I think that Justin Webb provides a valuable public service by showing us just how necessary it is to take the axe to the BBC. How does he perform this wonder? Well, reading his blog is essential reading for any student of bias. Today he blogs the story concerning the list of books that “people” are claiming Sarah Palin wanted banned. He states this list is a fake. He then goes on to print it!!! He concludes by telling us that no doubt Palin would laugh it all off and be charming about it. Do you think he is on medication perhaps or has he driven mediocrity to a whole new level?
THE JUSTIN WEBB EXPERIENCE
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I’ve emailed the BBC with a complaint for the first time in my life because of Justin Webb and his increasingly bizarre behaviour.
This latest book list is the cherry on a very large cake.
Webb is simply regurgitating Democrat talking points.A team was sent to Alaska to dig dirt on Sarah Palin.It is utterly shameful that Webb should make unquestioning use of what are party political smears.
One of my many complaints to the BBC about Webb got the reply from the BBC that “perhaps these stories about Palin get creedence by the BBC repeating them, but that the BBC feels they are part of the discussion about Palin”
The problem is the BBC spout these stories, but then when a few hours ordays later they are shown to be bollocks, the BBC does not give the same airtime in refuting them.
I was always under the impression that the BBC did not report stories unless there was a good reliable source that could be cross checked?
Somehow the BBC has decided to join the feeding frenzy of other news networks in turning their journalists into “commentators” or simply spouting utter shite from hate websites.
This MUST stop. The BBC is publically funded. Its journalism MUST be above all this hate site nonsense.
I really don’t understand WHY the BBC finds it so hard to simply report the facts?
Almost every story these days seems to have to have some reporter interviewing another reporter giving an opinion about a story.
If their stories are so thin they have to pad them out with personal opinion or shit from hate sites, I suggest the time has come for the BBC to be shut down.
…”The BBC feels they are part of the discussion about Palin.”
Rumor. Gossip. Falsehood. Isn’t it the job of a reporter NOT to be manipulated by any one party? To sift through the slander to the “truth”?
Remember the reference to “Eagleton” in one of Webb’s earlier blogs and taken up by Biased BBC some days ago. That call to talk about “Eagleton” was straight out of the talking points memo from the Democratic machine – made even worse because it was a talking point not adopted by many in the US, but nevertheless mentioned by Webb.
The BBC should be the referee in this match, not a player for one team.
The BBC’s Webb, who didn’t look very pleased with life, had the chutzpah to accuse the Republican camp of raising the issue of sexism in relation to Sarah Palin on BBC 1 news at 10 pm; of course, the truth is the opposite: it is Obama who raised the issue of sexism against her in his campaign today.
Webb had the look of someone who had bet on the Democrats.
making me laugh out loud now
webb posting the “list of banned books” makes me laugh too.
they are completely out of control and FUMING about the appeal of sarah palin.
we’re just watching the meltdown of the obamessiah and his bbc followers. and boy am i enjoying it.
Who said the Lefties were totally unhinged? Whoever it was you were right, mate!
Hi David,
Are you by any chance christian?
If so, how do you relate to this commandment?
“Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.”
This commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in relations with others. This also forbids lying. (See Catechism 2464•2513.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments
Mock the week and other misrepresentations spring to mind …
Medication? No – just the endorphins that flood into the brain when one is incredibly self-satisfied.
“A correspondent sends me a list of books …”
Isn’t it easy to say this – but who sent it?
This is a serious accusation – even though he says it is false – therefore we are entitled to know a bit more oabout the correspondent
“When a source asks for anonymity as a condition of giving information, or a contributor demands anonymity when taking part, we must agree with them precisely the way they are to be described. However, with an anonymous source, especially a source making serious allegations, we must give the audience as much information about them as is compatible with protecting their identity, and in a way that does not mislead the audience about their status.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/edguide/accuracy/anonymoussource.shtml
Just watched sneer boy and fatty Kay on BBC world.
