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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102 Responses to General BBC-related comment thread!

  1. MarkE says:

    jimbob

    This is virtuous Brownite spending and borrowing and that was Blairite borrowing and spending. The difference is even greater than the difference between TORY boom & bust c/w NuLabour boom & bust. Don’t you know anything?

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  2. mailman says:

    disillusioned_german, to be fair, these two were in a muslim country and when in Rome do as the Romans do.

    Sorry but I have no sympathy for these two morons.

    Mailman

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  3. Jason says:

    From today’s article about the presidential debate:

    In a series of testy exchanges, Mr McCain accused Mr Obama of lying and of having ties to a domestic “terrorist”.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7671116.stm

    From the quotation marks I think we can presume that the BBC does not consider William Ayers a terrorist. Arseholes.

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  4. Jason says:

    Also from that article:

    Mr McCain’s reference to Mr Obama’s association with Bill Ayers, once a member of a US group that waged a violent campaign against the Vietnam War, continued the main Republican line of attack from the past 10 days.

    This is not true at all. The Ayers angle has been one of many lines of attack – I would say the greatest one has been taxes. For the BBC to claim this just proves that they’re not interested in being objective and truthful.

    Note how the entire article is of the form “McCain claimed XYZ, but Obama corrected him.”

    Oh and look at the photo they use of McCain.

    Time for everyone to stop paying their license fee. Actually I get the impression that the BBC is on its way out, and it knows it. It no longer feels that it even has to pretend to be professional or impartial. They’re acting like a bunch of kids.

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  5. disillusioned_german says:

    mailman | 16.10.08 – 2:46 pm |

    I’m with you there. But then Al Beeb considers it to be alright when muslims display neaderthal behaviour in Western countries. Double standard? I’d say so.

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  6. mailman says:

    Yep, you are right their DS.

    When muslims are in Rome, they too should do what Romans do.

    Mailman

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  7. DB says:

    Simon Schama was on Mayo this afternoon doing his I luv Obama routine again and, oh joy, he’s going to be one of the BBC’s pundits on election night.

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  8. George R says:

    Can we imagine a BBC reporter standing in front of disembarking Arab passengers arriving at a UK airport saying what they can and cannot do in the UK, e.g. regarding British culture and British law? And what jail sentences await them if they break British law? No.
    It’s more dhimmitude from the BBC:

    “Acceptable behaviour in Dubai”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7606578.stm

    An alternative, non-BBC view of DUBAI (by Hugh Fitzgerald):

    “Fitzgerald: Dubai’s pleasure palaces”

    [Extract]:

    “The luxury of Dubai is nauseating to contemplate. There is nothing there but that. No art, no science, no thought. Luxury, money, gold in the souks. Perhaps the locals will rent some paintings for display from the Louvre, or rent a succursale or two of Western universities looking for loot, in order to pretend there are minds to be cultivated and something like civilization to be found in Dubai. But it’s not to be found. All of Dubai is not worth a single star in your personal Michelin. Dubai is merely a cheesy holiday resort with elephantiasis, the result of the hundreds of billions that are so freely spent because they have been not earned, but merely accidentally acquired.”
    http://jihadwatch.org/archives/022915.php

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  9. adam says:

    Surely not.

    That wud explain why they are hyping him up. Marr called him one of Britains greatest historians. They have given him a programme to present about the downfall of capitalism and America.
    Just a coincidence hes a Palin hating, Osama loving, twat.

    Beebs election night panel of experts…
    Simon Schama
    Tony Benn
    Ken Livingslime
    Vince Cabal
    Ken Clark

    Its odds on.

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  10. jus'askin says:

    Trying to follow the economic crisis from outside the UK with irregular net access I’ve been forced to rely on Radio 4 for english language news
    One thing I couldn’t help but notice has been the regularity with which journalists from the Guardian are interviewed. Leaving out the Today prog which is not really in my time band I think the record was 6 in a day’s worth of irregular listening. There could have been more but I do have other things to do than pay strict attention to BBC drivel. It doesn’t seem to matter what the subject is – film reviews, historical comment, scientific reports, medical matters, education – if a point of view is aired you can almost count on it coming from the Guardian. The Telegraph, Times or FT might get the occasional look-in but I didn’t hear the Mail mentioned once.
    Presumably these people are paid for their contributions?
    Is this some form of outdoor relief for left wing journalists?

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  11. George R says:

    The BBC’s and Labour’s enthusiasm for the European Union’s targets on ‘climate’ knows no bounds.

