I was wondering if you have a special moment that embodies BBC bias? I have three that I wanted to share. The first was the absolutely depraved Question Time programme that followed the 9/11 slaughter. I’ll never forget the baying of that anti-American rabble in the audience even as the dead lay burning in the mangled debris of the twin towers. As most of us remained stunned as to what had happened the BBC’s biased audience showed its true colours. Then I recall the BBC’s coverage of the 1998 referendum on the Good Friday Agreement here in Northern Ireland and the broad smiles and backslapping from the news reporters when it became clear that the establishment side had won the day. All notion of impartiality was discarded on that infamous day. Finally, I recall Barbara Plett’s words as she recalled her impressions of Yasser Arafat”When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound, I started to cry.” Quite – weeping over the imminent demise of an aids-raddled mass murderer, the BBC incarnate. So, what were your defining moments?
WORST BBC MOMENT?
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Far from the worst, but Kirsty Wark’s “sensible Tories” crack deserves a mention. It was certainly an important step in my own disillusion with the BBC.
It’s also worth noting the dogs that didn’t bark – like the downplaying of the Chris Donald murder, as Boy Blue says – and the bias that was so successful that most people don’t realise how skewed the BBC’s coverage was, as in the miners’ strike. These, rather than the obvious howlers, are the really dangerous episodes.
Scargill was and still is a commie wanker. Why the thick white working class follow these losers amazes me. Is Scargill living on incapacity benefit? Nope!
Spooks. The last few episodes I watched were appalling. The villains were either American or Israeli. The good guys were misunderstood ‘Islamic’ sorts. Unwatchable. But I’d been getting gradually more pissed off with BBC for years prior to that.
Steven — I was going to watch the first Spooks episode until I read a synopsis of the story.
It featured that bane of British life… the biggest threat to us since Adolf…
A militant “christian” group” roaming around ther UK blowing up abortion clinics.
BOOOOM… oh drat, just heard another one go in my village.
Good, one more poster who knows what he is talking about has discovered that korova is a psychopathic liar. I discovered this in the context of Israel, which I know well and which korova has been no nearer to than Eastbourne.
2001 election campaign, Today programme. I think it was Naughtie again. LibDem guest claims without giving any reason that the Conservative Party is a selfish Party. Interviewer agrees, but suggests himself that Labour are not selfish.
Wark has always been a shitty piece of scum. I mentioned recently how she lied with a straight face about the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Bakewell, with her holier than thou expression and patronising attitude, has always made me want to puke.
Must be the coverage of Hurricane Katrina, when Matt Frei and chums failed to Educate and Inform the British viewer about how the US works – that the prime responsibility for emergencies lay firmly with the Governor and Mayor (Dem), NOT the President.
I don’t recall any reports about how much better was the response in neighbouring Mississippi (GOP).
There is no defining moment except fo individuals. There is a constant drip feed of government bias and every day an event happens to show BBC bias at a truly transparant level.
Today after condemning terrorists for using children in various war zones. the Beeb did the same with a small child who won a contest to name an iceberg “Melting Bob” – so much for dumbing down – but the child was encouraged to state we must use a teensy weensy amount of electricity due to global warming (Stalin has not left the room).
In “The Bottom Line” programme today the new recruit to biased beeb Evan Davies stated that June 2nd is the day we have paid our tax and now work for ourselves and this is ONE day EARLIER than last year. I do not know where he gets his facts from, but over the last 10 years we are now working 10 DAYS LATER to achieve this. This is a truly remarkable feat at one day per year yet the BBC do not commemorate it.
From a bit further up the thread but I’m just catching up – TPO thanks very much for your service.
Gulf 2 for me – when our soldiers were advancing up Iraq Huw Edwards looked angry when he had to read news out of allied advances and it was always ensured that there would be a ‘but’ in the bulletin with a bit of bad news thrown in to keep the faithful (Guardian readers, BBC execs, Sadam Hussein, Al Qaeda etc) happy. There was never a bulletin without that ‘but’.
And the lowest and vilest point was when having been tipped off that American forces would be taking Baghdad airport that day, the traitorous Rageh Omaar turned up with a camera crew in tow and actually mocked the absence of US forces.
His commentary was along the lines of…’We were assured coalition troops would be here today, but nope, there’s an old man with a brush, and here’s a woman carrying a tray… but nope, no US troops.’
What is all the fuss about this show “Spooks”? I’ve been out of the country for some years. But just looked at the BBC’s own website for the show and read the viewer’s reviews. Not one of them mentions any ideological bias. You all must be lying! Liars!
