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

Bookmark the permalink.

80 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread!

  1. GCooper says:

    PM, Radio 4 this evening. Nick Robinson delivers possibly the most fawning, sycophantic interview with a politician since the 1940s, as he grovels before McBean.

    Followed by Montaquin interviewing iDave with all the aggression and dismissiveness she can muster.

    Oh, no… the BBC isn’t biased. Not at all!

       0 likes

  2. George R says:

    GCooper:

    Yes, the contrast between Nick Robinson’s friendly interview with Brown, compared with Carolyn Quinn’s vitriolic attitude to Cameron, in ‘PM interview immediately afterwards, was blatant.

    Just was there’s the anti-Tory, pro-Labour bias of the married couple of:

    BBC Andrew Marr, and wife Jackie Ashley(‘Guardian’), so there’s:

    BBC Carolyn Quinn, and husband Nigel Morris (‘The Independent’).

       0 likes

  3. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Peter | Homepage | 09.10.08 – 8:30 am |

    However, this article… piece… opinion… does rather suggest more than objectivity at play:

    It’s All Relateable

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/petermarshall/2008/10/its_all_relateable.html

    The BBC is not a soapbox.

    Another Beeboid in the US to “cover” the election? How many is that now? Is he traveling with Mayo or in yet another bus? Did the BBC just send the entire Olympic contingent straight over here from China?

    The first comment is very good, though. I wonder why they can’t seem to get Peston’s comment section to function properly like that?

       0 likes

  4. Martin says:

    Cassandra: Gordon Brown is an utter fucking disaster. Forget black Wednesday under the Tories. We’ve now got 250 BILLION fucking pounds of debt dumped on us. Did any of these cunts at Westminster ever think once to ask our opinion?

    As I posted elsewhere, will every Questiontime now have a member of the audience remind us of the day that fat one eyed twat saddled us all with £16 grands worth of debt EACH?

    Why of course not. What a fucking hero Gordon is. What’s 250 billion to a fat socialist anyway?

    I bet you can’t even get a decent rent boy and a fix of Cocaine in Islington for that sort of money.

    Soon we’ll be printing billion pound notes like they did in Zimbabwe. But the Brown arse lickers at the BBC will still be bigging this cunt up

       0 likes

  5. David says:

    The BBC must have made a mistake because both Ken Clarke and Ruth Lea are on Question Time tonight. Now, while both have effectively backed the bail-out as the only option available at the moment, both have been very good during their other media appearances this week in laying the blame at Labour’s feet. The BBC must have got this one wrong, because they normally get a weak Tory nobody has ever heard of on the show when Labour are in trouble.

       0 likes

  6. Martin says:

    David: Yes, but both are pro Europe and as we know Europe has been an utter failure in this mess.

    The French are only interested in themselve sand the Germans don’t give a toss about anyone other than themselves.

    Just where has the European Central Bank been over the last few weeks?

    Clarke will tow the Tory line tonight you can be sure of that.

    We need a Sarah Palin to tear these fat gutless cowards apart.

       0 likes

  7. Umbongo says:

    Martin

    ” . . both are pro Europe . . ”

    Clarke certainly is but Ruth Lea’s presence at a fair number of Bruges Group conferences and her strident opposition to the Lisbon Treaty argues for her having a deal of scepticism about the EU. Furthermore, she is certainly against our joining the euro under any circumstances.

       0 likes

  8. Martin says:

    Umbongo: But she’s still in favour of being in Europe.

       0 likes

  9. emil says:

    We can perhaps all dream about the day when Dave giggles uncontrollably about the entire BBC being made redundant because their telly tax has been taken away.

    Oh yes the Beeboids will see the funny side then, “did I tell you then one about the bloke who just lost his house and job”? cue canned laughter. complete and utter bunch of twats.

       0 likes

  10. Jon says:

    “I’ve written a couple of posts on the subject of BBC environment correspondent Roger Harrabin’s work with something called the Cambridge Environment and Media Programme, which appears to be a body which tries to ensure that the BBC adheres to green orthodoxy in all its output.

    CEMP originally came to my attention when one of Harrabin’s emails was leaked, revealing that he was spending time trying to come up with a party line to take about Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth being found to be misleading in a court case. The BBC’s website at the time had a profile of Harrabin, which revealed that he was a CEMP director, and that CEMP itself was “supported” by the BBC. I assume that this means financially supported, although other interpretations are possible.