    “Tough climate target unveiled”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7673748.stm

    The BBC is in a propaganda phase where there is no mention allowed now of:

    a.) criticism of the climate science models involved;

    b.) the global ineffectualness of such schemes when many ‘free-loading’ countries are doing little about climate issues; the ‘green’ mantra is that ‘WE’ should as a consequence do more in the way of sado-masochismic banning of fossil fuels so making our economy less competitive, and ourselves, poorer;

    c.)Brown’s claims that UK unemployment can be significantly abolished through the creation of lots of alternative ‘green’ cost-effective jobs being created e.g. house insulators, wind farms constructors,etc.

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  12. RR says:

    Schama was my tutor at university, and believe me he’s more up himself than he seems on telly.

    Funny thing is, he’s possibly not as good an historian as the Beeb makes him out to be. Here’s a pretty entertaining review of his coffee-table book of his Britain series by Blair Worden, who’s a serious historian who writes far better than does Schama.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/books/19687/part_2/attempting-the-broad-sweep.thtml

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  13. David says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7666660.stm

    Prince ‘snubbed Doctor Who cameo’

    “The Prince of Wales turned down an offer to star in Doctor Who, executive producer Russell T Davies has claimed.

    Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the BBC show’s writer called the prince “a miserable swine” for not accepting the invitation.

    According to Clarence House, however, the prince did not see the offer as it was turned down on his behalf.

    “We receive a great many requests and it’s impossible to accept them all,” a spokesman told the BBC.”

    Prince Charles has the silly offer of ‘be in Doctor Who’ turned down by his staff, and the BBC still run with the headline that it was Charles himself, and that he did it rudely with a ‘snub’? To complete the article, they add a quote from Davies – a classic BBC homosexual leftie if ever there was one – who gives the reaction of being rudely snubbed when it was actually nothing of the sort.

    The BBC: Hating the Monarchy. It’s what we do.

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  14. DB says:

    Stupid VP pick makes another stupid gaffe: “a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S”

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-eeWow_WU

    Imagine the reaction if… oh fuck it, I can’t be bothered. We all know.

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  15. Cassandra says:

    There is good news coming out of all this Brown induced misery! The BBC are beside themselves with grief at the demise of their industrial sabotage plan that they spent everyday promoting and pushing regardless of the facts, its gladdens my heart to see the beeboid scum squirm as their retarded green dreams become unravelled before their smug faces!

    The insane and unnatainable EUSSR 20/20 ‘targets'(20% mandatory cuts in a harmless gas by 2020)has gone belly up, Grrrreat!
    The Labour imbeciles have spent the last couple of years wasting billions of pounds trying to lay the groundwork for this EU madness like the obedient eurotrash serfs they are, see your energy bill? a third of that is added costs due to the ridiculous red tape/laws/restrictions/taxes/costs lumped onto energy suppliers and passed onto you!
    See all those new power stations? no? that because the eco maniacs in association with NuLabour ensured they were not built and very soon the old grid will collapse and there is no money left to build the power stations we need, a coming global cooling spell/mini ice age in tandem with an electricity shortage, only the maniacs at the maniac asylum could dream up a plan that will kill thousands of our own poor OAPs and hurt the very poor that the leftists pretend to love, still everyone can get a job as a loft lagging outreach equality and diversity inspector cant they?
    All those expensive grandiose plans for thousands of crappy and expensive windmills that dont work and add bilions to energy costs now consigned down the crapper where they belong, ha ha ha!
    What price the lunacy of cap and trade,carbon credits,green taxes,decarbonisation and all the crazy scapegoating of a completely harmless and life giving gas?
    All the anti car/industry legislation and huge tax rises have only hepled to destroy our car industry among others, still who cares eh? certainly not the state gravytrain parasites who get paid regardless of the millions who will be thrown onto the dole queue!
    A few years from now anyone stupid enough to admit they supported the insane witch hunters(eco mentalists) and their loony leftist chums will be beaten up in the streets. So as I say, its not all bad news!

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  16. DB says:

    The MSM is about to go into “Destroy him!” mode over Joe the Plumber. Which BBC blogger will be the first to join the frenzy?

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  17. The Bias Must End says:

    The BBC making sure we all know just how evil “conservatives” are:
    Pope John Paul ‘wounded’ in 1982

    A priest who attacked Pope John Paul II in 1982 reached the pontiff with a bayonet and drew blood, it has emerged.
    The extent of the injury from the attack in Portugal was kept quiet, a film based on an aide’s memoirs says.
    The ultra-conservative Spanish priest, Juan Maria Fernandez y Krohn, was convicted and jailed in Portugal.

