Open Thread

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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146 Responses to Open Thread

  1. Tim says:

    How’s the weather back in the UK?

    Here in Aguascalientes, Central Mexico, (altitude 1850 meters) it’s really cooling off for winter.

    At my home in the Southern French Alps (altitude 900 meters) my kids are having their first snowball fun of the winter, during half term.

    But back at the Beeb – the global warming propaganda machine rolls on regardless….

       0 likes

  2. Martin says:

    The polls are not accurate. They should have learned that from the Primary fiasco with Obama and Clinton.

    McCain and Palin just have to keep hammering the high taxes and Socialist tendencies of Obama.

    That will scare most Americans.

       0 likes

  3. archduke says:

    tim -> about an inch of snow here in hampshire.

    global warming my ass…

       0 likes

  4. Tim says:

    bloody hell Archy.

    Is it klister or wax for your cross country skis? (you’ll be needing them this winter)

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  5. archduke says:

    Martin | 29.10.08 – 1:38 am

    two interesting asides that i heard on irish radio this week..

    and both from separate interviews , so bear with me..

    1. rednecks tend to tell pollsters to f** off.. they are strongly libertarian, but will vote repub at the last minute,

    2. older people – they lie to keep the pollster on the phone. living at home alone and grateful that an obamadroid has called… they just want someone to talk to. come electon, they vote conservative.

    just throwing this into the mix folks.

    america tends to surprise us.

       0 likes

  6. archduke says:

    Tim | 29.10.08 – 1:43 am

    first snowfall in october since 1934 apparently.. am on a weather forum with all the stats being posted..

    and its STILL snowing.. up to an inch now.

       0 likes

  7. archduke says:

    tim -> http://www.netweather.tv

    good site with lots of british weather nuts…

    great source of info about british weather events.

       0 likes

  8. archduke says:

    i am getting sick of the bbc raising the “race” issue.. was raised again right now in the “bbc world news america” report.

    what nobody in the bbc actually examines is WHY race is an issue.

    all you have to do is send an intern to dig up stats on crime in america to get an answer.

    sorry – that’s un PC – but thats what folks over there have to deal with..

    how come the bbc isnt asking black democrats hard questions that start with – “so, after 40 years of affirmative action why….”

    oh i guess that question is too hard for their tiny leftist minds..

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  9. Jay Thomas says:

    An amusing interview I saw on the BBC that shows a perfect insight into the statist mindset.

    A BBC Journalist in the United States was interviewing a middle aged gentleman in his car. The man self described as a moderate democrat but stated that on this occasion he would be voting for Mcain. When asked why, he stated that he didn’t like the idea of the Democrats controlling both houses AND the presidency as he valued checks and balances.

    The BBC interviewe sputtered in utter confusion, “But… this way they can actually get something done!!”

    The Beeboid in question was utterly blind to why Government ‘getting things done’ might ever be a problem and left the interview confused. He really couldnt wrap his brain around this whole ‘checks and balances’ thing at all.

       0 likes

  10. emil says:

    “first snowfall in october since 1934 apparently.”

    This bloody global warming!

       0 likes

  11. Jay Thomas says:

    Emil: How long will it take the BBC to link the early snowfall to climate change? any bettors?

       0 likes

  12. George R says:

    The consequences of Labour’s years of allowing Islamic jihadi immigration into the UK:

    BBC report:

    “Extremists face tougher UK entry”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7694408.stm

    ‘Telegraph’ report:

    “Just one ‘preacher of hate’ deported in last three years”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/3274959/Just-one-preacher-of-hate-deported-in-last-three-years.html

       0 likes

  13. Jonathan Boyd Hunt says:

    Brilliant post Laban. Witty and well researched with astute observations. Nice.

       0 likes

  14. Martin says:

    Jay Thomas: I’m sure that twat Harrabin will jet off somewhere (at our expense) to show us some hot dry place in Australia.

       0 likes

  15. xlr says:

    Stupid bbc headline #367454 : “Cold snap blamed on Arctic air” – who woulda thunk it?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7696070.stm

       0 likes

  16. George R says:

    The BBC publicises the possible re-make of a film on Islam on its ‘Entertainment’ pages:

    “Prophet Muhammad film announced”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7695669.stm

    I don’t suppose the BBC will be publicising the film, ‘Obsession’, on Islam:

    http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/

       0 likes

  17. Bryan says:

    Mailman | 29.10.08 – 1:22 am

    I’ve been reading some of your comments on Webb’s blog. Good work. I’ve also been commenting there under a pseudonym but get censored every time I get into a little too much detail on Obama’s subversive connections.

