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. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would also be appreciated!
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The BBC and its geo-political designs: TURKEY on the BBC site here is classified under ‘Europe’.
I wonder why? Nothing to do with the BBC propagandising for Turkey’s entry into the European Union, has it?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/default.stm
They will probably try to justify it on the fact that a very small part of Turkey is in Europe.
They did the same with Micheal Palin’s “New Europe” the other month, justifying it by saying that Turkey is both European and Asian because a small part of Turkey is in Europe. But the vast majority of Turkey is in Asia. This is true with Russia aswell, but did Micheal Palin go to Siberia in his “New Europe” programme?
No, he didn’t, because there are no plans for Russia to join the EU. The clue was in the title of the programme “New Europe” ie New Europe = countries that recently joined the EU or that the BBC want to join the EU. Russia isn’t “New Europe” because there aren’t plans for it to join the EU.
> Hi,
>
> NPF reported yesterday that Roger Waters and Nick Mason were to
> perform at the Winkfield pub in Berkshire this coming Saturday 23rd
> February. I have since been told by Pink Floyd and Roger Waters’
> management that this is NOT true.
>
> The story on NPF came about after BBC Berkshire announced it on their
> website. Apologies if this has caused any inconvenience to anyone.
> Blame the BBC!!!
>
> It was too good to be true though wasn’t it?
>
> Feel free to discuss this issue on the forum….
>
> http://forum.neptunepinkfloyd.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18801
>
> Thanks.
>
> Keith Jordan
>
> NPF Admin
>
Good news: BBC has moved Turkey from ‘Europe’, to ‘Middle East’, on its news site.
(see10:52 am above):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/default.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7261204.stm
” Cuba to select Castro’s successor ”
Almost makes it sound like the Cuban people are going to choose – the BBC is sure to point out that there are such things as elections.
They just couldn’t bring themselves to mention that Cuba is a one party state, all other political parties being illegal….
while News 24 is blaming melting glaciers on global warming for rising sea levels / rising tides (keeping it in the news for upcomming earth day)their web site says the melting antartic glaciers has got nothing to do with climate change, but under-water volcanos
suppose their ongoing contradictory reporting balances itself out 😆
“Good news: BBC has moved Turkey from ‘Europe’, to ‘Middle East’, on its news site.
(see10:52 am above):”
George R | 24.02.08 – 2:37 pm |
Bad luck George R, your victory lasted for just 3 minutes. I’m looking at the Europe homepage now and the Headline is: US urges short Turkish campaign. The timestamp for the page is 14:40, 3mins after your post. They are playing games with you!
Also on the “Europe” homepage:
– Turkey-Iraq tensions fuel confusion over scale of incursion
– Turkish headscarf ban ends
Yes, from that communist propaganda broadcast, sorry ‘article’, above:
“The 614-member assembly, itself elected during polls in January, will also select a vice-president and the entire 32-strong executive Council of State.”
What the BBC don’t tell you is that each seat was allowed precisely one candidate…guess which party…
The BBC aren’t even telling us half a story here.
Yet more bollocks from the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7259004.stm
I quote;
“…The airline industry is being increasingly criticised for its perceived part in global warming, as more and more people take advantage of cheap tickets on aircraft powered by kerosene. Environmentalists claim it is a major carbon producer, fuelling rising world temperatures…”
I don’t see ordinary members of the public attacking the airlines for cheap flight, do you?
No, it’s the left wing mafia at the BBC and the Environmental groups.
The point of Branson’s flight is to actually show if a plane can perform using a mixture of fuels, he’s not trying to say it’s the silver bullet.
Only the thick environmentalists fail to get that and the BBC are fully onboard.
As Branson pointed out, there are no end of “enivronmentalists” that like to climb aborad his aircraft (no doubt Business Class) and fly off to their conferences all around the world.
Developing alternative fuel sources seems to be a good idea to me, it means were not forced to arse lick Muslim Countries (and that HAS to be good news)
The newsreader on Saturday’s Today programme introduced a report by Martin Redfern with the following:
“Scientists working in a remote region of the western Antarctic say vast tracts of ice there are becoming increasingly unstable. They’ve monitored the movement of one glacier and say it’s speeding up significantly because ocean currents are getting warmer.”
