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A ‘final’ comment on the BBC and the Olympics. At least they didn’t mistake him for a journalist.
“I’ve never felt like a bigger fraud in all my life.”
BBC correspondent and 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Steve Perry, on being mobbed by a Beijing crowd that mistook him for swimmer and Olympic gold-medal wunderkind, Michael Phelps.
Newsweek, September 1, 2008, Perspective
The Mail make the very believable claim that
“a senior executive told reporters to ‘go easy’ on the Labour Government now it is lagging behind the Tories in the polls.
According to a well-placed source, the man in charge of BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today In Parliament told his staff that it was right to be ‘aggressive’ when things were going well for the Government but not when it was in trouble.”
Read the story and the denials and choose which side of the story you believe.
How the BBC reports Malaysia politics:
“Malaysia PM rebuffs Anwar claim”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7618013.stm
How ‘Islam Monitor’ reports Malaysia politics:
“Fleeing Malaysia”
[Extract]:
“Complete Islamization was slowed by the Hindu-Buddhist background, no Arab ‘conquest’, mixed population and involvement of the Portuguese, Dutch and finally British from the 16th -20th century (Japanese in WWII.) Chinese and Indians entered over a long period, particularly during European involvement with Chinese majorities in several areas.
“Under the British, all residents regardless of race were equal British subjects. The Chinese were originally poor but very industrious and educated their children. They developed a wide range of businesses, farms, plantations, mines, insurance and banking while the sultans who overspent became indebted to them. The British fostered education for Malays who entered the police, military, and administration. At independence, the British proposed equal citizenship for all regardless of race- this didn’t suit Muslim Malays.
” The Malays have horrendously discriminated against non-Malays/non-Muslims to enhance Malay/Muslim economic and political power. Every assistance is given to Malays/Muslims •land, education, low interest loans to businesses, government tendering to Malays, tax breaks, technical and administrative jobs etc!
“The Chinese who built much of the economy are forced to ‘Malayanise’ their management •and suffer penalties! There is systematic positive discrimination in favour of Muslims. The Constitution was changed to make illegal any criticism, even in Parliament, of the Malaysian monarchy, the special position of Malays in the country, or the status of Malay as the national language”
http://islammonitor.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1569&Itemid=91
Well done Noel !
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4753618.ece
Sarah Montague interviewed John McFall this morning. She suggested that raising the protected deposit limit from £35k to £50k was a Tory policy, and implied that this was the Tories’ top priority in this area. She also volunteered, before McFall could properly respond, that there were more important problems to solve first. Firstly, the £50k limit was announced by the Treasury not the Tories. Secondly, it is clearly not the top priority of the Conservative party. Thirdly, is it really necessary for Ms Montague’s opinionated and clearly biased position to be broadcast? She is supposed to be a journalist, not a politician.
On Today this morning Ed Stoughton drowned the LibDems (David Steel and Olly Grender) in honey. During the interview the interviewees regretted that they hadn’t attacked the Conservatives enough for their funding “corruption” etc etc. Did Stoughton mention Michael Brown in response? Oh no – Ed’s much too well-bred to do that. After all, if he asked awkward questions of his pals he might be taken for a journalist.
Every Cloud…………!
The good news is that Lehman Brothers were heavily into climate change, lauding the business opportunities which were opening up.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/09/negativity-revisited.html
Completely off topic – Harold Tanky Challenor’s obit in the Telegraph. WWII SAS hero and scourge of Soho gangsters as a copper.
“Fighting crime in Soho was like trying to swim against a tide of sewage,” he wrote later. “For every villain put behind bars there were always two more to take their place.”
In response, Challenor’s modus operandi became increasingly violent and unorthodox: in the case of a Barbadian called Padmore, brought in on suspicion of living off immoral earnings, it involved singing “Bongo, bongo, bongo, I don’t want to leave the Congo”, while repeatedly punching the suspect…
One of those arrested was Donald Rooum, a member of the National Council of Civil Liberties, who had been doing nothing more threatening than carrying a banner. But according to Challenor • who greeted him with “You’re f***ing nicked, my beauty. Boo the Queen, would you?” and a series of slaps round the head • he had also been carrying a half-brick, which if deemed to be an offensive weapon could have earned him a two-year sentence. Forensics, however, found no brickdust or appropriate wear and tear in Rooum’s pockets, and the upshot was that Challenor was himself brought to trial at the Old Bailey in June 1964 on a charge of corruption.
