If you suspected the BBC would never give the Republicans as much coverage as they gave the Democrats last week, shame on you. Since the Palin story broke, they been assiduous in keeping it on the front page, cooking up this feature on US teen pregnancies to do so.
“There is,” we are told, “a debate state-side as to the reason for this high pregnancy rate.” I’ve no idea what the debate is, though, because the piece simply blames it on abstinence programmes while being careful to mention that McCain opposed a Democratic proposal to pay for prevention programmes other than abstinence-only education. Oh, the irony.
Elsewhere Radio 1’s Newsbeat is also keen on the story, and interestingly has decided that Palin’s anti-abortion stance makes her part of the “far right”. Quality journalism all round.
UPDATE: Newsbeat has evidently thought better of it, and her anti-abortion stand is no longer a “far-right stance”. It’s progress of sorts, I suppose.
Labels: anti-McCain
AS was pointed on on the Fox News debate, contraception is widely available in the USA.
Perhaps the BBC might like to concentrate on why little chav slappers get knocked up on Council estates then thousands in benefits thrown at them?
So the BBC logic states that to oppose abortion you are a NAZI? I oppose the needless murder of healthy children just because the pregnancy doesnt happen to fit the mothers lifestyle of the moment!
Sex has been so degraded in our culture to become a grubby quick selfish pleasure without thought given to the child that may be created, that is not to say that I would support a complete ban on abortion that takes no account of exeptional cases, but to infer that those who cannot agree with the mass murder of healthy and innocent children are NAZIS is just plain sick!
The moral fabric of our society has been sabotaged by the left to such an extent that the legal mass murder of children is thought to be acceptable!
I don’t understand why the Republican party even gives the BBC the tie of day? Why give them access to the convention?
The total sneering attitude of Emily Maitlis Rod Sharp, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and others would just make me wonder why they would be allowed in there?
After all there are plenty of Democrats who are there, but they are far more balanced than the BBC and THEY are the opponents!
Hi Hugh,
Just checked the front page of the BBC and the story is not on. Sure you will have taken screenshots at the time of writing.
Also, painfully missing, is the headline:
“Palin Father Says: I’m A Redneck”
alongside some My Space entries.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Sarah-Palins-Pregnant-Daughter-Bristol-Boyfriend-Levi-Johnston-Describes-Himself-As-A-Redneck/Article/200809115091343?lpos=World%2BNews_4&lid=ARTICLE_15091343_Sarah%2BPalin%2527s%2BPregnant%2BDaughter%2BBristol%253A%2BBoyfriend%2BLevi%2BJohnston%2BDescribes%2BHimself%2BAs%2BA%2B%2527Redneck%2527
Hi Martin,
You write:
“Perhaps the BBC might like to concentrate on why little chav slappers get knocked up on Council estates then thousands in benefits thrown at them?
Martin | 02.09.08 – 4:13 pm | # ”
What is your point?
Not Nazi (although it’s implied); “far right”. Interesting term, that.
“Warning, citizens of Britain! You may find yourself harbouring thoughts that Governor Palin seems like a pleasant woman, and that the things she says make sense. You may even start agreeing with some of her policies, and wonder to yourself why we don’t have someone like that in public life over here. But beware! These thoughts are dangerous, and put you on the far fringes of polite society!”
Nobody’s ever “far” left, are they?
Interesting article on Biden, in particular the bottom paragraph that talks about his health. This article was written before being made VP so it’s free from spin.
Now then. With all the talk about McCain’s health, if something happened to Obama, would we want a man in charge who has had such a serious illness?
If they keep talking about McCain dropping dead, shouldn’t they also say the same about Biden?
http://www.lostnation.tv/html/joe_biden.html
I look forward to reading this, “Biden’s Son, Brother Named in Two Suits”, on the BBC following the assiduous reporting into the Palin family’s background.
Gunnar – just checked: it is on there: Features, news, view, analysis. Here’s the link to help you…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Interesting how the BBC twitter about Mr Palin being done for drink driving but ‘forgetting’ to mention it was umpteen years ago! In the BBC world, kill someone and do two years jail and all is forgiven in their liberal viewpoint. Be a right winger and the minor crime from 1966 will follow you to the grave!
More lies/bias by ommission by Webb the Wombat
Webb is a wankstain. Nothing more nothing less.
Anyone noted that Webb has a really funny mouth? It’s huge and it has that sort of “The Joker” turn up at the ends.
