announces Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (aka ‘The Yazzmonster’):
“It is personal guys. Several BBC broadcasters tell me they are not interested in ‘Guardian and Independent’ points of view. We are passé, irrelevant, annoying, elitist, too middle class and soft. Fashion moves on, the culture is now noisy and intolerant and the Beeb follows, is too feeble to stand up to ugly populism.
Many of us have-beens are no longer invited on to the robust debates on programmes where intelligent political debate should take place. Belligerence is sought- bring on the alpha right wingers like William Shawcross and bombastic Jeff Randall. Soon a Jeremy Clarkson mascot will replace Pudsy. Have a box of pins ready.
It is serious too guys – it will shape the nation over the next ten years. They diss the only consistently left of centre papers in the country – and so ditch the European Union, internationalism, multilateralism, fair immigration policies, equality, regulation, redistribution, legitimate (as opposed to illegal) wars”.
So what do we think? Does Yazza, as always, have her finger on the pulse? Is it time to close down the blog? Or should we hand it over to the leftoids so that they can take over? It’s a difficult one.
Steve Wright on Radio 1 – I remember. When he used to speak normal BBC English instead of Mockney.
Sarah Jane:
“Dr R be careful – all is not what it may at first appear hehe”
Not a man are you Sarah?
Reg – I picked the name because one of the few things that I and several of the regulars here are able to agree is on the delight that is Sarah Jane. Draw your own conclusions. I used to post here under my own name and changed when the nature of my contract changed and became a bit more tenuous (as I dont always vigorously defend the status quo and have a family to feed one has to be careful) but a few of the cannier regulars worked it out pretty quickly.
Martin – Gaunty had his own daily 3 hour show on BBC LDN and “the stupid person’s Jeremy Clarkson” gets on QT about once a year:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1021825/
The arrogance of this Ali Babba woman is breathtaking. These Lefty boobies really do think they run the universe.
You’re not the real BBC Sarah-Jane?!
Curses.
judging by recent newsnights – is douglas murray the new Yasmin Alibhai-Brown ?
discuss
but seriously is the end of the left on the bbc. is it the end of the kneejerk call by bbc news teams to ask her, benn,yacoob,bungalawa,galloway bari,livingstone,sacranie for their point of view ?
What a harrigan. (Or should that be “an harrigan”?)
Whoops! I meant “harridan”. Getting late out here.
Sarah-Jane
I feel so…. used.
Now the BBC’s REALLY gotta go!
RE: the Yazzmonster. Of course her comments are ridiculous, and made from the standpoint that her views are the only ones that are valid, therefore the country is losing out by not having her to tell them what to think.
However, I think that they do conceal a wider truth, that the BBC, FOR THE MOMENT AT LEAST, appears to be taking on board the pounding it has received over the past few months. Question Time – with the exception of the awful Oxford programme, where it was the audience rather than the panel who were to blame most of the time – has had a balanced panel and even a more balanced audience; Newsnight has recently provided some good, cutting-edge journalism, and I have found myself switching back onto BBC News, having given it a seriously wide berth for a couple of years. Closed discussions appear to have been replaced by views from all sides having a hearing, and for the first time in my lifetime I have heard some arguments from the right as well as from the left.
Where the BBC still has a problem is via its radio and internet audiences. John Reith is always in a hurry to dismiss web-based articles as evidence of BBC bias, probably because the bias is so overt that he has little other defence. The website is hugely important, and will become even more so as time goes on. I tend to get most of my news online nowadays, as do many people I know. The BBC website is still hopelessly biased to the left, with its headlines straight out of the Guardian/Independent line of thinking.
The radio output is perhaps even more in need of reform. Many people have taken satirical sideswipes at the Today programme, encouraging us to imagine Jim Naughtie presenting it with the red Communist flag on the wall behind him – it’s hardly difficult to imagine. Everything on that programme smacks of groupthink. Questioning is always from the left, it allows no anti-European viewpoint, it is on a mission to bash the Conservative party whilst giving Gordon Brown a remarkably easy ride, it permanently sneers at big business and the high wages (not their own high wages, obviously), and skews the running order so blatantly it’s ridiculous. The Archers, once a fabulous radio soap opera, is now so politically correct as to be totally unbelievable. And its comedy is more a far-left talking shop. Yes, there are occasional funny bits, but compared to the excellent “Have I Got News For You” (which works fabulously because Ian Hislop takes absolutely everybody apart without being biased one way while Paul Merton gives the impression of not giving a stuff about politics while also being very funny), it’s awful.
Blankfrank states that
“All it says to me is that while the Devil may not have all the good music, the left certainly have the funniest comedians. The right have none of note.
So, when listening to Brigstocke on one of his rants, just switch on your own mental filter and enjoy. This lefty feller can sometimes be rather funny…”
Anyone who loves comedy and sees it regularly will tell you that that’s just not true. Pop down to your local Comedy Store and you will see some very funny comedians with far more in common with Bernard Manning (who WAS exceptionally funny as well as occasionally repulsive) than with Marcus Brigstocke. While I don’t doubt that there are some excellent left-wing comedians – I disagree with your analysis on Hardy and Brigstocke though – there are plenty of good ones on the right as well. The difference is, those on the left have been given their lucky break by television, those on the right have not.