🙂
Oh and I forgot to mention – I’m surprised the BBC even let Spooks get on the air given that the word is a derogatory term for blacks in America.
Let’s take a look – ah yes, they changed the name for US viewers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spooks#International_broadcasts_and_DVD_sales
Fancy that!
O/T, but worth a mention. This is one of the ‘rolling’ headlines at the top of the News front page
LATEST: Scientist who cloned term ‘global warming’ calls for millions of carbon scrubber devices.
“Cloned”? All that telltax, so little journalistic talent.
Further on Katrina there was a nonsense report by AP featuring a video that obviously did not back up AP’s claim that Bush knew that the levees would be breached.
The BBC played the video & parroted the AP spin, on Newsnight it was presented by that nasty piece of work Peter Marshall. His report was summed up by Wark with the comment “Well basically, Boosh lied.
All this arose by choosing to regard Bush’s warning of the possibility of water running over the top of a levee as being the same as a 10ft flow coming through a hole in the levee. But everyone really knows what a breach is.. Once more into the breach etc. – were the English dead to be balanced on top of the wall?
The BBC online report did subsequently amend the story – but who noticed that?
Video showing President George W Bush being warned on the eve of Hurricane Katrina that New Orleans’ flood defences could be overcome has emerged.
The footage, obtained by the Associated Press
It shows plainly worried officials telling Mr Bush very clearly before the storm hit that it could breach New Orleans’ flood barriers.
stealth edit
Earlier the Associated Press said Mr Bush had been warned of the levees being breached in the video.
But subsequently it issued a clarification which said that the president was warned about water overrunning the levees rather than breaking them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4765058.stm
And don’t start me on Rageh Omaar. Except that, in most pictures, he looks like he’s got a mouthfull of sperm.
Up there with the weepy Barbara Plett is Alan Johnston, abruptly ending his BBC interview on his release from his kidnappers with the breathless words, “I have to go, I’m having breakfast with the Prime Minister.” (That is, chief Gaza terrorist, Ismael Haniyeh.)
I noticed that statement had been edited out the next time they broadcast the interview. Probably even the BBC realised that would be a bit too revealing of Johnston’s cosy relationship with Gaza terrorists.
Jack Bauer | Homepage | 31.05.08 – 6:34 pm |
Geoff | 31.05.08 – 8:27 pm |
Thank you.
We knew in the first week of the strike what the outcome would be when we were en route to Olerton & Thorseby pits. We passsed by the Ratcliffe on Soar power station and just could not comprehend the amount of coal that had been stockpiled. Literally millions of tons. This had been well planned.
It was at this time that we knew the political will was there to defeat the communists, especially when Notts Police set up the road blocks to stop what the working miners called ‘Scargill’s Barnsley boot boys’ who were nothing more than bully boy thugs.
After the first pitched battle at Thorseby it became very much a military precision operation.
In all that time I only ever met one police officer who had any sympathies with the miner’s aims, whereas, up until recently the BBC ran an article on their website about a police officer who thought the actions of the police were wrong. There was no coverage of the overwhelming police viewpoint.
In the second month we were at a pit that had been wound down before the strike and was scheduled for closure anyway.
A miner hung himself at the pit. I was the first police officer to the scene.
The local press and the BBC, gawd bless em, were all over it like a rash.
“Depressed miner driven to suicide” screamed the headlines. Nasty Maggie, blah blah blah.
Only it wasn’t true.
He was doing the gasping five finger shuffle. A highly dangerous stunt which often goes wrong but is rarely reported. But the BBC won’t let the facts stand in the way of a good ‘story’ will they.
Anybody requiring further explanation let me know.
I eagerly await an announcement from the BBC,that in the light of Global Warming Margaret Thatcher was right closing all those carbon pits.
Well – you certainly hit the spot with this thread David, you could publish it as a book…
“BBC – the antidote”
Meanwhile, I’ve just been watching “The History of Modern Britain” – as re-written by “Red” Andy
Apparently:-
If people had listened to Harold Wilson and Barbara Castle – Thatcher wouldn’t have been needed.
Widescale IRA violence only erupted as a consequence of “Bloody Sunday”.
The Yom Kippur war “broke out”.
I’m obviously so senile my memory’s failing.
