Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.
General BBC-related comment thread!
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Anon | 05.10.08 – 10:54 pm |
Re the Weather Underground and fatalities, I don’t know whether they intended to kill anyone or whether they took care to avoid killing anyone when they set their bombs off. I don’t even know whether Ayres meant killing when hes said he wished they had done more.
However, leaving the bombings aside, they did kill people by shooting in the course of robbery or getaway – in one case in a small town in NY or NJ (I forget which) they killed police and a security guard.
I’ve emailed the BBC and Sky to point out that When Ayres sad on 9/11 he wished he’d killed more Obama was working with him at the time in Chicago. Obama never distanced himself from those comments at the time, just like it took 20 years for Obama to distance himself from a racist piece of shit like Wright.
I just loved it when Bill O’reilly nailed the son of god 2 when he asked Obama about Wright’s racist rantings and Obama denied he’d ever heard them
“What yo umean you never noticed them on sale in the Church Foyer?” said O’Reilly. Obama didn’t have a reply
He fucking well knew Wright was spouting that bile.
Can anyone remember that the church that Wright preached at had a monthly newsletter that contained some of Wright’s rantings?
I tried to download a copy but the church took the site down and I don’t think those newspetters have ever been seen again. I wonder if Obama ever got a copy sent to him?
Have the Tories committed mass suicide?
Yet agian the BBC gives us a Vince Cable soundbite from the Commons.
Looks like the BBC are arse licking theLib Dems.
So the former Head of Commercial Policy at the BBC is now the Conservative Party’s energy and climate change spokesman, with a seat in the shadow cabinet.
Anyone know anything about him?
To those who’ve recently been discussing the dumbing down of tests and poor education standards in Britian – it’s compare and contrast time.
Here’s a BBC news brief about a primary school in Gloucestershire abandoning the practice of giving children weekly spelling tests.
Pupils ‘distressed over spelling’
And here’s a nearly identical brief from The Sydney Morning Herald:
Learning spelling lists too ‘distressing’ for kids: UK school
Both reports include a frighteningly obtuse quote from the headmistress’s letter to parents:
“We have taken the decision to stop spelling as homework as it is felt that although children may learn them perfectly at home they are often unable to use them in their daily written work.”
A sane person would have understood that the children weren’t, in fact, actually learning the spelling at home. But not this woman.
She said spelling lists were sometimes simply tests of memory.
If kids were able to get four out of five right at home with the parents, but only one out of five right in the class room, it could lead to a sense of failure, she said.
If they can’t spell, it’s because you’re not teaching them, dear. Why is this woman in charge of children?
However, unlike the Australian paper, the BBC – in the bag for the teachers’ union – fails to include this:
But Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said the decision would come back to back to haunt her pupils as some spellings, particularly irregular words, needed to be learned.
“Youngsters will feel a sense of failure more strongly when they go into the world of work and can’t produce a letter or a report for their employers,” he said.
What editorial decision led to the exclusion this, but allowed the Glos. County Council’s fatuous statement for the defense instead? Very nearly the same amount of words, so it can’t be for space consideration.
If Seaton’s group is anything like the Campaign for Real Ale, I like it already.
DB – great link
The ships blogs will provide enough material to keep private eye’s Pseuds Corner busy for generations to come…
jimbob | 06.10.08 – 2:10 pm
I sent Tim Blair the link to Francesca Galeazzi’s blog. He had fun with it:
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/berg_benchless#42301
Martin | 06.10.08 – 6:06 pm |
Can anyone remember that the church that Wright preached at had a monthly newsletter that contained some of Wright’s rantings?
It was the Trinity United Church of Christ.
For any spiritually minded, up-wardly mobile African-American living in Chicago in the mid-1980s, the Trinity United Church of Christ was—and still is—the place to be.
It does look like the church’s own site is down. Their YouTube channel is still up, which should provide some entertainment. Rev. Wright’s greatest hits are all still there.
The first comment is a bit of a giveaway:
Catch the “9/11 Was An Inside Job (Official Music Video)”….censored by youtube
Classic.
Here’s a comment at Marcus Brigstocke’s Arctic blog from former head of BBC comedy Jon Plowman:
So as you might imagine, I have been very taken with this and your blogs from Cape Farewell. It makes me think that when you get back we have to meetup and see what we can do here. As you know we tried a planet relief idea which then got mown down by news hounds but we shouldn’t give up on it cos one of the things I kept being told was that the comedy community had no connection to CC. Thanks for proving them wrong. jon
http://www.capefarewell.com/diskobay/sunny-days/#comment-335
If the comedy community doesn’t have any connection to climate change, HOW COME ALL THE FUCKING COMEDIANS ON THE FUCKING BBC NEVER FUCKING STOP GOING ON ABOUT IT?
