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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Excellent!
The BBC ‘Today’ programme, true to its pro-death choice principles, decided it was timely to allocate 11 minutes this morning, (at 8:17 am) between reports on economic depression, to an item on a ‘euthanasia machine’:
[-from ‘Today’ publicity]:
“A man who has been nicknamed Dr Death is to hold his first do-it-yourself suicide workshop in the UK. Dr Philip Nitschke, an Australian who wants to help people die in countries where euthanasia or assisted suicide is not allowed, and Sarah Wootton, of the campaign body to allow assisted suicide Dignity In Dying, discuss whether Dr Nitschke’s actions have the potential to harm vulnerable people. ” (-BBC ‘Today’)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7662000/7662628.stm
Alternative reports on London-Glasgow bomb plotters:
1.) BBC report:
“The men accused of bomb plot”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7662134.stm
2.) ‘Jihadwatch’ report:
“Doctors’ jihad plot: ‘who would have suspected two doctors to have been involved in such planning'”
[Extract, from ‘Jihadwatch’]:
“Well, one who is convinced that poverty and/or lack of education causes terrorism might have been surprised. Of course, such a glaring exception to the theory should only point more strongly to the fact that there must be some other factor at work in jihadist violence — something to do with jihad, for starters. Most, however, will continue to search for something else altogether: alienation, ‘otherness,’ British foreign policy, and so forth.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023044.php
I see the BBC are bigging up the fat one eyed one again.
“…Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he is “angry” about irresponsible behaviour by bankers and has warned that “the days of big bonuses are over…”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7660631.stm
Funny because in PMQ’s I could swear that when David Cameron asked this question the one eyed one dodged the answer and Cameron got jeered by Labour MP’s? Did I dream that?
Cameron’s comments get no mention in the article. It’s all Broon Broon Broon.
Og god. I just turned onto Radio 5 and we have the vile Victoria Derbyshire bigging up the fat one eyed one.
“He’s looking more confident this week” she spouts to Quentin Letts.
Oh thank god for that. You know I thought our economy was going down the pan and that we’ve been turned into a Mickey Mouse third world Country.
BUT! fear not. So long as Gordon looks good that’s all that matters.
I guess the BBC takes the view that even if millions lose their savings or jobs, the BBC will still send their shaven headed scum around to demand their £140 from people.
Obama supporters in Harlem interviewed about the issues on the Howard Stern show. V. funny.
http://neveryetmelted.com/index.php/interviewing-obama-supporters-on-the-issues/
Even more vomit inducing was VD when she just spoke to Chris Akabusi (or whatever his name is) about “confidence”
“Gordon Brown was a very good Chancellor” spouts the former third rate plodder.
So nice to see that years of running round in circles makes you an economics expert.
Funny because I think Gorodn Brown was a disaster as a Chancellor and I suspect most people agree with me, especially the ones who have lost their homes, their jobs, seen their pensions go down the pan and so on.
But hey, the BBC think otherwise.
Did anyone see Newsnight and the treatment of Osbourne? Seems that the whole problems we face are due to the Conservatives and deregulation in 1986.
Funny how Labour can be in power for 11 years yet the whole of their financial mismanagmeent is due to legislation put in place 22 years ago.
That woman from Newsnight, I refuse to speak her name…..is a joke.
Broken clocks and all that but the interview with Lord James and Nick Clegg on Today this morning brought the first ray of common sense to be shone on the whole crisis. No not Cleggie who was all in favour of hanging bankers from the nearest lamp-post: he was silent on politicians’ responsibility for the present crisis and had the chutzpah to say that bankers should take responsibility in the same way that politicians are “held to account” (as if!).
Meanwhile James (from a depth of real-life experience) talked about bankers’ bonuses and bank profits. Briefly, he said that the bonuses were legitimately paid out of profit (as was corporation tax) which was approved by the banks’ auditors and regulators. However, since much of the “profit” from which the bonuses (and CT) were paid were, as it turns out, illusory there needs to be a re-examination of how in future to define “profit” for financial entities. Thus, after the prsent crisis (hopefully) blows over, a return to “sensible” banking (and a return to “sensible” definitions of profit) need not require a whole raft of new regulations badly applied by incompetents like those at the FSA, the Treasury and 11 Downing Street.