Poor fatty Kay, she laid into Sarah Palin spouting more crap from the Daily Kos about “Sarah Palin’s record”
So far the wankstains at the BBC haven’t come up with a single fact that holds water.
What means do we have to publicize our grievances against scumf*cks like Justin Webb, aside from posting on this excellent blog?
It’s about time the nation were reading headlines like “A group has called for an end to the BBC, after…”
Really, there needs to be some coordinated, relentless effort to bring down the Beeb because I’m sick to f**king death of reading crap like this from ignorant lowlifes like Webb. And I live abroad and don’t even pay the license fee!
It just boils my piss to see scum like Webb shame my home country by abusing its publicly funded news outlet to showcase his unbelievably low standard of journalism. The BBC’s coverage of this US election should be the last straw!!
This appears to be part of the dirt-gathering operation that was launched after Palin was announced.
Interestingly the BBC seems to have taken part in this for a brief while asking viewers:
“Do you know Sarah Palin or have met her in the past? Send us your comments and experiences by filling out the form below.”
Before turning this into a more general “have your say”.
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/151695/diff/6/7
Looking at this particular article it seems Justin wants us to follow the “plainly fake” link to “salon”, a left-wing website. There they conclude that:
“truth may be more disturbing than fiction. It doesn’t look like Palin had any specific books in mind; instead, it seems as if Palin just liked the idea of banning books generally.”
Which I assume is Justin’s view as he doesn’t otherwise qualify his linking to this site. Justin also warns he “mustn’t upset her [Palin] as we need to get to [interview] McCain”.
However, following the “it is true” link on “salon” leads to the Anchorage Daily News which appears to report the full story.
It seems that as the newly appointed major after a close election Palin sent letters asking for the librarian’s resignation because the librarian had publicly supported the incumbent mayor. “Palin told the Daily News back then the letters were just a test of loyalty”. The librarian did not resign.
Four days later in a council meeting Palin asked the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons: “What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?” the librarian said she would “absolutely resist all efforts to ban books”. No specific books were mentioned, and it appears Sarah Palin never asked for any to be banned.
Another loyalty test or a genuine attempt to censor books? We don’t know. It seems that no books were withdrawn at any point while Sarah Palin was major. And a few months later the librarian got a letter telling her she would be fired as Palin felt the librarian didn’t fully support her.
Just to end the story: “Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.” Emmons then resigned a few years later; just before Palin was voted in for a second term.
http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515512.html
Jason | 11.09.08 – 1:38 am |
there needs to be some coordinated, relentless effort to bring down the Beeb
Actually I’ve been thinking recently that the mistake we all make is to go after the institution. maybe we’d make more progress if we concentrated our fire and went after a sequence of individuals.
If, for instance, we could produce a detailed dossier that proved beyond reasonable doubt that Webb or Casciani or X or Y was guilty of more than fifty documented and well-proven breaches of the BBC editorial guidelines – then we could argue they were unfit to hold their jobs and demand their sacking.
The newspapers would then become interested in this in a way they’re not about a general bias allegation.
And the BBC Trust would be forced to investigate.
In my view, it would be a mistake to start off by going after Bowen or anyone involved in covering Israel. Ditto the environment crowd.
This US election is shaping up as a good test case as the bias is so blatant.
The coverage of Islamist extremism and terrorism would be another good one.
The BBC are simply following their evil creed, now that sounds harsh doesnt it? I mean surely there are decent people who work for the monolith and who do their best to stand by the old values of the BBC?
It is clear beyond doubt that the BBC has been infiltrated by leftist/socialist agitators and it has become a platform dedicated to spreading leftist ideology by any and all means necessary!
The truth becomes the lie, the lie becomes the truth, in this way the truth can and indeed must only serve the socialist agenda and if the actual truth happens to contradict the agenda then it must be twisted,perverted,manipulated or hidden! The central credo of the leftist agitator is ‘the ends justify the means’, this has given rise to most of the evil in the world today from soviet mass murder to the Nazi(the Nazis were socialist to the core)death camps!
