Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

Please use this thread for BBC related comments and analysis. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not (and never has been) an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or use as a chat forum. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.

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

  1. ben says:

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/july07/gallowaytofightback.htm

    as someone asks in the comments….
    Is this a BBC article or a Respect press release?

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  2. The Moderator says:

    I’ve deleted some comments about the House of Lords. An intriguing topic, no doubt, but not something we want a thread about here.

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  3. Bryan says:

    MattLondon | 21.07.07 – 5:05 pm,

    Sorry, you are wrong. I followed the BBC really closely re its coverage of the war and I recall a BBC hack reporting from Kiryat Shmona at the war’s end and claiming that he could see “four or five damaged houses.” Then there was an article on the website (no link right now) that managed to sneer at the Kiryat Shmona residents even while “reporting” on their stories.

    I believe there was one fairly balanced article on the town by a BBC correspondent but that was it.

    BBC “editors” are masters of deception. But over time it becomes apparent how they operate. Giving Islamic ‘militants’ – their favourite ‘victim’ group – unrestricted time and space in which to pump out vile propaganda and then claiming that this is just “objective reporting” is one of the ways they deceive the public.

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  4. deegee says:

    Bryan | 21.07.07 – 9:40 am
    Now I wonder, for example, why the BBC didn’t give similar exposure to innocent civilian residents of the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona after it was bombarded by 1000 Katyusha rockets courtesy of Hezbollah last year.

    In truth there is at most a tenuous (insert ‘M’ word here) connection between the Red Mosque and Kiryat Shemona. More relevant is why the same BBC correspondent couldn’t find one Pakistani victim of Islamic terrorism or one family member of the 10 soldiers and one policeman who died in the fighting to personify the other side of this conflict?

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  5. K says:

    BBC on Iraq:
    Good news is no news.

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  6. Bryan says:

    deegee | 21.07.07 – 9:21 pm,

    Yes, I was aware that Kiryat Shmona was not a good example, but having made it and being challenged on it I felt obliged to stick to it.

    I was also wondering why there had been no comparable concern indirectly expressed for the fallen Pakistani soldiers by the BBC through a spokesperson for the families, perhaps. But hell, that doesn’t crack it, does it. It’s much more fashionable and cutting edge to rub shoulders and chat with terrorists.

    Truth is, the BBC has a direct link to terror propaganda, and obliges the terrorists by making good use of it.

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  7. IntersetedParty says:

    Apologies, as an interested lurker, and I do admit I speak from ignorance about how hard this could be acheived…

    But wouldn’t it be ideal if this site had a Home page that displayed an array of specific avaiable threads with their headed topics?

    Like most conventional blogs, BBBC has a linear list that seems to attract people (not unreasonably) to go immediately to the top with whatever they want to say.
    Could there be some easily recognised visual display that could be dipped into as the relevancies take peoples fancy, and leave a better feeling with people that specifics are equally attended to?

    Like I said apologies (especially if this gets posted since better acqainted posters seem to be lost out!) and it then seems too trite, I admit my ignorance of running blogs, and I know this site doesnt have the resoursces of a major publicly funded news organisation 😉

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  8. Ju says:

    “Living with Hamas in Gaza” is back again on the HYS page. It was last edited on the 21 of JUNE!
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm

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  9. Chris Smith says:

    To my surprise the lead story on the BBC website (International Edition) carries the uncharacteristically robust comments on the story: Italy police raid ‘terror school’. It says that:
    “The imam allegedly held courses, showed propaganda messages and made fiery sermons inciting a small group of disciples, some of them children, to join a Holy War. The director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community, Sheikh Abdul Adid Palazzi, told BBC News that he was not surprised to hear of the arrests.
    “It is the top of the iceberg in our country – like in the rest of Western Europe. Most mosques are controlled by extremist pro-terror organisations – 90% of mosques,” he said. “And I think the percentage is more or less the same in Italy, Britain, France and Germany.”

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  10. max says:

    Dodgy phone-ins are nothing to the BBC’s great wind scam
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/22/nbook122.xml
    From Christopher Booker’s column (via EU ref):
    Another tireless promoter of the wind scam is Sarah Mukherjee, the BBC’s environmental correspondent, who recently reported on the Government’s energy White Paper standing in front of the 36-turbine Gallow Rig windfarm in Dumfriesshire, which she excitably claimed produces “enough power for around 18,000 homes”.

    In fact, thanks to the Renewable Energy Foundation’s website, we can now see exactly how much (or how little) energy is produced by every turbine in the land. This shows that claims such as this exaggerated Gallow Rig’s output by about 400 per cent.

    There’s more.

