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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This is where Labour’s and the BBC’s ‘multiculturalism’ is leading: to the disestablishment of the Church of England, after years of their enthusiasm for mass immigration of e.g. Islamists and others:
“Woolas in Church of England row”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7684669.stm
Last week, Woolas made some noises about the need to impose tight quotas on immigration, but within days he backed down:
“The migration minister loses his balance” (by Melanie Phillips):-
[Extract]:
“Well that didn’t last long, did it! Two days ago the Immigration Minister, Phil Woolas, said the hitherto unsayable.
“The Government would put a limit on the rate of immigration, he said, because with so many people about to lose their jobs the question of immigration would become ‘extremely thorny’.
“Immigration policy would become tougher. Britain’s 60 million population would never be allowed to go up to 70 million. ‘It’s been too easy to get into this country in the past and it’s going to get harder,’ he pledged.
“These remarks immediately detonated the expected explosion from the usual suspects. Labour MPs postured, unions fumed, the race lobby had to lie down in a darkened room. With his ‘potentially inflammatory’ remarks, Woolas was pandering to xenophobia and ‘right-wing extremists’.
“By yesterday morning the skid marks were all over the road. On TV, the minister backtracked. It appeared that when he had talked about a new immigration limit he didn’t actually mean a new limit, good gracious, no! He had meant instead that the Government’s very wonderful existing policy would itself create the right limit.
“This was curious since, as Woolas himself had said: ‘I’ve been brought in to be tougher and to change perceptions.’”(Melanie Phillips).
http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=620
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7683689.stm
World breaking stuff. Remember that impression of that woman we don’t like? Well now we can remind you about it again.
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Newsnight stands by their claim that there’s no evidence that registering fraudulent voters affects elections, and that only Republicans do naughty things.
Here’s yet another story which proves that Greg Palast and Newsnight have lied to you all:
Vote Fraud in Nashville
He informed Phil and his listeners that earlier today, someone was bringing in vanloads of non-English-speaking Mexicans with no identification to one of the Nashville early voting locations. Along with the non-English speaking individuals came a bilingual woman to act as their interpreter. She informed the election personnel that she would accompany the voters into the booth, read the ballot for them, and insure that their vote was cast for the candidates of their choice.
And what happens when the government tries to stop these fake voters from voting? Nasty voter suppression by Republicans!
This is how ACORN and all these slimy groups operate. They work hard – with the help of $800,000 from The Obamessiah’s campaign – to totally compromise the voter rolls. When the state tries to step in, all they can do is remove all new voters in an attempt to sort it out. Voter Suppression! Two-thirds of new voters are Democrats (fraudulently registered by these groups), and the nasty Rethuglicans are trying to suppress Democrats!!
See how this works? Instead, Newsnight decided to lie to you.
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David (not Preiser): I like the photo caption to that story – “Tina Fey’s mannerisms are very similar to Sarah Palin’s”.
Possibly because she’s doing an impression of her?
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Radio 4 today…drip drip drip
11.20(Byzantium unearthed)…’When crusading knights captured Byzantium during the 4th crusade they virtually razed it to the ground and killed countless christians…but…when the muslims took it they didn’t kill anyone and treated their captives with respect!Bad Christians,good Muslims…..drip drip drip
2.30(Afternoon play)…”I then moved into an Arab area with all its mosques”…..”Oh!You must have had a wonderful childhood then!” drip drip
3.45(American Empire)3 million Catholic Irish entered the USA in the 1840s and 50s but because they were a different religion than the Protestant Americans they were persecuted.Those nasty Yanks even formed an anti- immigration political party.In the end the USA benefited from all the cultural diversity brought about by immigration. drip drip drip
4.15(Thinking allowed)According to a cultural ‘expert’ there is far less violence and crime in general in areas with the highest immigrant population.drip drip drip drip drip
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Hope! Change! Political Violence!
Fans of The Lightworker share the Gospel of Obama with Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.):
Angry graffiti messages were spray-painted on the garage of Norm Coleman’s St. Paul home overnight and discovered this morning.
“u r a criminal resign or else,” was scrawled in black on the side of the yellow garage in the Summit Hill neighborhood.
The people who did this will be empowered by an Obamessiah Presidency.
Remember, there’s no evidence of thuggery from Obamessiah supporters; only Rethuglicans to that.
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David Preiser (USA):
Here’s yet another story which proves that Greg Palast and Newsnight have lied to you all:
DP — and I stand by my claim that Greg Polyp is an evil, lying commie SOB who pals around with the most disgusting creeps in US politics.