Umbongo, Clegg never talks sense on anything. He, and the rest of the Lib Dems, are never in a position to form a government, so when big decisions need to be made they can just follow the weather-vane of public opinion and state that as their approach. The vastly overrated Vince Cable has changed his position three times over the last month because his earlier approaches proved to be wrong/unpopular.
I suppose this will give the pro-EU BBC its chance to show the EU flag and to play the EU ‘anthem’ whenever it can:
“EU symbols revive federalism row”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7661397.stm
Also:
“‘Sovereignty threat’ after European parliament adopts flag and anthem”
[Extract, from ‘Telegraph’ report]:
“Timothy Kirkhope, a Conservative member of the European parliament, said he would refuse to stand for the anthem at sessions.
“‘Ode to Joy may be a very nice tune, but so is Jingle Bells and like Jingle Bells it heralds a fantasy – the fantasy that the EU is good for you,’ he said. ‘But unlike Jingle Bells, it will damage your national sovereignty and the right to control your own destiny.'”(Mr. Kirkhope, Tory MEP).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/3167928/Sovereignty-threat-after-European-parliament-adopts-flag-and-anthem.html
“Your search – ACORN source:bbc_news – did not match any documents.“
David
Re Cleggie and Cable, you’re spot on. Actually Cable (as an ex-economist who worked in the real world) probably knows that he’s talking rubbish which makes him more culpable for the dross he spews up. In the same way Alex Salmond (who worked as an economist at RBS) knows exactly when he is talking economic crap. Because of this he demonstrates a degree of cynicism (in respect of his espousal of policies based on such crap) even greater than the ignoramuses at 10 and 11 Downing Street since they don’t know any better (although they would never admit it).
DB: Why are you surprised? Last week on Up all night, Dotun read out an email asking the female beeboid in the USA who tony Rezko was. “I haven’t got a clue… goodnight” was her reply
Say’s it all.
I see Acorn are in deep shit over their hassling of people to get them to register voters multiple times.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hvb0LfZQ5mY-X8PYSvYxTe3QGgdgD93LVDS80
The BBC on this story………………………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
BBC adopts new definition of the word ‘DEMANDS’, as in the misleading headline:
“Brown demands petrol price cuts”
The BBC meaning of “Brown demands” here means:
– ‘Brown wishfully would like petrol
prices to be cut, without action being taken to ensure that they are cut’.
It’s all reminiscent of Brown’s frantic flight to Saudi Arabia to ‘demand’ Saudis to cut oil prices a few months ago. He was embarrassingly ignored.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7662918.stm
Strangely the BBC seems to have ‘forgotten’ all about the Prime Mentalists ultra cunning multi billion pound bailout plan now! Hmmmm I wonder why?
All those billions pissed up the wall for nothing and nothing left to help the millions that will suffer, still I suppose all the thouands of pages of puff pieces praising the great helmsman pre written and ready for distribution by the BBC to heap praise and thanks from a grateful nation can always be used as toilet paper instead?
I had to take a double look at the 10pm news last night.
Webb was on covering an article on McCain and Palins latest rallys and how there were so many people there that they all had to wait outside…which McCain then did an off the cuff speach to them.
I was absolutely gob smacked…surely this would have to be the very FIRST item ever published by Webb that was actually positive about McCain?
Maybe Webbs drugs are wearing off?
Mailman
Of course, the BBC doesn’t have this problem, thanks to the daily bail-out by UK licence-payers:
“Channel 4 abandons digital radio”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7663208.stm
IT’S JOIN THE DOTS TIME, FOLKS!
BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardiner, on today’s One O’Clock News, reports that the Taliban are winning the information war in Afghanistan, forcing the security forces to conjure up new initiatives to overcome the problem.
How so? How come the Taliban is winning the information war? Who, exactly, supplies the information in Afghanistan, anyway?
Cue The Independent:
In Kabul, the BBC’s World Service has become the only real source of news, and it is listened to religiously.
It is the stuff of broadcasting dreams. An entire nation listening to one radio station. In Afghanistan, whole families waiting to be blitzed are quietly gathering round their wirelesses for 45 minutes at a time to get the latest news from the World Service. “We know that getting batteries is becoming a real problem. But if they know anything, it’s from us,” Baqer Moin, section head of the BBC’s Persian and Pashto section, told me this week.
… he estimates the population to be around 20 million, and that, according to a United Nations survey, 80 per cent of them listen to his output. “We are the national medium. We are the only source of news. There are no newspapers or TV.” His colleague Shirazuddin Siddiqi told me recently: “Local radio is government-run and so has no credibility. In any case, most of the radio stations have been destroyed, or damaged and looted.