Redfern then gave an account of the British Antarctic Survey study of Pine Island Glacier and concluded that the ocean “seems to be undercutting the ice and lubricating its flow. If this continues, say the researchers, the Pine Island Glacier alone could raise global sea level by 25cm.” (Ever noticed that climate-related scare stories are always riddled with qualifying phrases such as “if”, “could”, “might” and “seems”? Statistician William M Briggs made some interesting obervations on this – http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/01/15/what-can-we-learn-about-global-warming-from-poor-reporting/ )
Redfern didn’t say when this 25cm rise “could” occur, but that didn’t matter. The ominous threat had been conveyed to the Today audience, with the repeated reference to warm ocean currents acting like the aural equivalent of a subliminal message flashing the words “GLOBAL WARMING!”
What the Today listeners were not told was the following fact, which Redfern has buried way down at the bottom of his online account of the same story:
Much higher up the course of the glacier there is evidence of a volcano that erupted through the ice about 2,000 years ago and the whole region could be volcanically active, releasing geothermal heat to melt the base of the ice and help its slide towards the sea.
Why was that little revelation deemed too trivial for the Today listeners? And I won’t accept “time constraints” as an answer.
From Redfern’s online report we also learn that the 25cm sea rise which “could” happen does in fact have a time scale. It “might” take decades or a century. Of course, it “might” not. Just for good measure Redfern concludes by saying that “if the entire region were to lose its ice, the sea would rise by 1.5m worldwide.” There’s no further information but it doesn’t matter – what’s important is THE TERRIFYING PROSPECT OF IT ALL!!!
One other little thing I noticed. In both his radio and online reports Redfern uses the same phrase to state that air temperature is not a factor: “The reason does not seem to be warming in the surrounding air.” Does this mean there is warming but it is having no effect, or that there is no warming? I’m cynical enough to wonder whether this precise wording was chosen so that Redfern could avoid saying the latter, which would need further explanation, what with all the global warming and everything. That said, I am very cynical.
(Re British Antarctic Survey. On October 16, 2006, Science Daily reported that a study published in the Journal of Climate, based in part on BAS findings, had concluded that the collapse of the Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica was due to stronger westerly winds “driven principally by human-induced climate change”. On February 11, 2008, Science Daily reported that a study by other scientists in the Journal of Glaciology had concluded that “the shelf was already teetering on collapse before the final summer” and that “ice-shelf break up is not controlled simply by climate. A number of other atmospheric, oceanic and glaciological factors are involved.” It’s taken less than a year and half to undermine the original report blaming MMGW, but I bet it had the desired effect – more funds for future BAS expeditions.)
Environmentalists have noted the apparent decline of beeboid eco trolls over the few weeks.
It is thought that their optimum temperature range for activity has declined from plus one degree centigrade decade on decade to a global flatline of zero degrees centigrade since 1997.
This has caused beeboids to retreat to a less challenging environment (the noddy news interview,with sympathetic, self promoting
groupthinkers).
With the percieved lack of agm floating in the blogosphere the beeboid troll is unable to stimulate its adrenal panic brain functions which, fortunately disable it`s main attack/defense method,squirting
clouds of fear,panic and disinformation from its anus.
The torpid trolls can be found hunkered down in bars,drinking bottled water waiting for an extra raindrop to fall,one extra sunny day or one feathered/furred creature to show signs of distress at which time they will spring back to life raucusly screeching `The sky is falling in! the sky is falling in! it`s your fault! your fault!
The feeling is that total thermal rigidity over the entire planet for fifty years or so will result in the complete extinction of the beeboid eco troll.
Still fingers crossed eh?
…and coming soon to Gardeners’ Question Time, ‘Global Warming and What It Means For Your Garden’.
Heard this afternoon – not quite verbatim but the sense is correct.
What next? A one-off Chinese episode entitled, ‘Six Feet of Snow and What It Means For Your Garden’?
Third-rate, truly third-rate.
…missing the point entirely that gw will do nothing to my garden,or my sons garden, and may in about about a hundred years do almost nothing to my decendents gardens.
Auntie suffers real obsessive compulsive issues on the environment,maybe they think it`s a `fluffy` issue and just want to be loved.
Can`t they see that a green driven agenda will de-industrialise the west and the emergent eastern economies,killing far more people than global warming or any middle east conflict.
bbc wilfully setting the wrong agenda.
DB
Thanks for that William Briggs link.
Academia needs more people like him and fewer charlatans peddling blatantly unscientific guff.
Banjo,
I think they see that precisely. They are nihilists either through ideology or stupidity. Or both.
