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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118 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread!

  1. Peter says:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/…ergy- costs.html
    TPO | 11.10.08 – 6:25 pm | #

    Too little; too late.

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  2. Peter says:

    David Preiser (USA) | Homepage | 11.10.08 – 5:49 pm | #

    David, with the greatest respect to you and your efforts (many and worthy), but that reads to me as pretty much any weekend Newswatch. And as much use.

    You wrote:

    The piece by Greg Palast on Newsnight was partisan, false, and misleading to the public..

    You got, and possibly only by being confused with someone else, that the author simply ‘projected’, it seems (heaven forfend they ever do their news reporting this way…oh):

    …a very thoughtful response… All I can say is that he and Palast had a different idea of what the report was trying to show

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  3. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Peter | Homepage | 11.10.08 – 6:46 pm |

    I’m not sure what you mean. If anything, I was under the impression that Meirion Jones decided to treat me as a reasonable human being even though he thought I was a wealthy Republican donor. Once the confusion was cleared up, and even after I said I made comments on this site, he still made what I thought what a serious effort to explain the report.

    He didn’t have to do that. In fact, I expected the boilerplate instead. I agree that the end result didn’t change anything about the report. I didn’t expect it would, really. However, I most certainly made my point about Palast and Kennedy’s partisan project. There’s no excuse for that, even if Jones has seen solid investigations with Palast in the past.

    Otherwise, it was a question of opinion on what the results of ACORN’s actions are or aren’t. Jones didn’t dismiss my concerns, but made a real effort to explain an alternative interpretation. I can’t go into more detail than that because he asked for the confidentiality to allow him some freedom to speak. I’m respecting that here, but I’m not really hiding anything. Sorry if I can’t be more clear.

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  4. Bryan says:

    I came across Palast on the BBC website while hunting for some – any – mention of Acorn. Dunno if this is the same clip that was on Newsnight but yes, it was biased, engineered to show the Republicans in a bad light and associate McCain with the evil evictor of the poor from their homes. I think I’m right in saying that he didn’t mention Obama’s name when discussing Acorn despite the fact that the two are practically synonymous. Can’t have his man’s link to voter fraud disclosed on the BBC.

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  5. Bryan says:

    Something I forgot to add: I thought Palast was full of himself. He seemed to be a thoroughly unpleasant individual.

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  6. George R says:

    BBC news, sport:

    “England 5-1 Kazakhstan”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7656615.stm

    Why Kazakhstan lost: (‘Telegraph’)-

    “Borat’s mankini banned at Wembley”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3176126/Borats-mankini-banned-at-Wembley.html

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  7. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Bryan | 11.10.08 – 7:19 pm |

    That’s the one from Newsnight. Palast dismissed ACORN as a story by saying “there’s no proof” that the voter fraud affected an election. As I just said on another thread, that’s physically impossible to do because of the anonymous voting system we have. All anyone can do is prove the phony voters showed up at the polls. Nobody can prove which candidate got a vote from any of them.

    Palast also didn’t mention that he has a partisan comic book coming out with Kennedy. Newsnight did not disclose the working relationship they have. There’s no excuse for that, and it compromises the entire piece.

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  8. TPO says:

    Oh dear. Is this a story not coming to a BBC TV screen near you anytime soon.

    Revealed: the truth about Tony Blair’s role in the Ecclestone Affair
    The documents – released to The Sunday Telegraph after a two-and-a-half year Freedom of Information battle – reveal that Mr Blair personally intervened to secure Formula One’s exemption from the tobacco advertising ban just hours after meeting Bernie Ecclestone, the motorsport’s billionaire boss.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3179770/Revealed-the-truth-about-Tony-Blairs-role-in-the-Ecclestone-Affair.html

