Well, Hurricane Gustav has hit target …which in the eyes of the BBC is the Republican Party Convention due this week. I caught the BBC news this morning and it was a question of how many references to Hurricane Katrina could be squeezed in along with the outrageous accusation that President Bush failed the people of New Orleans. This was all aimed at providing collateral damage to McCain of course. Naturally every mention of McCain was balanced with a favourable reference to the Chosen One and all in all I think the BBC were delighted that they have gotten away for another day without affording McCain the rapture afforded to Obama last week. Now that it is obvious that the “mother of all hurricanes” – indeed “the worst of the past 100 years”..(If not all time? – Nagin does love to exaggerate and no-one at the BBC sees fit to challenge him) – has, erm, missed New Orleans, can we now please move to providing some balance to the euphoria of last week, please? That said, my concerns remain with the residents of Louisiana and Texas, hope the BBC will be providing them with the same concern lavished on the residents of New Orleans….
THANK GOD FOR GUSTAV.
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Listen to the last 5 minutes of The World This Weekend from yesterday. Justin Webb’s “report” sounds like a parody of left-wing attacks on Republicans – he trots out every single stereotype of Republicans and conservatives you can possibly imagine. Absolutely staggering amounts of bias.
To be fair McCain himself absolutely slaughtered the federal (as well as local) response to Katrina and had the good sense to stall the convention in case of another disaster, so any linking of him to this issue can only be positive.
As I remarked at the time, he even outright lied about Sarah Palin’s religious views.
Something needs to be done about Webb. It’s a shame he isn’t reporting from the UK about UK citizens, because then he would be subject to our laws of libel.
Webb is a shit. He just reads the Democrats talking points and spouts them as facts.
As I mentioned on the general thread. Simon Mayo has made no reference to McCain today at all. Yet all last week we had Democrat after Democrat on 5 lite.
Just because of the Hurricane it doesn’t mean you can’t still interview guests. Fox and Sky manage it. Why not the BBC?
Oh and the BBC covered Osama’s speech LIVE last night, yet McCain didn’t get a mention and I didn’t see his speech (or Palin’s carried at all)
Martin,
Yes, I saw the gushing coverage of the Chosen One’s speech live last night – it was pathetic bias. Did you see their excitment because their man was about to speak to us?
Some would argue that Gustav is a blessing for McCain.
1.) A face-saving way for Bush and Cheney to skip the Rep. Convention.
2.)McCain’s performance is generally considered poor at stage managed events, he’s much better without a tele-prompter in a less structured environment.
By the way, is BBC reporting that Michael Moore, in an interview, said that Gustav “proves there is a God in Heaven”?
Ann Althouse has the vi. (scroll down)
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/08/bush-and-cheney-will-stay-away-from-gop.html
The hurricane might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for McCain ?
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/08/31/how-gustav-could-benefit-the-republicans.aspx
One other minor point of interest about Gustav; three years ago this weekend Katrina struck and we were told (with added emphasis from the BBC) that Global Warming meant we should expect more and stronger hurricanes in the immediate future. Katrina was the 11th named storm that season (K), Gustav is the 7th this season.
If you all want a real laugh, just read The Nation and The Washington Post one morning, then wait for Webb to parrot them over the next couple of days. He could get done for plagiarism under the laws of both countries. Certainly it ought to be clear to anyone paying attention here that his lying has reached a dangerous level.
If nothing else, it would show any lurking Beeboids just how wrongly he is behaving. It’s sad because Justin has actually always had more of a clue about the US than Frei Boy. Justin is clearly prejudiced against certain kinds of people; he constantly makes ‘own goals’ about that on his blog. But he does have more of a sense of the way United Statesians behave and will respond to things. Frei often seems to live in another world entirely.
It’s a shame to see just how low Justin has sunk these days, and how unprofessional he has become. I wonder if the presence of Frei and their slimy United Statesian exec producer have had a negative impact on his performance?
I think Justin is doing an excellent job undermining the BBC by his conspicuous reporting bias. Also he is so superbly dislikeable.