    But when an Australian Labour politician lost his job for dancing around in his underpants, the BBC didn’t mention that he was Labour.
    http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2008/09/competition-time-again-this-time-its.html
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7609621.stm

    The BBC: Making the link that conservative = bad, whenever possible and going easy on Labour. It’s what we do.

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  18. Cassandra says:

    Nothing better illustrates the BBC mindset better than an exchange between a BBC presnter and a euro reporter about the EU carbon targets, the Euro car industry is “squeeling and complaining” about the targets!
    The Euro car industry provides good jobs to hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and creates vast wealth which the socialists just love to spend wildly, it is truly the golden goose of revenue bringing wealth to millions and giving jobs to people who then buy cars that use fuel that presents even more tax revenue for governments to spread around, so what do the leftist maniacs try to do? Yep, they try and strangle it to death then they will scratch their collective heads and wonder where the billions in revenue went!
    If the car industry is destroyed then Europe will suffer mass unemployment on a 1920s scale, the retarded socialists knowingly destroying the lives of millions on the alter of its ‘core values’ now theres a big f*****g surprise!

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  19. DB says:

    Webb’s latest blog effort – McCain seems odd and angry, and the proof can by found by following a link to… a carefully edited, anti-McCain You Tube video on the Huffington Post! Another triumph for Justin Webb’s unparalleled journalistic skills.

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  20. David Preiser (USA) says:

    It took a very long time and numerous complaints, but reality has forced the BBC to acknowledge that Egypt is master of its own border with Gaza. There have now been three articles admitting it (I think), with no sign of slipping back to the “Israeli siege” narrative. Yet. Equally important is that there seems to be no more of the John Reith defense that Israel controls the US government, who in turn threaten to withhold massive aid cash to Egypt if the border opens, and that the Israelis prevent the UN guards from monitoring it.

    Gaza tunnels ‘become and industry’

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  21. Peter says:

    Don’t make the BBC share its licence fee

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4950707.ece

    Here’s me telling the kids it never hurts to add ‘Please’.

    Funnily enough, I am not one who defines himself in the way suggested, so the attempted tribal comparisons have passed me by.

    Maybe we’re just not on the same wavelength, though there does seem a presumption that all of us are..

    ‘…we don’t believe that the answer lies in undermining BBC independence or its contribution to the economic and cultural life of this country.’

    ‘..the licence fee provides funding unfettered by government and a clear line of accountability back to those who pay’

    See, I have some possibly alternative views in this regard.

    Gotta love such as this…

    Commercial players are sceptical when the BBC extends a hand of friendship, never certain if they will be squeezed to death by the strength of the corporation’s enthusiasm.

    Is that code for ‘obliterated by an open chequebook-supported, unaccountable monopoly with a desire to dominate all’?

    Though in one area I can agree, though perhaps not as intended…

    ..research shows that they understand where their money goes.

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  22. Original Robin says:

    Kirsty Wark will be alright without a car though. Isn`t she flown by helicopter down from Scotland to Beebland every week.
    I bet she`s all heart and will throw some of her cast offs and champagne dregs over the Labour voting areas when we`re deep in recession.

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  23. dave s says:

    Question Time tonight.No idea who is on the panel but I predict a lively? managed discussion on
    Global Warming targets and why they are a very good thing
    Obama and why he must become President
    Brown and Superman. Contrast and compare with all required to note the superiority of the former.
    Evil Bankers and capitalists and why they must be wiped from the face of the Earth.
    Of course I could be wrong.

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  24. Anonymous says:

    All bets off – Obama’s won

    IRELAND’S biggest bookmaker, Paddy Power, will pay out early more than 1 million euros ($1.35 million) on bets that Barack Obama will be the next U.S. president, three weeks ahead of the election.

    They also payed out wrongly on the Lisbon Treaty being voted through, hopefully that’s a litmus test for the forthcoming US election.

    Also see this scumbag game, a beeboids dream.

    http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2008/10/video-kid-playing-kill-sarah-palin-computer-game.html

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  25. pounce says:

    The bBC, how it uses sick humour to mock those who stand up to Allah.
    Anybody seen the story about how a Muslim woman is going to lead a mixed congregation for the first time in the UK. Have a look at the picture the bBC uses. Am i the only one who thinks that it looks like somebody wearing knuckle dusters is going to plant her one?
    Which is exactly what the bBC spends half of its article in saying.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7673845.stm
    and in case the bBC take that picture down here is one I saved earlier.(Down shep)
    http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1831/captureth3.jpg

    The bBC, how it uses sick humour to mock those who stand up to Allah.

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  26. David says:

    Dave S, don’t forget:

    – Thatcher is to blame for economic crisis.
    – Old Etonians are to blame for the economic crisis.

