hugging peace protester castigating the British armed forces. I mean 4 pesky kids and dog could tell you who did it, but not the BBC.

    The BBC, terrorism and Scooby Do (Haven’t a clue)

       0 likes

  22. pounce says:

    John writes;
    I wonder if the pro-Islamic bias in the BBC began with the setting up of the “Asian Unit” in BBC Birmingham? It has a record of self-justification.

    Maybe. But the rot started long before that. I personally believe that the BBC employment of so many Pakistani British Muslims is one of the main reasons for the acute bias we see on the BBC news reports. Maybe that would explain the huge anti-Indian bias the BBC promotes as news and the huge coverage the BBC gives to any little mishap in Pakistan. That bias has slowly gravitated towards the Uk and the US simply because Muslims see them two as the biggest enemy. (Which may also explain why so many BBC reporters are either converts to Islam or married to one)

       0 likes

  23. archduke says:

    “Sam Duncan | 12.07.07 – 4:58 pm ”

    the bbc has no plans to release a Linux version of that DRM player.

    which invariably means that some Finnish hacker will rustle up something for the Linux folks, and they’ll be able to have it DRM free as a result.

       0 likes

  24. archduke says:

    ” pounce | 12.07.07 – 9:15 pm ”

    i dont have the link , but some of the BBC bosses got bonuses BASED ENTIRELY on their recruitment of “ethnic minorities”.

    i.e. discrimination based on race = cash

       0 likes

  25. archduke says:

    remember all the hoo-ha against israel in the hez war, and that the UN should go in a stop hez rearming?

    http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1292

    “Whereas Hizballah started the 2006 war with 12,000 rockets of different types, today the Lebanese Shiite terror group has accumulated 18,000 in its arsenal.”

       0 likes

  26. archduke says:

    and Syrian military checkpoints on the road to the Golan heights from Damascus have been suddenly removed

    http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1288

    hamas, hez, golan. its going to be an interesting summer.

       0 likes

  27. JohnBosworth says:

    Pounce: thanks for the tip on anti-India bias in the BBC. I had not thought about that but will moniter it from now on. However, I’m not sure that you can back up your assertion that many BBC reporters become Muslims or marry them. Do you have any evidence of this?

       0 likes

  28. archduke says:

    ” JohnBosworth | 12.07.07 – 10:03 pm ”

    i wouldnt call it anti-india bias – more like an obsessive, inordinate focus on a tiny scrap of desert in the middle east.

    when was the last time, for example, that you heard anything about South Korea or Japan, for example?

    admitedly its not just the BBC – all the msm are guilty. then again, maybe blood, gore and violence are what sells, and the islamists provide it in spades.

       0 likes

  29. TomTom says:

    many Pakistani British Muslims is one of the main reasons for the acute bias

    Most of them are actually Kashmiris from Mirpur rather than simply Pakistanis…….

       0 likes

  30. Anat says:

    Just for the record, here are two comments (mine) not published on the HYS “Lebanon war: One year on”
    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=6823&edition=2&ttl=20070713065209

    12-Jul-2007 16:30
    COMMENT:In the Interest of preserving the Geneva Conventions, those who belittle Hezbollah’s firing from villages may like to consider what the conventions actually say: “The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favor or impede military operations.” (Protocol 1, 1977, article 51, clause 7).
    COMMENT STATUS:Awaiting moderation

    13-Jul-2007 05:15
    COMMENT:My previous comment is a straightforward quote from the Geneva Conventions, and yet it has been ‘awaiting moderation’ while comments posted later have already appeared. Is ‘awaiting moderation’ a hidden form of rejection? And is the BBC rejecting the Geneva Conventions?
    COMMENT STATUS:Awaiting moderation

       0 likes

  31. Bishop Hill says:

    A minor example of the BBC sexing up a story.

       0 likes

  32. David Gregory (BBC) says:

    pounce:
    “Which may also explain why so many BBC reporters are either converts to Islam or married to one”

    Pounce, I know of one reporting colleague who is Muslim. But otherwise know of no converts or reporters who are married to converts. “So many” ? This is simply untrue.

    “JohnBosworth:
    I wonder if the pro-Islamic bias in the BBC began with the setting up of the “Asian Unit” in BBC Birmingham? It has a record of self-justification.”