Don’t be too sure New Orleans is off the hook. The hurricane is going west of the city, but, because of the combined effect of hurricane movement and counter-clockwise rotation, the worst winds are usually north-east of the storm center.
MarkE: I was watching BBC News 24 when the beeboid presenter who was interviewing a US Hurricane expert tried the “Clmate change crap” on him.
The US guy slapped him down stating that there was no scientific evidence. Beeboid then tries the “but.. we have a weatherman who’se a scientist…”
Doesn’t work beeboids. Keep your left wing shite lack of scientific knowledge to when you’re reaming you latest rent boy. It don’t wash here!
Martin,
Could you please take the graphic homo-eroticism down a notch? I’m trying to eat my lunch.
Did al-Beeb report on how quickly and decisively Louisiana’s new Republican governor Bobby Jindal reacted to the threat? How he quickly mobilized the National Guard, and secured 16,000 additional troops from neighboring states? Contrast with how the Democrat Kathleen Blanco acted three years ago — refusing to mobilize the National Guard until it was too late, crying on television, and making idiotic comments about everybody making peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches for their kids when evacuating. PS — yes, the hurricane incidences in the Gulf have been declining since 2005. ’06 and ’07 were very quiet as hurricane seasons go.
DP: I’m having mine as well!
BBC 6pm news. Justin Webb had such a smirk on his face when talking about Palin’s daughter.
“What else is there?” belched Webb. Well can anyone tell me what the issue is here? Has a law been broken? Normally the BBC defends teenage mothers to the hilt.
Oh my god Palin has a normal imperfect family. Will their daughter be down the dole office wanting a flat and benefits off the state? Hmm. Me thinks not.
But that won’t stop the BBC will it?
Martin@6:15
Yes, it’s top story on the BBC homepage.
The presenters on 5Lite Drive seemed quite delighted when their correspondent breathlessly reported the matter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7592636.stm
No surprise there!
The presenters on 5Lite Drive seemed quite delighted when their correspondent breathlessly reported the matter.
Mick McDonald | 01.09.08 – 6:31 pm
The hilarity shared between Peter Allen, Anita Anand and Adam Brookes was sickening. And, as I’ve already mentioned in the general comments thread, Brookes then had the nerve to say “I think there’ll be lots of pressure on the media to act in good taste”.
And then the presenters had another laugh about it all with Kevin Maguire.
They’re just idots, playing to bigots. After years of telling us that teenage mothers of the unmarried kind are the natural order of things – they are just showing themselves us as plain ‘nasty’, even to lefties!!
Oh for an Alistair Cooke! He could always be relied upon for well-researched and balanced reports, which were delivered in a respectful way with charm and wit, irrespective of whether he was covering Republican or Democratic politics. What a tragedy that the BBC has not seen fit to appoint anyone of his calibre, but instead we have to endure J.Webb and M.Frei.
Yesterday an Observer column by their Paul Harris spends many column inches telling its eager readership about the nasty Republicans
As he bids to be president, Barack Obama is feeling the force of the mighty Republican propaganda machine. TV and radio hosts, authors and well-funded lobby groups have joined forces in a sophisticated and aggressive smear campaign. Paul Harris reports on the attack dogs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/31/uselections2008.barackobama
Not a word to suggest that Dems are ever anything but pure as the driven snow.
We are told the most aggressive ads are not made by the McCain campaign. They are made by so-called ‘527 groups’ without a mention of Soros.
Obama: “Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.“
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/01/bristol-palin-chooses-life-now-leave-her-alone/
BBC journalists can piss themselves with laughter all they like but I think American voters will take a different view on who holds the right values.
In fact, the more I think about it the more I’m convinced the McCain campaign did know about this. You magnificent bastards!
They were actually laughing? Dirty bastards. Are they not even interesting in pretending to be objective anymore?
They were actually laughing?
Gibby Haynes | 01.09.08 – 7:27 pm
Yes they were.
Well, there you have it. The lefties with their higher level of moral authority and their infinite compassion… (irony off)
Scum!
