Right folks, time for a little clarification regarding my input, content and intent here on Biased BBC.
1. I was INVITED to write here. If any of you have an issue with what I write take it up with the site owner. I write it as I see it and could not care less if that offends some tender wallflowers out there. The BBC deserves MUCH harsher criticism than I provide!
2. The frequency of my posting here seems to concern some. If this was some gentle site where a few posts went up each week, then that’s not how I see it now going forward. There are loads of issues to take up with the BBC and frequent posts are a natural way for me to cover these. There are also other colleagues here who can publish posts whenever they want, and there is no grandstanding going on here on my part. It is extra work for me but I will provide stories whenever I want. So can others.
3. If BBC employees no longer come here to engage, that’s their problem, not mine. I suspect that some of the trolls that infest this site may be BBC employees, but either way, why should I concern myself about how the BBC feels? I have treated each of them as courteously as they have treated me, and I would be more than happy to talk to any of them. Another way of looking at it is that when their rancid bias is laid bare, they’re not so keen to make excuses.
4. I note the comments of my “tabloid” style. Thanks.
5. I see the BBC as a biased, often unprofessional, left of centre and a gross propagandiser for the State. It shows shocking moral relativism, comes across as wanting to be the friend of the terrorist, and appears to delight in undermining all things British. It is shot through with political bias. I WILL hold it to account in my way and if some readers feel unhappy about that, don’t blame me, blame the BBC!
6. Providing content here is done in my spare time when I am not writing on my own blog. It’s a labour of passion. I get a bit despondent when I hear some of the whingeing from certain readers as if I were somehow being recompensed for doing a job that’s not quite up to their high standards.
7. This site may need moderation insofar as I do agree there are some serially disruptive elements who specialise in spinning threads off-topic. I don’t have the time to do it but perhaps the site owner may want to think about this? One way to cut down on the disruption would be to insist on registration. That is what I have done on my own site, A Tangled Web. At a stroke it has removed all the trolls, and means genuine readers can log-in and engage in a civil manner. My site readership has gone UP since I took this measure and it is one way to restore stability and balance.
8. In the main, I am very impressed by the majority of B-bbc contributors, most of whom have the BBC rumbled and so it is for you that I will continue to post here.
That’s my final word on the subject. My aim is true.
Sue,
Don’t give up too soon. At least keep checking in from time to time and see if things settle down more. Even if you don’t agree with Vance’s tone or topic judgment, surely the majority of what goes on here is worth your time.
Good Luck, but it`s a shame about the moderation.
Original Robin
I notice from this and your own site that we share an affection for Elvis Costello.
Sillybunt | 06.03.08 – 10:55 am |
My wife knew someone who briefly went out with Elvis Costello. She, not the wife, thought him a complete tosser and ditched him.
That figures then.
You’re doing a terrific job David. One of the truly necessary jobs in the blogosphere.
David Preiser (USA) | 06.03.08 – 8:55 pm
I’m not flouncing off. It wasn’t me signing off, it was the ex- beeb fish man.
A couple of us wrote critical comments about the new headmaster, to which he took exception and asked for a vote of confidence. Which he got. So, a resounding endorsement from the majority.
Then, speculating as to whether they had been chased away, I argued that I preferred engagement with the BBC here rather than feeling that I’m banging my head against a brick wall. Baggie attacked me, ferociously I thought, and said he preferred the ‘talk amongst yourselves’ scenario.
Then some fish comments came along, bafflingly I thought.
Some people feel that accusations of ‘tabloid’ style sound snobbish. I disagree. I mean I think being reasonable and relatively willing to self-examine is more effective.
I am not motivated, as some posters are, by resentment against paying the TV license for what is often vile incompetent and despicable. There are taxes that go to even more disagreeable causes. Not least of which, now, is benefit for multiple wives.
I think, despite the increasing internet presence, that the BBC is still the major news vehicle in Britain and I want it to be as unbiased as it’s supposed to be. It’s the bias I object to and fear, not the actual BBC.
I have just heard another example of unpleasant and poisonous reporting from Jeremy Bowen, a blatantly prejudiced man who has no business wielding such influence in this country. He should go to Libya.
Not long ago Richard Littlejohn attempted a documentary about antisemitism. Because this was so unusual everyone gave him credit for making the attempt and overlooked the fact that the film he ended up with was incompetent and artless. The fault of the filmmakers I presume.
The most impressive point that resonated with me was that everyone assumed that because he was doing this, he had to be a Jew. This from people who insist that criticism of Israel is entirely unconnected with antisemitism. There were so many flaws in this well intentioned film that I saw it as ultimately rather counterproductive. Oh that anyone could improve on it.!
I will keep commenting on the horrendous injustice perpetrated by the Beeb when I feel like it, unless I get expelled by Sir.
Sue:
You are beginning to sound dangerously open-minded. This will not do.
.
Hillhunt | 07.03.08 – 8:00 am
Shalom.
Are you trying to get me expelled or something?
(Hillhunt,)
Also, as you very well know, I always was.
There was a high-flyer called Sue,
I suspected she might be a Jew,
Her ubiquitous rants,
When not lining pants
Though absorbent were patently true.
Reply in same form please.
Sue:
An old hillbilly had an agenda
To put pompous prose in a blender
His detractors were blunt
They said our Hillhunt
Reminded them of female pudenda
.