    Then at the start of this year, I noticed that Harrabin and CEMP had been involved in trying to put together the Planet Relief telethon, together with a marauding horde of greens and BBC bigwigs. This was revealed by the blog of one of the environmentalists, Matt Prescott, who thanked Harrabin and his CEMP colleague Joe Smith of the Open University for introducing him to some of the BBC bosses at a CEMP-organised seminar.

    CEMP has now come to my attention again, as Tony N at Harmless Sky has been taking a look at their activity too. He notes that the BBC profile of Harrabin is no longer online. On a hunch, I took a look at the Matt Prescott article too, and found that it no longer mentioned Harrabin either – only Joe Smith.
    http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2008/9/30/the-amazing-disappearing-roger-harrabin.html
    This seemed like just too much of a coincidence to me. I could have been mistaken on one of them, but not both. Fortunately, through the delights of the Wayback Machine, I was able to retreive the original pages.”

       0 likes

  11. Jon says:

    “The Freedom of Information Act and the BBC’s willing little helpers”

    “As the BBC seem most unwilling to tell me who the ‘best scientific experts’ who attended the seminar where, I’ve spent some time googling in the hope that the internet might yield more information. It did, and what I found is rather astonishing.”

    http://ccgi.newbery1.plus.com/blog/?p=117#comment-4084

    Interesting stuff.

       0 likes

  12. davka says:

    The BBC website won’t say that hundreds of Arabs poured onto the streets of the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Acre and vandalised shops and property. No, they were just people, and the rioting was ‘Jewish-Arab’.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7660628.stm

    “The unrest erupted around midnight local time (2200 GMT), with hundreds of PEOPLE pouring onto the streets as news spread of the alleged assault, Haaretz reported.

    A crowd gathered on Ben Ami Street, a key commercial street in the city, and caused “extensive damage” to vehicles and property in “large-scale” Jewish-Arab rioting, the report said.

    Contrast with this account in Haaretz, which the BBC report claims to quote:

    “The unrest erupted around midnight on Wednesday, hours after Jews began observing Yom Kippur. An Arab resident of the old city of Acre drove his car to a neighborhood in the eastern part of the city, claiming that he owned a residence there and was simply on his way home. Jewish youths at the scene claimed the Arab man was deliberately making excessive noise and smoking.

    “While allegedly shouting epithets, the youths proceeded to attack the Arab man. Shortly afterward, a group of Arab youths arrived at the scene, igniting a riot.

    “News of the incident spread to the surrounding Arab neighborhoods of the town, including the old city, prompting hundreds to take to the streets. A significant crowd began coalescing along Ben Ami Street, which is considered the key commercial avenue in the city. Dozens of cars and shops along the street were vandalized.”

       0 likes

  13. fewqwer says:

    Anybody else notice the absence of a certain eponymous pest on the radio this morning?

    Having his collar felt, perhaps?

       0 likes

  14. GCooper says:

    Excellent link, Jon!

    The clear connections between BBC policy and single issue pressure groups (in which, though I’d hesitate to say it focused on a single issue, one must include the shadowy Common Purpose) is one of the great scandals of our time.

    If we still had any newspapers with an investigative mission, this would be a fantastic story – to demonstrate how BBC policy is being dictated by a small cabal of (almost exclusively) Leftist SIPGs.

    Sadly, as we do not, it has to be done here, unpaid, in the blogosphere.

       0 likes

  15. Bryan says:

    Martin | 09.10.08 – 6:07 pm

    You contribute great comments here and I learn from them and I’m sure others do as well, but do us a favour and tone the language down a bit. Most of us are really angry with the BBC and politicians and we all swear occasionally but a continual barrage of it only interferes with your message. It probably also discourages some people from joining the blog.

    Please accept this comment of mine in the non-judgemental spirit in which it was made. Thanks.

       0 likes

  16. Bryan says:

    davka | Homepage | 09.10.08 – 9:26 pm

    Yes, a few hours ago I heard a similar version of events to that of Haretz on IBA radio.

    As far as is humanly possible, the BBC will always try to avoid associating its Arab friends with the acts of violence they commit.

       0 likes

  17. Martin says:

    Anyone want to bet Questiontime is a total whitewash for the fat one eyed twat?

    Who wants to bet we have “we all remember the Tories and 15% interest rates” being mentioned at least once from the audience

       0 likes

  18. David Preiser (USA) says:

    GCooper | 09.10.08 – 5:25 pm |

    PM, Radio 4 this evening. Nick Robinson delivers possibly the most fawning, sycophantic interview with a politician since the 1940s, as he grovels before McBean.

    Followed by Montaquin interviewing iDave with all the aggression and dismissiveness she can muster.