    The Asian Network as it now is reflects British Asian life, broadcasting in English as well as other languages. It’s not afraid to tackle issues around radical Islam and terrorism head-on, but it’s also about much more, from drama to music and Bollywood. I doubt anyone there would see their job as being to apologise and excuse acts of terrorism.

       0 likes

  33. Bryan says:

    Anat | 13.07.07 – 7:12 am

    Strange, when I wanted to access the Have Your Say Lebanon topic last night it had been replaced with one of those “Voices” pages with a Lebanese and Israeli view of the war and no debating forum – but with a link to the HYS debate on the sidebar. This naturally has the effect of making the debate inaccessible to many who don’t have the inclination to go hunting for it once it’s absent from the main page.

    This morning, it was still off the main page, but as I was scouting around they put it back on the main page, took it off again and put it back again. It’s currently there – I think – but it looks like it’s heading for oblivion. Too much support for Israel, I suppose.

    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=6823&&&edition=2&ttl=20070713074245

    It’s really weird, this editorial tussle over the topic. Seems like someone is having a tantrum in the Have Your Say editor’s office and throwing their toys out of their cot while someone else keeps trying to put them back in. They published one of my comments so I might try again – if they can hold the damn topic still for a while so I can access it. This is making me dizzy.

    Re not having comments published, it’s disappointing but hundreds of others are also in the same “Awaiting Moderation” boat – which of course is another name for the deletion queue.

       0 likes

  34. Bryan says:

    David Gregory (BBC) | 13.07.07 – 8:45 am,

    We on this blog are not alone in detecting an unholy and powerful alliance between misguided fanatics on the far left and Muslim apologists for Islamic terror in the hallowed halls of the BBC.

    If you doubt that this alliance exists, you are not looking closely enough at what is going on. As one example, the BBC has for years been legitimising and sanitising Hamas and was putting the best possible spin it could on the terror group years before it was elected to power. This came to a head with the Johnston affair – which was an extraordinary revelation of the extent to which the BBC is comfortable with Islamic terror.

    And it insists on excising the T-word from the language as it tiptoes around Islam, even refusing to apply the dreaded word to the attack on the Beslan school – which was the very essence of terror.

    The BBC has become a dangerously subversive organisation, aiding and abetting the attack on civilization from within while relying on funding from the UK taxpayer to do its dangerous work.

       0 likes

  35. Umbongo says:

    What is it about the particular arrestee in Australia that keeps the BBC banging on about his being “Indian”? Is this the most significant aspect of his identity? Have “Indians” been at the forefront of terrorist activity in the UK? What is the common thread concerning proved and suspected terrorists in Glasgow, London, 7/7 and 21/7? Is it where they were born? Is it where they were bred? There must be another factor surely: is the BBC avoiding something here?

       0 likes

  36. pounce says:

    David G wrote;
    “Pounce, I know of one reporting colleague who is Muslim. But otherwise know of no converts or reporters who are married to converts. “So many” ? This is simply untrue.”

    When John B replied I thought i was a little off the mark. And maybe a little presumptuous. You see I was working off what I have noticed over the years.
    But lets look at the subject in more detail.
    1) Who is the BBC’s so called security expert?
    2) Who is the BBC’s Middle-Eastern expert?
    3) Who is the ace reporter who was flown from South Africa to Lebanon last year?
    4) Who was the ace reporter who reported from Iraq in 2003?
    The top 3 are in my book converts (Proclaiming “Help me I’m a Muslim” in SA warrants the death sentence if caught lying)
    Now lets look at a few BBC biographies
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/index.shtml
    I can find 3 Muslims in A alone.
    But actually my post was about the little people who work at the BBC. You know the faceless ones who do all the work. Even you have to admit the Night/weekend shift at the BBC has a lot of Pakistani Muslims working there. Amazing how many older women who having put career before love find a young virile Pakistani male attractive. (Even with the catches) Muslim girls for some reason don’t appear to find western men attractive I wonder if the BBC could run a program on just why?

    Oh just for the record, I’ll be at RAF Fairford tomorrow.

