General BBC-related comment thread!

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.

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122 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread!

  1. Bryan says:

    …and you wouldn’t have to listen to Webb’s voice.

    Some say it cuts glass.
    David Preiser (USA) | Homepage | 07.10.08 – 3:13 pm

    I’m happy to be able to report that I’ve never heard it.

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  2. disillusioned_german says:

    Well, there are those who say polls are inherently biased towards the Democrat candidate this time…I sure hope so.
    James | 08.10.08 – 2:46 pm |

    I don’t believe Rasmussen’s polls are, James. I sincerely believe Obama will win the election. Few people have the faintest inkling what the impact of that will likely be. I’ve got a pretty good idea.

    God help the U.S. and us.

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  3. George R says:

    BBC Radio 5’s Simon Mayo, one of the innumberable Beeboids touring America at licence-payers’ expense for US election, asked the head of the Muhammad Ali Center, Gregory Roberts,(a black person), a few minutes ago (paraphrasing, but check original):

    MAYO: ‘Don’t you think that when it comes down to it, a lot of white Americans will not actually vote for a black man to be President?’

    Can we imagine Mayo asking a white American:

    ‘Don’t you think that when it comes down to it, a lot of black Amerticans will not actually vote for a white man to be President?’

    The BBC and its ‘multiculturalist’ agenda agenda.

    To be fair to Gregory Roberts, Head of the Ali Center, he dismissed Mayo’s question.

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  4. David Preiser (USA) says:

    George R,

    So how many buses is that now?

    Matt Frei said that he was starting his BBC World News America “at a time when America is struggling to understand the world, and the world America…”

    Sounds more like it’s a time when the BBC is still struggling to understand the US, and mostly failing miserably every time. The saddest part is that Justin Webb actually gets it more than the rest of them. I think he even has a couple of US friends who aren’t total racists or Pentecostals. I don’t know if they’re the ones who also make a “Death to Al Qaeda” toast at dinner, though.

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  5. TPO says:

    disillusioned_german | 08.10.08 – 3:22 pm |

    I’ve been watching over here in North America and I think you’re right, barring a miracle the US is in for four years of a black Jimmy Carter style of government, only worse.
    Thankfully after Carter there was Ronald Reagan. Can’t see anyone on the horizon that comes close this time round.
    Equally after the disasters of the 70s labour government we had Margaret Thatcher. Call me Dave still doesn’t cut for me.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    whitewineliberal:
    The BBC anti-Christian? You must be joking. The level of church coverage is hugely disproportionate. We hear almost daily some garbage about what the CoE thinks of this; what lionel blue thinks of that.

    Lionel Blue, that well known Christian! 😆

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Any sign of al-Beeb reporting the indictment handed down to a Democrat politician’s sprog for hacking Sarah Palin’s e-mail account?

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  8. gordon-bennett says:

    @George R | 08.10.08 – 3:39 pm

    If obama’s failure to win the election is ascribed to racism then it follows that it will not have been Republican voters who were racist because they wouldn’t have voted for obama anyway.

    The only possible racists are the democrat voters who didn’t vote for The One.

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  9. George R says:

    “BBC bans controversial religious characters from Harry Enfield’s sketch show”

    http://www.socialcohesion.co.uk/blog/2008/10/bbc_bans_controversial_religio.html#more

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  10. Oscar says:

    It’s bush v kerry all over again.
    Cockney | 08.10.08 – 8:44 am | #

    I really hate to say this – but I have a horrible suspicion that had Hillary got the nomination she would have knocked both these guys into a cocked hat.

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  11. Martin says:

    Don’t write McCain off yet. Many Americans will make their decision on polling day. Many younger voters (who favour Obama) won’t bother to vote.

    There’s a tendancy to think it’s ‘cool’ to say you support Obama, but not McCain.

    I was disappointed by McCain last night. He should have gone after him about Ayres, Wright and the rest.

    The economy is top of the focus at the moment, but there’s still a month to go before voting and a lot can happen.

    They need to use Palin more. She’s actually got a lot more fight in her. McCain looks tired out, not a good sign.

    McCain is fighting the MSM as well as the Dems.

    For all the mess the Republicans are in, he’s still on average only about 6 points behind.

    Gordon Brown is three times that behind in our polls yet the leftist claim he’s back in the game. If Broon was only 6 points behind Cameron, the BBC would be saying Cameron is doomed.

    On the Mayo show today a Republican listed off the things McCain never mentioned in the debate last night, most of which we’ve mentioned here numerous times.

    Karl Rove was on O’Reilly last night and O’REilly suggested McCain go after Obama, but Rove said not.

    I think McCain is listening to the Rove view far too much.

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  12. Ron Todd says:

    TPO

    When Carter was preident Regan was not on my horizon I did not about him until he ran for president.

    And when Callaghan was in power here a lot of us doubted that Thatcher had what it would take to put things right.

    I stil think McCain can win. Liberals like to patronise ethnic minorities they will not want to be ruled by one.

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  13. George R says:

    Gordon Brown’s mantra to British troops in Afghanistan (August 2008):

    “You know that you are on the front line in the fight against the Taliban. You know that by what you are doing here you prevent terrorism coming to the streets of Britain,”(Brown).

    ‘Daily Mail’ today (but not BBC):

    “‘It’s like winning the lottery’: Jobless Afghan mother of seven gets £170,000 benefits and lives in £1 million council house”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1072729/Its-like-winning-lottery-Jobless-Afghan-mother-seven-gets-170-000-benefits-lives-1million-council-house.html

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  14. Martin says:

    George R: 1 million + for a Labour voter. With the fat one eyed wanker from Scotland borrowing money left right and centre, that looks cheap at half the price.