Okay, that was 2001, and things have changed – like there are newspapers these days. But last time I looked the nascent Afghan Press were lambasting the BBC for giving a platform to the fucking Taliban.
When oh when is someone in the U.S. government/military going to realise that the time is now well overdue for setting up a multilingual monitoring of the Beeb’s poisonous global output?
And when oh when is the fuckwitted British Foreign Office going to realise what the fucking BBC World Service is doing with its – i.e. our – money?
Apologies for the bad language.
Radio 5 and Socialist Simon Mayo is doing a piecer from Chicago on the sainted one. Needless to say all we have is an endless list of pro Osama guests, not a single word of dissent is allowed.
I’ve given up asking the BBC to tell the world about Rezko, ACORN, Ayres, Wright and so on.
Useful Mark Mardell piece on EU (off-message for main BBC pro-EU stance):
“Get Ganley!”
[Extract]:
“But Declan Ganley, the millionaire businessman who bankrolled and masterminded the successful ‘No’ campaign in the Irish referendum, is a target all the same. Many in the European establishment would like to see Mr Ganley come a cropper, see his campaigning days terminated and his nascent political career liquidated before he can do any more damage.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2008/10/get_ganley.html
mailman | 10.10.08 – 1:15 pm |
Webb was on covering an article on McCain and Palins latest rallys and how there were so many people there that they all had to wait outside…which McCain then did an off the cuff speech to them.
I was absolutely gob smacked…surely this would have to be the very FIRST item ever published by Webb that was actually positive about McCain?
Do you think it had anything to do with this?
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/7966340393506936931/#424127
Webb is very, very sensitive about appearing partisan. He hasn’t really done it since the Palin Derangement Syndrome kicked in, but he used to go through all sorts of contortions on his blog to appear even-handed. And not as bad as his damning-with-faint-praise general defense of the US speeches, either.
What time of day did you see this report? If it was, in fact, Webb who was confronted by that Limbaugh caller, he very well may have done this report you’re talking about in response to that person, just to prove that he’s not biased. Things like this tend to be the obvious exception which prove the rule.
It would be interesting to know the timeline of events here. You may have caught Webb red-handed.
Martin:
What we don’t get from BBC’s Simon-for- Obama-Mayo, reporting from America, on ACORN:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3145712&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/
For the other side of the licence fee issue see ‘The Magistrate’s Blog’. On Monday 29th September, 2008 there is a post entitled ‘not a dry eye in the house’. It concerns people appearing in court for their inability to pay the thing….’I remain firmly of the opinion that any BBC executive with budget responsibility should be forced to spend a day a year in a T.V. Licence court to see the people who cough up the money he has to spend’ Worth a read.
More dirty laundry for The Obamessiah that the BBC doesn’t want you to know:
Obama tried to sway Iraqis on Bush deal
This story has been around for a while now, but this is the closest it’s come to the mainstream so far. Since this is a pretty major accusation, everyone has to be exceptionally careful with this.
It seems that The Obamessiah tried to convince the Iraqi government to delay any agreement with the US about the military presence until after the election. He knew that any success in Iraq before then would play into the Republicans’ hands, so sought to sabotage the agreement.
This is called treason. Whether you agree with his surrender-monkey stance on Iraq or not, this is illegal, and this kind of action shouldn’t be tolerated. But the BBC will never tell you. Instead, they’ll tell you that a tax break for 95% of United Statesians is a good thing for the economy, and The Obamessiah is The Way. Hell, they’ll even tell that to people waiting in line to see McCain.
Please, no one try to tell me that this is just another “distraction” from the real issues. The Obamessiah’s political awfulness is the issue. It directly affects how he would handle all the issues people think are important.
Take a stress pill, sit in a darkened room and watch the Newsnight “investigation” on voter fraud in US elections. It is incredible, not just for the facts left out – but the TONE.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/7617204.stm
NB The Acorn problem dismissed in 90 secs.
YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO WATCH A PSYCHIATRIST CALLED LUCY BERESFORD when the Daily Politics is repeated on the BBC Politics programme late tonight. It is worth recording for your later enjoyment.
We had Anita Anand saying GB looks ‘comfortable in his own skin’ and ‘lovely to see Gordon Brown happy’.
Then comes Lucy, she starts slowly admitting that Gordon has been doing better of late, then come the bomb shells.
