Monthly Archives: April 2008

Waltzing Agendas

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Australia- the headline reads – Renews Republic Calls.

Interesting. The nation may have spoken a few months ago in electing a broadly pro-republican party, but they didn’t speak on this particular issue. In fact the nation did speak on that nine years ago, when they rejected a republic and voted for the monarchy. In fact it appeared that the call for a republic was not “Australia’s” at all, but of a minority of its people. On what basis then can Australia “renew” a call that it never made?

At least the meeting called by the new Prime Minister “brought together Australia’s best and brightest brains with the aim of plotting the country’s future trajectory.”

All very NuLabour I am sure (just like the golden years in the UK), but aren’t there any clever people who distance themselves from Rudd and his republican agenda? Evidently not.

Funnily enough, Tim Blair (very bright and rather good) manages a whole extended post round-up of the conference without mentioning the R word at all.

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Gunnar comments,

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“Seriously, can you please point to some sources were the people who detonated themselves in Pizza restaurants, or at wedding parties or on the London underground were called “militants” by the liberal media (your term) and not terrorist.”

OK, I will.

Pizza restaurants first. Here are are some BBC stories about the attack on the Sbarro pizza restaurant.

Link 1. “Hamas, the hard-line Palestinian militant group, said one of its members had been the bomber.

Link 2. It starts, “With Palestinian militants continuing to carry out suicide attacks in Israel…”

Later, happy Palestinians staged the Sbarro show – no mention of terrorists there in the BBC’s own voice either. Why don’t you google through bbc.co.uk for Sbarro and look for the word “terrorist” in the BBC’s own voice, rather than in quotes?

Incidentally, the father of a 15 year old girl murdered at Sbarro, commented on this blog here.

Now for a wedding party. Here are some BBC stories about the 2005 suicide bombing of a wedding in Amman, Jordan.

Link 1 – “At least several hundred people have marched through Amman to denounce the bombers and show loyalty to King Abdullah II. “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,” they chanted, referring to the Jordanian-born militant believed to lead al-Qaeda in Iraq.”

Link 2 It refers to “bombers”, but not terrorists. Again, why don’t you have a look through the BBC website for stories regarding this crime and see if you can find the bombers described as terrorists in the BBC’s own voice?

Finally, here’s something about the London Underground. In the immediate aftermath of the “7/7” London bombings of 2005 certain BBC staff did use the word terrorist several times. “Terrorist atrocity”, even. As in the case of Beslan, it looked for a moment like a change of heart. But this indelicacy contradicted policy. So the BBC went back through the stories and changed “terrorist” to “bomber”.

For proof, Harry’s Place got screenshots. This story was discussed in the Telegraph, which named the BBC official responsible as Helen Boaden. She was worried the word terrorist might offend the World Service customers.

(Links to old Biased BBC posts take you to the relevant month. You may have to scroll down to see the relevant post.)

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It was serious for Isiah Young-Sam.

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Via Instapundit, I found this article on race relations. In general I think it strives to be fair, even sounding a note of regret over the way that until recently any politician raising the issue was labelled a racist. However given that I am more pro-immigration than many on this site, perhaps commenters will disagree. Be that as it may there was one paragraph in the article that showed how even a well-intentioned BBC writer tends to leave out stories that don’t fit the preferred narrative:

Britain’s last serious race riots – when violent clashes erupted between white and Asian youths in northern England – happened seven years ago.

Bad as they were, I don’t recall the riots between whites and Asians of 2001 resulting in any deaths. In contrast the riots between blacks and Asians in the Lozells area of Birmingham in 2006 resulted in the unprovoked murder of Isiah Young-Sam, a black IT worker.

I would have described the riots in 2006, not those of 2001, as the “Britain’s last serious race riots”. They were more serious and more recent. I suspect that, probably unconsciously, the writer of this article did not consider them because whites were not involved.

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SICK OF MILITANTS.

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So little time, so many “militants.” I was reading this story on the BBC about Basra “militants” and then this story about Hamas “militants.” Each time Islamic inspired terrorists seek to bring death and destruction upon the innocent, the BBC trots out this “militant” euphemism. What’s the problem with using the correct word – TERRORIST? Oh I know the liberal media, including the BBC, sprint away from making any moral judgement about those scum that detonate themselves in Pizza restaurants, or at wedding parties, or even on London underground trains but all this does, in my view, is demonstrate their own innate moral relativism and cowardly failure to call things as they are.

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UNREAL.

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The BBC faithfully reports that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, one of their favourite sons, has urged African leaders to “do more” with regard to Zimbawe and Mugabe’s thuggocracy. One wonders why the BBC does not see fit to ask why Kofi himself did nothing during his years as Secretary -General? Maybe for the same reason that Annan did nothing during the Rwanda genocide and the Darfur genocide? The pious words of this morally bankrupt fool are reported by Al Beeb as if they have real moral and political meaning when in fact it is obvious that they are – unreal.

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SATURDAY LIED?