In its predominantly pro-Islamic ‘history’ of Europe, put out on the BBC in tv series such as those of Rageh Omaar, now moved to the pro-Islamic, al Jazeera TV, and by Andrew Graham Dixon in Part 1 of the recent ‘The Art of Spain’, a critical anti-Islamic view was censored out of existence. To give an indication of historical accounts which are critical of Islam in Europe, views which do not figure at the BBC, see, e.g,:
“The Truth about Islam in Europe”
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3017
I’ve just seen the end of Tropic of Capricorn on BBC2. It is a roving documentary on the wildlife and geography of the region and it was set in Australia tonight. The BBC used to be good at this but in the five minutes which I saw, it really had the MMGW glasses on. Coral reef is disappearing because of MMGW so we need to do something now etc. As if man can control the Sun’s activity!
Then the presenter said that he “expected to find insular communities but instead found that Austarlians were aware of the wider world” (paraphrased). Well Beeboid, Australia is a developed country with things such as telecommunications, satellite TV, internet etc and one would expect that Australians have awareness of the wider world: from what I see in the internet, many Aussies are aware of the BBC’s bias. Seriously, did this presenter really expect to find in-breds shagging sheep in the outback? Where does the BBC find these idiots?
I caught part of the generally good “Coast” on saturday.I noticed the script called for Sir Francis Drake to be lambasted as a slave trader.This may very well be the fact.Different times.However no mention was made of the same navy’s involvement in ending the slave trade centuries later.And of course the defeat of the Armada was barely mentioned.Thus a pivotal moment in English and European history is used as propaganda and to make us feel guilty for the past.What next?Find reasons to debunk Nelson.Wellington and the pilots in 1940?There is something relentless in the BBC’s trashing of England.I suspect it is for the same reason the BBC is reluctant to permit a serious examination of the Lisbon Treaty and the moves to a federal Europe.It is becoming obvious that the English may be the only people in Europe who the EU elites are really afraid of and the BBC is as they say”only following orders”
Here it comes!
The great british windmill powered caliphate of euristan!
In the spirit of EU solidarity,funding for the BBC should be regarded as an unfair state subsidy and banned under EU competition directives.
Dave S: Don’t you know? The Armada was defeated by the “Moozlum” navy. It’s a fact stated by the BBC so it must be true.
Re: Tropic of Capricorn. Agree with a previous correspondant on the disproportionate of MMGW comment. No mention of the effects on El Nino on coral growth, I noticed.
The concentration on the dry outback in Queensland was particularly ironic, as my understanding is that much of the outback has received exceptional amounts of rain this year. I fully expect the featured outback station is a now a sea of lush grass. However, to be fair, the programme did show one of local farmers expressing the view that the climatic wet/dry was entirely cyclical, and more or less saying that MMGW was a scam.
Crikey, comment sense views allowed on the Beeb. Whatever next?
Martin.
In historical reality, British people on the 16th and 17th centuries were being enslaved by Muslim raiders from the North African, Barbary Coast, even according to BBC History website:
“British Slaves on the Barbary Coast”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml
BIAS ALLERT..Don’t worry nothing new, its Farming Today, an everyday story of leftwing townies broadcasting utter biased bollocks to upset us peasants and , in the unlikely case that joe public are listening, reinforce all the beeboid predjudices !
Presenter talking about bovine TB….and here to sum up is Dr. Stephen Harris from Bristol University – Stephen Harris , notorious animal rights nutter, who’s paid for by the antis, ‘and who’s ‘research’ on foxes was derided as completely implausible.
Next segmant, beeboid asks MP campaigning for local lamb to be purchased for Govt canteens, why not imported lamb ? Because the viability of our whole upland eco system and economy is largely dependant on sheep as the only thing that can be reared there, you mong !!!
Martin:
It’s just a question of time before the BBC comission a documentary or report that proves all of our ancestors are muslims or that christianity was born from Islam.
Watch and see.
This is what happens when the Islamic Republic of Pakistan goes ‘democratic’ – it blacks out YouTube so as to impose ban on cartoons of Muhammad:
“Pakistan ‘sparks YouTube outrage'”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7262071.stm
( I feel a BBC ‘HYS’ coming on: ‘Was Pakistan correct to stop YouTube showing that absolutely terrible infidel cartoons’?)
Earlier posts about the BBC’s confusion over the geographical location of Turkey prompts a classic example of how the real world is too complicated to fit into the BBC’s simple-minded political worldview.
On the one hand the BBC is sympathetic, as Turkey is both a muslim country and a democracy and applying to join the BBC’s beloved EU.
Set against this are a few inconvenient truths.
Turkey co-operates with the only other democracy in the middle-east, that BBC icon of decency, Israel.
