Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may be moderated.
JG:
Re – BBC’s ‘Spooks’ pro-‘Chavez’, anti-CIA episode tonight, this is another blatant example of the BBC’s political propaganda.
It not only demonstrates BBC drama’s political anti-American bias, it shows the BBC’s cowardice in NOT confronting the ISLAMIC JIHAD enemy.
This is not just a sickening trend inside the BBC, but extends to parts of Hollywood too. It is not surprising that in the 3rd in the series, ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ that the anti-CIA agenda, drifts into anti-Americanism.
(Who does Bourne turn to for help in exposing anti-CIA/anti-American baddies, but a Guardianista reporter.)
‘Jason Bourne, Anti-American?’
http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/08/jason_bourne_antiamerican.php
http://www.dailytech.com/Noted+Sea+Level+Expert+Accuses+IPCC+of+Falsifying+Data/article9978c.htm
Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner accuses the IPCC of falsifying and destroying data. Dr Mörner’s accusations include: surreptitious substitution of datasets, selective use of data, presenting computer model simulations as physical data, and even the destruction of physical markers which fail to demonstrate sea level rise.
Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner has been studying sea level change for 35 years. He is the former head of Stockholm University’s department of Paleodeophysics and Geodynamics. Dr. Mörner is and an expert reviewer for the IPCC, leader of the Maldives Sea Level Project, and past president of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes.
Mörner says it’s becoming increasingly hard to perform objective climate research. In the European Community, a prerequisite for research grants is that the focus must be on global warming. Papers which don’t support global warming aren’t funded. “That’s what dictatorships did, autocracies.” He added, “They demanded that scientists produce what they wanted.”
DT: Another article, another day when the BBC ignores the so called balance they should be reporting to the climate change farce. IF there is a problem I want both sides and ALL the evidence not just the BBC’s view!
Israel 12 ‘Militants’ 0
That’s made my week and it’s only Tuesday.
“”That’s what dictatorships did, autocracies.”
Why is anyone surprised,just look at how many of the member countries have been Communist and Fascist dictatorships in the last 65 years.Not a lot of democratic tradition there.
This is a genuine question, and if anyone can answer I would be grateful: Has there been an episode of Spooks where their enemy (and as such therefore the enemy of these islands) is a Muslim organisation?
As I say, i’d be grateful for any answers.
Could there be a connection between the furore over censoring the Pogues and the Lee Jasper scandal? It has diverted attention away from the Gilligan article! I wouldn’t put anything past the BBC nowadays.
I see Newsnight editor Peter Baron is defending his treatment of Policy Exchange on the BBC blog. A classic diversionary tactic to avoid any criticism of Islam.
The BBC has too much form to be trusted, thus their reporting of widespread child grooming/abuse in Northern towns refers to mere ‘groups’, and Turkish murdrrers of Christians become ‘nationalists’.
‘Spooks’ is back on BBC1 with their favourite villains the Israelis. One minute into the show and an Israel plane is shown bombing a school in Gaza killing around 60 girls. No Israeli is shown but we hear the pilot’s voice.
It is left to one of the Spooks to say(wearily) that Israel didn’t mean to bomb the school.
In return revenge is threatened (by Al quaida)against a school in England. Yet puzzingly the Gaza incident is not the focus of the show and is merely secondary to the main plot. Why?
Yep, just another opportunity to take a gratutious pop at Israel and the message is: Israeli actions are a menace to the whole world. Other countries are always acting in self-defence but the Israelis are always the instigators.
I know this is fiction and all that but wasn’t this show obssessed with the evil Mossad some episodes back, too?
Battersea – I didn’t see Spooks (switched off after Oilver Twist) but this incidental Israel bashing is tiresomely predictable. It’s the BBC default position. For instance in their series about food for the 6 o’clock News yesterday they did an item about food miles – and which label did the camera linger on a couple of times? – yes of course of all the countries in the world they could have chosen (admittedly alongside Peru and Spain) there was Israel. Food mile villains as well as murderers of innocent school girls.
Yes, let an Israeli get his own back on the BBC’s insulting, dishonest ‘Spooks’.
Here’s an Israeli’s comment on this infamous series, from about 1 year ago:
‘Spooking the Spooks: More on the BBC’
http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2006/10/spooking_the_sp.php
JG | 18.12.07 – 6:56 pm |
Spooks
“The team race to stop a CIA plan to assassinate the Venezuelan president in Britain”
You couldn’t make it up.
You don’t have to make it up. About once a week Chavez claims Bush is trying to have him killed. The Spooks writers are just using him for inspiration.
I wonder how their version of MI5 would act if it was Chavez plotting to assassinate Bush?