“we have to meetup (sic) and see what we can do here” – oh shit, I see a BBC series coming on.
Glad to see he’s still pissed off that Planet Relief got cancelled, though.
I see the BBC’s Quentin Cooper went along for the ride as well:
http://www.capefarewell.com/diskobay/about/crew/profile-quentin-cooper/
David Preiser (USA): I’m really surprised that none of the Wright Newsletters have turned up. The newsletter was called ‘The Trumpet’ but I notice that site is still down as well. Obama was in this magazine and it did contain some of Wrights rants.
No one seems to have copies of it though. It was done as a PDF. I did try to Google Cache it when the stink first came up but I had no luck
The BBC totally failed to mention the stink around this race hate magazine.
“…Obama was on the cover of the TRUMPET magazine three times. This is the same magazine run by Obama’s pastor which gave an award to Louis Farakkhan. Obama’s pastor wrote a column on every issue.Obama can’t claim ignorance of those columns…”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1987427/posts
panorama banging on again about how racist the British police are
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7650811.stm
oh right. this is the very same police force that allows Sikhs to wear turbans and Muslims hijabs as part of their uniform. The very same police force that allows the existence of a “Black Police Officers Association”.
meanwhile, other countries seem to be somewhat saner.
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2007/08/garda-sikh-banned-from-wearing-turban.html
Just watched John McCain on Fox. He’s taken the gloves off on Obama and come out swinging big time.
About bloody time as well. At least in the next debate wanstains like the BBC and NBC won’t be able to edit his comments.
did he mention bill ayers yet? or fannie mae?
ouch.. mccain calls obama a liar. (which he is by the way)
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93L6MQO1&show_article=1
the truth sure does hurt – especially if you’re a democrat.
Martin: ABC has a couple of articles from the Trumpet.
I don’t know how to post the live link from there to here but go to ABC website SEARCH and look for an article claled “Who’s Scrubbing the Trinity United Shurch of Christ Website?” and one entitled “More Wright Stuff”. Both are by Jake Tapper.
Martin | 06.10.08 – 8:41 pm |
I’m really surprised that none of the Wright Newsletters have turned up. The newsletter was called ‘The Trumpet’ but I notice that site is still down as well. Obama was in this magazine and it did contain some of Wrights rants.
No one seems to have copies of it though. It was done as a PDF. I did try to Google Cache it when the stink first came up but I had no luck
The BBC totally failed to mention the stink around this race hate magazine.
That won’t do any good, because most of the media and all of the Left seem to agree with the hideously white Pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, John Buchanan:
On Jeremiah Wright
I’m distressed by white people, out of a very different religious, cultural, racial, theological/ecclesiastical experience, presuming to judge African American faith practices and religious expression and preaching.
That tends to shut down any further argument. I don’t agree with this sentiment, because no other group would be given such a free pass. But there’s no chance McCain’s campaign can use Wright as a weapon now. He needs to focus on The Obamessiah’s politics outside of that church. Anything Wright says – even the non-racial, political stuff about which white people ought to be allowed to show concern – can be easily defended as righteous black anger that you wouldn’t understand. It’s a losing proposition.
Apologies if this is old news … (I don’t know how to search the comments)
“BBC Director of News launches Salford course
Friday, 03 October 2008
Helen Boaden will be meeting students at the University of Salford next week as they launch their new BA (Hons) Journalism course.
BBC Director of News launches Salford course
Boaden will talking about “how to make friends and influence people at the BBC” to give the students an insight into life in a real news environment.”
http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-broadcasting/bbc-director-of-news-launches-salford-course-200810033654/
I’m struck by how blatant she appears to be that the most important thing for a BBC reporter is networking and how to ‘work the room’.
R
Millie Tant: Thanks. Here’s the link for others who want to read.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/whos-scrubbing.html
Have you seen the other article – More Wright Stuff – about the Italians, Israelis?
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/more-wright-stu.html
Reimer | 06.10.08 – 10:16 pm |
I’m struck by how blatant she appears to be that the most important thing for a BBC reporter is networking and how to ‘work the room’.