Makes Gene Hunt seem like Larry Grayson.
I am on a quest for knowledge here, so forgive me if I betray a lack of same, but perhaps those better versed with the workings of the BBC, and the unique way it is funded, could answer me a simple question in relation to this:
BBC One promotes Merlin with magical postcards
http://www.brandrepublic.com/Digital/News/846031/BBC-One-promotes-Merlin-magical-postcards/?DCMP=EMC-Digital-Bulletin
Why is it necessary for BBC1 to ‘promote’ a show in this (I imagine not free) manner at all?
I know better ratings are how those at the top justify their market-rate salaries, but isn’t using public funds (which I presume the ad/PR budgets are) to drive them a slight conflict of interest?
Look at this crap from boris johnson!!
Noel Edmonds is wrong to say get rid of BBC licence fee: remove it and you lose the Proms
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/16/do1601.xml
Check out the censored comments made to (D)HYS and removed by BBC operatives of the Save-Gordon’s-Arse campaign…
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/bbc/threads/show/9755
Why on earth was this removed?
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/bbc/threads/show/9685
Or this?
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/bbc/threads/show/9746
On David Cairns: “Mr Cairns, a former Catholic priest who was elected to Parliament in 2001, became a minister at the Scotland Office in 2007.”
This is identical to Sir Humphrey’s “lay preacher” smear.
Good to know that the Beeboids are familiar with quality comedy.
Peter | Homepage | 16.09.08 – 1:53 pm |
Why is it necessary for BBC1 to ‘promote’ a show in this (I imagine not free) manner at all?
I know better ratings are how those at the top justify their market-rate salaries, but isn’t using public funds (which I presume the ad/PR budgets are) to drive them a slight conflict of interest?
Unfortunately, the BBC long ago learned to twist one little line in the Charter about getting good viewer numbers for their shows into an excuse to behave like a full-on lowest common denominator commercial broadcaster. That battle was lost a long time ago, and they act accordingly. With this in mind, all marketing campaigns are possible, any expense allowed.
But something about this marketing scheme raises a very big red flag to me. The gimmick seems to be something to do with holding up one of these expensively made postcards (well, not that expensive if they’re made by near-slave labor in China, as most of these things are) to a webcam, in order to get some special video to play on one’s own screen. This means one lets the BBC servers look into one’s own home so that the proper barcode or whatever can be captured, after which the BBC will show the end user a bonus video clip. Sounds cool and fun, right?
This is nothing less than the the thin end of the Big Brother wedge. Many people will already have webcams for personal use, but now the BBC will get people to connect directly to the BBC server with their webcams. Sure, it’s all very innocent and anonymous at this stage, and it’s not like the BBC doesn’t already know who’s watching or listening online. After all, they can tell if I listen to Radio 3 just as easily as if I mug for a webcam. Nothing new or unusual there.
However, that’s all they get from me. I’m not sending any signal to them, or any other info than my IP, browser type, and screen resolution, how long I stayed on the iPlayer, which show I streamed, etc. They can capture that data and it’s useless for anything except learning about their audience demographic, and even that’s little more than location and perhaps technology level (all fine with me, really). If I turn on a camera, though, and send them a data stream, much more can be captured.
I won’t say that’s what the BBC is doing this time, as it would take a huge amount of human and computer effort (not to mention more imagination than they probably have) to do an actual Big Brother with this scheme. I know that’s not possible right now. But this certainly does introduce the idea of opening up one’s own home to BBC eyes. And it seems so innocent and fun.
Peter | 16.09.08 – 1:53 pm
If you look at where the BBC recruits from, your question probably answers itself:
Guy North, Head of TV Brand and Portfolio Marketing, … joined the BBC in 1999 from Bass Brewers
Helen Kellie, Head of Marketing, … joined the BBC in 2000 … She was previously a marketeer at Reckitt Benckiser, working on a range of personal care and household brands in the UK, New York and Paris.