They’d probably make it a two-hour special and the Spooks team would help the Venezualans do the job.
Judging by the 95% vote in favour of not censoring the Pogues song, it seems that the British public are capable of distinguishing on an intellectual level the difference between racial heritage and engaging in certain forms of sexual behaviour.
Of course, the BBC would have censored it if they could. Which leads to the very obvious question, what do> they prescribe and proscribe in more insidious ways, in ways we never get to hear about? Just how much content is filtered before we ever get to hear it?
If the BBC is to survive, it needs to be far more transparent. For example, all HYS or MessageBoard comments that get rejected need to be publicly available, so we can see the decisions they make.
I love the way the BBC say they RELENTED and kept the original version of the Pogues rather strange Xmas hit.
Rather a Christian term to use….Father /Taxpayers forgive – we know not what we do!
Father/Taxpayers: About time you realised dear Beeboids!
The correct term should have been APOLOGISED – we pay your bloody wages Beeboids – WE switch off if we don’t like something – YOU don’t decide what it is that we listen to and adapt it to fit your tiny little viewpoint!
Battersea
As you say, spooks is just fiction, but IMO, this is where some of the worst BBC bias is located. The News section at least tries in some small way (but fails miserably) to give the impression of impartiality, but there is no such drive in the ‘entertainment’ output.
BBC comedy seems to consist of little else except Bush jokes, but the real, and very insidious, bias is in the ‘drama’. Every part of this output has a left-wing PC slant, from the Archers to Spooks.
Tonight’s Spooks was a classic of this genera, evil Americans and evil Israelis in a single episode, double-plus-good at the BBC.
Here’s a question. In light of the BBC view about a Fairey Tale of New York. Is the BBC a “Gay” dominated organisation?
BBC to buy homes from staff in £16m relocation bonanza
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=503321&in_page_id=1770
It’s strange how al-beeb only now has a problem with the fag word.
Another mini-classic on Israel today:
Israeli army crimes ‘unpunished’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7150604.stm
“An Israeli human rights group says the overwhelming majority of Israeli troops suspected of criminal offences against Palestinians are never indicted.’
So, shouldn’t that be ‘alleged crimes’ up there in the title?
“Between 2000 and 2007, it says, 239 investigations into the killing and wounding of non-combatant Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces had led to just 16 convictions.
…
The low number of investigations opened and the minute number of indictments served reveal the [Israeli Defence Force’s] de facto derogation of its duty to protect the Palestinian population”
But is this number of interogations and convicions really low, as claimed by this group? By comparison to what? To civilian criminal cases? to other armies in the world? The Beeb never asks.
For supposed balace, they quote an army source which in fact says nothing about numbers:
“A recent survey commissioned by the Israeli army said one-in-four soldiers who had served at checkpoints in the West Bank had witnessed or taken part in abuse of Palestinians.”
The “one-in-four” is supposedly intended to corroborate the allegation of a great number of offences, but note the “had witnessed or taken part”. So what is the real number of “had taken part”? The BBC never asks.
Also, the Beeb never asks how many of the complaints were perhaps lies and libels in which ‘Palestinians’ were caught numerous times, notably the Jenin massacre-that-wasn’t and al-Durah.
The bottom line: another example of the Beeb’s perfection of the lie-by-ommission as well as the mixing of fact and opinion. Technically, every word is true, but the result is at best an unfounded allegation and at worst a lie.
Can someone point me in the direction of the BBC article about the ‘carbon footprint’ created by the annual knees-up in Mecca?
Further to my 9:38 PM post above about Spooks and responses: I called the BBC to complain, straight after the show.
Interestngly, the Spooks web page makes no mention of the Gaza incident which in the show was meant to provide the rationale for the Al-quaida attack on a British school. Only the Al-Quaida threat is mentioned.
This is probably due to the BBC shamefacedly realising that they had gone too far in their demonization of Israel and so they airbrushv part of their own script out of existence (eat your heart out George Orwell).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/spooks/series6_ep10.shtml
Back to the actual show: I don’t care that the so-called Israeli bombing of the school was shown in the first minute and later hardly any mention of it is made. The scene was set for massive Israeli brutality. No Israeli is visually portrayed in the show (couldn’t the writers have written in an Israeli spokesman apologising for the mistake which is hinted at by the agents?). All we see is the plane and hear the pilot’s calm voice over the radio, after the bombing raid.
The BBC: demonizing Israel for the sheer fun of it.
I`m no fan of the EU but if they can undermine the NHS perhaps they can smash our State Broadcaster to smithereens too.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/410606/brussels-to-the-rescue.thtml
Anat
“Between 2000 and 2007, it says, 239 investigations into the killing and wounding of non-combatant Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces had led to just 16 convictions.”