    Dunno if anyone heard this clip of the BBC trying to convince itself, and anyone else stupid enough to believe it, that its blogs are impartial. From about three minutes in:

    The thing we explain to our bloggers – and thankfully they’ve all got it – is that they shouldn’t misunderstand the apparent informal atmosphere of a blog and let their commitment to impartiality drop. They’ve got to be conversational but they’ve still got to speak in a BBC voice and to follow the BBC guidelines on reporting.

    Both Mark Mardell and Brian Taylor are sure that they can do this: We cannot write, we would not want to write partisan copy in any way shape or form That doesn’t mean in my view though that we cannot be analytical. We can analyse what is going on. What we mustn’t do is cast a judgement as between one particular formula advanced by one party and a formula advanced by another. We can’t do that, we shouldn’t do that, we wouldn’t do that.

    Many of the BBC’s bloggers are covering pretty controversial subjects. What editorial controls are there? Charles Wilson: We don’t think of blog content as being any different from other news content which appears on the BBC website which means that when somebody has written a blog, one of our journalists will check over it and they will make sure that everything is right so nothing should be published on a blog which hasn’t been checked by at least one other person In particularly controversial cases, of which there are a few, we make sure that the blogger has a conversation with a senior editorial figure in advance of anything being published.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/10/the_role_of_the_bbcs_news_blog.html#commentsanchor

    I’m wondering what happens when the “senior editorial figure” the blogger is having a “conversation” with is on the same editorial level as the reprehensible Webb. It is evident that Webb just cheerfully carries on with his juvenile and partisan blogging regardless of any conversations, or upheld complaints about his bias against Sarah Palin.

    Evidently there is nobody in BBC management with any balls or sense of journalistic ehtics. Otherwise Webb would have been fired long ago.

       0 likes

  18. Allan@Oslo says:

    “what nobody in the bbc actually examines is WHY race is an issue.

    all you have to do is send an intern to dig up stats on crime in america to get an answer.”

    Lord Rees-Mogg in The Times recently ran a piece lambasting the US for its incarceration policy towards blacks in which he pointed out that half of all inmates are black. Of course, like the BBC, the old duffer failed to understand that the reason why half of all inmates are black is that blacks commit half of all crime – and it goes unreported. Check up on the Wichita massacre: this was not reported in the BBC and dampened by the MSM in the US, but all the locals knew about it and gun sales shot through the roof.

       0 likes

  19. Jay Thomas says:

    “They’ve got to be conversational but they’ve still got to speak in a BBC voice”

    Oh they speak in a BBC voice alright… they don’t have to have any worries on that score. Unmistakably BBC

       0 likes

  20. Mailman says:

    Bryan, cheers for the back pat 🙂

    But you know, its like talking to a brick wall. You offer some insight and all you get back is moronic rantings about McCain getting shot down or how Palin supported Stephenson (or what ever the guys name is who got done for corruption in Alaska).

    But its entertaining watching these lefties getting their nickers in a twist. For a bunch of people so sure their guy is going to win, they sure are jumpy and defensive 🙂

    Re snow, I swear to allah that it snowed here in Canary Wharf last night!

    You know, if Global Warming ™ gets any worse we are in serious danger of dying from hypothermia! 🙂

    Regards

    Mailman

       0 likes

  21. Bryan says:

    Jay Thomas,

    True, I missed that little bit about the voice. Information overload.

       0 likes

  22. Bryan says:

    Mailman.

    True. We live in interesting times.

       0 likes

  23. David says:

    Extract from a speech given today by Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary:

    “It is also right to examine the BBC’s competitive impact on the broader commercial market. This includes not just its impact on other broadcasters, but on other media as well. Should travel guide publishers be forced to compete with a BBC Worldwide-owned Lonely Planet? Why should those with hobbies setting up websites have to compete with the BBC’s new “passion sites”? What is the impact of BBC online on newspaper groups fighting falling circulation by trying to reinvent their business model on the internet? Local newspapers are a vital part of the fabric of small communities throughout the country, and are currently trying to re-invent their business model having lost much of the revenue that used to come from classified sales. As they move online, why should they have to face the additional threat of subsidised competition from the BBC’s plans for local video on demand? I don’t think they should and I hope the BBC Trust takes a strong stance on this proposal.”

    I wonder if this is the first step of cutting the BBC to pieces. After all, you don’t go straight for the throat, and indeed you can’t with something as big as the BBC; you chip away at it slowly.

       0 likes

  24. Martin says:

    Good news. Twats Toss and Brand have been suspended.

       1 likes

  25. Mailman says:

    Indeed, BUT lets just hold off celebrating for a few minutes until these two are dropped permanently from the BBC.