Great. That’s just what the BBC needs: another feeder program. It’s no wonder they’re all fellow travelers if they get the BBC orientation on their first day of school. I guess doing it like this is less obvious than having their own Ecole Nationale d’Administration. Keeps it under the radar and the proles don’t catch on.
And this is the same Helen Boaden who excuses so much bias and sloppiness as the result of those very, very young people, who are paid very, very low wages. When in fact, they’re learning the Helen Boaden Method from Day One!
Maybe she at least tells them it’s wrong to steal from and lie to children, that they shouldn’t expect cash bonuses for getting scoops, and not to show their true colors on Facebook.
Here we have a nice example of BBC bias toward Labour:
The FOOTSIE suffered its biggest one day fall in history, Hmmmm thats a problem for the BBC isnt it? I mean how do you spin this for Labour while trying to drag the hated Tories into the mess? what to do,what to do!
The BBC had a bright idea, first talk up the American angle and blame them wherever possible then minimise the UK angle,hide the actual cost in pounds and then describe the fall as “the biggest since 1987”! See what they did? However bad it may be its not Labours fault and anyway it was worse under the Tories! The dishonest parallel between 1987 and now is very clever and very sneaky isnt it? Of course the BBC uses the kind of sneaky two faced language that helps Labour while giving them a fig leaf of impartiality in case of complaints, the BBC output is balanced alright, balanced between overt labour support and covert Labour support!
Daily Mail:
“BBC ‘fawns’ over royals, claims Paxman in outspoken attack”
[Extract]:
“He added: ‘The BBC really thinks and spends a lot of time protesting to the rest of the world that it is an independent news-gathering organisation.
“‘But it equally depends upon, and understands that it is a national institution, and the monarchy is the thing that really illuminates the question of the BBC’s complete confusion about what on earth it is, and you’ve seen this I think time and time again.
“‘It never knows whether it should be reporting what has happened or celebrating what has happened.'”(Paxman).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1070539/BBC-fawns-royals-claims-Jeremy-Paxman-outspoken-attack.html
BBC arch climate propagandist, R.Harrabin, and his latest:
– he applauds Labour’s Climate Change Bill, inevitably quoting his Friends of the Earth’s approval:
“UK ‘needs tougher climate target'”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7655678.stm
Of course, the BBC’s Harrabin, as is his wont, EXCLUDES any criticism of Labour’s, or of his own assertions, such as provided here:
“What’s the cost of global warming?”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/22/global_warming_mitigation_vs_adaptation/
AND –
“Climate change chicanery” (Christopher Booker)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/14/do1402.xml
Excellent! – The Labour government doesn’t understand the nature of the threat from Islamic jihadists, so it gets 22 Muslims to advise Labour ministers! Perhaps Labour will ask them to speak with Bin Laden!
Labour’s ‘policy’ on this is a combination of dhimmitude, appeasement, stupidity and an attempt at Muslim vote-winning.
No doubt Tariq Ramadan’s influence is involved as usual:
“The doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan”
http://www.newcultureforum.org.uk/home/?q=node/236
Labour’s inability to understand and combat the ideology behind Islamic jihad is proving disastrous:
“How Britain helps Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood”
(part 1, by Adrian Morgan):
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.636/pub_detail.asp
(part 2, by Adrian Morgan):
http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/004059.html
[Extract, from Part 2]:
“Obviously, for an unpopular government that is spending tax-payers’ money on Muslim groups in the hope that they do not become radical, it would appear shocking if the same government was seen to support an event led by supporters of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
“So for the moment, the government pretends that it does not do deals with extremists. But as I have shown, elements within the government have certainly supported extremists in the past, and probably continue to support them. There is no evidence to suggest that this government and its civil servants will cease from supporting extremists in the future. Without a mole like Derek Pasquill to report on its clandestine operations, there is no accounting for what this government might do.” (Adrian Morgan).
BBC report on above:
Muslim youths to advise ministers”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7656108.stm
BBC not biased?
On the politics front page the “No time for a novice, says Brown” story is there, in the top section, 3rd story down.
That’s the story of Gordon Brown’s make or break speech which is now 2 weeks old. I am looking really hard but I can’t find a balancing link to David Cameron’s speech yet, one which isn’t yet a week old.
Double standards yet again. They can’t let go can they. Every little chance they get to push labour soundbites.
A worthy BBC Radio 4 edition of ‘You and Yours’ is being aired NOW, on the important issue of the treatment of British military personnel under the ‘Military covernant’; worth checking on BBC iPlayer.