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  11. Umbongo says:

    I notice that one of the BBC’s own – well offspring of one – A A Gill has leapt to the defence of the BBC and Mr Fincham and, at the same time, delivered the obligatory sideswipe at HMQ. Not that HMQ should be above serious criticism: her decision in the 70s to make the monarchy more amenable to celebrity journalism and which culminated in the embrace by the monarchy of the viper Diana has dealt serious damage to the institution if not to HMQ personally.

    But coming back to Gill. He ignores the persistent bias chronicled on this blog and wishes that the BBC would stand up for itself against . . . who exactly? The BBC stands up for itself and its current values extremely well. Gill needn’t worry. This current controversy will all blow over and we’ll be left with the detritus of anti-British, MMGW pseudo-science, “don’t frighten – don’t even mention – the Moslems” apologetic hokum we’ve grown used to and Gill apparently loves.

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  12. max says:

    BBC faking stuff again.
    The BBC has suffered another credibility blow after admitting that it made up a Newsnight survey suggesting that most of Britain and Scotland’s leading businesses were not in favour of independence.
    http://mreugenides.blogspot.com/2007/07/lies-damned-lies.html

    How many blows will it take to subdue the beast?

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  13. bodo says:

    MPs criticise the failure to hold anyone to account over the Iran hostage fiasco when 15 Royal Navy personnel were taken prisoner.

    An “independent” inquiry found that no one was to blame for the government decision to allow the released prisoners to sell their stories to the press.

    And who lead this so-called independent inquiry? Step forward none other than Tony Hall, former head of BBC News. What a cosy little incestuous relationship they have — even ex-BBC staff are only too willing to do the government bidding.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6765903.stm
    MPs critical of Iran stories sale:
    The decision to allow the sailors and marines seized by Iran to sell their stories to the press has been strongly criticised by a committee of MPs.

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  14. Richy says:

    Max,

    That story is great. They’re just making up opinion poll results.

    http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1563445.0.bbc_apologises_in_row_over_mistake_in_snp_survey.php

    The editorial and misrepresentation or fabrication of news are a lot more significant than a few dodgy phone polls.

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  15. pounce says:

    The BBC, its love affair with the MCB and half a story.

    The BBC as per usual brings out the discredited MCB in order to defend the attack on a professional terrorist who just happened to find that the inmates of her majesty’s prisons understand how to deal with them.
    “The Muslim Council of Britain has called for a thorough investigation of all attacks on inmates. Inayat Bunglawala, from the council, said: “There have been other incidents in the past as well, where prisoners have been attacked by their own fellow cell mates. It’s vital that they [the prison authorities] investigate the attack… to ensure that prisoners, whatever they’ve been convicted of, are given basic safety and are allowed to pass their sentences in at least some dignity.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6910025.stm

    What I find strange about the MCB is that if you run a search on ‘Dhiren Barot’ on their website you will find no reference to him what so ever.
    http://www.mcb.org.uk/dgssearch/search.php?q=Dhiren+Barot&r=10&x=23&y=16
    Yet the BBC is more than happy to air the views of the MCB in which to allow them to play the victim card for terrorists. (Nothing new there) Terrorists whom the MCB refuses to acknowledge.
    Which begs me to ask the question how can the MCB demand that “they” investigate the attack (via the BBC) so as to allow these Muslim terrorists some dignity. When they don’t have the dignity to acknowledge the existence of those very same Terrorists at the very same time. But hey I’m referring to the organisation (whom the BBC loves) as the one which reports on the Honour murder of Banaz Mahmod as ‘unfortunate’
    http://www.mcb.org.uk/article_detail.php?article=features-110

    The BBC, its love affair with the MCB and half a story.

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  16. garypowell says:

    I have good news.

    Did you know that crime in the UK is falling?

    According to Nick Ross of soon to be ex BBC fame.

    The question is.

    1 Does NR really believe this, ie is NR a typical lying BBC bastard?

    2 Is NR yet another BBC government propagandist?

    3 Has NR simply been BBC brainwashed?

    4.Or is NR just another overpaid undersized BBC village idiot?

    “Text answers to the BBC on 078…..432 calls cost only £2.00. The prise is simply great and does exsist……honest. You can trust us, we are the BBC.”

    When I was a teenager I used to report even the smallest of crimes to the police. But not anymore and not for some time.

    My son for example has had so many things stolen from him it is now difficult to count the amount of incidence.

    In Britain today it is perceived by the public that the reporting of a crime will have very likely the following concequences for the victim.

    They will waste a lot of time.

    They have a better chance of ending up getting arrested as the crook does.

    They will be patronised and lectured by the police.

    And most importantly of all.

    The person/habitual crimminal that stole the mobile, if they did by any chance get arrested or detained by the copps. Will find you in the same place they did before, steal your new phone and beat merry hell out of you next time as well.

    Then the police will advise you quietly that, “its best not to pursue the case unless you want to live with constant harrasment and victimisation.” From which they dont have the time “resorces” or any obvious inclination to try to start protecting you from.