This is analogous to the spurious “Convictions for Rape – All Men are Rapists” campaign supported by the BBC (Look at the sidebars giving direct access for evidence of the BBC’s agenda on this one). The conviction rate per case brought is about 50% according to this article in the Times: the conviction rate per case alleged is about 5%.
Re IDF allegations; quite apart from the statistical uncertainties, please also beware of the definition of ‘non-combatant’.
‘Environmentalist’ or anti-capitalist? Depends.
Green light for long-haul scampi?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7150834.stm
“The company submitted research to the independent Carbon Trust. The conclusion was that shipping scampi to and from Thailand is no more environmentally damaging than peeling it by machine in this country.
“What they found was that there was no difference between the two and the reason for that is simply that by moving from machine processing here in the UK to hand processing in Thailand saves a lot of energy and obviously a lot of the CO2 emissions associated with that.
“But at the same time the CO2 emissions associated with shipping to Thailand and back are actually very, very low.”
Asked if he can see why people may think the move was still “crazy” he says: “I can understand that perception but that perception is wrong.”
Faced with the inconvenient truth re carbon emissions of scampi travel, the enviro-loons then change the argument to anti-capitalist instead:
“Sending shrimp half way round the world to send it back again is just nonsense.
“They cover this up and distract it by saying it’s carbon neutral, but in truth this is about minimising costs and maximising profits.”
Err. Exactly. Better for the environment though isn’t it? So why aren’t you happy ‘environmentalist’?
Simple. You aren’t an envioronmentalist. You’re an anti-capitalist. So why pretend otherwise?
I’m waiting for the BBC to pulish a MMGW article along the same lines…..
Boo-hoo.
BBC fears for funding in digital future
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/19/bbc.ofcom
“The traditional link between the BBC and the licence fee could be broken as a result of wide-ranging reforms being considered by the media regulator, Ofcom, the Guardian has learned. One option under review could lead to the licence fee being sliced up so that money could be channelled to other organisations to spend on “public service” web and television ventures.”
Save our BBC!
More blubbering and navel gazing..
Anger and anxiety over corporation’s restructuring plans
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/19/bbc.television
“BBC buildings across the country are full of internal discord…
Many believe Thompson is secretly preparing for a world beyond the licence fee – hence the concentration on new distribution systems, promoting the BBC brand abroad through its commercial arm and a greater concentration on its web presence, and on big, eye-catching projects that have both public service value and commercial potential.
“There is no alternative to the licence fee was the strategy last time. We will need to be thinking about alternatives in future,” admitted one senior executive. But some, like this well-known BBC broadcaster, are gloomier still: “We simply have to do better than the arguments being advanced at the moment. Otherwise, it’s all over.”
Well, one can but hope….
As noted by other commentators, fun to watch BBC PC lefties hand wringing themselves into a right old tissy….
Radio 1 U-turn over Pogues lyric ban
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/18/bbc.radio
“Comparing this one innocent line in a 20-year-old Christmas hit to some of the vile, hate-filled homophobic music broadcast by Radio 1’s sister station, 1Xtra, I can’t help feeling the BBC couldn’t have got their priorities more wrong,” commented ColinPopshed.”
For those not familiar with the “hate-filled homophobic music” on ‘BBC Radio 1 Xtra’
BBC Radio 1Xtra
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/newto1xtra/
“Home of black music R&B….”
Remember only whitey can be racist, homophobic and islamophobic. Right, I’m off to Smack ma b*tch up!
No comment other than to refer you to Andrew Marr’s description of the BBC.
Ex-Blue Peter host to join Gaydar Radio
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/19/radio1
FT reporter takes swipe at the colossal waste of our money that is the BBC….
Nailing raspberry jelly to the BBC
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/867de62e-add3-11dc-9386-0000779fd2ac.html
“Team bonding at the BBC lends a fresh perspective to the term “dumbing down”. This month 200 staff from all over the country spent the day wandering round the BBC’s White City offices cradling robotic plastic babies and sidling up to strangers whispering: “I’ve got something for you.” The babies, loaned from BBC3’s teen show the Baby Borrowers , were programmed to scream and wet themselves. ( Of course I’m not making it up. You couldn’t, could you?)
According to Ariel, the BBC’s house magazine – sent to me under plain cover by a despairing insider – those present included Alan Yentob, the BBC’s creative director, and Adrian Chiles, presenter of The One Show on BBC1. Unwisely, perhaps, both allowed themselves to be photographed holding a baby. In between cuddling the damp, howling little robots, they had to undertake a sensory assault course. This involved “wading through pools of raspberry jelly and autumn leaves blindfolded”. Everyone who took part was asked to wash their colleague’s feet afterwards.
