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.
More cocaine capers from the BBC.
@ Martin | 04.02.08 – 7:04 pm
Exactly. I could not agree more.
But why does no-one ask WHY are these unelected, unrepresentative, self-selecting, undemocratic, politically manipulative people should have this uncontrolled power in the first place.
Ninety percent of people get all their political information from TV and radio particularly the news programs. They just absorb what the broadcasters tell them as truth and fact. Unfortunately for democracy and the country, the staff of these programmes manipulate their presentation to favour Labour.
The sequence is this.
1) ignore bad news and fill the programme with foreign or bland news
2) if the issue cannot be ignored (because of the printed media), tell us how Labour have got the matter in hand and what they are doing about it, so we can all go back to sleep
3) only let an alternative to Labour’s views be heard if it will not show the Tories as a credible alternative government
4) if the Tories have to be heard let them be heard only in strictly edited clips or through a unsympathetic “political correspondent” and then tell us that their opinions are very dubious or are only for cheap political advantage.
These programmes operate as Labour’s propaganda arm – a modern day TASS.
NO opposition (Tory or LibDem) can operate properly under these conditions.
In the light of Labour’s friends manipulating radio and TV news, I think it is very likely that Labour will recover in the polls and we will never get these truly dreadful and dangerous people out of power.
Unless reformed these programmes make a mockery of democracy as no alternative view to Labour is currently allowed to be discussed.
A small, unelected group of possibly just 400 or so people having such power is a constitutional outrage. These people are unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable, self-appointing, politically motivated and interventionist.
They are keeping in power the most vile, corrupt, incompetent, mendacious, arrogant, dangerous and frightening Government I have ever known – and I have lived under 12 Prime Ministers. They have no right to do that.
They are taking our bloody country away.
There should be complete REFORM of how these programmes operate by the introduction of a new Code of Conduct.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=512292&in_page_id=1773
Gay Radio 4 presenter ‘drugged and raped man after New Year’s Eve party’
“As he was trying to kiss him he was hitting and punching, slapping and biting him,” Miss Briscoe said.
Wrench sexually assaulted the man despite being told by him to stop, she said. Then the presenter forced the man to perform a sex act on him, she added.
Tut tut
Once again, Channel 4 shows the sort of documentary that is virtually unimaginable on today’s BBC, ie one that might embarrass the government. Extremism in mosques, Red Ken shenanigans, violent crime and now pennsioner poverty – all recent docs on C4, all topics studiously IGNORED by the tax-funded BBC.
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C4, 8pm: Dispatches: Heat or Eat — The Pensioners’ Dilemma A look at how heating costs — despite government promises to the contrary — are impoverishing the elderly and their families, forced to pay for basic social services, and what life is like for senior citizens struggling with means-tested benefits and the state pension
“C4, 8pm: Dispatches: Heat or Eat”
The Beeb would never make this or broadcast it. To do so would 1/mean a barrage of bollocking phone calls from Govt spinmeisters because 2/ it would show that after 10 years in office NuLabour has singularly failed to help most vulnerable pensioners, and has in fact increased their financial burden.
These pensioners have only themselves to blame,the should have more wives.
Oops sorry,these are widows,they only get the one pension from their late husbands.
Still if they are over 75 they can huddle round the license free TV.
Best idea,on reaching 65 everybody gets a job with the BBC,problem solved.
Just watched Dispatches. No wonder the Beeb don’t make programmes like that any more.
What an indictment of 10 years of NuLabour. Pensioners worse off than ever, having to live in poverty and see the money they have paid in taxes frittered away on the governments wars and its pet projects in social engineering; while care budgets are cut year on year.
A worthy subject for Panorama? Not on your life.
Ah. But if you’re Scottish you can get decent care, so long as you live in Scotland of course.
Well done McBean and McLabour.
Funny thing is all our fat corrupt politicians give a S**t about is if they are being bugged when chatting up terrorists.
Ajax: A brilliant post. The BBC just don’t see it do they? Can anyone remind me of all the sleaze with McLabour and dodgy dealings?
I mean we could go right back to the Ecclestone thing, Mandelson and so on. Yet the BBC seem to only ever dig into Tory sleaze.