So, to conclude, Peter (with tongue-in-cheek of course) asks, Should we close this site down? Of course not, but we must be more careful with our views. Recently some of the arguments on here have smacked of cherry-picking a la John Reith. Much of the BBC output has improved, and there are definite signs that the coffee is being smelt, especially in its mainstream televisual broadcasting. Biased-BBC has done much to bring this about, and it’s task now is to ensure there is no relapse. It’s other task is to target the radio side of things, as Radio 4 and FiveLive are as bad as they ever were. We must also make the BBC recognise that it is fully responsible for the content of the website, even if it is written by spotty Meeja Studies students. Personally I’d like to see Naughtie removed from the Today programme – I’d see that as an excellent move back towards the centre from the BBC. Or maybe to bring in Mad Mel or Mark Steyn (who comes across well on radio) as a co-presenter from time to time – after all, their views are no more ridiculous on the right than Naughtie’s are on the left.
Anyway, great work so far, still plenty to do.
Yaiku:
So long, Alibhai –
An air of stale curry
In the Bush house lavatory
Heron: Well you wanted more Bernard Manning types… and here’s Sitzfleischer to help out! Lovely.
Thanks David
I think you were “vaguely paraphrasing” me there. And I’m sure I added the disclaimer that it had to be funny, didn’t I? 😉
Is it a coincidence that one of Bernard Manning’s funniest moments came in response to housewife and TV superstar Esther Rantzen?
ER: “Anyone can tell a dirty joke. . . ”
BM: “Go on, then”.
With regard to the BBC’s broadcast output, I suspect they are trying to make an effort – having realized that its so much later in the day than they had thought. But even as they struggle, they are hampered by the atrocious slump in journalistic standards that a generation of lazy and incurious group-think has bequeathed them. The implosion of British institutional competence, sadly, isn’t confined to the BBC – I suspect it’s generational. The fact that standards of competence and honesty across the board seem to have slumped so badly makes recovery by this one institution that much harder. But if they are genuinely trying, we should at least acknowledge it.
That said, the Today programme is still a daily leftist assault on common sense. I’m not sure that simply firing Humphreys, Naughtie & Montaquin would cure the problem, but clearly you won’t even begin to make a start without clearing them out.
Dr R I am reasonably certain your tongue is firmly in your cheek but even so I am sorry if you feel deceived. It started off as a bit of a lark with poster TPO and stuck.
I have no doubt that the real Sarah Jane’s talents will find a home, BBC or no BBC.
Ali P – you asked me that before and I did answer in the negative. Honest!
PS Justin is merely ‘big-boned’
Dr. R & Sarah Jane, be careful, all is not as it seems with those fluffy bunny beeboid nature shows. They are regarded by country folk as having as much subliminal bias and down right miss information in them , as the Today programme.
If you want to see a realistic class of country programme, watch Horse and Country on SKY –
backwoodsman as a rural beeboid you wont find me arguing against the charge of a lack of BBC understanding of the country – from W12 at least. I am sure there are some regional correspondents who know what they are talking about, but they are not the mainstream.
“”Yasmin Alibhai-Brown can be depended on to be disloyal to blind interest groups and patriotism””
From her blog – excrutiating reading I can tell you.
So, patriotism is not big on her list? Patriotism to whom, we ask?
The Lady is obviously not loyal to the Great Britain my forebears fought so hard to achieve for her to swan in from Uganda & insult us.
Why do they bother coming here if all they want to do is change us?
Diddums – so the BBC are eventually allowing opinions other than those espoused by the internationalist liberal elite from the Guardinaista & the “not so” Independent?
I thought that redressing the balance would be seen as a positive thing for a national broadcaster, payed for by a tax, & with “impartiality” at its core?
Typical anti British uber liberal – she really has nothing in common with the indigenous British population from what i have read on her blog.
“That said, the Today programme is still a daily leftist assault on common sense. I’m not sure that simply firing Humphreys, Naughtie & Montaquin would cure the problem…”
I’m quite a fan of the Coombs-Hannity format on Fox news where two interviewers of opposing opinion put the questions to the guest. Imagine now on Radio 4 where Naughtie throws nice, easy, underarm questions to the likes of Jimmy Carter, and in comes Andrew Neil with something of greater difficulty. Neither questioner would be impartial (who can be?), but there would be balance.
Of course, the BBC is indefensible and has to go.
Head to Head or Hard Talk on BBC News 24 are similar to the kind of format Alan is talking about.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mz2j
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg2m
Never seen Head to Head, but Hard Talk isn’t anything like the Fox format. It’s just a Beeboid interviewing someone. Incidentally the problem with the Fox format is that (a) the right wing Fox has chosen a not very good left wing journo as its leftie interviewer, hence he usually comes off worst (I suspect that’s not an accident) and (b) on the rare occasions when he does get a right wing interviewee on the ropes, the format allows the interviewee to escape by falling into the protective arms of Hannity.
Having a friendly interviewer there makes it hard for the hostile interviewer to sustain a line of argument at anything beyond the superficial level.