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  15. disillusioned_german says:

    I wish we (and I write this as a Republican) had Sarah Palin at the “top of the ticket” right now. She’s got pretty much the same “rock star” status as Barack and is a lot more attractive (as far as I am concerned). Give her four years and she’ll be a formidable potential opponent for the Obamessiah.

    Bill O’Reilly was spot on when he said McCain had to get angry last night. Did he? Did he my a***… the man lacks passion, I’m sorry to say.

    O’Reilly for President? I wouldn’t mind.

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  16. Jason says:

    Martin | 08.10.08 – 6:06 pm | #

    You have to give Rove credit, the guy has a lot of experience. And interestingly enough, he did say last night that he thought McCain did fine and that he was right to avoid using the debate to attack Obama’s past. Maybe he’s thinking that all this stuff would be more effective being said between debates. I’m undecided.

    Mind you, I remember certain sources swearing blind that the GOP had a tape of Michelle O. ranting about Whitey and that they were saving it for an October surprise. I sure hope so – if they do have such a tape they would be better off releasing it in late October because the public’s belief in the legend of Obanta Claus is such that even the most incriminating scandal is forgotten within days. It’s one of the worst cases of mass blind love since Hitler.

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  17. Jon says:

    The New BBC English

    “Nasa’s Messenger probe returns more close-up images of Mercury never before been seen by a spacecraft.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/default.stm

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  18. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Even though the legion of Beeboids traipsing around the US covering the election seems to be approaching the size of their Olympics contingent, all they can manage about last night’s debate is a reprint of a column by one of Justin Webb’s friends at Newsweek:

    McCain’s jabs fall short of Obama

    Your license fee hard at work. But did anyone have a look at this ludicrous live-blogging?

    McCain and Obama clash in TV debate

    What a joke. Aside from Jude Sheerin’s dry reiterations, they add in quotes from a bunch of different US sources. It’s a good mix, although I would suspect that the sharpest and brightest minds weren’t sending the BBC messages via Tweets. I know it’s big with the kids these days, but all this tells me is that whoever is producing this thing is young. How many educated people over 25 would sit there with their mobiles on for this during the debate?

    The collection of blogs they chose as sources is quite revealing about the BBC reading habits and their opinions of who is representative of what.

    On the right, we have Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin (both the Great Satan in some circles, especially Malkin), someone from (fairly influential conservative mag) National Review, and someone from a real rabid echo-chamber, RedState.

    I was chased away from there a while back for not bowing down to conservative Catholic dogma, so I have very little respect for it as a whole. I’m not including Andrew Sullivan in the list of conservatives because he no longer counts. Once Bush allowed that anti-gay marriage noise to happen a few years ago, Sullivan went off the deep end and hasn’t looked back. Once actually respectable, he plumbs the lowest depths of awfulness these days, screaming and slandering. It’s not a good sign of critical thinking when the BBC chooses him as a source of any kind of rational opinion on the debate.

    They also get quotes from thinkprogress.org (Faaar Left), and Josh Marshall, the darling of the Leftoid blogosphere and someone who is often wrong and sweeps it under the rug. Which is why the BBC respects his opinion, I suppose.

    Beeboid Jude Sheerin actually starts out well enough with the dry blow-by-blow stuff. Too bad the only “fact checks” he (or she?) felt like letting through were weak, and not much help. One can only assume they didn’t have too many Left blogger sources because they had themselves and Joe Klein to balance out the voices from the Right.

    Unfortunately, the comments from Justin Webb that Sheerin brings in derail the whole thing. Once again he’s on about superficial stuff. Ever master of the backhanded complement, he even manages to take a little swipe at Sarah Palin and projecting it onto McCain. His superficiality rubs off on Sheerin, who stops being useful and starts allowing everyone else to make superficial observations.

    As I said, your license fee hard at work.

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  19. Martin says:

    Jason: The problem for Rove though is that he’s not tapping into how people feel. O’Reilly was spot on. And why when Obama made the accusation that McCain had opposed stronger regulation when McCain did in fact try to get a bill passed (to regulate Fannie Mae and Fredie Mac) and it was blocked by the likes of Barney Franks, which was why O’Reilly flew off the handle.

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  20. TPO says:

    Ron Todd | 08.10.08 – 6:11 pm |

    Agree with you with regard to Reagan.
    In 1979 I was a uniformed policeman standing outside of a polling station in the Home Counties. After the disastrous and criminally incompetent Labour administration leading to the ‘winter of discontent’ there was a palpable air of expectancy that day. Certainly where I was everyone had high hopes of Margaret Thatcher. She didn’t disappoint.

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  21. Millie Tant says:

    David Preiser:

    Re the BBC’s juvenile blog of the debate which you note has been produced by somebody young, I keep telling people about the spirit of 15-year-old boy that has invaded the BBC, but nobody believes me.

    Did anyone else see the monkey business they pulled last night via the quotes from the live debate that they post on a white strip along the bottom of the screen?

    I sat there astonished as they kept putting up quotes from Obama. Why only from Obama? This was so noticeable that it distracted me from the actual debate. It took ages before eventually, they featured anything from McCain.

    It is staggering that they have the nerve to indulge in such blatant one-sided treatment and I would like to know what the overall ratio was as to the number and frequency of quotes given to the candidates. They couldn’t but show both sides of the actual debate, so they found another way to get in the BBC bias for the favoured one.

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  22. Bryan says:

    I should correct the post in which I stated that I’ve never heard Justin Webb speak. I have, once or twice on the World Service, but thankfully I can’t recall too much of it.

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