He looks like a freak.
Interesting that there’s no byline to the grotesquely slanted article about teen pregnancies. “The BBC news website looks at…” – because nobody has the guts to put their name to this shameless agenda-driven advocacy.
As though anyone in the United States gives a stuff what the BBC’s stance on their putative Vice President’s family is.
AT a guess, 70% of Americans have never heard of the BBC. Of the ones that have, most will have heard of it for the comedy shows that play on the off-channels.
I cannot imagine anyone in the United States, save Matt Frei, looking to the BBC for news or opinion. (Not that it should be having opinions, anyway.)
Hi Hugh,
Sorry, where is the story?
Martin | 02.09.08 – 5:41 pm
Not really adding anything to the debate there Martin.
DB: Just pointing out pointless things like Webb does. But he does look like a freak.
Well timed, Gunnar – It is now off the front page. After your first query, though, I did take a screenshot. Do you want me to email this to you or are we going to accept that I’m not so pathologically stupid that I decided to lie about something so readily falsifiable?
BBC news can be very non-judgmental when it want so be, even to the point of declining to label suicide bombers as terrorists, but it can get very judgmental too when it wants to be. To call BBC news unbiased is simply ridiculous. I expect the BNP regard their own propaganda and analysis of events as unbiased and based on objective observation, and the same process is going on at the BBC, and with public money too.
Rmember how the BBC was slow on the David Blunkett affair story because it was judged a personal matter, while it happily told us of David Beckaham’s alleged affair. That was in the public interest of course, with Mr Beckham being a footabller player rather than a publically employed cabinet minister with important national responsibilities like Mr Blunkett.
essentially a bad couple of days for the beeb.
ideally they wanted (a) palin’s daughter to have an abortion and then they could have called sarah palin a hypocrite.
dammit she only done gone and kept the baby and is going to marry the father.
bad news for beeb (b) Hurricane Gustav does not cause massive death and destruction. george w bush not able to be protrayed as doing nothing whilst afro americans die watery democrat city.
Anti-abortion politicians obviously are far right according to the BBC.
That would be George Galloway then?
I think the Democrats are making a mistake if they try to dish dirt on Palin. It may be sexist but doing this to a woman does make you look a lot worse than doing it to a man & there is certainly a lot of stuff about Obama & the Chicago machine which he should not want to see turn up in a shit thowing contest,
Palin’s daughter getting pregnant before she gets married is hardly unusual – so did Obama’s mother (Married in Feb 1961, gave birth in August).
Neil Craig: It was made clear on Radio 5 up all night that the bBC and the Btirish MSM don’t really care about Osama and his terrorist links. “Thee was some vague meeting” said the moron from the Times last night.
“I think that people are still digging, but we’ll have to see”
So in effect, we’re in the tank for Osama and won’t report anything.
Cassandra: “Sex has been degraded in our culture to become a grubby selfish pleasure…”
So true, but then any form of self-indulgent excess, be it via sex, drugs or the public purse is loved by Lefties because it contravenes the dreadful ‘middle-class’ values that once made this country so awful to live in.
Before the likes of McBroon and that Screech-Owl Toynbee rescued us, I mean.
Can someone explain to me how it is possible to be pro-abortion and anti the death penalty?
I’ve never managed to get a lefty to explain that one to me …
Following a post that essentially argued the pregnancy story would not do that much damage to Palin, Webb’s decided to compare her to vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton, who was forced to withdraw. Genius logic.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/2008/09/eagleton.html
Hugh,
Webb never heard of Eagleton until he read this, most likely within the last couple of hours:
Pool: What Day Will Sarah Palin Drop Out?
Note the same link to Wikipedia, right up top. Ol’ Justin probably saw a mention of this on one of the Leftoid places he inhabits to find the latest RSS feeds and things, and clicked right over to it. All he did was copy and paste the Wikipedia link. After all, if he linked to the TalkLeft blog itself, he’d appear lazy and unoriginal.
The other problem is time and again the BBC are saying Katrina was Bush’s fault – but he could NOT by law react until asked to by the dithering, now sacked Democrat Governor and the Democrat Mayor. They screwed up and then blamed Bush even though if he HAD sent in the Army etc he would have been impeached by Congress!
BBC – 3billion for bugger all facts just leftie smears…..