The BBC is beyond redemption because the NuLabour project placed their political agitators at the heart and head of the monolith with the intention of controling the state media to project their image above everything else, they created a media beast and nourished it, now they have created a monster!
Everything the BBC does,every programme it makes is created and designed to support and spread the leftist credo and agenda and there is no limit to its ambitions!
It is no coincidence that the first thing NuLabour did is turn the control bodies that monitor BBC beahiour into leftist run compliant covers that shield the BBC from any complaints, with no checks and balances the monolith has run wild like a child with no boundaries.
The BBC is dishonest, that has been proved many times, no amount of expensive retraining will ever erase a deeply held political belief system will it?
PaulS: Yes, I’ve suggested tihs here before. Perhaps a thread where we just put in comments or statements made by individual beeboids. That thread could be kept close to the top of the page. People would have to avoid general posts in it, but it could be a useful diary of beeboids crap.
The problem is Pauls, the people who will review your complaint work for the BBC.
So I suspect your efforts will only get as far as all the previous efforts.
Mailman
Martin
If the BBC line is that rumours / “smears” about Palin deserve airtime or Justin Webb blogapace or BBC website space because they are part of the campaign going on – how about Obama’s links with unrepentant terrorist William Ayers ? Or his mentoring for several years by Frank Marshall Davis, a leading Marxist ? If O’Reilly feels questions on Ayers are part of the agemda for discussion, worth spending precious interviewing time on – why not the BBC ?
What I am doing on the Palin affair is make a dossier of the allegations and then the truth so that when the BBC, usually one week behind the allegations, makes its play, I retort with the truth on the matter.
The latest I have is that Palin reduced the budget by 62% in Alaska for children with special needs. Pure baloney but watch the BBC eventually follow it up.
What may have upset a lot of people about the now-trashed hate smears against Palin was a sense rooted in Biblical text –
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”
Which is right there in the Ten Commandments.
The BBC has told people in the UK that it feels free to carry rubbish rumours about Sarah Palin because they are part of the discussion going on in the campaign.
Even though it is long-standing policy that the BBC should rigorously cross-check stuff before it is broadcast – that the BBC should be a bit behind the news, to get it right, rather than striving to be first.
If the BBC feels it is fair to carry the attack stuff against Palin , true or false , relevant or irrelevant, why is it not carrying the attack stuff against Obama and Biden ? There is a lot of it, true of false, relevant or irrelevant. I have not seen any of it from the BBC.
How about a post by Justin Webb on the stuff swirling round about the Dem ticket ?
As long as the BBC carries on in this vein, and especially if it follows the talking points of the Dem campaign (Eagleton !!!) but does not give equal time to Repub talking points, it will be regarded as in the tank for Obama.
The stupid pig/lipstick story is huge in the US so the BBC is forced to report it. But there are other stories from the Repub side that the BBC is not covering. Which it appears to be SUPPRESSING.
How about – at the most innocuous level, no dirt, an assessment of the mood within th two parties ? A fervent and united Prub side now – and the Dems still dogged by the Hillary refuseniks not contributing, not pulling as hard as they might ?
JohnA: The BBC will NEVER investigate the Ayres thing. Just like the BBC ignored the lies from John Kerry about his war service, especially as Kerry ran on his war record
“I’m John Kerry and I’m reporting for duty (salutes crowd)”
Vomit inducing shit.
McCain IS a war hero. That’s the difference.
I started a complaint regarding Mr Webb calling Sarah Palin a creationist. Being dissatisfied with the reply I now await the second round reply before being able to take it to the BBC Trust. Note that you cannot “reply” to an e-mailed reply! You must start a new complaint, but include the reference number given with your initial reply!
“America is often portrayed as an ignorant, unsophisticated sort of place, full of bible bashers and ruled to a dangerous extent by trashy television, superstition and religious bigotry, a place lacking in respect for evidence based knowledge.