    Mailman

       1 likes

  26. Martin says:

    I noticed on PMQ’s that that camp Socialist twat Dennis Skinner doesn’t wear a poppy. Hmm. All those working class kids killed serving the Country, clearly not worth shit to this coward of a Socialist.

       1 likes

  27. Martin says:

    Mailman: True. But we MUST keep kicking the BBC here. Don’t stop. Now is the time to go after other beeboids as well.

       1 likes

  28. RR says:

    When McCain wins someone ought to put together a compendium of Beeboid campaign reporting, just to show how they missed the story, while being paid large sums of telly tax money to report accurately.

       1 likes

  29. Mailman says:

    If Obama loses, I think we will see the true face of leftwing hatred and anger.

    Wonder how Al Beeb will pin this one on Bush? 🙂

    Mailman

       1 likes

  30. Peter says:

    Indeed, BUT lets just hold off celebrating for a few minutes until these two are dropped permanently from the BBC.

    Mailman | 29.10.08 – 1:01 pm | #

    On full salary, one presumes. And who will be paying the financial ‘slap’ that OFCOM and/or the Trust impose?

    Meanwhile, career-wise, some 25-year old ‘producer’ looks set to get the whiskey and loaded Webley as his bosses scarper to ‘oversee’ the US election celeb… coverage.

    Meanwhile, this just into my inbox from one of those oufits that don’t try and make political capital like the BBC news doesn’t get on its high horse with other folks’… travails…

    Politicians shouldn’t interfere with public service broadcasting – Foster

    Commenting on the suspension of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand pending an investigation, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sports Secretary, Don Foster said:

    “The day that politicians decide who our entertainers are is a very sad day for British broadcasting.

    “What Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross did was clearly unacceptable but we already have a regulatory and legal process to deal with such issues.

    “Despite the unacceptable behaviour of Brand and Ross, it’s vital that we maintain truly independent public service broadcasting.

    “The entire point of having an independent media is to prevent those in power from having undue influence over what appears on our screens.

    “The Conservative suggestion of a Social Responsibility Contract raises huge questions about the freedom of the media and state interference.

    “There should be a full investigation into the editorial procedures that led to this show being broadcast, but that should be conducted by Ofcom and the BBC Trust and not by politicians in search of headlines.”

    He said, in a press release direct to me.

       1 likes

  31. Jay Thomas says:

    If Obama loses, there will be

    A)conspiracy theories up the wazoo. Expect to hear assorted tales of voter fraud, and at the loonier end of the spectrum, tales of how Mccains college fraternity or golf club is a secret cabal of sinister power brokers yawn.

    B) It will be taken for granted by the international media that Obama lost due to racism. Expect the international left to feed off this racism myth for the next decade and the BBC to be in the forefront in its promotion. Obama can be their martyr of the progressive cause and future generations of left wing nitwits can hang his picture on their dorm room walls and speculate dreamily of what might have been.

    C) There will be riots in the street by thugs not only in Los Angeles but also in Kenya. Expect the BBC to lend a sympathetic ear to the gnashing of teeth rending of garments and general violent hooliganism and treat it as the legitimate expression of politically disenfranchised anguish.

    Just my thoughts…

       1 likes

  32. Gerald Brown says:

    Peter.

    Ref fourth of your Don Foster quotes the vast majority on this site would say “Amen” to that, especially if it was actually apparent from BBC News and Current Affairs output.

       1 likes

  33. mikewineliberal says:

    Jay – thanks for your thoughts. I expect to hear similar nonsense from the right if Obama wins (Acorn blah). I am particularly looking forward to Melanie Phillips dropping a bollock. And it’s looking as if she might be forced too.

    I would like to see a little more psephology from the beeb on this one. And a little less opinion. I commend fivethirtyeight.com to anyone wanting to fill this void. Very impressive.

       1 likes

  34. Martin says:

    Of course politicians should interfere. they are the ones who make us pay for this shite called the BBC.

    Scrap the TV tax and let the BBC fund itself. Then if spotty kids want to pay £14 a month to watch the BBC and listen to shite like Ross they can do.

    I for one don’t.

       1 likes

  35. Mailman says:

    This is interesting, I expect this woman will never be given access to anyone from the Obama campaign 🙂

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campbell.brown.obama/index.html

    Mailman

       1 likes

  36. mikewineliberal says:

    Very old news. Amazing that he’s raised more than kerry and bush combined. Good sign fo US democracy? Turnout figures should be a lot higher than las time too Makes our democracy look a little puny i think.

       1 likes

  37. GCooper says:

    More eco-lunacy from the BBC.

    The Corporation’s website currently runs the headline: Earth on course for eco ‘crunch’.

    Note the lack of the all-important quotation marks.

    So there we have it. The world is domed. A few pressure groups say so and the BBC concurs.

    Idiots.