MartinW. Abssolutely agree. He informed one of what was going on in 10/15 minutes a week without taking sides. The present BBC incumbants are beneath contempt.
I too saw Mr. Webb’s performance on the six o’clock news, previously only really being aware of him aurally. The sight and sound was enough to ask for the sick bowl!
“Gustav, which killed 71 people in the Caribbean, swirled through the Caymans overnight with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines. It was expected to cross Cuba’s cigar country Saturday and head into the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday.”
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/08/30/gustav-caymans.html
Funny how the BBC concentrate on New Orleans when this storm crossed a few countries in the Caribbean.
Its as if the BBC gleefully hope the maximum damage and loss of life just so they can blame it on Bush – its sickening.
I wouldn’t normally praise Jon Snow but on this evening’s Channel 4 News he dealt with the Palin pregnancy very well. He interviewed a journalist from Politico, they discussed the issue briefly in an adult fashion and concluded that it might actually help the McCain campaign. They then moved swiftly on to other matters.
BBC take note.
DB | 01.09.08 – 7:25 pm
In fact, the more I think about it the more I’m convinced the McCain campaign did know about this. You magnificent bastards!
They knew, and didn’t care.
To rebut rumors, Palin says daughter, 17 pregnant
Personally, I don’t think this does Gov. Palin many favors in showing her abilities to teach personal responsibility to her children, but that doesn’t make her less qualified to be VP. If anything the girl could have been like so many other teens who do whatever they like regardless of what their parents tell them.
And a hat tip and thumbs up to everyone here who has already pointed out the total hypocrisy of the BBC to frown on her whilst making endless reports and programmes trying to tell everyone else it’s just fine.
The laughter of the Beeboids demonstrates their own prejudice against conservative Christians, especially the US kind. They are so sure that an out-of-wedlock birth would be looked at as a mortal sin or something that they can’t for a moment imagine that Republicans would just accept the reality of the situation and demonstrate proper Christian love and forgiveness rather than freak out on her. Fools.
I don’t see what Palin could do? She’s just an ordinary mother at the end of the day.
Remember Ewan Blair being found pissed as a parrot in a London street?
Most people simply thought, normal family!!!
MartinW
Many a time and oft I have so missed the sort of balanced and genuinely informative reports that Alastair Cooke used to provide for us via te “BBC” and for a long time the Manchester Guardian.
His 15-minute slot each week was pretty well all one needed to keep reasonably abreast of the US political scene.
Now we have a multi-million pound US news operation delivering wall-to-wall bias. And missing much of the true facts, the swirl of opinion.
Guys
My comment is up on Webb’s blog complaining about his wall to the wall bias and shilling for the Dems. Wait for it to disappear…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/2008/09/the_palin_pregnancy.html
Er..right. So…BBC blather continues about Palin’s pregnant daughter (no jokes yet about her name?) and the disappointingly un-disastrous hurricane in Louisiana.
Meanwhile, less than wall-to-wall coverage about the emergency EU summit in Brussels to address Russian thuggery in Georgia, a pow-wow that produced…*steady now*… another vapid round of finger wagging, toothless posturing, and the baroque suggestion to dispatch yet another ‘high-level delegation’ to eat crow in Moscow …as Russia releases photos of camo-clad Vlad crouched over his downed tiger. No message there, then.
Don’t you feel it wouldn’t be terribly unpolite to demand a bit better?
We know the media mostly ignored the John Edwards story – even after there were photos and clear signs that the story was true.
But they are all over Bristol Palin like flies on a rice pudding.
(I don’t know if that is a good simile – I know that “Obama couldn’t knock a fly off a rice pudding” is apposite.
Sarah Palin and her guns reminds me of the old one about “What do you do if you meet a lawyer and a tiger in a jungle clearing and you only have two cartridges ?”
– “Shoot the lawyer twice, at least you have a bit of a chance against a tiger”.
I’d like to muse about Palin in a clearing with a gun, and ….. at the other end !