    Oh, no… the BBC isn’t biased. Not at all!

    If you had seen Nick Robinson’s blog yesterday, you might have seen it coming:

    At least Gordon’s smiling

    Everyone at Westminster has noticed that he’s grown in confidence and stature during this crisis. Could he even be enjoying it?

    I can see how Robinson might say that Mr. Brown has grown “in confidence”, as holding onto his position even in the face of calls for his head, but “in stature”?

    I’ve been saying for a while that, judging from Robinson’s blog, he has been concerned that Labour needs to dump Brown in order to remain in power. I’ve even suggested that he’s part of the Labour At Any Cost faction at the BBC, which has been vying for dominance against the FOG faction.

    His post yesterday seemed like he was angry at Mr. Brown’s flippant behavior during a crisis, a little drunk with his own temporary success (if desperately hanging on because one’s own party is in chaos can be considered “success”), until that last bit about “stature”. I guess he’s been listening to all that “Party unity” talk from Prescott and others. What a phony.

       0 likes

  19. Martin says:

    Bryan: Yep I know. But I’m just so frigging angry with the BBC and how they backside lick the fat one eyed one and seeing our Country turning into another Zimbabwe with a mickey mouse currency and a ******* ****** running it!!!!

       0 likes

  20. Martin says:

    David Preiser (USA): Churchill was a great leader in a crisis, but come the end of the war he got kicked out of power.

    I’m quite happy that despite all the garbage spouted by idiots like Robinson the British people are totally fed up with Nu Liebour.

    As Bill Clinton said “It’s the economy stupid” and come the next election people won’t forget or forgive.

    The leftist media can spout all the lies they like.

    I am annoyed with the Tories though for not putting the boot in.

    I’d like to see David Cameron saying that the Fraud squad should be brought in and ALL the senior managers of these banks should be investigated for criminal offences, their passports taken from them (so they can’t do a runner) and just put the fear of god up them.

    People would applaud that. At the moment these bankers are sitting around having a laugh whilst the politicians and the tax payer sort out the mess.

    Why haven’t we seen ALL the CEO’s of these banks up in from of the Commons?

    What’s going on?

    Nice to see Gordon Brown picking on Iceland, how about the CEO’s of OUR banks like Northern Crock and the Bradford and Bingley?

    Could it be because the fat one eyed one is in the frame as well?

       0 likes

  21. Martin says:

    Anyone see Ken Clarke try to point out that the FSA were rubbish and that it was Gorodn Brown that did it. He got shut up by leftie Dimbledore.

       0 likes

  22. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Martin,

    If one were to listen, uncritically, solely to the BBC, one might well believe that there’s almost an international conspiracy to ruin the UK economy. Nothing Mr. Brown could do about it, and his firm hand on the tiller is needed more than ever. Only Party Unity can save you, it seems.

       0 likes

  23. Bryan says:

    Martin | 09.10.08 – 10:15 pm,

    Yeah I sympathise, I know what it’s like. I’m sitting here with a &&^$*+$% government about to give the country to the Arabs. In between &^%$&* well embezzling money.

       0 likes

  24. Martin says:

    Unbelievable. Dimbledore just glossed over the question from the woman in the audience about the FSA and Gordon Brown.

       0 likes

  25. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s yet more evidence about The Obamessiah’s political background that the BBC will never tell you:

    Web Archives Confirm Barack Obama Was Member Of Socialist ‘New Party’ In 1996

    I’ve been saying for months now that The Obamessiah is a neo-Marxist, and holds extreme Leftoid views. I have said repeatedly that this is the reason I won’t vote for him, and this is the same reason given by nearly everyone else who doesn’t want him as President. Yet, a couple of defenders of the indefensible here have chided me for making things up, misrepresenting his politics, and dismissed the issue entirely as my own childish paranoia.

    I won’t go so far as to say that the New Party is/was full-on Socialist or Marxist. I don’t have to. These people are clearly a kinder, gentler version, which I call “neo-Marxism”. Democrat and Hillary supporter Ann Althouse tries to say on her blog that it’s a stretch to call the New Party “Socialist”. She says she knows the founder, and he likes to think of his group as “left-leaning and progressive”.

    Well, we all know what that really means, no? Althouse even faithfully reproduces the founder’s own words so we can all decide for ourselves:

    “People really don’t think it’s fair to work full time, 2,000 hours a year, and get such lousy pay that they can’t even raise a kid on it,” he says. “That has electoral promise, that sentiment. . . . You can’t inflict this much damage on people’s expectations and not see it show up somewhere in voter volatility and anger.