So I’m not surprised he’s still doing loony left hit pieces for the BBC and News-shite.
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IS SARAH PALIN STILL A CREATIONIST ACCORDING TO THE BBC???
I quote verbatim from a response by the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit received today.
As you know, Mrs Palin has spoken publicly in the past about her view that creationism should be discussed alongside evolution in schools, most notably in the race for Governor of Alaska in 2006. When asked for her personal views on evolution by the Anchorage Daily News shortly afterwards she said “I believe we have a creator”, so clearly it would be reasonable to to describe her as a creationist in the broad sense of believing that the hand of a creator lies behind the existence of everything in the Universe. However, that is not quite the sense in which the word is used in US political discourse (or political discourse in this country, insofar as the issue arises), and I think the word’s usual sense was apparent from the term in which Mr Webb developed his point
….”Mrs Palin is a creationist. She thinks that children should be taught in school that evolution is only a theory, that the earth might be only a few thousand years old and dinosaurs and people may have coexisted. This thrills some Republicans and they are the ones who might have caused trouble this week in St. Paul”….
Although those who support the teaching of “creation science” as an alternative to evolution in schools are often themselves creationists, it doesn’t follow that they must be, AND WE HAVE FOUND NO PUBLIC STATEMENTS BY MRS PALIN WHICH WOULD JUSTIFY CALLING HER A CREATIONIST (in what I have called the usual sense of the word). To the extent that Mr Webb’s description went beyond Mrs Palin’s publicly stated position, I believe it was not consistent with the guidelines on Accuracy cited by Colin Tregear in his letter of 23 September (in particular, the requirement that BBC output be “well sourced (and) based on sound evidence”), and I am therefore upholding your complaint.
I hope… A summary of my conclusion, with a note of the action taken as a result of this finding, will be published in the complaints section of the BBC website…..and I shall ensure you are sent a copy.
Something about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted comes to mind.
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The bBC, its hatred for the Yanks and the jew and half the story.
Anybody here read this BBC article about Press freedoms around the world. Well according to the bBC the US and Israel have fared really badly.
Security fears ‘erode free press’
Security worries can erode freedoms even in democratic nations and undermine press freedom, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says. The warning comes as the group publishes its annual 173-nation index of press freedom around the world. RSF cited poor rankings by the US and Israel, and called for US political leaders to improve its situation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7683359.stm
So just badly did those two countries fare?
Taken from that report:
“The House of Representatives passed a measure to protect journalists’ sources and a
law went into effect to improve public access to government information. One journalist
was killed in 2007 and an Al-Jazeera cameraman, Sami al-Haj, began his sixth year
in the Guantanamo prison.”
Click to access rapport_en-2.pdf
So the US which moved 12 places upwards to 36th out of 176 countries is deemed to have done badly. Help me here somebody? I mean the house passes a law to protect journalists, they had only one journalist murdered and I wonder if you can guess the faith of the bloke who killed him?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauncey_Bailey
So the only damning thing that could be held against the US government is the imprisonment of an Al-Jazeera cameraman.
Yet for some reason the BBC paints the US stance as blighted?
As for those nasty Jews. Here is how Reporters without borders starts their repot on those pesky jews?
Fighting between the army and Palestinian militants did not spare journalists in 2007,
though none were killed. Israeli journalists continue to show their independence of the
government, something quite rare in the region.
The Israeli authorities are capable of the worst and the best when it comes to press freedom.
Despite military censorship, the media continues to enjoy genuine freedom. However, while getting
the best marks in the region (44th in the world) in the Reporters Without Borders worldwide press
freedom index, its record is badly marred by Israeliarmy violence against media workers in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
Click to access rapport_en-2.pdf
So let me get this right, during this reporting period. No reporters were killed and Israel has the best record in the region. Yet rather than reporting on those who did worse the bBC sends this image that the Jews actually did very badly. Maybe they got confused with those parts of Israel which Israel doesn’t control. (Gaza?) That came in at 163 the West Bank came in at 149. As for the bBC utopia of Cuba that comes in at 169. But hang on the report says Israel came top in the region on that note Egypt comes in at 146, Syria at 159, Lebanon comes in at 66 and Jordon at 128. So in a region which averages 124, Bad little Israel comes in at 46 and the bBC quotes that it has done badly.
I take it nobody at the bBC did CSE maths never mind ‘O’Level Stats.
The bBC, its hatred for the Yanks and the jew and half the story.