Just watched Ross Kemp in Afghanistan. Can’t imagine the BBC EVER showing British soldiers as human beings. Far better for the Beeboids to show them as baby killers and rapists, which is the standard view of the unwashed left wing snake bite drinking politics students.
Just watched Ross Kemp in Afghanistan. Can’t imagine the BBC EVER showing British soldiers as human beings. Far better for the Beeboids to show them as baby killers and rapists, which is the standard view of the unwashed left wing snake bite drinking politics students.
Michael Yon does a wonderful job of showing our troops in the light they truly deserve. Shame it takes a foreigner to do it properly.
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/men-of-valor-part-vii-of-viii.htm
Gibby Haynes: Good spot.
More Climat change crap from the BBC: Shukman claimed that “Spring has come early” because of climate change.
His evidence? A few daffodils a Kew Gardens.
Er excuse me Titman, but wasn’t a large part of the north and Scotland under snow last week?
And even down here it’s been frigging cold.
Nothing is flowering in my garden.
How can the BBC get away with these lies?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7221653.stm
Shukman is a prat.
Possibly a bit late on this one but here… http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7227080.stm
An article about climate change, which has the headline “CLIMATE SET FOR ‘SUDDEN SHIFTS’ Many climate systems will undergo a series of sudden shifts this century as a result of human-induced climate change.”
For me as a mild skeptic of ‘man-made’ climate change this title lacks the important qualification that is held later (hidden from the casual viewer) in the main text of, “a study suggests.”
A STUDY SUGGESTS! ONE! ONE SINGLE NEW STUDY. This does not seem to follow the imposing and definite title.
Anyway, theres my rant of the night.
Anthony, yes this is the report that that prat Shukman was using for his report from Kew gardens.
KEW FRIGGING GARDENS!!! What a prat.
Does anyone thing that Spring has come early? Not the people stuck in the snow from a few days ago.
This is utter bollocks pumped out by those two tossers Shukman and Harrabin. They are an utter joke the pair of them.
Murdoch Boasts: ‘Greatest Day Ever In The History Of Our Network’
http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/murdoch-boasts-greatest-day-ever-in-the-history-of-our-network/
How to run a broadcast network without Socialism.
BBC ignores global warming research
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/threelinewhip/feb/global-warming.htm
John Reith–
You recently argued on this site that the reason the BBC never uses headlines like “Palestinians bomb Jerusalem Pizza Parlour” was that do so would unfairly vilify an entire people.
What do you think of this headline, from yesterday’s BBC online:
“Lebanese man ‘killed by Israelis’ “?
( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7225408.stm )
Your argument was that it was okay to use the term “Israel strikes Gaza” because Israel is a sovereign nation, but because there is not yet a sovereign state called Palestine, it is unfair to refer to “Palestinians” as perpetrators where suicide bombs and Qassam rockets are concerned, for fear of mis-labelling an entire people.
So again, I ask, how do you account for this continuing, apparent double standard?
dave t – I’m pretty sure pounce’s earlier post about the clear bias over the biscuit reporting was done with humour in mind, and also encouraging people to separate the BBC from David Gregory. Certainly made me smile when reading it anyway. I have also noticed a depressing trend of some posts to be quite harsh towards David Gregory, Sarah-Jane, and John Reith.
I’m not saying they’re always right, but surely deserve less vitriol. Shouldn’t it be reasoned debate to highlight rather than cheap personal shots?
Enough of my waffle though:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7226563.stm
More environmental non-news. London is getting more signage (and cameras) with a new low emission zone, except at present it only covers 12-tonne lorries with diesel engines. From the article buses and coaches weighing 3.5 tonnes (I wonder what the bendy buses weigh) will be included from July, other vehicles from 2010. Only cars and motorcycles will be exempt.
It’s not clear from the article if cars and motorcycles will be exempt post-2010. Most modern vehicles fall within the limits already (so it seems a pointless scheme). As it’s affecting goods vehicles at the moment, it looks like another great anti-business intiative. A bit of information from Transport for London, but at the end of the article we see that: Mayor Ken Livingstone says 7 out of 10 Londoners are worried about the air they breath. Good old Ken looking out for the Londoners – and the BBC happy to provide a platform for him.