    The panel has two Labour MPs on it. One is Claire Short, but she counts as a Labour MP since that’s what she was voted in as. And also James Caan, the millionaire. I don’t know his politics, but at least 2 of the 5 ‘Dragons’ are known to give money to Labour, so I’m not holding my breath for him to be a secret Tory.

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  27. Martin says:

    James Caan’s politics.

    “…Any chance of support from Gordon Brown (whom Caan met at a recent Labour fundraiser) hinges on a successful meeting with Blears and, subsequently, convincing the Prime Minister’s adviser on community relations, the former Bethnal Green MP Oona King…”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/pandora/pandora-pa-problems-bug-tony-blair-805481.html

    There’s a shock. 3 Nu Liebour types on QT.

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  28. Martin says:

    Panorama. They’ve got yet another McSnot lover business man on. Alan Sugar.

    Anyone notice that the businessmen who love McSnot are all beboids as well? What a shock.

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  29. Ju says:

    disillusioned_german:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middl…ast/ 7673046.stm
    Sex-on-beach trial Britons guilty
    That’s what liberal behaviour gets you in muslim countries. As usual Al Beeb are not critical of the backward attitude of their muslim friends.

    Yes and did you notice disillusioned_german that Christian mentions nothing about the sex slavery/large scale prostitution rings to found in Dubai. Not to mention the near slavery of hundreds of thousands of Indians working the buildings for peanuts without any labour protections.

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  30. David says:

    Martin – thanks for that. So perhaps the most impressively slanted panel they’ve ever had? Wankers.

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  31. Martin says:

    David: The BBC must think we can’t see through this bollocks.

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  32. Anonymous says:

    “Brown warning over petrol prices”
    “Brown on ‘helping unemployed'”
    “Why Gordon Brown’s a hero to other EU leaders”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm

    And the opposition nowhere – Someone should tell the BBC that Labour represent only 27% of the UK adult population.

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  33. Jon says:

    Sorry Anonymous | 16.10.08 – 9:06 pm | was me.

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  34. James says:

    Fran | 15.10.08 – 10:14 pm |

    In fairness in Silent Witness there are also muslims doing the thing you here love to see on the BBC, having suicide bombings. that’s a step towards equality or whatever, accurate representation, right

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  35. disillusioned_german says:

    Ju: Of course not. Muslims are Al Beeb’s favourite group. As Bryan put it here: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/6927801433298176665/#425302

    Being a muslim trumps everything! That’s why Al Beeb is part of the axis of evil and has to be destroyed.

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  36. Martin says:

    I notice the BBC are making bloody climate change the number one story again. Promoting yet another Labour lie and load of crap.

    Cut CO2 emissions by 80% in 40 years? Anyone note what was missing from the BBC report?

    No mention of the extra 20 million + that are going to come and live here. Just how are you supposed to cut CO” output when any savings you might make get eaten up because of an extra 20 million people in the Country?

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  37. George R says:

    The BBC ‘Panorama’ special on BBC 1 TV tonight on the finanical crisis, ‘Britian in the Red’, was essentially pro-Labour in the political composition of the studio panel. We had the ubiquitous Labour -supporting BBC ROBERT PESTON, fending off questions, filtered by another BBC reporter, about the role of the media on reporting the crisis. Peston merely dismissed any personal culpability for his role, and of course, there was no further questioning of him by Vine or any other BBC reporter there.

    And of course, in the studio was Labour-supporting, BBC supporting WILL HUTTON,(possibly the person to
    succeed Thompson as DG; Hutton has the same multiculturalist mentality).

    Political oppositional opinion to those Labour apologists allowed on the ‘Panorama’ programme?: there was none.

    So the ‘panel’and format of the programme was somewhat different to that advertised by ‘Panorama’.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7667716.stm

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  38. Martin says:

    George R: You forgot Labour supporting alan Sugar as well.

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  39. George R says:

    Martin

    Yes, and Stephen Timms, Labour MP was on, hilariously denying Brown’s ‘boom and bust’.

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  40. disillusioned_german says:

    Just heard about her on Fow News:

    Last Titanic survivor Millvina Dean sells mementoes to pay for care

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4954772.ece

    How can that happen in 2008 NuLab (bleeding heart) Britain???

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  41. Geoff says:

    Excellent item over on +Cranmer

    http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/

    “BBC: Islam should be treated more sensitively than Christianity”

    My apologies if this has been posted on a different thread as OT or even here, but I didn’t spot it.

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  42. Peter says:

    Just watching Breakfast News and I think I have yet another heroine, who has managed to slip through the pre-selection, agenda-setting interview minders.