    “When you say, ‘It doesn’t seem fair that Michael Eisner makes $ 75,000 an hour,’ people respond to that.”

    The party also supports progressive taxation, international workers rights, environmental protection, urban renewal and the public financing of elections….

    If anything bugs Rogers, though, it is the suggestion that his dream is a new playground for political hobbyists and pinko pointy heads.

    “I think it would be unfair to characterize it as just a marketing strategy for old defeated socialists. . . ,” Rogers says. “It attaches much less weight to the state–much less than even conventional liberalism.”

    That last statement is total BS. Nobody can get the things done he’s talking about without complete control by the state. A rose by any other name….

    But no, the BBC will never, ever tell you about The Obamessiah’s true political nature. Unless they’re reproducing a whitewash from the NY Times, that is. Instead, they keep bitching about a VP candidate.

    Notice how all the Beeboids swanning around the US these days barely acknowledge the McCain supporters they bring on air, never really discussing their reasons for not wanting The Obamessiah. When was the last time you heard anyone say “it’s because of his politics”?

    No, the BBC narrative is that I’m a racist if I don’t vote for him, and if he loses, it’s only because of racism.

    To hell with that, and to hell with anyone who from now on tries to tell me that The Obamessiah does not have extreme-Leftoid political views.

       0 likes

  26. Kill the Beeb says:

    But Martin, you post in such an abrasive angry manner, indicative of drumming up hate toward the BBC, and yet you admit yourself that you aren’t even fearless enough to stop paying your licence fee…

    …Because you’re scared of what TVL courtesy of the BBC might do to you.

    I personally can’t help reading your posts – correct as many of them are – and chuckling to myself at what a shameless hypocrite you are.

       0 likes

  27. David Preiser (USA) says:

    James Forsyth reluctantly admits to seeing BBC bias on Newsnight:

    Kirsty Wark jumps the shark

       0 likes

  28. Kill the Beeb says:

    I love this site.

    If you criticize certain posters for being hypocrites, banging the drum for BBC hatred, yet being so spineless themselves they willingly pay their licence fee to avoid a spot of bother…

    …the mods delete your postings.

    Careful mods, we wouldn’t want to give the impression that people should stop paying their licence fee, eh? I mean, that would be illegal wouldn’t it.

    Pathetic. Stuff this site. And your sanctimonious, hypocrisy Vance.

    And where’s this poxy book you were droning on about months ago, anyway? What’s happened to that eh? Obviously realised no-one here would put their hands in their pockets to cough up the ten grand you claimed you needed to write it with.

    Biased BBC are like a bunch of old dears at a bus stop. Moaning endlessly about how terrible the service is. Then the moment the man in charge pulls up behind the wheel, it’s all smiles and “thank you muchly, dear.”

    Wouldn’t want to cause a fuss.

    The BBC will continue to reign supreme and thrust it’s agenda down our throats probably for the next century, because nobody in Britain will ever actually do anything about it, except moan, moan, moan.

    And all Vance cares about is getting his ugly fizog on the box so he can reap a bit of the licence fee himself in his back pocket for his self-promoting appearances. Hypocrite.

       0 likes

  29. Kill the Beeb says:

    And why don’t you get yourself a proper bloody web site instead of all this scrolling down twelve zillion disparate postings every day. My scroll wheel is knackered because of you, Vance.

    I mean, you’re quite happy to tap us for ten grand for a bit of vanity publishing, but not willing to splash out tuppence ha’penny for a proper web forum? Why’s that then?

    And what sort of name is David Vance anyway? David bloody Ebeneezer Scrooge more like. Ten grand for a book? You’re having a laugh? What were you planning on printing it on – the back of the dead sea scrolls.

    I used to hate the BBC, but now I don’t like David Vance anymore, I’m going to give them all my money, take off all my clothes and get a big tattoo of David Vance’s face on my arse, with his lips right on the circumference of my nipsy, and start outside broadcasting house, farting endlessly, so all those workshy bastards in Ivory TV bloody towers will lean out and go:

    “Oh there goes that David Vance, spouting hot air as usual.”

    And then we’ll all laugh. And slap each other on the backs and stuff. And probably burn some more licence fee money in a bonfire or something, just to annoy Vance that little bit more.

    P.S: I’m going to tell all my friends not to buy your book. Not that he would have bought it anyway.

       0 likes

  30. Kill the Beeb says:

    Oh, I just found my posting!

    Forget everything I just said.

       0 likes