    Ecclestone Affair: The leading players
    AS CHANCELLOR under Tony Blair Gordon Brown enjoyed a reputation for prudence and integrity. But the Ecclestone Affair threatened to embroil him also.
    Mr Brown was accused of lying after denying that he knew Bernie Ecclestone had made a large donation to Labour.
    In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, in November 1997, he was asked directly if he had known whether Ecclestone had given money to the party. Mr Brown replied: “I’ve not been told and I certainly don’t know what the true position is.”
    In his 2000 book Servants of the People journalist Andrew Rawnsley wrote that following the interview the Chancellor “raged at his staff: ‘I lied. I lied. My credibility will be in shreds. I lied. If this gets out, I’ll be destroyed.'”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3178509/Ecclestone-Affair-The-leading-players.html

    So there we have it, liar Blair, liar Brown.

    And all the BBC are concerned about is dishing the dirt on Sarah Palin!!!

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  9. TPO says:

    good grief. From the same article.

    ‘…..Jowell, a former psychiatric social worker, was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in 2001, charged with overseeing preparations for the London 2012 Olympics…..’

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  10. Bryan says:

    David Preiser, yes I see the point. Meanwhile, you’re not going to believe this: I turned on that old-fashioned thing called a radio about an hour ago at about 18:55 GMT and while searching for a station stumbled across the World Service and these words:

    The Koran, coming to a skyscraper near you.

    This was followed by a peal of laughter.

    I was livid. Unfortunately the reception was not great and I missed the name of the programme, but from the Internet guide it was probably Over to You, from 18:40 to 19:00 GMT, though it’s possible what was on the radio at the time differed from the internet programme. I’m going to try to track the programme on “Listen Again” and take this further.

    In many respects the foul BBC has become an apologist for Islamic terror.

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  11. George R says:

    The BBC reports this historical Islam event uncritically:

    “Trafalgar Square hosts Eid event”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7665154.stm

    But the BBC would not dream of reporting this historical Christian event:

    “Charles the Hammer saves the West from Islam at Tours” (by Raymond Ibrahim, ‘Today in History’):

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023059.php

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  12. George R says:

    GAVIN ESLER of BBC ‘Newsnight’ makes the news:

    “Newsnight’s Gavin Esler splits from wife and moves in with raunchy violinist lover”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1076641/Newsnights-Gavin-Esler-splits-wife-moves-raunchy-violinist-lover.html

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  13. George R says:

    ROBERT PESTON –

    “Revealed: BBC man’s intriguing web of friendships behind the scoop that shocked the banking world”.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1076687/Revealed-BBC-man-8217-s-intriguing-web-friendships-scoop-shocked-banking-world.html

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  14. Cassandra says:

    Very interesting post over on EUreferendum entitiled ‘unfair to the Tories’ among other things it exposes the BBC agenda of protecting the EU at all costs, any question you like as long as the EU are not critisised is the theme du jour!
    The BBC have some kind of invisible link to the EU, finding that out would smash the whole rotten nest of vipers to bits!

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  15. George R says:

    BBC’s Mark Urban summing up of Iraq conflict:

    “It was the US which wrecked this country in the first place”

    [BBC News TV video, UK access only, go to 20 minutes 54 seconds in, for Urban’s partial conclusion]:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00f595z

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  16. George R says:

    Cassandra 7:00 am

    Yes; it’s worth highlighting more of ‘EU Referendum’s analysis, including:
    [Extract] –

    “BBC journalists • like their print-media brethren • seem to have a ‘serious’ filter implanted in them. Whenever a politician says something serious or interesting, they immediately shut down. Politicians quickly learn, therefore, that if they are to attract publicity, they must pander to the journalists and indulge in the tat, the trivia and the theatre.”

    ‘Unfair to Tories!’

    http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/10/unfair-to-tories.html

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  17. Peter says:

    I just had to write to the Andrew Marr show:

    I usually watch all the way.

    But a ‘Friend of Gordon’ on full attack, and an irony-free batty book plugger despairing of those who don’t share her world view are enough to make me feel the BBC has truly given up any pretence of being involved with anything objective.

    Usual suspects. Usual result. Not good enough. We need change.

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