Jacky Brandreth, Head of Brand and Planning joined the BBC in 1998 from Coca-Cola …
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/10_october/04/mcanda.shtml
Livingstone has his newts, and intended to build a ‘newtaqarium’ for millions of pounds in London, until Boris put a stop to it, saying that(paraphrasing)’it gave a new meaning to the phrase, “pet project”‘.
Now that the BBC’s Mark Easton has found his true home on his blog,- with butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets:
“Map of the week: Climate Change and Crickets”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2008/09/_when_you_get_in.html
He seems more at home in that corner, rather than propagandising for immigrants (see his blog items).
Incidentally, the following BBC report on one of the negative impacts of mass immigration on the UK is quite reasonable, away from Easton’s influence:
“England ‘most crowded in Europe'”
(by Chris Mason)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7618994.stm
The BBC, that civilian death toll in Afghanistan and half the story.
Afghan civilian casualties soar
There has been a sharp increase in the number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan this year, according to new figures released by the United Nations. They show that August had the highest number of deaths since the overthrow of the Taleban almost seven years ago. The UN says that from January to August 1,445 civilians were killed– a rise of 39% on the same period last year…
Meanwhile, civilian casualties caused by pro-government forces are rising too – 577 so far this year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7618906.stm
The BBC unable to present Iraq as a failure any more has upped sticks and relocated to Afghanistan in which to play ‘the west are failing’ card. However what the BBC doesn’t inform you until the very end of that report (And even then they still don’t inform you just how many the Taliban have murdered) that the Afghan government and ISAF account for around 1/3rd of the total number of deaths. Deaths I should add are highly suspect when it comes to pointing the finger of blame at ISAF.
However that doesn’t prevent the BBC from ending their little seditious article. With the following line;
”How much sympathy do you have with those whose job it is to capture an enemy who knowingly hides in civilian areas?”
The BBC, that civilian death toll in Afghanistan and half the story.
Current BBC HYS is about the need for tighter credit control over institutions like Lehman.
I left them some excerpts from this NYT article from 11 Sept 2003 (ironic).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
“The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.
Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry. ”
The Democrats defeated it saying:
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed. ”
Doubt if it will make it past the bbc censors.
David Preiser (USA) | Homepage | 16.09.08 – 4:32 pm | #
Anonymous:
Peter | 16.09.08 – 1:53 pm
Gent, person, I thank you and am now better educated. If, perhaps, a tad more than is good for me.
They can do it, so they do. End of. Still sucks.
The bBC, that so called war crime in Gaza and half the story.
A report to the UN Human Rights Council on Israel’s shelling of Beit Hanoun in Gaza almost two years ago says it may have been a war crime. The report compiled by Archbishop Desmond Tutu casts doubt on Israel’s explanation that the shelling resulted from a flawed artillery firing system. It calls on Israel to pay compensation to the victims, 19 of whom were killed. Archbishop Tutu went to Beit Hanoun in May, after objections by Israel delayed his mission several times. The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the South African cleric’s report contains horrific testimony from survivors of the shelling. She says it speaks of the dead lying in the streets, of local hospitals overwhelmed, and of the injured having to hand over cash to get through Israeli checkpoints for treatment in Israel itself.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7617433.stm
The BBC promotes this vision of a war crime committed against Hamas terrorists by promoting a report by Desmond Tutu. Strangely enough for a new agency which prides itself on linking articles on the sidebar in which to expand on any story for once the bBC doesn’t . Why is that?
So without any further ado here is what the bBC doesn’t want you to know about that so called war crime in Beit Hanoun. All taken from the BBC web site I should add.
In pictures: Gaza offensive
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6113102.stm
Gaza gunmen flee in human shield
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6112386.stm
Hangon. The bBC doesn’t mention anything about 60 gunmen hiding out in the local mosque. Or how they dressed up as women and escaped amongst a crowed of women. Have a butchers at the top link and go to picture 6 and read the bBC caption.
The bBC, that so called war crime in Gaza and half the story.