    Nick Ross makes play that “its the press” that makes people believe this “nonsense”.

    Nick Ross has a point, but not entirely his intended one.

    Media in general CAN and DOES make people passionately believe the most rediculously silly, very crazy and dangerous things.

    A state liecence funded along with a government liecence controlled BROADCAST media, can and does MAKE you believe often very much worse then the above.

    With the added ‘piss taking’ advantage of forceing you to pay for your own brainwashing, and for the prison cell they send you to, if you refuse to cough-up the fine.

    The BBC is not as dangerous as Murdoch, which is dangerous enough. It is so incredibly powerfull and so out of all sensible democratic controll, it has ‘become’ authoritarian socialist DANGER, definded in picture and sound.

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  17. teljax says:

    It’s no wonder the muslims are always in an uproar, the bbc always portrays them as victims of western society. It feeds their sick belief that they should rule the world but satan meaning the west is resisting their holy (barf) efforts. The bbc is directly responsible for agitating these easily agitated cult worshipers.

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  18. archduke says:

    just thought i’d dive in here to give a few eyeballs some warning – turn on sky news, especially if you are in oxfordshire. thames might break it banks this evening. tune in the local radio especially if you are in a flood plain…

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  19. archduke says:

    ” Chris Smith | 22.07.07 – 12:33 am ”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6909961.stm
    “Sheikh Abdul Adid Palazzi, told BBC News that….Most mosques are controlled by extremist pro-terror organisations – 90% of mosques”

    with a name like palazzi, i might hazard a guess – italian convert lured in with “religion of peace”, but then saw the ugly reality underneath?

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  20. joe bonanno says:

    I made an ‘official complaint’ (as they describe it) to the BBC today on the back of Nick ‘Crimewatch’ Ross appearing on The Today Show three days after the Home Secretary said it is our perception of crime that is increasing not the incidence of crime. Nick of course parrotted this basing his monologue on the fairly flawed British Crime Survey.

    All sounded a bit too much like a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of The Labour Party.

    I will get the usual email back disagreeing and telling me to write in, which from memory I have to do before my ‘official complaint’ gets registered as an ‘official complaint’.

    A system designed to put off all but the most persistent you might think. And you’d be right.

    I’ll keep you posted.

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  21. joe bonanno says:

    …and just up on News24 an interview with the Shadow Foreign Secretary in Kigali that went something like ‘So what do you say to those that say (ie we at the BBC) ‘This is just another David Cameron stunt’.

    Ok, possibly a fair question.

    But does anyone remembe them asking the same question of Gordon Brown when he was in Africa?

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  22. The Moderator says:

    Gary, try to keep your comments relevant to the BBC (or the topic of the original post).

    Archduke, I’ll let your comment about potential floods stand for a while in case it does help someone.

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  23. cheesed off says:

    Just what is the BBC trying to report here? ” Veil row woman returns to court

    Ok, she’s “deeply embarassed” by the actions of magistrate Ian Murray and his refusal to deal with her case previously because of “identification issues”. She’s accused of causing damage to a council house, which she denies and the case is adjourned.

    Ian Murray is being investigated. “He has until Thursday to respond officially to the complaint, but has already volunteered not to sit as a magistrate while the inquiry takes place.”

    Actually, it seems that the “Veil row woman” was found guilty. I couldn’t get the story from the BBC, so had to get it from here and here.

    The BBC? Not even half the story.

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  24. Ashley Pomeroy says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6910444.stm
    “Turkey Re-Elects Governing Party

    Supporters of Turkey’s governing AK Party are celebrating after the country’s prime minister claimed a comprehensive general election victory.

    Opponents had insisted that a win for the Islamist-rooted AKP could undermine Turkey’s secular traditions.

    The election was called after opposition parties in parliament blocked the AK Party’s nominee for the post of president, causing political deadlock.

    But the BBC’s Chris Morris, in Ankara, the Turkish capital, says the AKP has now scored a stunning victory, and those who still believe it is a threat to the secular system are clearly in a minority.”

    Chris Morris doesn’t appear anywhere else in the piece. As far as I can tell he is not *the* Chris Morris of Brass Eye fame. I was struck with the last line, “those who still believe it is a threat to the secular system are clearly in a minority”.

    It does not account for the possiblity that some people might not like the secular system, and will have voted for the AKP because they believe that, notwithstanding the party’s noise about democracy, they are actually in favour of another form of government.

    Morris’ contribution has the effect of saying “phew, everything’s okay”, which is not necessarily the case.

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  25. deegee says:

    Nothing in the HonestReporting analysis will be unfamiliar to readers of B-BBC.
    6 Month Analysis of the BBC: The Subtle Bias

    Highlights:
    15% of stories about Palestinian violence named the aggressors while 60% of articles about Israeli operations accused Israel directly.