       0 likes

  37. Anonanon says:

    The relentless anti-war stance of the Today programme hasn’t escaped the notice of the most senior British officer in Iraq.

    Here’s how BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood began a report on this morning’s show:

    “Who wants to be the last man to die in a lost cause?” British officers haven’t yet adopted the slogan of the Vietnam anti-war movement but some, including senior officers, do question what can be achieved at the cost of more soldiers lives.

    Following Wood’s segment, John Humphrys interviewed Lieutenant General Graham Lamb in Iraq.

    Humphrys: Do you accept Paul Wood’s analysis?
    Lamb: No. The answer is that I thought his reference to a lost cause and anti-war and a political mission probably suited the nature of the programme and the message that he was trying to get across.
    Humphrys: Well what do you mean “the nature of the programme”?
    Lamb: In so much as the approach which is, “This is not going well”, that’s it’s a downward trend. It’s not the way I see it. I’m just giving you a view from Baghdad. I’m here in theatre.

    “The nature of the programme”. Like it.

       0 likes

  38. pounce says:

    The BBC and guilty doctors.

    Sarkozy’s wife visits HIV medics
    The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy has met five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with the HIV virus.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6896305.stm

    Don’t you mean allegedly infecting those children BBC. I mean when the BBC can report 2 doctors caught red handed trying to ram a car into Glasgow air terminal as suspected of doing so. Why can’t the BBC report on the less evidential story of 5 nurses and a Palestinian doctor whom the whole medical world (As well as the EU) say is a stitch up as Suspected of infecting instead that first BBC paragraph attributes guilt. Or does the BBC now take the word of Libyan justice as set in concrete. Strange how they have no problem protesting about Libyan justice when its time to deport somebody back there?

    The BBC and guilty doctors.

       0 likes

  39. NotaSheep says:

    I see that the NAO’s scathing report on the Tax Credits issue has been reported only on a “business” page. The NAO reported that “Losses from the government’s tax credit system are ‘unacceptably high’ and that “the system was losing up to £1bn a year through fraud and errors.” This is the tax credits system that Gordon Brown steadfastly avoided answering questions on and taking responsibility for when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

    More here: http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2007/07/gordon-browns-legacy.html

       0 likes

  40. pounce says:

    The BBC, foreign justice for British women and half a story.

    Ghana drug arrests shock families
    The families of two girls suspected of drugs smuggling in Ghana say they thought the pair were on a school trip. The students, both 16 and from London, were stopped on 2 July as they tried to board a plane at Accra airport while allegedly carrying £300,000 of cocaine. Catherine Wolthuizen, of Fair Trials Abroad (FTA), said the girls’ parents had no idea they were in West Africa.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6897139.stm

    The BBC pulls out all the stops in which to promote as a miscarriage of justice the arrest of two very young ladies on the suspicion of carrying drugs. So in the above article the parents presumed that their girls were on a school trip. And the girls are allowed to say (Albeit it in BBC Vicky pollard fashion)b that they were tricked.

    Tricked BBC?
    Ref that alleged school trip was it to Ghana? No it was supposed to be to France.
    (Who tricked who? The Girls to their parents or the National British news agency for omitting that very salient snippet of information from that article)

    Why are Fair trails abroad in the picture? Are the Ghanaians now setting up little girls who lied to their parents about going to Africa. Well that is the picture I am forming of how the BBC are reporting this.

    As for that Vicky Pollard moment;
    “It was basically like a set-up. They didn’t tell us nothing, we didn’t think nothing, ‘cos basically we are innocent.”

    Yeah but, no but, yeah but, no but……….

    Even the only gay in the Village could see something funny with that BBC story.

    The BBC, foreign justice for British women and half a story.

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  41. Bryan says:

    Have Your Say editors are doing a funny little dance with the Lebanon war topic, as I mentioned here:

    http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/6242343892410117520/#364953

    Now somebody has yet again snatched it off the International version, but it appears on the UK version:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm

    Funny, that. Anyway, they haven’t posted any new comments since yesterday even though the topic is only two days old and quite popular, with over 400 comments waiting to be flushed away. So it looks like it’s soon going to go the way of all say.