A few more recent BBC reports have begun to see the international linkages between Jihadists in the Islamic world, e.g.
1.)Iran regime gives military support to Hezbollah (Lebanon) and to Taleban (Afghanistan/Pakistan
“Iran ‘sending weapons to Taleban'”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7616429.stm
And. of course, there are many more such linkages to be aware of, and opposed, e.g.:-
2.)”The Pakistan connection to the UK’s Jihad network”
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373989
3.)”Laws against terrorist Internet camps in heart of Europe” (8 min Video), featuring Jihad in Belgium.
http://www.euronews.net/en/article/12/09/2008/laws-against-terrorist-internet-camps-in-heart-of-europe
“Professor Michael Reiss has quit as director of education at the Royal Society following the controversy over his recent comments on creationism. ”
“As a result, Professor Reiss and the Royal Society have agreed that, in the best interests of the society, he will step down immediately as director of education – a part-time post he held on secondment,” it said in a statement. ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7619670.stm
These “scientists” just cannot have any “diversity” in opinion can they?
“Warning sounded on web’s future ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7613201.stm
Oh dear I thought it was Justin.
See the readers comments at the Telegraph on Boris Johnson saying that “Noel Edmonds is wrong to say get rid of BBC licence fee: remove it and you lose the Proms”
“Congratulations Boris, you have just produced the most useless justification for the state TV tax ever. As a Conservative are you seriously trying to say the Proms can only exist because every family in the land has to pay £140 every year to fund the BBC? Give me a break. Maybe if I’d been paid a fraction of the money you have made from the BBC over the years I too would be in favour of the TV tax, but to be honest I’d rather just have the £140 in my pocket.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/16/do1601.xml#comments
.
I’d rather spend £10 on a CD of the classics cheers Boris. Save me the £140 for a bunch of drug taking rent boy lovers at the BBC.
Anti-Americanism in Europe Fueled by Ignorance
More than 50 percent of Britons believe that polygamy is legal in the United States; in fact, it is illegal in all 50 states. Almost one-third of Britons believe that Americans who have not paid their hospital fees or insurance premiums are not entitled to emergency medical care; in fact, such treatment must be provided by law.
Seventy percent of Britons think the United States has done a worse job than the European Union in reducing carbon emissions since 2000; in fact, America’s rate of growth of carbon emissions has decreased by almost ten percent since 2000, while that of the EU has increased by 2.3 percent.
Eighty percent of Britons believe that “from 1973 to 1990, the United States sold Saddam Hussein more than a quarter of his weapons.” In fact, the United States sold just 0.46 percent of Saddam’s arsenal to him; Russia, France, and China supplied 57 percent, 13 percent, and 12 percent, respectively.
Ignorance? Or indoctrinated by BBC (and Guardian) lies? Decide for yourselves.
The BBC World at One, Martha Karney and PM show seem well in bed with the LibDims this week. Not just reporting on their party conference but chairing some of their meetings.
Have they asked any hard questions about the LibDims love affair with the EU, like “couldn`t we afford that policy if Britain didn`t shovel so much money to Brussels ?”
horizon : “at the touch of a button, the US president can save our planet , or destroy it”
nice… i think we know where this one is heading.
bbc 2 now.
hmm.. looks like horizon might be wasteing their time
http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/
“The National Science Board was established by Congress in 1950, and has two important roles. It provides oversight for, and establishes the policies of, the National Science Foundation, within the framework of applicable national policies set forth by the President and the Congress. It also serves as an independent body of advisors to both the President and Congress on broad national policy issues related to science and engineering research and education. ”
do we have anything equivalent , and as powerful, in our country?
David Preiser (USA)16.09.08 – 7:09 pm Ignorance? Or indoctrinated by BBC (and Guardian) lies? Decide for yourselves.
David Preiser, “If the U.S. doesn’t wake up to the threat, monitor it, and deal with it, the likelihood is that within a generation the United States will end up like the inured P.C. basket-case that is now Great Britain.
Thanks directly to The Guardian’s hold over the BBC, British society has changed much for the worst, almost certainly irreversibly. The Conservative Party never woke up to the threat and so is now forced to court favor from these, their conquerors, so desperate are they to win back office.