    A lady from the educational establishment who obviously deviated from script and kicked off by saying that what they were trying to do was generate a fuss over one para (I think 39) in a massive report that Aunty were trying to work up everyone into a ratings-driven ‘sides’ fest over.

    Basically bribing naughty kids with treats.

    I just loved the way the brunette and bouffant had to recover from her ‘you lot in the media’ kick off.

    Now, to be fair, every other tabloid will be doing the same. But this is the BBC and I apply and expect different levels of journalism and editorial from them…. pause to gather composure.

    It will be interesting to see if she is in subsequent slots. I have noted those who don’t trot out a supporting mantra early on get bumped PDQ. Or maybe it’s they have to scoot off to… go to work.

    Still, all was soon well. A single mother in single case weeping for England over being threatened with eviction (by Northern Rock… pigeons… roost), who I fully accept will also be front page in every tabloid. But a rather emotive way to illustrate a dire financial situation and trying to divorce the bigger picture with what tugs the heartstrings. Hardly responsible national journalism.

    I felt the spokesperson from the Council of Mortgage Lenders held up very well, especially when being badgered on a case she knew nothing about from two employees of an entity who, when blowing a budget does not make difficult either/or choices but just demands more to make all sides up.

    From the narrow logic of rewarding kids who misbehave over those who get on with it, to contrasting ‘letting off’ those who have signed contracts and are now suffering the consequences of failing to honour them, it may be great, inclusive, ‘we are in this together’ TV to stir up and/or empathise, but it’s not fair to the majority who do not end up as such good broadcast fodder nor, god forgive me, to the few pols left who also realise this and have to make hard choices.

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  43. Peregrine says:

    I was watching ITN a few days ago reporting the announcement of the large increase in unemployment. They ran Tebbit’s old speech about his father getting on his bike to find work and I thought to myself oh oh here we go for some Tory bashing showing how much worse it was back in the ‘80s (and it was compared to today).

    But, shock horror, instead they had Tebbit on explaining how the jobs now being lost were not those unproductive ones in nationalised industries but productive ones in a struggling private companies.

    It is only when you see the alternative that you realise that the BBC have conditioned us so much that even those of us who disagree strongly with it can write their scripts for them.

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  44. Peter says:

    FYI

    The Big Question: What will a BBC move out of London mean for programmes, and viewers?

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/the-big-question-what-will-a-bbc-move-out-of-london-mean-for-programmes-and-viewers-964172.html

    Loved this, which only a London rag could pose, and answer, in such a way…

    Is there sufficient talent in the industry outside London? Of course!…

    As one who has spent his life trotting the globe and knowing many others who have had to up sticks, and families, often at a moment’s notice as part of the job description, it’s hard to empathise much with:

    “We are dealing people and their futures,” said one executive yesterday, “it is very complicated for some people.”

    I guess if it doesn’t suit, the option of quitting and looking for another job is not in the mindset.

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  45. David says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/7675845.stm

    Is it me, or has the BBC only been organising polls of this nature – narrowly focused on the immediate economic question – since this whole crisis properly blew up? I don’t remember them doing their own polling in the year Cameron and Osborne were ahead…

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  46. George R says:

    Brown pumping on empty:

    BBC report –

    “Brown warning on petrol prices”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7674739.stm

    Update on reality: ‘Evening Standard’ report –

    “Fury on the forecourts as petrol prices stay high despite PM’s threat”

    http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23574484-details/Fury+on+the+forecourts+as+petrol+prices+stay+high+despite+PM%27s+threat/article.do

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  47. Peter says:

    When it comes to the market-rate, ‘must pay for the talent’, cutting-edge types who front our major news programmes and/or moderate key national on-air debates….

    No bailout for Vine over credit crunch joke

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2008/oct/17/bbc-radio

    What, you expect them to know stuff, too?

    ‘Quality, Beefy, quality…’

    As someone once said… ‘Yee-haa’!

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  48. George R says:

    I couldn’t help but smile at this straight-faced comment by a Guardianista on its BBC chums; I liked especially the use of the words “impartiality” and “Peston” in the same paragraph:

    [extract, ‘Observer’, from P.Preston]:

    “The BBC College of Journalism has a £2.5m budget and trains the corporation’s 7,000 journalists in impartiality, ethics, trust and the practical tools of a difficult trade. It has a terrific internal training website, too, with advice from the corporation’s own news stars – such as Robert Peston.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/12/bbc-blogs-richard-peston

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  49. David Preiser (USA) says:

    George R | 17.10.08 – 3:05 pm |

    I take it the “practical tools” bit teaches them how to dance around the impartiality, ethics, and trust. And read from an autocue, I suppose.

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