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The Fi Glover hosted “Saturday Live” programme on BBC Radio 4 is a hoot. It’s insidious left-wing propagandising, wrapped up in the thin veneer of magazine style culture, cuts no ice here. Take the item ran this morning on the Turk Murat Kurnaz, held for 5 years in Guantanamo Bay. He alleges that he was tortured & maltreated during that time by those bad Americans, naturally. Fi seemed a tad coy enquiring into the background on this allegedly “Innocent man in Guantanamo” – with a book deal to plug around the world. For example, she repeated the nonsense that he is a German man of Turkish origin. Wrong. He is a Turk with an expired German residence. Kurnaz felt moved to travel to Pakistan in the autumn of 2001, (Mm, wonder what the motivating event was that inspired this pilgrimage?) in order to devote time to his religious faith and expand his knowledge about Islam by visiting religious schools. Yes, I bet! Just like so many others who ended up in Gitmo he was afflicted by the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time – and he repeated his assertion that about 95% of the inmates at Gitmo are as equally innocent as him. I agree, I am sure they are, if you know what I mean. This goon is parroting the BBC narrative that Guantanamo is a great evil and that all in-mates are god-fearing innocent men – just like Kurnaz. I’m looking forward to Fi invited me on to help me plug my new book! That should happen just after hell freezes over.

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BROWN NOSING IT

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. Did anyone else hear the simpering publicity that Gordon Brown’s visit to the USA is being afforded by Al-Beeb? I was amused to hear the BBC parrot that Brown will invoke “memories of JFK” when he stands beside Edward Kennedy today and urges the US to embrace the global world. A few points here; 1/ Given the size of Teddy Kennedy, I’m surprised that there is the space to stand beside him! and 2/ How patronising is Brown’s “advice” to the current Presidency and those MILLIONS who voted for George Bush? The BBC is pulling out all the stops to pretend that Brown is making any impact in the States when it is obvious that it is the visit by the Pope (an elected leader, unlike Brown or Bush, natch) which is creating the real headlines.

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FIERY SERMONS?

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I was reading the BBC’s coverage of the final debate before next week’s primary in Pennsylvania between US Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Nestling away towards the bottom of this item is the curious comment that Obama (The BBC’s preferred candidate, natch) has faced calls to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of his church, after clips of Mr Wright’s “fiery sermons” were shown on the internet.

Mmm..”fiery sermons” seems a tad vague to me. Considering that the Rev Wright has claimed that “Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!…” and “In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.” and “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.” Look, Wright is a vicious anti-Semitic race-hustler who hates the values of the United States and who openly says so. To suggest that this venom is merely “fiery sermons” is to downplay just how poisonous Wright is and just how awkward this is proving for Obama – the man who can no more disown the Rev Wright than his white grandmother. I doubt that the BBC has ANY influence over the US electorate but even so, these small euphemistic evasions must be highlighted to reveal that there are prejudices to be found outside Rev Wright’s congregation.

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LONDON’S BRILLIANT PARADE.

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Poor old Boris Johnson. The Conservative Party’s candidate for the Mayoral election in London is much unloved, according to a report the BBC ran this morning on “Today.” The item started out by saying that whilst the race between Boris and Red Ken (The Jihadist’s friend) “was close” (i.e. Boris was ahead but the BBC just can’t quite bring itself to admit that) the influence of the minor parties could be significant in terms of where second preferences go to. Guess what? Yes – none will be going to Boris.

The BBC interviewed the Green Party (Free insulation for all!) candidate who urged voters to support Livingstone after voting Green, The BBC then interviewed the Respect Party candidate who urged “Muslims and ethnic minorities” to support Livingstone after voting pro-Jihad. So far, so bad for Boris. Then there was the BNP and guess what? – yes, THEY are urging people to vote Conservative second. (Damned with faint praise?) The only caveat is that the BNP candidate himself ISN’T urging voters to support Boris so even that is lukewarm support. The UKIP candidate wouldn’t endorse Ken or Boris nor would the Christian Choice candidate. All in all – a desert of support for the Conservatives. Of course I am sure that the BBC is entirely neutral as to who it would like to see elected to this influential position – aren’t you? I am equally sure that the BBC would never dream of seeking to influence the second preference vote in a desperate attempt to save Livingstone. Aren’t you?

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ALL THE NEWS NOT FIT TO PRINT.

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The BBC likes to refer to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah, as a moderate. He is frequently positioned to us as the “good guy” on the Palestinian side compared to Hamas who are the more “militant” bad guys. What I found interesting from BBC coverage of this region is the complete absence of the news that holocaust-denying Abbas has decided is to award “The Al Kuds Mark of Honor”, the PLO’s highest medal, to two female terrorists who helped kill Israelis.

Ahlam Tamimi is a Hamas affiliate serving a life sentence for driving the suicide bomber who exploded himself in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, killing at least half a dozen people, including a whole family. Amra Muna, seduced Ophir Rahum over the Internet and then lured him to Ramallah where he was murdered. Both terrorists will be given this great honour by the moderate Abbas.

Any thoughts on why the BBC seems unable to report this? Maybe because it’s just too busy providing space for Jeremy Al-Bowen to urge direct talks with Hamas?

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