Turkey is a member of NATO and has been, historically, a close ally of the great Satan, the US.
Then there is the Cyprus question where , predictably, the BBC takes the Greek side.
On the Kurdish issue, no guesses which side the Beebs are on there, even sometimes calling the PKK a “separatist movement” as if it is a sort of middle-east SNP.
So it is difficult for the BBC to slot Turkey into its black or white pigeon-hole. However, over the years I have followed the coverage, I would say the BBC is generally quite hostile to Turkey.
How low can the BBC get?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/02/25/dl2502.xml
Senior Labour MPs defend Speaker
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7262190.stm
A perfectly reasonable and accurate headline for the story. But the link from the news front page is entirely different.
MPs rally round Speaker Martin
This is completely misleading. The Speaker is normally supported by all sides. The conspicuous absence of support from anyone other than Labour MPs is THE central feature of the story • it is the complete opposite of what MPs (of all parties) are supposed to do. The link suggests they are doing now what they normally do. But they’re not.
The link’s failure to mention that it is Labour MPs and only Labour MPs who are supporting the Speaker flips the story on its head.
(And no it’s not a case of “we didn’t have the space” – Labour MPs rally round Speaker uses an identical amount of space.)
BBC Obama worship: The Groupie’s
progress:
Fri 22 Feb:
“”…I have just had an email from the Obama camp claiming – in effect – that that Hillary strong ending was itself plagiarised from John Edwards!…”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/
Mon 25 Feb:
“…I am writing this in a hotel in Cincinnati waiting to hook up with Team Obama for a magic carpet ride across the wonderful state of Ohio. Not that I have yet been offered even the tiniest sip of Kool-Aid but I wonder if the extent of the certainty of the Obama victory is being under-reported out of – for want of a better word – cowardice? …”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/
The vile Victoria Derbshire has been screaching her head off this morning in support of speaker Martin.
She “claimed” to one caller that we’d all do the same if we could. That just about sums up all Beeboids.
They even got Shami’s sister on to give a report that clearly indicated support for Martin
backwoodsman | 25.02.08 – 9:23 am,
BBC bias is only exceeded by its ignorance.
The speaker story also makes a major ommision.
The Sunday Times also reported that he had claimed £17,000 a year for his home in Scotland and £7,500 in costs for using that home as an office.
SPEAKER’S DUTIES
Keep order during debates
Ensure House rules obeyed
Act impartially
Represents Commons
Chooses MPs to speak
Can suspend sittings
Protects interests of minorities
These figures had been publicly declared already and there is no suggestion Mr Martin had not used his allowance correctly.
No mention of the main fact – he has paid his mortgage off on the house
Re Speakergate, BBC telly news last night lead off by asking the question “Victim of a vendetta?” – and then offered no evidence of such a vendetta.
Interesting how the Beeb is making such an effort to turn the story from being one about the taxpayer being allegedly ripped-off to one about class prejudice against Martin – which the accusers have been careful to avoid.
Credit where it’s due: in a few well chosen words Nick Robinson on Today this morning rubbished the Right “Honourable” Member for Warley for his robust but unconvincing defence of the Speaker (“it’s all those snobs in the Press gallery and on the opposition front bench”, “if you have evidence of expense fraud by members of the Commons, complain to the House of Commons apparatchiks” who coincidentally report to the Speaker).
Nick noted that leading the hunt against Mick over the weekend was none other than that well-known snobs’ paper – the Mirror. Martin Bell was also given time to have a go at Spellar and Mick (much to Naughtie’s evident but impotent discomfort).
This site has gone way downhill and the crazies have taken over.
Bye then.
Not surprisingly, there are tensions between the pro-Islamic al-Jazeera English news service, and the rest of the al-Jazeera organisation:-
“Morale at al-Jazeera English has beeb poor since its launched year ago, a factor that has contributed to tensions between English-speaking journalists and their Arabic-speaking counterparts.”
‘Al-Jazeera in fight to retain expat staff’..
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article3427826.ece
Not suprisingly, the Arab bosses in Qatar do not come across as democratic. Information from their board meetings is very difficult to come by. And we’re not on to their politics yet, which are globally pro-Islamic, of course, and appears sympathetic to Al-Qaeda. Would any Beeboid, or ex-Beeboid want to work at Al-Jazeera? I know that mindless ‘multiculturalism’ can carry you in strange directions, but surely there are fundamental principles at stake here.
“Algerian Press declares War on ‘Terrorist’ Al-Jazeera”..