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  42. David Gregory (BBC) says:

    Pounce: Even you have to admit the Night/weekend shift at the BBC has a lot of Pakistani Muslims working there. Amazing how many older women who having put career before love find a young virile Pakistani male attractive. (Even with the catches) Muslim girls for some reason don’t appear to find western men attractive I wonder if the BBC could run a program on just why?

    Oh just for the record, I’ll be at RAF Fairford tomorrow.”

    Well I can only speak for my newsroom. This weekend it’s a mixture of asian, white, black, male and female. Not one married to a Muslim. Not one is a Muslim.

    Tomorrow I shall be supporting British farmers and picking my own.

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  43. JohnBosworth says:

    David Gregory: It’s good to see that good old BBC defensiveness still lives! Reminds me of comments made at a Programme Review Board in the 80s:
    Aubrey Singer (Controller BBC Radio): Why is it that whenever members of the “Today” production team are criticized, they form a square and shoot outward?
    Stephen Hearst (Controller radio 3): That’s nothing. You should see what happens when they form a square and shoot inwards!

    I did not imply that the BBC Asian Unit excuses Radical Islam or terrorism. That is what you have read into my comments. I asked a legitimate question: has the pro-Muslim bias (documented so fully in this blog) have anything to do with the influence of the BBC’s Asian Unit?

    If a “Roman Catholic Unit” had been formed in the BBC and suddenly we heard references to “HIS HOLINESS, The Pope” and “The HOLY CITY of Rome” (as in “The Holy City of Mecca”) I would ask the same question. I would question the loyalty to The United Kingdom of any group within a group, be they Jewish reporters on Israel foreign policy, Catholics reporters on the abortion debate and…Muslim reporters on the Middle East.

    Can groups within the BBC influence its editorial policy? Of course. Perhaps Dr Gregory should ask his older colleagues about the relationship between the Masonic Order and BBC Birmingham in the late 1970s. While you’re about it find out what happened to the special investigation into the large number of deaths of Pakistani women in “kitchen fires” in the 1980s. Was a programme ever made in Pebble Mill about this subject? If not, why not?

    In the BBC’s defence, I would ask readers to this blog to think about another explanation as to why the Beeb is so unwilling to use the “M” word in reporting stories. Perhaps it is because it does not want to inflame anti-Muslim sentiment or fan the flames of BNP hatred of minorities? Laudable (and understandable) aims.

    But what puzzles me is that the total reluctance to “tell it like it is”. In too many cases (as documented in this blog) the full facts have to be gleaned from other sources. This is simply a failure of BASIC reporting.

    If the story is about “A middle-aged man, aged 35, tall, round shouldered with blue eyes and brown hair”, why would one leave out “blue eyes” EVERY SINGLE TIME? Why would you leave out “A muslim man” very single time. But that doesn’t matter any longer: everyone I know now refers to Muslim terror suspects gleefully as “plumbers” – thanks to Biased BBC.

    Dr Gregory, from within a monolith like the BBC you cannot see the wood for the trees. Having spent a lifetime working in every BBC region, in radio and TV, and being aquainted with almost every department, I learned two important lessons:
    1. The BBC is guilty of everything right-wing critics have always said.
    2. The BBC is now irrelevant in the big wide world.

    The sad fact is that no-one believes you any more. If I ever admit I once worked for the Beeb, the reaction is always the same: a smirk and shrug of the shoulders. Isn’t that a sad reward for 30 years hard labour!

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  44. Bryan says:

    One thing puzzles me about the deletion of comments: since Biased-BBC no longer has a functioning archive, does it really matter in the long term if inappropriate comments remain on the threads?

    Out of concern for the blog and the excellent work it does exposing BBC bias, I have tried on a number of occasions to find out what has happened to the archives and what, if anything, can be done to facilitate access to old posts and threads. The search facility seems to be inadequate for the purpose.

    Can anyone enlighten us as to the situation here?

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  45. Andrew says:

    Bryan, I think you mean, ahem, the moderation of comments 🙂

    The moderation of Biased BBC’s comments facility is not just about ‘inappopriate comments’ lying around – it’s also about:

    – lengthy personal chit-chat (and flame wars) that clogged up the comments for everyone else;

    – people spouting off about all sorts of unrelated rant-on topics;

    None of which was good for Biased BBC – those who had taken up residence in our comments facility for their own general rant-on chit-chat were damaging Biased BBC – putting off ‘normal people’ from commenting (and reading the comments), as well as leaving everyone else open to the accusation of being nutty by association.