At least they provide the caveat that the low emission zone will do little to reduce CO2 emissions, which cause climate change. Hmmmm, hang on, I thought they were suspected to be contributory factors to climate change. Talking of climate change – the Chinese are not exactly loving their changed climate at the moment. Only they’re not cracking out the sunscreen, but rather the snowploughs…
PS I quite enjoy the Jonathan Ross Show, and Mayo+Kermode film review, but can’t stand that horror show of a ‘News’ quiz hosted by Sandi Toskvig (or whatever her name is)
Does anyone know the total number of people who actually run national TV News and national radio news programmes?
I do not mean cleaners of course, but do include cameramen, researchers, producers, presenters, journalists, “correspondents”, editors, video editors etc.
I want to know how many (or how few) of these unelected people are relentlessly shaping the country’s political views day after day.
Some further detail and awkward questions re BBC radio presenter and rape defendant Nigel Wrench
http://praguetory.blogspot.com/2008/02/february.html
Praguetory
Jeez, I didn’t know he was a full-blown AIDS sufferer.
PANORAMA. In last night’s episode(still available on the BBC iplayer “Making the drivel unmissable”, Jeremy Vine stated at the very end of the programme, “Some experts are predicting a 35% drop in property prices in the next five years” Who are these experts. How can the BBC justify making some bold statements without referring to the source. Scaremongering and sensationalist drivel. He also stated immediately before this that house prices have fallen across the country. What country, “England” or maybe perhaps United Kingdom.
Well take a look a look at http://www.rics.org/Newsroom/ Eco…ms_r_160107.htm where it is clearly stated that Scotland house prices are still rising.
This morning on the TOADY show was yet another example of NuLab bias, Montague did a report about the MP allowance scandal(nothing wrong with that) but the two examples she gave? Conway & Winterton. Whats the matter Montague, couldnt find a NuLab example to add?
Just to listen to her sneering tone is driving me to distraction and I suspect im not alone in this!
It was topped off with a ‘report’ into pensioner fuel poverty and Naughty went to great lengths to say that the NuLab regime was not to blame and of course his loaded panel guests went along with the agenda, and before the BBC CPU chips in, he actually said “nobody is suggesting that the government is to blame”! excuse me? not to blame? then just who is to blame? aliens? tories? the Jooos?
I am getting to the point that I wish these people harm and again I suspect that I am not alone in this.
Graeme Hunter: “Some experts are predicting a 35% drop in property prices in the next five years”
From an academic at the LSE, I think. Still, you’re right, it would have been good to name the source.
Anon – the Beeb’s article doesn’t tell you that he has full-blown HIV either.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7227246.stm
And of course it’s only regional news.
What’s the point of this story?: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7217209.stm
1,200 words on the fact a guy in the UK shares Obama’s name? Are the democratic candidates really that fascinating?
I have just listened to another stupid climate change story by the BEEBOID collective, this time a whacky story about daffodils flowering early. Hmmm, how about a few facts to go with that ‘report’? Kew gardens is a walled garden, for those among you not familiar with this, it allows gardeners a temperature controlled enviroment more suitable for growing and planting during the winter months. This was pioneered by the big country houses to provide the household with vegetables that could not be grown outside the walls. Kew gardens also have greenhouses and is in the middle of one the biggest ‘heat islands’ in the world, LONDON! higher mean temperatures combined with a walled and sheltered garden is going to fool some daffodils into flowering early. Now my question to the plank of a reporter is, would it be too hard to go and do a little research about heat islands and walled gardens? OR is this reporter scratching around for any story that will push the BBC pet AGW theories? regardless of the facts.
If a self confessed thicko like me knows about the above, why dont the brainiacs at the BBC?
@ Cassandra | 05.02.08 – 9:27 am
Heard it. Completely unacceptable.
That is what you get when you leave a few unelected, self-selecting people totally in charge of TV News and radio news.
OK, it is being done wrong, we know that only too well. It is a stitch up. So what is to be done about it? Nothing? Just let it continue?