And so, having achieved the emasculation of the Conservatives, the BBC-Guardian axis has turned its sights on the last bastion of conservative thinking: the United States of America. That’s why they are in America”…
The Other British Invasion http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=0C384D7A-5FD9-43A4-9F5A-F00E31DAF900
just caught the first fib on that horizon program.
somebody was quoted as saying that it took president bush “1 and a half years” to appoint a science advisor.
not true.
President Bush was sworn into office in january 2001, and appointed his first science advisor in JUNE 2001
https://mailman.rice.edu/pipermail/rsi/2001-June/000063.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Advisor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_w._bush
he was criticised for leaving it until June.
However , what he did instead what to appoint a technology advisor first – in March 2001.
” In March the president appointed Floyd Kvamme, a Silicon Valley venture
capitalist, to co-chair the President’s Council of Advisers on
Science and Technology ”
a silicon valley VC guy. well, you cant get more “tech” than that.
“Anonymous | 16.09.08 – 9:12 pm”
hey – thats our very own JBH , who frequents the comments on here!
good article by the way. and judging by the response to Sarah Palin, there’s fat chance of America going socialist anytime soon.
Just switched off Horizons `Presidents guide to science`
Unless my battered old ears are decieving me the dozy mare narrating is pronouncing `nuclear` `nucular` a`la Homer Simpson.
Next week on Horizon `How to get things right before inferring others have got it wrong and making yourselves look like cnsut`
uh oh – horizon is on about abortion now. always a useful thing to browbeat the rednecks with.
my – arent we so civilised that we tolerate aborting children at 28 weeks…
Good old Boris.
Okay, I’d be curious to get a response from any of the regular BiasedBBC posters here about this remark I found randomly elsewhere:
“Remember that these are people who can see a BBC eviscerated by the Hutton Report, straitjacketed by a punitive licence fee settlement for their disloyalty to the DCMS and with half the cabinet ready to blame them for everything from global warming to the immigrants, and accuse them of being the propaganda wing of the Labour party.”
Thoughts?
couldnt care less. i just want the bbc privatised. simple as that really.
I see on the BBC HYS site you are not allowed to criticise Europe in any way.
I had a comment on their “Should juries return to the Eurovision Song Contest final” story.
It quickly rose to 3rd place in the most recommended comments section, with some 60 recommendations, only to be rejected some 8 hours later!
I guess you have to follow their kind of ideals and you are not welcome to step out of line. But your money is more than welcome.
dawkins : “if you dont believe in evolution, after 150 years of scientific discovery, you must be ignorant , stupid or insane”.
somehow , i dont think they’ll be broadcasting this in Saudi Arabia.
i dont get this -America has one of the biggest scientific establishments on the planet – if not THE BIGGEST. its colleges are in surplus by the BILLIONS.
they launch space shuttles. they invented the internet.
and yet this horizon thing frames america are being creationist? huh?
wtf?
The whole institution must be dismantled. The free market will provide whatever TV services customers require. The BBC should pass into history, remembered as a curio of a bygone age like the India Office. People may balk, but I assure them; within a couple of years people would wonder why it had ever existed
now eugenics is being blamed on america.
my , this horizon “documentary” is something else. just waiting for the obligatory Hitler or KKK clip.
eugenics , horizon informs us, is a practise that continued in America until the 1970s.
what horizon does NOT tell us, is that it also happened into the 1980s in socialist nirvana – a certain country called Sweden.
and of course, lets skip over the folks that pushed eugenics to the very limit – those upstart bavarians, with shirts in a shade of beige.
horizon again – the periodic table is something that could not appear “less interesting”.. yet it this simple table is “powerful in its simplicity”.
they have got to be kidding me.
the periodic table IS interesting. its interesting because IT IS A FRIGGING ORGANISED TABLE!!!
thats what got me going when i first learned about it from my chemistry teacher as a kid.
@David
“I won’t say that’s what the BBC is doing this time, as it would take a huge amount of human and computer effort (not to mention more imagination than they probably have) to do an actual Big Brother with this scheme.”