Im waiting to see if my comment below will be posted on the hys topic on Sarah Palin, I wont be holding my breath though
“No doubt the BBC still has the champagne on ice from four years ago when their last left wing darling Kerry fell at the last hurdle, so they will report or dig up any so called dirt to discredit the Republicans. Remember the champers bottles rolling down the beebs corridors in 1997 when tone and his whiter than white sleaze busters came to power. Eleven years later and the sleaze has been worse than the tories but its business as usual at the beeb, no doubt this comment will be moderated out.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/2008/08/events_dear_boy_events.html?moduserid=movabletype104_35815&pid=68362047&upm=False&asb=False&pmp=False#dnaacs
My comment was published at Number 486! Holy fish finger of Antioch Batman the usual moderator must have handed over the reins to the token Tory Boy!
Compare and contrast the grudging,hyper critical and almost sullen BBC coverage of the Republican convention(and its hardly started)with the starry eyed hero worshiping of the Democrats, breathless BBC reporters all aglow with partisan admiration, tripping over themselves to find positive stories and smiling happy Democrats basking in the heavenly glow of their Nu messiah and packed halls of happy people, from the emotional reporting of the Kennedy incoherent ramblings to the main event of Obama pretending to be the next coming!
Fast forward to the present BBC talk of splits and rifts and its low rent, grubby and desperate smear job of Palins daughter, a young woman and her partner trying to make their way in the modern world and the BBC demonising her for being pregnant before marrying! The BBC are trying desperately to paint Palin as some kind of redneck bigot and religious nutter which clearly she isnt. Her husband is a blue collar manual worker, in fact they are more like the typical working class middle American family than the majority of the Democrat elite(that must grate on the nerves of the BBC commissars).
FWIW I think the BBC are shooting themselves in the foot by pursuing this smear story so doggedly.
Many people will be watching the BBC coverage very closely and I suspect that there is more riding on this than the BBC realises although I further suspect that the BBC reporters so blinded by political hatred will not see it.
It should be noted that BBC partisan behaviour has got much worse as the BBC comrades have realised that there is nobody with the power to censor them or call them to account but they are mistaken I think, the actions of the BBC now will come back to haunt them in the future.
Al Beeb are in full character assination mode, if the chosen one had a child out of wedlock, im sure Al beeb would be praising the working lone parent
“The Cattle Prod of Destiny | 02.09.08 – 7:28 pm ”
because the left has a history of killing the innocent, while rewarding the criminal.
simple as that.
bbc ties itself up in knots with more smearing of sarah palin.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7593735.stm
note these paragraphs:
***************************
Governor Palin herself has said she opposes funding sexual-education programmes in Alaska and has supported abstinence programmes in schools.
“The explicit sex-ed programmes will not find my support,” she wrote in a 2006 questionnaire distributed among gubernatorial candidates, the Associated Press reports.
***************************
wait a minute – see what palin said? she said EXPLICIT.
by the way – do the nutroots at Radio 1 realise that Ireland has pro-life laws?
so that makes Ireland “far right”?
and not only that – pro-life laws were voted on and passed by the electorate in a constitutional referendum.
so , the majority of Irish people are all “far right”?
archduke: The BBC went off Ireland after they told the EU scum where to shove their Lisbon Treaty.
To quote Jane Hill (she with the face like an ugly David Coulthard) to an anti Lisbon treaty supporter “don’t you think you’ve let the good people of eastern europe down?”
This will backfire on the Democrats if they don’t put a lid on it.
A big chunk of the Dem base has teenage pregnancy issues and/or emphasise with the problems and issues of teenage pregnancy.
It’s not a laughing matter for millions of Democrat voters.
The BBC 10 o’clock news is going heavy on the Sarah Palin “scandals”, could someone remind me when the BBC last mentioned William Ayers or Antoin “Tony” Rezko in connection with Barack Obama. Sorry, are you telling me they haven’t, I wonder why not…
Yep: That wankstain Justin Webb has just gone OTT. His version of the Sarah Palin does not match that of ITV, Sky or Fox.
Last night Radio 5 up all night decided to cover some Scottish Tennis player instead of the Republican convention. Could you imagine that if St Osama were to speak?
Webb claimed she was lying low. I thought it was reported that she’d cancelled some award thing that she was due to attend which was BEFORE she got the VP pick and that it was cancelled to give her time to prepare her speech.