What is needed is a modern and legally binding Code of Practice for the presentation of news and current affairs programmes.
We need a new single issue pressure group to DEMAND complete reform of the way these arrogant people run these programmes and have hijacked our country.
Enough talking – time for doing.
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Bad news for the beeb dudes –
Earlier this morning the most read story on the BBC website was the interesting one about the BBC R4 presenter and alleged gay rapist Nigel Wrench.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7227246.stm
This is despite the story not featuring at all on the BBC’s news front page. It couldn’t be they are trying to bury this one could it?
MP’s in expenses scandal!!!!!
Ah another dogy Tory I hear you say
Er well no, it’s our Mc Labour friends. I wondered by there was no mention of it on the BBC or no phone in on 5 live (as they do for every alleged Tory one)
Cassandra. I posted on this last night when that prat Shukman spouted his bile on TV.
Hmm. People were being dragged out of snow drifts 3 days ago. Spring? NOT in my garden.
Shukman is a prat.
Dear Martin,
I read your post, but I was not prepared for what I saw!
Total rubbish dressed up to look like news.
Is this how it works? several ‘reporters’ perpare reports on the ‘ishooos’, then they are given over to the BBC commisars who choose the one report that fits their warped agenda?
This would explain why these reporters try to outdo each other in their pathetic attempts to squeeze in ever more AGW/MMCC fantasies into each report.
BTW all credit to you for posting on this.
BBC World and pro-Belgium propaganda:
“Leading newspapers in Britain, France and Spain, as well as the BBC, are collaborating with the Belgian authorities to improve the international image of Belgium.”
‘Keeping up Appearances: Belgium Launches International PR Campaign’
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2932
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7227627.stm
No criticism of Prince Andrew for politicising the monarchy.
Its not even described in the usual BBC terms as ‘controversial’.
It is merely described as unusual.
I’m trying to imagine the BBC reaction if he had said something about a nation other than the US and some other topic than Iraq.
I dont have to think too hard.
I’m not having a go at monarchy per se here but rather the double standards being applied, either the royals stay above politics or they dont, but not just when it suits the BBC’s agenda.
Nice spot, Hannah.
Ajax writes
What is needed is a modern and legally binding Code of Practice for the presentation of news and current affairs programmes.
And the he/she adds the stirring
Enough talking – time for doing
Quite. Oh, hang on. What’s this?
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/codes/bcode/
Blimey! It’s the Ofcom Code! Even better, it’s legally binding on the broadcasters…
Now then, how do we cope with his/her entirely rational fear that…
That is what you get when you leave a few unelected, self-selecting people totally in charge of TV News and radio news.
Sound thinking. Which of our current crop of elected politicians would Biased BBC readers like to see in charge of BBC News? And why stop there? Let’s elect the people who run, oooo, News International, say…
Biased BBC: Time for Doing. But Doing What?
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Hillhunt: “Quite. Oh, hang on. What’s this?
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/c…fi/codes/bcode/
Blimey! It’s the Ofcom Code! Even better, it’s legally binding on the broadcasters…”
But the BBC Trust retains responsibility for regulating impartiality and accuracy at the BBC, doesn’t it?
And who’s Executive officer at Ofcom? Oh yes: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/csg/ofcom_board/biogs/e_richards/
Ed Richards, Senior Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister for Media, telecoms, internet and e-govt. Before that he was Controller of Corporate Strategy at the BBC. He also worked in consulting at London Economics Ltd, as an advisor to Gordon Brown MP.
Safe pair of hands, then.
Given the BBC’s loyalties, the Eu Referendum site suggests:
” A new logo? ”
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/02/new-logo.html
Hugh:
Last time the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit put its fingers all over a complaint? Why, yes, the famous cover-up over Queengate, which, er, led to the boss of BBC1 and the (ex-BBC honcho) boss of the RDF production company losing their jobs forthwith.
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:N7B8q8JylUYJ:www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/10_october/05/investigation.pdf+rdf+queen+complaint+bbc&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=uk&client=firefox-a
Safe hands indeed…
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So am I to take it that the Beeb will soon be publishing the Balen report which it itself commissioned?