       1 likes

  38. nelson says:

    Track record: Transport secretaries

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7635058.stm

    No prizes for guessing what constitutes as “good” and “bad” transport policies, a la BBC….

       1 likes

  39. Hugh says:

    Mailman: yes, can you imagine if the Republican candidate had done the same? We would be getting constant reminders from Webb about the massive advantage he had gained due to his lack of integrity.

       1 likes

  40. Hugh says:

    And here’s how the BBC report it –

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/americas/2008/vote_usa_2008/7694856.stm

    No mention of the duplicity.

       1 likes

  41. nelson says:

    Jay: If Obama loses, it is almost certain that at some point, the BBC will comission an entire SERIES on racism in America.

       1 likes

  42. nelson says:

    xlr:

    “The cold air originates in the Arctic and it has not been polluted, which is why it feels so crisp”

    Kevin Hogg, of the Met Office

    This has got to be the STUPIDEST thing i have ever read in all of the BBCs ramblings on the climate. The fact that it comes from the Met Office shows how indoctrinated the population is. Depressing.

       1 likes

  43. GCooper says:

    Can any lurking Beeboid tell me if a ruling has gone out that the BBB must find a fresh pro-Obama headine for its ‘news’ website at least four times a day?

    Because that’s certainly how it looks!

       1 likes

  44. archduke says:

    Very old news. Amazing that he’s raised more than kerry and bush combined. Good sign fo US democracy? Turnout figures should be a lot higher than las time too Makes our democracy look a little puny i think.
    mikewineliberal | 29.10.08 – 3:29 pm

    its also because a vote in america actually matters. your vote could actually change the direction of the country. i’m thoroughly enjoying the u.s. election – there’s real passion on both sides. its one heck of a campaign.

    unlike here – where we are beholden to an unelected and corrupt EU Commission, where 80 per cent of laws originate from Brussels, and our parliament is nothing more than a parish council talking shop.

       1 likes

  45. Tim says:

    Looks like my local ski resort in the Southern French Alps is going top open 6 weeks before normal. I think it will be a good year in Scotland also!

    Where are those pesky BBC climate experts?

       1 likes

  46. Tom says:

    McCain back in the game:

    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows Barack Obama attracting 50% of the vote nationwide while John McCain earns 47%.

    This is the first time McCain has been within three points of Obama in more than a month…. One percent (1%) of voters prefer a third-party option and 2% are undecided.

    Among those who “always” vote in general elections, Obama leads by just a single point.

    http://www.redstate.com/diaries/redstate/2008/oct/29/rasmussens-good-news-for-mccain/

       1 likes

  47. emil says:

    Antyone else noticed that after every PMQs when the emails are read out the anti Brown mails are one liners but the anti Camerons are virtual tomes read out in full and graphic detail?

       1 likes

  48. George R says:

    Two of the subjects which the BBC most favours, in one article: OBAMA and MUSLIMS:

    “Muslim vote split on US elections”
    [-not really, BBC, read on-]
    by Ms. Sima Kotecha,presumably another well qualified political analyst from BBC Newsbeat, Radio 1;
    -she is one of the VAST and growing tribe of Beeboids now invading America, and all spouting the same pro-Obama propaganda.

    She sets the scene in a New York mosque for her Islamic apologetics, and about how some Muslims are expressing their American patriotism:

    “The scene provides an insight into how some of America’s 4 million Muslims are feeling about the Presidential race. And the truth is, many are angry.

    “They feel they’ve been rejected by mainstream politics in the US, a result perhaps of the 9/11 attacks by followers of Osama Bin Laden, the Islamic extremist, and for which many still feel hated and alienated by their fellow citizens.”

    “…Most of the Muslims here are pro-Obama. After all New York is a state that normally supports his Democratic Party.”

    Another dhimmi reason for voting Obama: he has the Muslim vote.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_7695000/7695727.stm

    An alternative, non-BBC view on OBAMA and ISLAM:

    “Obama would fail security clearance” (Daniel Pipes):

    http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5983

       1 likes

  49. MattLondon says:

    I noticed on PMQ’s that that camp Socialist twat Dennis Skinner doesn’t wear a poppy. Hmm. All those working class kids killed serving the Country, clearly not worth shit to this coward of a Socialist.
    Martin | 29.10.08 – 1:26 pm |

    I don’t like Skinner but I’ve never seen any evidence that he’s a coward – and I’m not wearing a poppy yet either: I never have before the beginning of November and some old soldiers think that’s early!

       1 likes

  50. Tim says:

    Just before the Spanish elections, the Madrid train bombings heavily influenced the outcome and now the BBC continue to do their best in USA 2008:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_7695000/7695727.stm

       1 likes