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Oh dear. Gloom settles over BBC. But not me, as William Hill generously offered me 5/1 on McCain in a two-horse race
AP presidential poll: All even in the homestretch
Oct 22 01:23 PM US/Eastern
By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer
…according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that shows McCain and Barack Obama essentially running even among likely voters in the election homestretch.
The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain’s “Joe the plumber” analogy struck a chord.
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“AND WE HAVE FOUND NO PUBLIC STATEMENTS BY MRS PALIN WHICH WOULD JUSTIFY CALLING HER A CREATIONIST”
…and you can be sure they tried bloody hard to find some.
Does this mean that Radio 5 lite presenters are going to stop calling her a Creationist too?
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If only there were more creationists around like Palin. Maybe then we could kill atheism once and for all.
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Lurkingblackhat
To avoid any misunderstanding I did mean to add “(my capitals)” after the extract you quoted.
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billybob: “maybe then we could kill atheism once and for all”
The good news is that come January 30 London buses will carry the message “There probably isn’t a God.Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7681914.stm
No Allah and no Jesus. I say “Amen” to that
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Has anyone else noticed that, when the Reader’s recommended comments on BBC’s HYS are full of one’s the BBC doesn’t like, then the most recent comments section starts off with pro labour comments and doesn’t get updated for quite some time thus allowing the recommended stats to build up .
It’s happened again today regarding Osborne
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Gerald Brown | 22.10.08 – 7:40 pm |
Which part is the BBC’s response? All of it, just edited by you? Who is using the first person there?
Also, I don’t understand what they mean by “upholding your complaint”. Is this just more evidence of the Stephan Nolan defense that the BBC is not biased because it allows people to complain? Are they going to do something about this or just post it somewhere in the nether regions?
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David Prieser.
Apart from the title and first and last lines it is exactly what I received from the “Head of Editorial Complaints” at the BBC after a paragraph outlining the background of the complaint. It is the third level of complaint if you are not satisfied with the first two replies. The paragraph in “” “” are the words of Justin Webb that were complained about.
It will be “published” as in the penultimate paragraph.
There is now, however, a statement on BBC paper as in the capital letters. One can now presumably challenge any BBC presenter to justify calling Mrs Palin a creationist and be able to refer to the findings of the Editorial Complaints Unit on the matter.
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Gerald Brown,
Well, then that’s an excellent result. Nicely done, and thanks for persevering through the levels. I hope you post a link to whatever the final deal is.
I wonder if we’ll see any evidence of this from ol’ Justin himself? He’s due for another backflip by now anyway.
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the logic doesnt make sense, if you believe in god you are a creationist?
Darwin was a committed christian, was he also a creationist?
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My ‘limited’ of religion is that Christians, Jews and Muslims all pretty much believe in the old Testament of the Bible and that God created the Earth and everything else, that Noah built his Ark and that Moses parted the seas.
I think that’s all bollocks. But having said that should anyone who belives in this nonsense be allowed to lead a Country?
I’m thinking of a certain fat one eyed jock for starters.
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According to the Mail today the BBC are sending 125 staff to America to cover the US elections on top of the 50 they already have there….despite the fact they are ‘trying to make extensive savings across the corporation’. Maybe time to storm the building as probably only Terry Wogan and the weather girls left.
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Have a look at this survey/poll on The Motley Fool UK:
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=11281497
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The BBC is currently leading with this story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7683909.stm
“Systemic Failure” chirps the headlines; only actually the Coroner recorded “unlawful killing by terrorist insurgents”.
But that would be using the T-word and we wouldn’t want to do that.
Of course, because the US military didn’t offer its “eyewitness” gets a whole paragraph in the story.
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Warning over US election problems
Hmm. All those miraculous new voters, with Dems outnumbering Repubs by about 2-1. We know who registered so many of those Democrats, and we know that many of them are fraudulent. We also know that some fake voters have already voted.
But the BBC doesn’t want you to know any of that. Instead, Newsnight and Justin Webb and the rest of them will tell you that those fake votes don’t cause any harm at all.
What happens is that voting rolls are compromised, forcing election commissions to either invalidate all new voter registrations coming from certain places, or those who run voting stations will have to make an extra effort to check IDs. Or both. No matter how you slice it, all these “concerns” will actually be fodder for cries of “Voter Suppression by Republicans”. You know, just like Greg Palast told you on Newsnight. It’s a neat trick, and the BBC is covering it up. They’re probably just so biased that they’re in denial and refusing to see the evidence before their eyes. As a distraction, they’ll say things like this instead:
Will closet racism derail Obama?