John Reith spins in his grave:
Well – you certainly hit the spot with this thread David, you could publish it as a book…
You might actually have hit on a fun idea here. It’s not too expensive, there are plenty of ideas for it and Iain Dale/Guido have shown it can be a big success with their similar compilation book about Labour sleaze when they asked for (verifiable) blog reader contributions.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Book-Labour-Sleaze/dp/1904734162
I could think of dozens that I have gone back to look at, and plenty of small ones. But I think the one that hit me the most, and which I watched live, was the election announcement that wasn’t in 2007. The way Andrew Marr was brought in to give Gordon Brown a lap dance and an exclusive interview; preventing others from asking harsher questions. Then the way Marr was sent outside like the PM’s Press Secretary to deliver the news. And then the way James Langdale delivered his ‘expert’ opinion on how this wouldn’t damage Gordon Brown’s reputation and integrity. He also parroted the line that the press had spun the likely election out of all proportion and it had nothing to do with Labour. I was swearing like a docker at my television for a couple of hours that day.
And David, seriously, a book 🙂
“The Big Bed-time Book of BBC Bias”
Spooks is not even the correct term for those agents. Counter-intelligence is not the same thing as intelligence.
Wonder could we collectively produce a book that subject bu subject makes the case for the prosecution? I’d be interested….
Start the Week, mid nineties, when Michael Howard was Home Secretary and was trying to increase the use of prison. Paxo was on – can’t remember whether he was the presenter or a guest. They had a discussion on why Howard could want more people sent to prison for longer, and all of them were totally stumped (all the guests were normal Radio 4 guests, ie progressives or lefter.) Eventually Paxo chipped in with “maybe he gets off on it.”
smallheathen: Yes, I wrote to the BBC on this matter. The BBC (full of leftie arts graduates) didn’t seem to understand how difficult it was to get the right type of helicopters in after the disaster of Katrina.
You can’t move helicopters into the area of a hurricane until it’s passed through (otherwise the helicopets willbe trashed)
The helicopters need to be equipped for working over water (not all are, this includes being fitted with winches and ditching equipment)
You have to ensure you have enough fuel, spares, crews and maintenance facilities on site to handle 24/7 helicopter operations. That’s can’t be done overnight.
You are also right that the STATE is responsible for the overall management of a local disaster. However, the Mayor was black and the Governor a woman. No chance of the BBC having a go there.
Until the BBC start employing people who actually have an IQ that gets into double figures at least, this sort of crap from the BBC will continue.
Oh and I had to laugh when the BBC whined that the government didn’t evacuate people because of the lack of transport. The BBC then showed us hundreds of school coaches floating in the water.
http://911review.org/Hurricane_Katrina/img/Flooded_New_Orleans_school_buses.jpg
Can I add yet another shite moment from the BBC? Andrew Marr acting as the official spokesman for Gordon Brown and announcing to the nation that there will be not general election.
Even Marr looked embarassed and this is a man that licks the anus clean of Gordon Brown every Sunday!!!!
i have to agree with Chuffer regarding Rageh Omaar, who’s side was this fella on, certainly not ours.
joe bonanno: Funniest BBC moment ever was watching their talking heads earnestly discussing whether a blurry picture of an unmanned drone might possibly be an indication that US troops had reached the outskirts of Baghdad, then switching over to Sky to find a Fox reporter cheerily showing us round Saddam’s palace with a group of GIs.
a small niggle here. but it still pisses me off.
the new dr who’s on bbc1 when did the doc become the universal pacifist???
he now acts like a cross between ghandi and matin luther king. “because he will never kill”
hardly surprising as the actor who plays him david tenant was on the history show “who do you think you are”
he was told his relatives were from ireland. he was excited and happy most likely imagining brave celtic warriors, but looked like he had swallowed piss when he discovered they were all prodestants in the orange order!
WORST BBC MOMENT?
When one of their gestapo agents knocked on my door last week (aka ‘TVL Licencing’) demanding that I fund the BBC. Cheeky… but oh so BBC.
Note to self: always make sure your water pistol is topped up so that you squirt these little shits off your property.
Some years ago, an episode of the BBC school drama Grange Hill featured a history teacher delivering a tirade about evil the British empire had been. As an adult, I was furious at this brainwashing of children with a one-sided, over-the-top version of historical events.
This may have been the dawning of my realisation about the BBC. Their bias is particularly noticeable (and dangerous) in children’s shows.
Janet,
Damn right about children’s TV being among the worst. One prominent example is the dreadful “reasons behind 9/11” section on the BBC website where they blamed the USA.
Anon talks of his “interview” with the BBC Gestapo – I had them attack me for 2 years when I threw my TV on the scrap heap. Better to put some dye in this water pistol – they will be back.