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP179407
How many BBC staff went to the Hollywood Oscars, and what did it all cost, and what was the size of the ‘carbon-footprint’?
Think: WHY?
“4,000 new Midwives to be employed”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7259392.stm
This extra cost to UK taxpayers is part of the extra SOCIAL COSTS OF IMMIGRATION, which are inclined to be blithely ignored.
Yeah bye Rockall. Don’t slam the door in your face on the way out.
Front page news – our great leader speaks:
Brown defends ‘very good’ Speaker
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7262190.stm
“Gordon Brown has defended Commons Speaker Michael Martin, describing him as having been “very, very good”.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Next the BBC will be reporting that Brown says some MP “wear very very nice shoes” or some MP “has a very very nice smile”.
Martha Kearney on R4 WATO lunchtime, when discusiing the speakers predicament, did well to include in the conversation class war, smears, GB’s support, and the fact that “8 years is about right length of time served for a speaker” (Martin has done about 7.5 years), whilst managing to avoid any discussion whatsoever about the actual substantive allegations regarding financial irregularity. Questions like:- What are the rule re spouses expenses? Does that include taxi journeys for shopping for personal items? didn’t make it into the running order.
Would Martin receive the same treatment were he a ‘Tory’? You decide.
How come the ‘investigative’ journalists all run and hide when it’s ‘the party’ who need investigating? Unbelievable bias.
Ritter – I agree with you entirely. But I did detect a note of sarcasm – even from the loyal ranks of the BBC – on Brown’s hilarious “very very good” comment. Brown sounds more feeble every day. Even his voice gets ever quieter. I think it’s a safe bet that most listeners would think neither Michael Martin nor Gordon Brown are “very very good”.
A ‘scoop’ for ex-BBC man, Gilligan on airport security, Channel 4, ‘Dispatches’, 8 pm GMT TONIGHT:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23441564-details/We+blew+hole+in+fuselage+with+mix+of+easily+disguised+liquids/article.do
Martin and McBean are two cheeks of the same backside. A big hairy one in a tartan skirt.
Radio 4 Six pm news today. To the effect that :-
“MPs today backed Speaker Michael Martin…. ”
No reference to which MPs or how many.
Really, the BBC have no shame whatsoever !
Martin 6.25
I am not so sure. Brown’s description of Michael Martin as “very, very good ” is hardly a ringing endorsement in NuLabspeak.
It will be interesting to see for how long he can hang on, even with the support of the BBC.
If he goes , you could almost write the script. Phrases like “bowed to pressure” spring to mind. And “resigned to clear his name ” !
On the 6pm news the BBC ran the following story about the new seed vault in Norway. According to the 6pm news the main reason was “climate change” (yawn)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7262525.stm
Again it’s mentioned in the above link abut further down it’s clear that this is NOT the only (or main) reason.
So why does the BBC feel the need to distort everything because of their twisted beliefs about climate change?
“safeguarding world crops against possible future disasters including nuclear wars and dangerous climate change.”
Dangerous climate change..maybe nuclear wars aren`t so dangerous?
Please note in future, `man-made global warming` may be replaced with `dangerous climate change`even if it`s completely natural.
The bbc science(“i can do science me!”) correspondants have yet to tell us what the current temperature is supposed to be,or explain when and why a `consensus of top climate scientists` have decided en mass to reverse the usual order of cause and effect as regards temperature rises following co2 increases.
At least their not allowing real science to get in the way of a good story.
Serbia-Kosovo has soon disappeared from the BBC (and MSM) headlines, but the BBC’s Mark Mardell at least has:
“Toothless Serb Syndrome”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2008/02/toothless_serb_syndrome.html
Melanie Phillips has:
“Is this crazy, or is this crazy?”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/521441/is-this-crazy-or-is-this-crazy.thtml
And American Congress for Truth has:
“Kosovo: the future of Eurabia? Watch this video!!”
http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2008/02/23/kosovo-the-future-of-eurabia-watch-this-video/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=518641&in_page_id=1773
Klein has previously broken ranks with the politically correct views of the corporation.
At the end of 2006 he admitted the broadcaster was out of touch with the British public, saying it was guilty of “ignoring” mainstream opinion.
Speaking to a room full of TV viewers and BBC staff, he suggested that if the current situation continued it could affect the organisation’s long-term future.
Klein said: “By and large, people who work at the BBC think the same and it’s not the way the audience thinks. That’s not long term sustainable.
“We pride ourselves on being ‘of the people’ and it’s pathetic. Channel 4 tends to laugh at people, the BBC ignores them.”