It’s certainly worth a try, but old style BBC interviews are still doable, so long as the interviewer is willing to at least try to discipline his own prejudices. I always thought that Robin Day did OK, whether he was grilling a lefty or a righty. Brian Walden was pretty good too, though he was on ITV. The fact that he was an ex Labour MP didn’t seem to stop him being willing to give pretty much anyone’s views a good examination.
Lee Moore | 16.11.07 – 10:41 am
How do you rate Paxo in these terms?
I’m glad someone brought up Head to Head. During the last election they abandoned the normal format on at least one occasion when Polly Toynbee AND Yasmeen were pitted against a Telegraph journalist.
Paxo is a toothless old husk of what he thought he once was.
A bloody well paid one mind you.
He certainly hasn’t been the same since Ann Coulter dismantled him
John Reith,
I can’t take my eyes off you for a second, can I? Work keeps me away for a couple of days, and I see you once again (@ 14.11.07 – 11:45 am) putting words in my mouth:
“Interestingly, one of Yasmin’s readers has a very different take on BBC America from David Preiser of this parish.”
You quote this comment on Yasmin’s article from the Independent website:
“The BBC has a clear agenda here, and it’s “BBC America”. Auntie’s viewers and listeners in the UK will barely be aware that the BBC has an entire TV service in the USA, where it is (of course) pay-to-view. This means that whilst Licensepayers in Britain have no choice about whether they cough-up for the Beeb, the corporation is now on a suck-up to Uncle Sam mission in search of US subscribers. Those US subscribers, of course, aren’t going to pay their fine money to be told that their nation is ever wrong about anything. So all BBC content which might be re-used on their American networks (ie all of it) must now be Bush-friendly. And since Mr Brown told us at his Mansion House speech, that means Brown-friendly too, as the terms are now interchangeable.”
JR continues: “Nonsense, of course. But a different kind of nonsense than I’m used to seeing here.”
That’s right you don’t, because this comment was not written by me:
http://indyblogs.typepad.com/openhouse/2007/11/this-time-it-is.html#comment-89854160
I don’t use “Neil McGowan” as pseudonym, nor have I even looked at the Independent except maybe once or twice in several years. I have no idea why you connect me with this (I’m not even sure what this guy’s trying to say).
What are you playing at, JR?
He means that one of the readers of that blog has a very different take on BBC America than the one that you have,
yoy:
I just watched Ann Coulter vs Paxo and he does come across as tediously repetitive.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4aiHbUplz3k
“So do you stand by what you said on this…this and this…”
Yes she does Jeremy, how many more times does she have to say it?
He’s great when he interviews politicians who – like liberals – only speak what they think others want to hear, but he’s totally out of his depth when interviewing those that believe what they say.
“Sitzfleischer:
Yaiku:
So long, Alibhai –
An air of stale curry
In the Bush house lavatory”
Excellent. An eminently slappable woman.
David Preiser | 16.11.07 – 8:06 pm
Sarah-Jane is pot on: when I write
one of Yasmin’s readers has a very different take on BBC America from David Preiser of this parish
what I mean is that one of Yasmin’s readers has a very different take on BBC America from you.
Nothing sinister.
….the left certainly have the funniest comedians. The right have none of note.
So, when listening to Brigstocke on one of his rants, just switch on your own mental filter and enjoy. This lefty feller can sometimes be rather funny…
blankfrank | 14.11.07 – 6:39 pm
From the little I’ve been able to stomach of him, Brigstocke is far too grimly political and intent on pushing his agenda to be funny. Comedy is a very specific talent. A fine example, albeit from America, is Jackie Mason. He can have you in stitches on the very unfunny subject of politics – and anything else.
John Reith,
That’s all right, then. I withdraw my complaint.
I suspect that this Neil McGowan is just an angry partisan. You know the type: if the BBC doesn’t come out and declare Bush a war criminal and demand the immediate arrest of Darth Cheney, then they must be in fascist lock-step with the Rethuglikkkans.
I don’t see how any reasonable person could watch this broadcast and think it’s flag-waving We’re Number One Go USA. What of the bits about America is the worst polluter, the worst this, the worst that? Shilling for Hillary is not pro-Bush propaganda. It’s a joke.
It’s more likely that the real pandering in an attempt to get more subscribers is the endless repeats of over-sexed, insipid “dramas”, like Hotel Babylon, or Torchwood, and the equally endless stream of Channel 4 junk (Gordon bleeping Ramsey, the cleaning biddies, You Are the Crap What You Eat). That’s what the BBC bosses think will get more American eyeballs. That’s what they think of us. McGowan is a clown.
Spend a week (well, four days) observing Frei ‘s little sandbox. I can only stomach it once a week now.
Yazza: “it will shape the nation over the next ten years”
Yes Yazza, our nation (not yours) the one you despise.
Not that I think she is really correct anyway.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/11/18/do1807.xml
I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue is a very funny Radio 4 programme. It has a very British, self-effacing wit, in contrast to the PC earnestness of much BBC comedy. The likes of Jeremy Hardy are often very funny when they stay away from politics.