    19 out of 23 articles and picture series capturing the “man on the street” perspective were from the Palestinian viewpoint.

    While Honest Reporting is a partisan site concerned almost entirely about reporting on Israel I would say the same pattern of overwhelmingly emphasizing the P.O.V. of groups the BBC supports at the expense of the P.O.V. of groups it opposes is a feature of the BBC. For example the BBc coverage of Pakistan.

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  26. Anonymous says:

    BBC: Decline of a great institution:

    “Joan Bakewell laments the irretrievable loss of confidence in an organisation that was a touchstone of trust”.

    http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2791087.ece
    .

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  27. Anonymous says:

    Ray Snoddy on Broadcasting
    The BBC has treated its viewers with utter contempt:

    http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2791088.ece

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  28. pounce says:

    Deegee posted about the BBC;
    “15% of stories about Palestinian violence named the aggressors while 60% of articles about Israeli operations accused Israel directly.”

    Which goes a long way to explaining why the BBC never saw fit to report this little incident in Gaza over the weekend.
    Sisters found murdered in Gaza
    Associated Press

    July 22, 2007 at 11:54 AM EDT

    GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Three sisters were found stabbed to death in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, raising suspicion they were killed by relatives because of suspected immoral behaviour, a human rights organization said.

    The three sisters, 16-year-old Nahed Hija and her sisters, 19-year-old Suha and 22-year-old Lina, were found dead from multiple stab wounds, buried in a shallow grave in the central Gaza Strip early Sunday morning, said Hamdi Shakkour of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

    Mr. Shakkour suspected the women were victims of “honour crimes,” in which women are murdered by male relatives because of suspected intimate relations — not necessarily sex — outside of marriage.
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070722.wstabbed0722/BNStory/International/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070722.wstabbed0722

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  29. marc says:

    Did you know that the head of Ofcom, the regulator looking into the BBC phone scandal, is a former BBC executive?

    Richard Eyre, a former deputy chief executive of BBC News, found that there was a “systemic” compliance failure by broadcasters using premium-rate phone calls and that, at least as far as the commercial broadcasters were concerned, revenue generation was a major driver of premium calls.

    http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2791088.ece

    And did you know that the man the BBC choose to head its “independent” inquiry, is also a former BBC executive?

    “Will Wyatt, the former BBC Broadcast chief executive, will conduct the independent inquiry into the fiasco. The BBC announced the establishment of an Editorial Standards Board to oversee its response to the phone-in scandal.”

    And did you also know that the two top men at RDF, the company that made the fake Queen video, are both former BBC men.

    http://www.rdfmedia.com/rdfmedia/about/people/

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  30. johnj says:

    Ashley Pomeroy:

    Did anybody else hear Mardell on BBC Radio 4s Today this morning with the following classic remark:

    The Turkish AK Party is no more Islamist than the CDU party of Germany, a Christian Democratic party, is Christian.

    Or, words to that effect, can’t be bothered listening to such awful BBC bias again.

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  31. tom atkins says:

    BBC news 24 just now

    BBC reporter: “what have you got to say about reports that people are selling bottled water AT A PROFIT from the side of the road?”

    – what as opposed to the BBC news reporters, producers, camerman and technis who are all being paid (in many cases with OVERTIME) to report on other people’s misery but in the process actually doing sweet FA to actually help anybody.

    If I needed bottled water, lived in a wealthy area and had the choice of helping myself and my familly by buying the water or have the BBC come round and film the banning of the sale and instead wait for my local council to pull its finger out I think I know which I’d choose.

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  32. Ralph says:

    The BBC is showing ‘Brown to the rescue’ but ignoring any opposition voices, typical.

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  33. Scott Hudson BEng says:

    Guys, watch our new film about the BBC…

    http://bbc5.tv/watchflv.html

    …enjoy.

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  34. dave t says:

    Good spot by The Englishman:

    BBC NEWS | Politics | Flood defence spending to be cut – 2 August 2006

    Efforts to prevent floods are under threat as the government’s environment department is forced to cut £200m in the next six months.
    The Environment Agency, which runs flood defences, is among those being hit by cutbacks at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
    The cuts are at least partly being made to make up for losses from the failures in the new subsidy system for farmers.

    Those “losses” were not the “losses” at all, they were a fine by the EU for Defra cocking up the RPA payments , but then you wouldn’t expect the BBC to say that, would you?

    Pasted from http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/004369.html

    Original report:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5238342.stm

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  35. bodo says:

    “The BBC is showing ‘Brown to the rescue’ but ignoring any opposition voices, typical.”

    Ralph, very true, tho they have found time to criticise Cameron for being away in Rwanda.

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  36. Andrew says:

    I’ve just started a new ‘open thread’, so if you can’t see it yet, refresh/reload your browser, perhaps holding down the ‘shift’ key as you do so.

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