No no, you’re wrong David, there onto it already. Log onto their server with your webcam, and they’ll scan your retinas. They then feed this biometric information into a database, and use it to produce clones, which they then accelerate to your current age. That way when they disappear you, they’ll have a ready made replacement, and your family won’t know the difference.
You’ll then be whisked to Broadcasting House, where you’ll be force to coordinate Taliban attacks against the hard-working families of Britain, on pain of torture.
Mark Thompson knows it, you know it.
horizon -> they just bashed nuclear power. no acknowledgement that mccain wants nuke power.
(energy independence mantra..)
“….with shirts in a shade of beige.”
Not only beige.
“From its inception eugenics was supported by prominent people, including H. G. Wells, Emile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, John Maynard Keynes, William Keith Kellogg and Margaret Sanger.
G. K. Chesterton was an early critic of the philosophy of eugenics, expressing this opinion in his book, Eugenics and Other Evils.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics
BBC hates nukes,treads on their green credentials,anyway jo abbess says nukes are naughty,what else could we expect?
archduke: I had to turn it off.
How sad. horizon USED to be a brilliant science programme. One of the very few gems on the BBC.
Now it’s turned into a pile of steaming shit.
I just give up.
God knows what will happen to the Sky at Night once Sir Patrick pops his clogs.
Probably turn it into a show about what stars you can see from Hampstead Heath whilst indulging in some barebacking.
Probably turn it into a show about what stars you can see from Hampstead Heath whilst indulging in some barebacking.
Martin | 16.09.08 – 10:13 pm |
Brilliant, Martin. That’s a lot funnier than Al Beeb’s “comedy” output! 🙂
For the record –
Anonymous | 16.09.08 – 9:12 pm
– wasn’t me.
Bartleby the Scrivener | 16.09.08 – 9:45 pm
No no, you’re wrong David, there onto it already. Log onto their server with your webcam, and they’ll scan your retinas. They then feed this biometric information into a database, and use it to produce clones, which they then accelerate to your current age. That way when they disappear you, they’ll have a ready made replacement, and your family won’t know the difference.
You’ll then be whisked to Broadcasting House, where you’ll be force to coordinate Taliban attacks against the hard-working families of Britain, on pain of torture.
Mark Thompson knows it, you know it.
My goodness, Bartleby, you certainly took me seriously. Just how much did I need to spell it out that I really did not, even for a nanosecond, imagine that the BBC was doing this, or that something like this was feasible right now? Hyperbole is not your friend, and certainly not in keeping with your namesake. He was more passive-aggressive, as I recall.
I was pointing out that this scheme of letting the BBC into one’s own home could potentially be taken advantage of by someone, at some point. I’m sure it’s all harmless fun to you and you firmly believe that something like that could only happen in the fascist, Booooosh-led US, right? The country with the highest per-capita rate of CCTV cameras pointed at them would never in a million years allow this to happen. Would you? Nah. You’re far too clever for me Bartleby. I never thought of things in the way you described. Gosh.
Talk to me about this again in 25 years. I know that’s just a really, really, long time, and you may only be able to think about these things in the immediate or short term (hence your interpretation of my comment). But until then, the next time you see an ad from the BBC prompting you to turn on your home webcam, you should really think about saying, “I would prefer not to.”
Or at least put some pants on.
Peter ‘I am on a quest for knowledge here, so forgive me if I betray a lack of same, but perhaps those better versed with the workings of the BBC, and the unique way it is funded, could answer me a simple question in relation to this:
BBC One promotes Merlin with magical postcards’
The BBC’s own research shows that the teen market is under-represented in its audience. A show like ‘Merlin’ is aimed at this audience. You may also have noticed the branding of some Saturday/Sunday programmes under the title ‘BBC Switch’ also aimed at said audience:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/
The idea of the cards is to promote this show and this part of the service to the audience under-represented. The BBC has a duty to provide a range of programmes for all etc etc.. and it would be in the best interests of said organisation to have a loyal following among this group. Any broadcaster is going to have to promote its services to a degree though.
I’m not commenting on whether the stickers and the promoting of shows is a good or bad thing, but I think this is the most reasonable explanation. Or it could be a brainwashing technique…