She says Brown has a ‘Freudian compulsion to repeat self mutilating behaviour’ (re his decision to bring back Peter Mandelson to the Cabinet).
She goes on to say ‘He is a deeply insecure person with a great inferiority complex which he compensates by over spending money he doesn’t have’.
We do him no favours if we collude with ‘His disfunctional behaviour’.
All this on the BBC!
It is worth watching to see the faces of Anita Anand and Jacklie Ashley.
Re the above: for ‘BBC Politics’ programme please read ‘BBC Parliament programme’.
I see the FTSE’s down 7.77% at 4pm today. Not a lot of people know that. Or rather they wouldn’t if they relied on the BBC website for news.
Probably doesn’t fit the Save Gordon narrative, at a guess.
David Preiser (USA) | Homepage | 10.10.08 – 2:57 pm
I reckon the BBC tactic from here to election day will be to appear scrupulously impartial whenever discussing McCain himself, but at the same time airing plenty of Palin ‘a heartbeat away’ alarmism.
That way they get what they want without looking blatantly biased between the main candidates.
Do let us know if Frei & Co try that your side of the pond.
John Bosworth | 10.10.08 – 3:50 pm |
Here’s all you need to know about Greg Palast. Is this whom Newsnight is telling you to trust about anything to do with vote cheating by Democrats? May as well bring in Mohammed al Fayed to do a report on how Di and Dodi’s deaths were an accident.
Greg Palast on His New Book “Armed Madhouse : Who’s Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats, Bush Sinks, The Scheme to Steal ’08…”
This guy is an instigator, not an investigative reporter. He’s 100% partisan, and anti-Bush, anti-Republican. He’s one of those who has been saying that Bush stole the last two elections, and various other inanities. He wrote this book two years ago, and has a new effort coming out now. It looks to me like Newsnight just paid him to do a promotion piece for his new friggin’ comic book. Your license fee hard at work.
Worse, Palast has been making the round of far-Left talking heads, peddling this same story, trading on his BBC connection:
Greg Palast on Vote Rigging and Suppression Ahead of the 2008 Election
Oh, sure, he claims at the end that he’s not an Obamessiah supporter, and blames a few Democrat officials for disenfranchising a few low-income voters over a local issue.
But the main message is clear, as is the message of his new comic book with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Yes, the same guy on the Newsnight report saying that Bush stole both elections. And this guy is supposed to be non-partisan? Please.
Anyone have any other interpretation?
RR | 10.10.08 – 4:10 pm |
It’s there, at the top right hand side of the main news page. It has been all day.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Uncouth Morons at the BBC:
“Andrew Hawes and Ian Hart have been taken off the airwaves at BBC Southern Counties after using the term “window licker” during a football phone-in show.
Action was taken after Mr Hart told a football fan to “go and lick a window” during a row about Mickey Adams the manager of Brighton and Hove Albion.
His comment was followed by Mr Hawes urging “any window lickers out there” to call the show.
A Mencap spokesman said the charity was “appalled” that such “offensive language” was still being used.
“People with a learning disability are a valuable part of our society and it is a disgrace that they are treated as objects to make fun of,” he said.
“We are pleased to see this was taken seriously by the BBC and hope that they discipline the presenters appropriately.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3172128/BBC-radio-presenters-suspended-after-mocking-disabled-people.html
Yesterday’s rose-coloured BBC pro-Brown report:
“Big bonus days over, says Brown”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7660631.stm
Today’s reality:
“Banker bonuses to hit £2.75 bn despite PM’s pledge on excess”
[Extract, from ‘Evening Standard’]:
“Gordon Brown’s pledge to rein in bank bonuses was under scrutiny today after it emerged that the City regulator has no plans for a crackdown despite bankers heading for huge payouts over the next two years.
“The Prime Minister promised that the days of ‘irresponsible behaviour’ and excessive bonuses ‘are over’ as he unveiled his £500 billion bank rescue plan this week and said that institutions seeking state help would be required to curb executive pay.
“It emerged today, however, that the Financial Services Authority, which is in charge of City regulation, has no plans to draw up a code of conduct that would set new, more restrained, benchmarks for bonuses.”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23571153-details/Banker+bonuses+to+hit+£2.75bn+despite+PM’s+pledge+on+excess/article.do
Am I the only one puzzled by this story? I mean, I have never heard the term and wouldn’t know that it was a reference to people with disabilities of any sort.