    This isn’t just a recent thing – it has been a problem almost since comments were added to the site, with the level of exasperation of the main contributors growing over time – to the extent that we’ve finally felt the need to address the problem head on.

    Many blogs are moderated, especially popular blogs like Biased BBC – though we at least are doing post-moderation rather than pre-moderation, giving people a level of trust and responsibility that most people are reasonable enough not to abuse.

    As for the archive links in the sidebar, I’m not sure what happened to them, and am aware that you have asked about this before. I haven’t had time to investigate hitherto, but will try to do so today.

    In the meantime, an alternative approach, and possibly a better one for searching, would be to search Google using:

    site:biased-bbc.blogspot.com

    – as one of your search terms – this will limit results to those from this site.

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  46. Bryan says:

    Would be great if you could retrieve the archives, Andrew.

    I’ll try the Google search, thanks.

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  47. pounce says:

    Gosh from reading the BBCs version of events in Gaza you would never have guessed.

    Gaza’s New Rulers Seek to Win Over the West
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,493812,00.html

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  48. pounce says:

    The BBC, its love for Hamas and half a story.

    Man found guilty of terror charge
    A British man has been found guilty of possessing a document likely to be useful to a terrorist. Yassin Nassari, 28, who was found not guilty of another charge of possessing articles for terrorist purposes, will be sentenced at a later date.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6897666.stm

    Anybody read this story which the BBC quickly hid amongst the detritus of the weeks news. Strange how the BBC has omitted from it entire coverage of this story just what was found on this blokes Laptop.
    “Evidence discovered on Nassari’s computer included jihadist material and instructions on how to build rocket-propelled missiles of a type used by the Palestinian group Hamas, together with information on explosives such as land mines, TNT and nitro-glycerine.”
    http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKLAU35038720070713?rpc=401&&pageNumber=2

    Even stranger is how the BBC kind of omitted this salient snippet;
    “It was the fourth terrorism trial in just over a week to conclude in Britain, where security services say militant Islamists pose a continuous and growing threat.”

    But then the BBC did quickly bury this story.

    The BBC, its love for Hamas and half a story.

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  49. David Gregory (BBC) says:

    JohnBosworth: Well if “Ameet Chana’s Breakdown” music show has any influence on how Midlands Today covers topics like forced conversion of local asian woman to Islam I’ll let you know.
    But it wasn’t top of the things we thought about when we did the story recently.
    I reiterate that I think B-BBC does a really great job when delving into specifics, but broadbrush stuff like implying BBC staff are all Muslim converts or that the Asian Network is a sort of broadcasting 5th column are a little wide of the mark.
    Have a nice weekend.

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  50. pounce says:

    The BBC, the news from America and half a story..

    The BBC blazed across its news network the Story about how the American House of Representatives voted to pull American troops out of Iraq.
    US House votes for troop pullout
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6896789.stm

    Which in turn has lead to a precipitation of articles about have the yanks lost, should the Brits follow, why the BBC even has a questionnaire asking British troops their views. (Err BBC I think you will find British troops are not only forbidden to communicate with the Press (Unless you look like Mr Bean that is) but that the British military have become somewhat polarised against the enemy sucking-up BBC)
    Anyway the BBC forgot to mention in its Pro Terrorist victory speech article the score on that vote.
    “The Democrat-controlled house voted 223-201 in favour of the move, which would see troop reductions start in four months.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2125601,00.html

    “Which brings me to the main direction of my post. The BBC which promotes an almost tie on a vote in the H as a victory for common sense kind of doesn’t mention this little vote also in the House concerning the United Kingdom.
    “The US House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday afternoon condemning a British call to boycott Israeli universities. The measure, approved 414 to 0, urged the European Union and governments around the world to reject the call by the leadership of the University and College Union of the United Kingdom to cease cooperation with Israeli institutions.”
    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1184168552181&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

    So a vote which is unanimous isn’t reported on. But a vote which is as close to a tie as possible is. I wonder why?

    The BBC, the news from America and half a story..

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