This is what I’ve been saying here for months and months, and I’m sure everyone is as tired of it as I am. The BBC is setting you all up to believe that The Obamessiah lost the election not because the majority of the voters didn’t like his politics, but because we’re too racist, and the Republicans suppressed blacks and poor people and didn’t allow them to vote, thus stealing yet another election.
Cue a new wave of anti-Americanism, all incited directly by the BBC.
They’re certainly not doing reports like this because they’re 100% certain, like Nancy Pelosi, that The Obamessiah will win.
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pounce 7.48 pm
check out “what’s left ” by nick cohen. he cites moynihan’s law named after a former us ambassador to the UN.
moynihan’s law states that the number of complaint’s about a countries violation of human rights is in inverse proportion to it’s actual violation of them.
bbc, amnesty, liberty work on the opposite basis
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Congratulations, Gerald Brown, on winning a victory against the repressive liars at the BBC.
Though such successes are rare and almost impossibly hard to come by – and though they rarely have any actual effect on the person who committed the error, or subsequent repetitions of it, nevertheless, it takes real persistence to make them admit they are wrong and it does them good to know they are being held to account.
Well done!
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From Mathew Price’s blog: “And “spreading the wealth” isn’t necessarily socialism. It’s what governments do with your taxes all the time. It’s about roads, and schools and hospitals and helping individuals who can’t help themselves.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/matthewprice/
Is building roads, schools and hospitals what McCain meant by “spreading the wealth”? I thought he was referring to tax redistribution? Does anyone understand this from Matthew Price?
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Sorry: that should read Obama! It’s been a long day.
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Matthew Price said, at the end of the blog: “Is this why “socialism” is a bad word? Because it implies giving someone a free ride, and that (for many) is a non-American (US) concept?”
Hi John Bosworth:
It is Obama who wants to spread the wealth, not McCain.
It didn’t seem like Mr. Price’s thoughts were quite solidified when he wrote his piece.
But he asks the right question and the answer is right there in the question. Yes, Mr. Price, it is unAmerican to get a free ride. But that’s not the whole reason – socialism limits innovation, it lacks the internal catalyst that makes American Can-Do tick, and frankly Americans cannot stand to be controlled. Those who do, are not Americans except in name – they are socialists.
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Hi John Bosworth:
Yes, its late where you are! 🙂 I’m seven hours behind you, I think, on mountain time.
Time to start making supper.
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Just for the info, who posted the ‘pounce’ article at 10.05pm?
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hey sorry pounce – it was me – serious keyboard error!
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BTW, can anyone advise why Palin has to apologise about saying a certain state was patriotic YET not a single msm outlet has demanded Murtha apologise for calling his own constituants racists???
Mailman
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betyangelo@gmail.com, if McCain opposes socialism, why did he support Bush’s obscene socialist bailout?
Wall Street has been given the biggest welfare handout EVER.
Why did McCain not call for the clearly inept Paulson and Bernanke to be sacked?
Why is McCain in favour of the rich being given massive welfare handouts paid for by ordinary Americans? That stinks.
How can McCain attack socialism when he voted for it!
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Zevilyn
If by Wall Street you mean the bank shares held by the evil capitalists, I think you will find that they have lost all or most of their value!
But in any case the US is a capitalist country and its wealth is based upon that fact. Perhaps you would be happier if it adopted your principles and changed its name to Greater North Korea?
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http://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2008/10/the-bbc-saves-u.html
“”Crisis? What crisis? I’m looking forward to catching out BBC newscasters and editors using that word. From tomorrow there is to be a corporation-wide ban on broadcast references to any “economic crisis” when discussing what our Government might prefer to call the “global financial challenge”. In place of “crisis” BBC staff have apparently been instructed to say “downturn” – the same word, incidentally, that Cabinet ministers are pointedly employing in place of “recession” or even “coming recession”.”
from matthew parris
sorry if old.
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The comparison of the bank bailout with socialism by those on the left and most of the msm is incredible disingenuous. They will have you believe that billions are being GIVEN away. Money is being LOANED to banks to keep them functioning and encourage interbank lending. That’s not to say the bailout won’t cost us, because it will, hugely.
Do we ask the unemployed to return their benefits once they find work?
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Further to first entry, above, here:
22.10.08 – 5:15 pm –
“Jacqui Smith bans PHIL WOOLAS from BBC ‘Question Time’
Yes, just as the devious Labour government does not want to be questioned about its non-manifesto descision to have had a policy of MASS IMMIGRATION over the past eleven years, so too it does not want to be questioned about one of the consequences of that stealth policy: the disestablishment of the Church of England, as predicted and advocated by Immigration Minister, Woolas.