I know that is how it is portrayed because I have done my bit to paint that picture, and that picture is in many respects a true one.” – Justin Webb 2nd April 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4400865.stm
Jason | 11.09.08 – 1:38 am |
This is the only means I know of to send a complaint to anyone who might accept responsibility for Webb and Frei:
BBC America
and BBC World.
The actual BBC complaints department replied to my last complaint about them by basically saying, “They don’t work for us: call these other people,” and provided the above links. Not much help.
I’ve never gotten any response from either of them, which is why I sent my last couple of complaints back at the Mother Ship.
Even though they’ve legally separated themselves, even the commercial tentacles of the BBC are bound by the Charter and Agreement. They just know they can get away with it.
PaulS | 11.09.08 – 5:31 am |
I, too, support your idea.
Putting the BBC in charge of dealing with complaints about them makes as much sense as putting a beeboid in charge of the Gents toilets on Hampstead Heath.
John A – William Ayers AND Bernadette Dohrn – two on the FBI’s Most Wanted list back then.
More confirmation of the BBC Sarah Palin Lie
Frank Marshall Davis.
“The Telegraph UK is reporting that Davis, a close friend of Obama’s mother and his maternal grandfather, published an autobiographical, pornographic book, “Sex Rebel:Black,” under the pseudonym “Bob Greene.”
Marshall admitted to having written the book, which he said describes factual sexual encounters that he and his wife had with minors and other couples. “I could not then truthfully deny that this book, which came out in 1968 as a Greenleaf Classic, was mine,” said Davis. The Telegraph states that, “In the introduction to Sex Rebel, Davis explains that although he has “changed names and identities…all incidents I have described have been taken from actual experiences.”
Marshall’s book describes, in lurid detail, his sexual encounters, including multiple group encounters with his wife and a 13 year old girl: “I’m not one to go in for Lolitas. Usually I’d rather not bed a babe under 20. But there are exceptions. I didn’t want to disappoint the trusting child. At her still-impressionistic age, a rejection might be traumatic, could even cripple her sexually for life.”
Another Obama associate.Inmdicted slum landlord Tony Rezko.
Gerald Brown
The BBC complaints system is DESIGNED to put you off persisting with complaints.
Peter
There is still not a single mention of Ayers on the BBC website.
Even less for Davis !!!!
But the lid is coming off in the US. TeamMcCain is keeping its powder mostly dry, I think. For some October surprises.
I have made complaints about Webb and his blog in the NY Times and asked all US citizens that respect fair play to visit Webbs blog and complain.
I also repeated that the British taxpayer pays $5billion for them to not carry out their duties to their charter of objectivity and balance.
Perhaps with complaints in links in these newspapers someone will take notice.
Ever hammering away at your PC, and it suddenly occurs to you that you’ve wasted your life?
Justin Webb on the Jeremy Vine show yesterday, available to listen again to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/vine/
His new book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Have-Nice-Day-Justin-Webb/dp/190602152X
Including this review:
‘This unpleasant little book shows just how biased the BBC can be. Webb, a typical public school prefect type, can’t see an arse without wanting to lick it. His reports from the USA have always been nauseatingly pro-American – it can’t do anything wrong, in his eyes.’
And here’s Webb presenting what one assumes is an abridged take on his argument:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4735147.ece
So his argument is that we should give America another chance because the balance of power is moving away form the Christian right and social conservatism. Meanwhile, the argument is moving towards government spending on infrastructure. So basically, he’s full in favour of the shift leftwards.
Gosh, that would be what I’ve been saying when hammering away at my PC. What a relief; a life not wasted.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4737070.ece?Submitted=true
You think this guy is related to Webb or that other clown?
Mailman
No he’s just another New Labour hack.
JohnA | 11.09.08 – 10:51 pm The BBC complaints system is DESIGNED to put you off persisting with complaints.
Hell, they even famously told the PM’s press secretary Alistair Campbell (who supposedly bullied the media) to submit his complaint about Gilligan through normal channels & wait a couple of months for a response.