I’m going to put another complaint into the BBC, but as they NEVER give me an answer, I’m hot hopeful.
I think a lot of people are seeing only half the picture. The Palin business is far more serious than many people think.
I can undrstand – but would not approve – people raising questions about the efficacy of Sarah Palin’s moral guidance to her daughter Bristol. You know the line …Christian, moralises, but her daughter had underage sex and got pregnant”.
That is dire enough. But what was swirling around, and what Justin Webb and the BBC latched on to, was the Daily Kos rumour that Sarah Palin did not have a baby in the spring – it was Bristol’s baby, there was a big cover-up.
This vile smear ws what caused the McCain campaign to reveal the fact of Bristol’s current pregnancy. That rumour has been carried all over the place by the BBC. Justin Webb’s own BBC blog is riddled with multiple examples of the smear being spread. A blog that is closely moderated.
Kos has now excised all the entries about the smear – but the entries are cached on Google. There is ample evidence that the rumour was totally false – that is why even the scurrilous Kos has been forced to retract, to hide the stuff.
There are two lines of attack on the BBC on this. First, it was reprehensible for it to help propagate this very serious smear. Gutter behaviour, for which they deserve every condemnation.
But surely the matter is also a legal issue. This smear was one HUGE defamation of Sarah Palin and her daughter. I had a post on Webb’s blog deleted today – the noderators said it was possibly defamatory. I had said that William Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist = a matter of clear record.
But OK – they were being legally careful. (I asked them what they regarded as defamatory many hours ago – but have had no reply.)
They have NOT been careful about the Palin smear. I had elsewhere on the Webb blog posted photos of April 2008 sjowing Sarah Palin clearly pregnant. And a link showing that the photo Kos had used of Bristol, with a skightly podgy stomach – the edifice on which the whole smear was based – was actually published in April 2006.
So – the BBC were on warning, from me at least from 4am last night,, that there was a smear abroad – and it was patently false. And – that it was a huge (or rather vile, same thing really) smear.
Justin Webb knew the source of the smear, I am sure. Yet he still gave it room on the BBC without checking its veracity in any way. The BBC has a policy of preferring to be a bit behind the news – of not publishing stuff until it is definite. This policy was totally ignored in this instance.
I am pretty sure that the BBC has laid itself wide open to legal action for defamation of bot Sarah Palin and her daughter.
Does anyone else think a valid cause of legal action exists on this ? because the UK libel laws are punitive for this sort of stuff.
Personally (maybe because I have 4 daughters) I would be going straight to lawyers. I would be issuing fierce legal letters to the BBC, warning of possible writs. I would be seeking major public retractions, otherwise reserving my position to seek very heavy damages.
The BBC (Webb or other people in the US) could have asked Sarah Palin or her advisors, or the McCain campaign, about the rumour. The BBC would have got an answer quickly. I am damn sure Webb did nid not ask for comments. That amounts to recklessness in defamation law, I believe.
The BBC looks bang to rights on this. Biased, morally wrong – but above all legally wide open to heavy damages.
Any comments ?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/02/the-humiliation-of-a-young-girl/
The BBC care in the bloody gutter.
JohnA writes: “Does anyone else think a valid cause of legal action exists on this ? because the UK libel laws are punitive for this sort of stuff.”
Excellent comment, JohnA but, sadly, no. In my opinion (and I am not a lawyer) Mrs Palin and her daughter almost certainly wouldn’t get very far, being US citizens.
My understanding is that, on their own turf, they would have no claim at all – the US being famously loose on libel.
They might get somewhere with Ofcom or the BBC governors but a penny to a pound they won’t pursue it.
Excellnt analysis of the depths to which the BBC has sunk, though.
I heard on Sky News that there are lots of British Journlists on their way to Alaska to try to dig up more crap.
Why does the British media think that what this young girls boyfriend think sis relevant?
I hope there are a few Beeboids going as well.
If anoyne from Alaska is reading, please give them a VERY VERY warm welcome won’t you?
Do many people get eaten by bears up there I wonder? 😉
I don’t remember the BBC going after every sex story involving Mark Oaten and his “sex life” so why is wankstain Webb so interested in Palin’s daughters boyfriend?
Perhaps he fancies him?
GCooper
You may well be right about Sarah palin not being able to sue the BBC – and people like Justin Webb, Radio 5 presenters or whoever – in the English courts. But there have been recent instnces of “legal tourism”.