It seems strange to me that the newspaper assumes everyone has heard the term and knows what it means.
Is it a new term among children or what? Or am I a dinosaur?
PS: My previous post relates to the story above:
Uncouth Morons at the BBC
Rod Liddle — a former editor of the Today programme — says that the Corporation must stop pretending to be democratic if it is to keep the licence fee. Unashamed elitism is the only chance that the Beeb has in the new media world
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/2206216/strictly-come-dancing-is-not-the-bbcs-core-broadcasting.thtml
David Preisser (USA)
SUBJECT: GREG PALAST
Thanks for the info on Greg Palast. I read the interview you linked to in your earlier post. I also saw Palast’s his extremely partisan clips on YOUTUBE and visited his website where I found him praising Newsnight “which has granted me journalistic asylum from the commercially-crazed madhouse of the American news market…” So I guess no-ones buying his crap here in the USA.
But the guy is smart. To demonstrate his clever manipulation of his readers/viewers examine this sentence from an article in 2003, seemingly bowing to the fact that George W Bush did not know about the attacks of 9/11.
“We uncovered no information, none whatsoever, that George W Bush had any advance knowledge of the plan to attack the World Trade Center on 9/11, nor, heaven forbid, any involvement in the attack.”
The use of “heaven forbid”is brilliant! Clever! Clever! Clever! Palast is no “reporter” in the BBC sense of the word. What he practices is not “journalism”. He is an honest, independent minded advocate and not, “heaven forbid”, simply toting a far left agenda financed by…(see, Greg, two can play at that game.)
If I had been the BBC producer (Merion Jones) making an item on voter fraud in the USA, in all conscience, I could not have employed Palast as the “reporter” – but I think I would have used him as a colourful, sub-Drudge interviewee – and identified him for what he is!!!
What’s going on at Newsnight?
I don’t usually do this, but this article seemed wholly out of place on the front page of the BBC, more like an advert than news in my opinion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7661872.stm
James | 10.10.08 – 7:09 pm |
You’re absolutely right about this. In fact, this is now the second full article the BBC has done to promote Democrat recruiting efforts. Combine this with the one about the Paltrow’s own video, the poison Newsnight allows, the Bigots on the BBC Bus, and the rest of BBC “News”, and the disgrace is there for all to see.
No defenders of the indefensible can touch this.
I just sent the following complaint to Meirion Jones, Newsnight’s Investigations Producer:
Dear Mr. Jones,
The piece by Greg Palast on Newsnight was partisan, false, and misleading to the public. Palast has form on this subject, and is a known instigator against Republicans. I can’t believe the BBC is still giving air time to lies about stolen elections. These have been disproven time and time again, yet you still allow a known partisan on to do a report on the topic.
I can’t imagine you don’t already know about Palast’s book from two years ago about how Republicans stole the last two elections:
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/5/15/greg_palast_on_his_new_book
I assume that you also know about his upcoming comic book about fighting against this in November:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/9/greg_palast_on_vote_rigging_and
This must be why you had him investigate voter fraud in the coming US election. Nobody on Newsnight said that Palast stands to gain personally from this topic. You did not inform your audience that he has the book out, nor did you inform them of his upcoming comic book subject. Worse, his co-author is none other than Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – the very same man who said that the Rebublicans stole the last two elections in Palast’s Newsnight report.
This is not only a horrible conflict of interest, but directly deceives the viewer into thinking that Kennedy is just an interview subject, with no partisan working relationship with Palast, and that Palast is an impartial “investigative reporter” deserving of working for Newsnight. Just how low has the BBC sunk in your efforts to support the Democrats? Are you seriously willing do destroy the credibility of your flagship program like this?
Sincerely upset,
etc…
I’ll be lucky to get a boilerplate response, I know. But there’s no excuse for this, and I’ll bet no one else will tell him.
Still no Pesto on the Toady prog this morning, and some other berk was introduced as ‘business correspondent’. I thought that was Pesto’s job?
Also, they reported the continuing fall in world stock markets, naming each one and giving the percentage drop, but didn’t ONCE mention the FTSE. It was blatant.
i thought that this was an interesting comment by Cockney in another thread, about Sarah Palin…
“Actually based on my experience even “man on the clapham omnibus” with zero interest in british politics, let alone US, is fascinated by Palin.