No doubt, the Labour-supporting BBC will give Labour Home Sec.
Ms. J. Smith’s CENSORING decision the BBC quiet treatment, as it does for Labour,s Mandelson. In the BBC’s priorities, a Labour minister advocating the disestablishment of the Church of England doesn’t count for much. Now, says the BBC, let’s ignore that, and turn to a topic more conducive to our political interests: Osborne.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3244351/Jacqui-Smith-bars-Phil-Woolas-from-BBC-Question-Time.html
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BBC are to send 175 staff to cover the US elections. I wonder how many will be supporting McCain ?
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Anyone notice the BBC starting to fade out the Brown economic rescue master plan/bank bailout and Browns role in it?
Now its become clear that the insane splurge to reinflate the bubble is failing ,as most here thought it would, the BBC must be experiencing their usual collective amnesia as its focus is purely on the US bailout and its failure.
The Brown plan will become the Darling plan,the coming crash will be the sole fault of the USA and the throwing away of the UKs last reserves of cash will be quickly forgotten!
The BBC and Gordon Brown sharing the same ideology,the same connections,the same friends,the same morals,the same agenda AND BOTH WILL SHARE THE SAME FATE!
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I think I heard correctly on the Toady programme newspaper review something along the lines from the Independent of “PM skewered by Cameron”. I looked forward to hearing it in the “Yesterday in Parliament” slot. But lo and behold what was the single thread throughout, none other than George Osbourne.
I really should stop being surprised!
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Today the Home Office has announced a 22% rise in violent crime.
The BBC banner headline is “Police miscount serious violence”. And their secondary headline is “Recorded Crime: Figures show fall”.
Great spinning BBC!
Now I’m not saying that he Beeb shouldn’t have reported the Home Sec. explanation for the appaling violent crime figures. Her argument should have been included in the story, but
why is the headline framed to suit her argument?
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again sorry if already posted.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1079854/STEPHEN-GLOVER-While-BBCs-knives-Osborne-Mandy-getting-away-murder.html
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BTW • Did anybody else watch the BBC 10 O’clock news last night? They ran a biography of Al-Fayed. Was this necessary • who hasn’t heard of the Egyptian grocer and his antics? I mean the sex allegations were news but why the need for a biography? It certainly wasn’t a slow news day, so there was no need to fill.
Well I think here is the answer • it gave the BBC the chance to re-run the Hamilton sleaze story, which was neatly followed by the Osborne story. Subliminal message • Tories never change?
Of course, the 10 O’clock repeated Brown’s call for an investigation, but failed to mention any of the following…
1. The head of the electoral commission confirming that he had seen nor had he read of any evidence of wrong-doing.
2. The Tory rebuttal to Brown’s call • which Sky news did show.
3. Any detail about Mandleson’s involvement with the Russian Billionaire.
4. Nor did the BBC question the sobriety of the supposedly non-partisan speaker calling on Skinner, just before the end of Question Time. Thus giving Brown the opportunity to call for an enquiry. Even though the BBC’s own Nick Robinson (on the Daily Politics) had previously labelled Brown’s enquiry call, a political trick • designed solely to keep the story running for a second day.
The bias is now getting beyond a joke.
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The bias is now getting beyond a joke.
Jonathan | 23.10.08 – 11:14 am |
i think the bias is now irrefutable,and the conservative party needed a wake up call,the osborne/peston affair was it i hope.
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Jonathan 11:14: If you think the BBC bias is overt now just wait until they are tipped the wink that a snap general election is to be called, then the gloves will really come off. You must realise that the BBC don’t care any more about showing their bias, one more Labour election win and the UK will be integrated with the EU with no way out and also the rest of Labour’s totalitarian schemes will be be implemented over 4 years. With these two planks in place no dissent will be possible…
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The joke over violent crime makes me laugh. I heard Mark [Sheena] Easton spouting on about it on Radio5 trying to convince us that the Government are doing a great job.
Of course we all know that violent crime is rising and that the Government and the Police have simply fiddled the crime figures to make them look better.
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NotaSheep: The BBC has been taking EU money for years. The BBC thinks it can become the propaganda machine of the EU and in return get even more handouts so long as it does their pimping for them.
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Having lived in France for the last fourteen years I was surprised to learn that the Beast of Bolsover is not only still alive, but an MP!
However,it is not at all astonishing that the BBC should regard him as representative of mainstream Labour opinion.
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“BBC are to send 175 staff to cover the US elections. I wonder how many will be supporting McCain ?”
I’d hazard a guess that it’s a (very) round number.
175…Clearly no recession in Tellytaxland then
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