Another not well known fact is that Beryl Cook threw her TV out years ago, and while admitting to listening to BBC radio, stated that Women’s Hours was a terrible feminist and PC programme, and would not listen to it. Strange how neither the tabloids nor BBC mention this.
Mid 80’s for me. We left the UK in ’78 – the winter of discontent – for Switzerland. All we had back then were the BBC World Service and the Guardian Weekly (initially sent to us by uni friends).
We eventually made it back to the UK and imagine our surprise? Contrary to the doom, gloom and the ugly reporting of Mrs Thatcher that we’d heard and read – the country had changed enormously – booming and optimistic.
Have never trusted the beeb since and we ditched the Guardian Weekly for the Telegraph Weekly.
TPO | 31.05.08 – 9:18 pm |
We`ve discussed the strike at length elsewhere, but as you know,I was a Miner in 1984, I didn`t vote for a strike, or ever go on a picket line.
Many of those who did weren`t Miners, they were just the usual crowd who are anti Government (esp Thatcher).
They`re now in their middle ages, and are anti, well you know the sorts.
Strange that when Thatcher was in power, The Miners were viewed as “The Salt of the Earth”,to be supported by lefties, and The BBC.
Now that global warming is fashionable,,,well the rest is history.
Slightly OT – but did anyone else hear “Red” Andy just introduce Michael Gove as “Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families”?
Quite a few Tories on this am.
Only token subdued lefty muttering from the odious St Helena Kennedy.
Is this the beginning of survival by re-alignment?
Brilliant, almost unopposed, performance by Gove by the way.
Quote to Andy :- “aren’t you just living in a left wing Westminster bubble?”
Will we soon have to start calling him “Very Pale Blue” Andy?
Worst BBC moment was the QT program only a few days after 9/11. Everyone should watch it and the treatment of the ex US amabassador Phil Lader.
Flying Pig moments âť“
When the BBC reacted in exactly the opposite way from the expected?
“survival by re-alignment”
Fantastic phrase!!!
I could not believe what I heard today:
My wife was listening to The Archers on BBC radio. I just happened to be in the room at that moment when they were discussing a small company project. A man said “They are calling in a consultant” to which his wife replied “I should jolly well hope so” (or similar). This is typical of BBC not understanding that almost only state run projects do they call in a consultant because the state employee is scared shit of making an error. I know several of these consultants and they all tell me what a waste of money there work is.
Gove has more intelligence in his little finger than the entire gang of BBC political scum put together.
i have one when after a bomb had gone off in Jerusalem Barbara Plett asked a passing Israeli whether he had sympathy for the bomber which would never have been asked after a bombing by the ira
Isn’t this man a “collaborator”?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7429735.stm
Not according to the BBC. “Collaborators” only help the Jews against Arabs. When it is the other way around, the BBC “sensitivity (to terrorists) training” kicks in.
Consultants:
LOL.
I run a small company, and a few years ago Business Link offered me a free one-hour consultation. The chap came in, all clipboards and best intentions etc, but we spent the entire hour on me explaining to him what I do, and got nothing in return but an hour away from the hard grind.
But he really was nice.
Not as nice as the stunning redhead from VAT who came in to audit me a few years ago.
my favourite question time moment was after the killing of sheik yassin somebody in the audiance blurted out that he was ashamed to be a human being on the panel some labout party mp telling us it was okay to kill israelis becuase new york jews refused to meet with hilary clinton becuase she kissed the cheek of suha arafat actually the problem was that suha arafat accused the israelis of poisining the water what was even more weird about that programme was that sitting next to her was ned temko former editor of jewish chronicl who didnt say a word
Quote to Andy :- “aren’t you just living in a left wing Westminster bubble?”
John Reith spins in his grave | Homepage | 01.06.08 – 9:42 am | #
No wonder this site has so many problems with facts. That is not what Gove said. He said “you’re stuck in a Westminster bubble” – the words “left-wing” never passed his lips.
Another one of my favourite examples of BBC bias is it’s description of a democratically elected leader as a ‘militant’. And Gavin Esler’s description of Israel facing the possibility of a ‘three state’ solution with ‘two hostile Palestinian entities on its borders’. Not to mention this morning’s period of extended mourning over the defeat of Hilary Clinton in the US.
The power of night mares,al qaeda being a sham,an invention by those nasty american lawyers etc etc
Nick crimewatch bloke commenting in 1997 that new labour had convinced him enough to vote for them – on an election special!!!!!!