But they COULD sue the BBC in the US courts. The BBC promotes its website as being worldwide. And a lot of the Palin stuff will have been on BBC outlets in the US.
Also – Justin Webb is in the US. As are other BBC executives.
I wanted to bring out on Justin Webb’s blog some of the potential legal issues. There is a long campaign ahead – and I’d like to see Webb et al get the whiff of grapeshot.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/02/the-humiliation-of-a-young-girl/
More shit from Emily Maitlis. That’s the tart who lets her tits fall out in public.
Then on Newsnight they interview Al Franken. Jesus that man is a creep.
Of course what beeboid wankstains forget is that Americans know that McCain isn’t just another George Bush. Of course the latte sipping rent boy kissing beeboids in Islington can’t see that.
I really do think this whole Palin thing has just gone OTT from the BBC.
Lets just take a look shall we
1. She sacked some bloke for not sacking her sisters ex husband. No proof and the investigation is ongoing
2. Her daughter is pregnant. Anyone notice that slapper Maitlist (that’s her who lets her tits fall out in public, just to remind you) keeps saying UNMARRIED daughter. So will slapper Maitlis (that’s her that lets her tits fall out in public by the way) emphasise the marital status of any woman who is pregnant but not married in the future?
3. Her husband had a DUI 25 years ago. WOW!
And beyond that, everything else is just bollocks from deformed jaw Webb.
Oh and talking of scandal. Anyone remember Peter Hain?
Did the BBC investigate him?
Like fuck they did.
BBC on line news:
The main talking point so far has been the announcement by Mr McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, that her unmarried teenage daughter is pregnant.
As if anyone cares a shit about this story when you are thinking who to elsect to run your country. The article is mostly about the hurricane then
Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska who was presented as Mr McCain’s choice for running mate on Friday and is facing an ethics investigation back in her home state, made the announcement of her unmarried daughter’s pregnancy on Monday.
What a terrible viewpoint about the Republicans. I never continually heard about Obamas past with Muslim and preacher connections. Ban the BBC
and still no Bill Ayers from the BBC…
i mean – its ON RECORD. its out there. doesnt take too much to find out about it…
JonA writes: “But they COULD sue the BBC in the US courts. The BBC promotes its website as being worldwide. And a lot of the Palin stuff will have been on BBC outlets in the US.”
No, sadly, that’s the problem. They might have a case in the UK, AIUI, but US libel laws are so loose they might as well not exist.
Webb, I’m sure, knows this, as do his masters at the BBC.
The electors of Alaska, who appear to be very strong for Palin across party lines, nust be real sick of this swarm of vultures.
Insulting her is kinda like insulting her state. I bet they start showing some support for her – and that will resonate among a lot of western and midwest states. And in small towns right across the US.
I was not sold on Palin, did not know about her – until I read how she stood up to the party machine, cut the corruption, cut the waste etc.
A fughter for the common people not part of the fat cats club.
Tomorrow at the convention, I think this could come shining through. And the audience could be huge. Possibly bigger than the record audience Obama got last week.
The Repubs blood is really up now, in an ironic way. The more the sliming of palin, the stronger the backing she will get – and the more funds that will be raised, the more people will volunteer for election work.
McCain will fight on a reform ticket, with Palin as the ideal running mate with a TRACK RECORD in reform. To clean up Washington. The Troopergate thing is a wash, I thionk – people will think the case against Palin is ridiculous when set against her overall record.
Is this the best the dems can do ?
Thee smears won’t stick. palin will shine through on the hustings and in TV.
And when the spotlight turns properly on Obama and Biden – when they are withoput the teleprompters, when the debates happen, when the repub attacks on them are really unveiled, they could be shown to be political hacks, with far far word=se moral issues surrounding them. Wright is still toxic, Rezko is toxic. Ayers and Obama’s comminusit mentor in hios youth, all the s;leaze about Chicago politics, all the stuff on Biden’s lobbyist contacts, his sons’ poltical dealings, his draft deferrals – all this will combine to torpedo the Dems.
I am rather glad the Dems have fired their ammo early.
GCooper
Yes – but the BBC crowd are cowards. They will cower at ANY legal risk, I think.
Has Justin Webb been through an election campaign before ? Cos he may have to grow up in a hurry.
GCooper – thanks for your comments. I intend to carry on posting at Justin Webb’s blog, whatever the issues. Keep hammering away !