Hillhunt: yes, they employed a Former BBC executive to write a report, which really slammed the BBC for “misjudgements, poor practice and ineffective systems”. Heavy stuff indeed. You can argue it was noble of Fincham to resign, but that’s not really the same as “losing” your job, which would suggest he was fired. And what RDF chose to do is really nothing to do with the BBC. So, to recap: widespread reports of Queen storming off in a huff prove to be entirely fictitious; no one is fired; no one is fined; life goes on.
Just watched Ross Kemp in Afghanistan. Can’t imagine the BBC EVER showing British soldiers as human beings. Far better for the Beeboids to show them as baby killers and rapists, which is the standard view of the unwashed left wing snake bite drinking politics students.
Martin | 04.02.08 – 10:13 pm | #
I suppose these (made in 06 & 07) were full of ‘sneering’ were they?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7071859.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/6187660.stm
The One Show had a piece on organ donor proposals for an opt-out system last night with all speaking in favour of the nationalisation of dead bodies.
Update on my foray into trying to get the facts of the Nigel Wrench case out of the BBC.
http://powercut.blogspot.com/2008/02/nigel-wrench-update.html
Hugh:
Y-e-e-e-s.
Don’t recall ever reading a piece as detailed as the BBC ECU’s about the failings of any rival media organisation. (Contrast with ITV’s self-serving attempts to limit the damage to Ant’n’Dec from the phone-line-cash scandal.)
If it was nobility rather than pressure which made the BBC1 man go, does that not speak equally well of the BBC’s culture? And ask anyone in the independent production industry – RDF’s man had to walk, or else RDF would never have sold a single show to the Beeb again.
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Hillhunt | 05.02.08 – 11:06 am
I think you are a troll. Who pays you?
Do you really think that we are unaware of Ofcom? The trouble is that it is not effective. We need a total reform of the way news programmes are prepared and presented.
I said in my earlier post that what is needed is a modern and legally binding Code of Practice for the presentation of news and current affairs programmes.
The very fact that a troll has responded shows that they are very worried about the idea. They do not like the idea that their effectively uncontrolled power to push the politics they want might be restricted.
Everyone said in the 1980s that over-mighty and arrogant Union power could not be controlled by the law – well, it was controlled. These news people are now similarly over-mighty and arrogant, they too can be controlled by a new legally binding Code of Practice, with fines and worse if they break it.
These are hugely powerful forces we are tangling with and we can expect a ferocious backlash, but unless they are controlled, we can kiss goodbye to any meaningful democracy. They and their dark forces of manipulation can be beaten.
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If it was nobility rather than pressure which made the BBC1 man go, does that not speak equally well of the BBC’s culture? And ask anyone in the independent production industry – RDF’s man had to walk, or else RDF would never have sold a single show to the Beeb again.
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Hillhunt | 05.02.08 – 12:46 pm | #
I seem to remember lots of people squawking that if what had happened at the BBC occurred in a commercial broadcaster, lots of people would lose their jobs (as it’s the ‘real’ world that people on here seem to think no one in the BBC inhabits).
How many people walked the plank at ITV following the scandal that was arguably of a far greater magnitude? Have a guess.
Coincidently they picked a rather handy day to release the findings of the Deloitte report…
Forget the legally binding Code of Practice, they’d soon get round that, that’s what they do. More simply, once everything’s gone digital, just turn the Beeb into a subscription channel. Then we’d see who’d be prepared to pay for it.
Ajax
These are hugely powerful forces we are tangling with and we can expect a ferocious backlash, but unless they are controlled, we can kiss goodbye to any meaningful democracy. They and their dark forces of manipulation can be beaten.
Er, y-e-e-e-s. Could we have your references? World of Warcraft? Or is is David Icke?
Biased BBC: The Dork Farces of Manipulation
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@Hillhunt
Who pays you?
Our news is being deliberately manipulated and twisted. That should stop.
We want a modern legally binding Code of Practice to ensure that we get high standards. The present system does not work well enough.
This Code of Practice will include a legally binding REGISTER OF INTERESTS for every one involved with the production and presentation of TV and radio news to declare any relevant interests, with financial and professional penalties for failure to disclose.
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