‘A couple of us wrote critical comments about the new headmaster, to which he took exception and asked for a vote of confidence.’
Ah Sue perhaps you misunderstand. As David’s one time pastor Ian Paisley said ‘This is not the Roman Catholic church’, perhaps our David wanted to be elected rather than anointed to succession. And unlike Harry no one now can call him a crown prince can they? 😉
So next time someone complains they’ll be told what to do – won’t they?
ps headmaster? Surely not, head boy perhaps. 😉
Hillhunt,
I love it!
Said a man peeping out from a hole,
“I should not be confused with a troll,
and the hill that I seek
aint some high mountain peak
just a mound of mud made by a mole.”
enough already.
Typhoo,
“So next time someone complains they’ll be told what to do – won’t they?”
Now no one else would dare!
But maybe no one else wants to. Scales, you know.
“WBA to get guaranteed slot on Sunday goal highlights, whatever league they’re in.
Hillhunt | 06.03.08 – 5:43 pm”
with due apologies to everyone else for the language
hillhunt never mentioned EVER EVER EVER
fuck right off you ill cunt and if you never come back it will be a million years too soon!
BaggieJohnnie:
WBA to get guaranteed slot on Sunday goal highlights, whatever league they’re in.
!!##*$$—***!!***nt
Cripes!
Is that you with your Human Resources hat on?
Or just you?
WBA: Not funny. At all
You’ve got to fight fire. David Vance was asked to join this blog, because of his style and insight, not in spite of it.
You don’t hire Wayne Rooney, then ask him to sit on the subs’ bench all match, with maybe a run-on in the last minute of added-on time. No, you stick him on the pitch at the kick off and tell him to get stuck in.
If we’d wanted some effete superwimp we’d have asked for Mark Lawson.
With due apologies AGAIN to everyone else for the language
hillhunt you spout your lies and mislead about me and I will give you the same response till you are banned.
Attempts to defend yourself because its ‘humourous’ won’t work.
Yes I am more than happy for my comments and yours to be moderated out of existence and removed.
This should not be necessary but its the only response you understand.
fuck right off you ill cunt
BJ:
hillhunt you spout your lies and mislead about me and I will give you the same response till you are banned.
What lies? That you support WBA?
.
Keep going. I agree with everything you say.
David Vance – You’re a bit far up your own a*se.
I think you are doing a great job David.
Personally I was never very impressed by the “contributions” of the Beeboids that posted here. It seemed to me that they were part of a team put together by the BBC to tackle Biased BBC. There are several reasons I would say that:
1] The sheer volume of their postings which appeared to outweigh the sum total of all the pro-bias commenters.
2] They seem to have split responsibility with one taking up pro-MMGW propaganda issues, another taking up Pallywood issues and another taking up pro-NuLabour bias.
3] They seem remarkably loyal to their employer. Would you be so loyal to your own employer? Any of your previous employers? Can they never do anything wrong?
4] They are quite prepared to defend the indefensible. Even matters where simple incompetence is evident on the part of one BBC employee are defended with ferocity.
5] They invariably resort almost immediately to rhetorical tricks to avoid dealing with the points raised by Biased BBC. A favourite is pedantry, particularly when the opportunity arises to pick holes in one sentence of a contributors comment, rather than a main topic. Straw men argument, ad hominems, obfuscation, misdirection are regularly trotted out by the Beeboids. It is pretty dull to read.
6] They don’t actually go away. Trolls normally go away after a while and plague someone else. But ignoring these trolls isn’t going to work, they fill so much of the comments that they are almost impossible to ignore.
I suggest you take seriously steps to rid the site of trolls. One cannot exclude the possibility that they are being paid by the BBC to trash the site – there are plenty of Beeboids with time on their hands that could be co-opted to post here and the Beeb is highly motivated to do create a team to try and take this site apart.
hillhunt
The minimum requirement is that you post and quote what I actually say and not make up things you think I might say (even if you think it is ‘humourous’) and until you can stop yourself from doing that minimum (with apologies for the language to all) I will respond each time by telling you to fuck right off you ill cunt.
BJ:
Righty-ho.
You did say you supported Aston Villa, didn’t you…
.
David – you are doing a first class job at this site – I hope it will develop into a real catalyst for change.
hillhunt
No, I actually made a point of NOT saying anything about it except when directly questioned, even then hardly at all, its got very little to do with BBC bias.
This moniker is the one I use in all sorts of parts of the net, why should I change it or justify it for you.
I also made no special pleading about them, you claimed I did, you lied.
You just decided to make things up.
Instead of making so called ‘humourous’ interventions with little or no evidence most of the time perhaps you might at least have the courtesy to stick to fact.
BJ:
I also made no special pleading about them, you claimed I did, you lied.
So it’s Witton Albion?
.
hillhunt
come down from rambling and climbing have you?
tally ho! – enjoy hunting defenceless animals do you?
it is hillhunt and not illcunt yes?
hillhunt – free television licences to all those that hunt like me.
no wait, that’s made up and not very humourous, just like your contributions.
David,
You have my full support I think you are doing a fine job. Keep it up and more so.
My main gripe would be the dealing with the unacceptable trolling, if you can’t moderate it to stop it then I would be all in favour of the regisration, in fact hurry it up I say.