The bonding day cost £10,000. The BBC is currently looking for 1,800 job cuts to fund a licence fee shortfall of £1.7bn over six years – some £300m a year. Licence fee payers, who can be sent to prison if they do not cough up, might consider that BBC Learning is ripe for retrenchment.
Some 12,000 of the BBC’s 23,000 staff were paid £20m in bonuses last year by the licence payers. Mark Thompson, director-general, waived his bonus but was still paid £624,000.”
“robotic plastic babies”
Beeboids?
Noting to see here, move along now. Our Great Leader speaks….
Crises will be forgotten – Brown
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7151634.stm
“Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said recent scandals to have hit the government, such as data loss and proxy donations, will be “quickly forgotten”.
Phew. What a relief!
What’s so hilariously funny about some of the above postings, is how far Al Beeb has taken it’s eye off the ball.
While it’s been sending out lifeboats for the sinking ship of Islam to rescue all it’s doomed, they have failed to take care of the rapid subsidence of their own ocean going sea-liner.
If they’d have spent as much time trying to indoctrinate the publics mind into why they should save the BBC, as opposed to all this Islamification, Global warming and multicultural bollocks, they might have stood a chance.
Too little too late for the Beeb.
To see the BBC sink to the very bottom of the murky depths of history will be the most enjoyable spectacle of the century.
I look forward to it with relish.
In a manner to which we have become accustomed, though, the BBC paints a resolutely rosy picture of the proposal • whether it appears today or not • describing it as a measure “…that would have made it easier for patients to travel abroad within the bloc for health care.”
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2007/12/measure-of-beast.html
REG HAMMER: I agree. I think most people now see the BBC as nothing more than a bloated failed organisation full of losers who can’t get proper jobs.
However, our politicians will want to keep the BBC. In particular Labour as it’s a cheap way for them to get their message out to the masses for free. And far too many of our politicians see the BBC as a possible source of employment if they get kicked out of power later (just look at how many rejected politicians you see working in the media)
The voice of Sir John Reith from the inauguration of the World Service on December 19th, 1932 was replayed on Radio 4 this morning.
Sir John explained that the BBC would “transmit comparatively simple programmes ….” But those programmes would be “neither very interesting nor very good”.
How we laughed !
“George R:
Apparently, the BBC is unable/unwilling to communicate/comment on this news story nationally:
“British children targeted with sing-along DVD for would-be suicide bombers”
It re-enforces what we already know about the BBC’s unswerving commitment
to MULTICULTURALISM at any price.
Is the BBC’s silence on this part of its ‘social cohesion’ agenda?
http://www.jihadwatch.org/ archiv…15.php#comments
George R | 18.12.07 – 6:12 pm | #
Martin:
Well the Tory MP that handed the DVD over to the Police WAS interviwed on 5 lite an hour or so ago.
However, we’re more likely to see the BBC investigate the Tory MP or perhaps the receipt.
Stuff the BBC. It’s full of leftie nonces.
Martin | 18.12.07 – 6:23 pm | ”
I heard this and drew the obvious conclusion that this DVD originated with the Muzzies even as the piece was progressing (easy enough).
At no point however did the report mention that group, even the MP failing to bring them in (“the DVD is aimed at children” was as specific as they would be). Peter Allan nearly gave the game away though by asking if the MP knew if the DVD had been obtained via a mosque, at which point the MP (I didn’t even catch which West Yorks constituency it was – was it actually omitted so as to further hamper identification of salient communities?) blathered about it being wrong to speculate and that the mysterious figure who’d supplied it to him was too mysterious for him to even know anything more about him.
Not bias obviously but apparently Nick Clegg’s role model is Cherie Blair:
“The role models
By keeping her own name, rather than taking her husband’s, Ms Gonzalez Durantez seems to be following in the footsteps of Tony Blair’s wife Cherie, who used the moniker Booth whenever she was working.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7150476.stm
Except Spanish women never change their surnames when they marry. Now I know that, like so much else, it’s because of Cherie Blair.
Ikes that should have been his “wife’s role model”. I hate to think who he models himself on – I wouldn’t like to meet that person.
Do we really need six ‘Gordon Brown said’ articles and three photographs of the psychologically flawed snot-gobbler on the Politics homepage?
Is the BBC Broon’s personal PR agency or something?
[16:34]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm
Time to form the organisation for the dissolution of the BBC – OFFUK.