Cockney | 10.10.08 – 10:50 am ”
i can concur – the level of inerest in my circle of friends is extraordinary. all shades of opinion, political views, but all of them are riveted by Palin.
and a pop culture kind of reference – was listening to Irish radio today, and the DJ asked folks to send in their Sarah Palin fantasy. radio station is a kind of pure fluff , pop radio indie station in Dublin. not too serious about itself.
no obama, mccain – just palin.
i find it amazing. theres something about that woman thats really connected with folks.
“fewqwer | 10.10.08 – 8:14 pm ”
via City Spy in the Evening Standard today.. theres a new word doing the rounds – “impestonable”
as in
“what that reporter just said is completely impestonable. wtf?”
as in , completely and utterly obscure and non-understandable.
via drudge – berlusconi has admitted that world leaders are thinking of stopping markets completely for a few days.
as in – closing down stock markets globally.
David Preiser (USA):
If you wrote to Meirion Jones at Newsnight don’t hold your breath even for a bolierplate response. Just google “Greg Palast Meirion Jones BBC” and you’ll see these two guys go back a long way as the Laurel and Hardy of Current Affairs. Evil oil companies, Hugo Chavez, the war in Iraq, stolen elections – they’ve done it all. The only common factor? Funny that – it’s the evil Americans (Right wing Americans) fault.
However, it doesn’t really matter: this strand of junk journalism goes a long way back, from “24 Hours”, through “Midweek” and now “Newsnight”. But at least we, the people, can now expose these guys for what they really are. DIRTY LITTLE CHEATS.
Anyone fed up with BBC Robert Peston’s ‘explanations’ of financial crisis, may well find this VIDEO of George Parr (Bird and Fortune) from last year, more convincing (‘Blaney’s Blarney blogspot’):
http://donalblaney.blogspot.com/2008/10/george-parr-on-sub-prime-crisis.html
John Bosowrth | 10.10.08 – 8:22 pm |
If you wrote to Meirion Jones at Newsnight don’t hold your breath even for a bolierplate response. Just google “Greg Palast Meirion Jones BBC” and you’ll see these two guys go back a long way as the Laurel and Hardy of Current Affairs. Evil oil companies, Hugo Chavez, the war in Iraq, stolen elections – they’ve done it all. The only common factor? Funny that – it’s the evil Americans (Right wing Americans) fault.
It’s moot anyway. My emails keep bouncing back as “User Unknown”. I sent it to the “NewsnightInvestigations@bbc.co.uk”, copied and pasted straight from the website, but it has bounced back twice. The second time I CC’ed “meirion.jones@…”, and that didn’t seem to bounce. We’ll see. I don’t care what Jones’s political opinions are. Not telling viewers about the Palast/Kennedy partisan comic book connection is out of order, regardless if he’s right or wrong on the issue.
I sent it to Drudge as well, but that’s probably a little under his radar.
9pm BBC2. Lovely new 4 part series with Simon Schama: “In his travels through America exploring its past and present (OK SO FAR). Simon Schama shows how America’s belief in its infinite possibilities is waning.”
WTF?
A coupla anecdotes to demonstrate that there is more than one way to lose your home:
A decade or two ago, around the time that South Africa was shedding Apartheid, a family returned home from holiday to find the family home gone. Starting from the roof, naturally, thieves had dismantled the entire house and everything in it and trucked it away. Imagine driving up to where your front gate used to be and finding a gap where your house used to stand, in a place that never has hurricanes.
As the New South Africa moved into gear, various areas of the country fell into disrepute and disrepair. A friend who owned a modest apartment in a working class area had tried to sell it without success, moved out and tried to rent it without success and tried to carry on making the monthly mortgage payments without success, believe it or not, the bank having stopped deducting the payments, for some inexplicable reason. Eventually she gave up trying to convince the bank to take the money. Meanwhile, the area had become more and more lawless and squatters had simply moved in to her building and occupied vacant apartments there, hers among them.
Coupla years went by and the bank suddenly woke up and deducted a huge amount from her account and then carried on deducting the monthly payments. Hopefully by now she has paid it off.
Now the raving lunatics of the far left, some of whom have appeared on this site, no doubt believe that the squatters had every right to have that home provided for them. It’s a small step from there to the belief that the thieves had every right to cart that house away beam by beam and brick by brick and rebuild it elsewhere, as a sort of concrete example (pun intended) of “redistribution of wealth.”
anyone got some nice short Obama jokes.
i feel a bit of friday next text messaging coming on…