We know that much of the media (and especially the “BBC”) are turning a blind eye to the pile of evidence of close dealings between Obama and terrorist William Ayers. And that they seldom carry any mention of Obama’s long involvement with ACORN, already found guilty in umpteen states of falsifying voters lists. And precious little mention that the Obama campaign recently gave money to ACORN, and then had to admit to the electoral authorities that they had blatantly misdescribed the purpose of the funding. A large sum, I believe – approaching a million dollars ?
Meanwhile, bubbling away under the surface, is a potentially rich seam of disclosures about dodgy relations between Biden, his sons and lobbyist lawyers. Specifically, lawyers involved in the hugely remunerative trade of asbestos compensation – ie compensation for often spurious reasons, which Congress finally coralled a couple of years ago.
Even the LA Times is starting to cover Biden’s dodgy dealings. And after 35 years – how many other skeletons in Biden’s cupboard. The McCain – Palin campaign promises REAL change in Washington – Augean cleansing of the stbles. They will have plenty to fire at on both Biden and Obama.
The US public can be relatively tolerant of sexual misdemeanours – except where they involve deep hypocrisy (as with Edwards and Spitzer). But there is much deeper public dislike of financial shenanigans.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-biden28-2008aug28,0,2823950,full.story
I think the McCain campaign will increasingly fight on a “Clean up Washington” ticket. Plenty of signs that they will major on this.
But have Frei, Webb and all the other “BBC” “reporters” ever mentioned this major plank of the campaign ? Will they ignore the LA Times story – ie just read from the Dem talking points emails and the absurdly biased Washington Post. As I think David Preiser said earlier today – shoddy, lazy “journalism”.
Sorry to bang on about financial sleaze on the Dems ticket – surely the Obama campaign vetting of Biden knew about his dodgy dealings ?
I suppose they simply take their moral compass from Chicago politics.
Dammit! I wanted Matt Frei out in his little boat, “rescuing” stranded people in New Orleans from calf-high “flood” waters! Now it looks like Hurricane Gustav is a flop.
How can Frei and Webb be expected to report on any Democrat dodgy dealing when they both have their heads up Osama’s arse 24/7?
Ah BBC Newsnight I wonder what the top story will be?
Again the BBC make no mention of the fucks up from the former Democratic Governor (a woman) and the still in place black Democractic Mayor in Hurricane Katrina.
More stuff emerging on Obama and Ayers and the Annenberg money.
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/09/annenberg-records-reveal-obama-and.html
The key point in my mind is – why was all this omitted from Obama’s official biography ?
http://www.barackobama.com/about/
the coverage of the gustav on the bbc news at ten was utterly vile – they turned it into a political issue.
nothing but bush-bashing for katrina.
and of course bugger all about Nagin and his screw ups…
Yes. Nagin. Now a lot of people who couldn’t get out of New Orleans were the poor who didn’t have transport.
You know what they needed? A load of school busses or something.
Oh hang on
http://www.katrinadestruction.com/images/d/13172-4/swamped+school+buses
I blame George Bush, he should have driven one himself.
and guess who organised the buses this time round.
Bobby Jindal. state governor.
doesnt that smack of “well you fucked up last time – now we’re gonna make sure you DONT screw up this time. WE’RE gonna do it..”
of course Jindal never appeared in the bbc 10 o clock report.
no surprises there so.
archduke: spot on. The BBC are a joke.
of course Jindal never appeared in the bbc 10 o clock report.
archduke | 01.09.08 – 11:14 pm |
Let me guess: They had Obama and Nagin on?
From Justin Webb’s blog post:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/2008/09/the_palin_pregnancy.html
This comment has passed moderation:
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/2664/bbckoshl0.gif
Classy.
I’m not sure if its automatic or manual (someone in India?!) but the latest comment always has a “This comment is awaiting moderation” message, see:
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/7339/bbcmoddu0.gif
“let me guess: They had Obama and Nagin on?
disillusioned_german | 02.09.08 – 12:39 am ”
no they didnt. was hurricane footage and nothing but Bush.