Ok, somebody hell me here. But can somebody point me to the direction of this story in the BBC.
Home Office grants 19,000 asylum seekers permission to remain
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2229067,00.html
Cancel my last. Changed the search parameters
And found this;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7149555.stm
More boo-hoo, anguish and naval gazing from in-house BBC rag The Guardian (although a weary acceptance that the fight for the future of the licence fee may be lost…)
The BBC’s fuzzy picture
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/emily_bell/2007/12/the_bbcs_fuzzy_picture.html
“But can the licence fee really be sustained? A tax on a television set when you are much more likely to be watching TV on a phone or computer in the future? It’s not sustainable, for sure. But it doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some lavish and anomalous funding of public service content – that seems to me to be both vital for our culture and national morale – but we have to be comfortable with the idea that it is anomalous, that it sits outside the market and that, sometimes, it doesn’t matter if nobody watches it.
The problem the BBC has is that it cannot make a case, or a coherent strategy, for how its continued existence should be funded unless it is clearer about its core values. The staff and the government need to know that the swathes of cuts will result in something better, and not just new offices in Manchester. For this the leadership has to connect with a few hearts and minds and these, for the moment, Thompson seems to have completely lost.”
Sproggett: That is exactly what the BBC has become, Gordon Brown’s “personal PR agency”
I see that the BBC is back to its old tricks on its Politics home page. Lots of pro Labour and pro Lib Dem stories but only anti Conservative ones. Quick analysis on my site – http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2007/12/bbc-political-bias-again.html
“Do you see a pattern? Mention the Conservatives only when it can be negative. Positively mention the Lib Dems and Labour as much as possible. Anyone would think the BBC were biased against the Conservative party, surely not …”
I have a lot of expierence in covert undercover work.
And maybe, just maybe, a few of those receipts have been done by the oprative, after the event.
Not always easy to get receipts from people who know what they are selling is dodgy.
Example: I could’nt, whilst purchasing fake Ben Sherman shirts at Hackney Marshes market. The shirts were countfiet and I made the purchases. I was asked by the client to get receipts, but not possible.
Or, and I’m sure we’ve all done it. The receipt was written by the operative after the event, to reclaim his expenses.
Guantanamo 3 releasised and on their way back to the UK.
How nice they’ll be back for Christmas.
Oh I forgot! If they had their way, they would bomb Christmas out of the UK and replace it with sharia law.
Silly me.
The BBC picked up some prizes but missed out to Chriatianne Amanpour on the biggie.
Dishonest Reporter Award 2007
Worst Use of Taxpayer Money (UK): BBC
The BBC spent £200,000 in legal fees to cover up Malcolm Balen’s 2004 internal report on the news service’s Mideast coverage. So far as the publicly funded news service was concerned, the money was well spent; the Beeb fended off a legal challenge by London lawyer Steven Sugar, who sought a copy under the Freedom of Information Act.
Sugar’s success in an earlier stage of legal proceedings led to an avalanche of similar FOI requests (including one from HonestReporting). All were turned down.
Special Achievement in Verbal Gymnastics: Jeremy Bowen
The BBC’s Mideast Editor wins for this sentence: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6223388.stm
“There is no dialogue with those murderous terrorists,” Mr Abbas said, referring to Hamas militants.
Reflected Glory: Dumbest Reaction to Alan Johnston’s Kidnapping: National Union of Journalists
After BBC reporter Alan Johnston was kidnapped by a Gaza clan linked to “The Army of Islam,” Britain’s National Union of Journalists sprang into action – by boycotting Israel. This NUJ statement explains why:
We work closely with the Palestinian union through the International Federation of Journalists and the boycott call was a gesture of support for the Palestinian people – notably those suffering in the siege of Gaza, the community Alan Johnston has been so keen to help through his reporting.
Worst Pundit: Abd Al-Bari Atwan:
Bari Atwan, a regular commentator and analyst for BBC and Sky News, told ANB Lebanese television he’d dance in Trafalgar Square if Iranian nuclear missiles ever hit Israel. He’s still a talking head for both news services.
Tim:
Guantanamo 3 releasised and on their way back to the UK.
How nice they’ll be back for Christmas.
Oh I forgot! If they had their way, they would bomb Christmas out of the UK and replace it with sharia law.
Silly me.
—————————————–
They’re innocent, don’t you realise?
But why oh why don’t the Beeb open an HYS on this topic? Probably because they realise the general public aren’t as in love with this bunch as the BBC and their Guardianista stooges are.
“Guantanamo 3 releasised and on their way back to the UK”
But only to pick up their four grand prior to departure to a new life somewhere warm.The kind of place that many license fee victims cannot afford.