Monthly Archives: October 2008

Refreshing new BBC reporting style:

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It’s not often I praise the BBC, but can I say how refreshing it was to read the comment made by the BBC’s Matthew Price about the following events from Barack Obama’s campaigning?

Here’s the vid, followed by the text (I have made some minor adaptions for this site’s purposes). The original item is here.

“This has now happened too many times not to mention it.

Barack Obama lost it again today.

Today, the autocue went down.

Now yes, Barack Obama doesn’t like the autocue, he’s not particularly good at reading from it.

And yes, it is hard to speak flawlessly for 20 minutes or so to a crowd of thousands.

And yes, the campaign trail is grueling, he must be tired, I don’t know how he does it.

And yes, he’s up against one of the best orators the modern world has seen.

BUT, surely he should be able to busk the emotional appeal about a young boy in need of healthcare, the part that he should speak from the heart if the teleprompter goes down?

As the Republican pollster Frank Luntz put it in an interview recently (less charitably than me): “Stevie Wonder reads the teleprompter better than Barack Obama.”

Today Barack Obama stumbled, repeated phrases, read from the page, then looked up to the screen and re-read them.

Maybe I’m being unfair, but this is a man who is running for the top job in the country, one of the most important jobs in the world.

Does his inability to think on his feet, to go off the page, count against him?

This is his pitch to the US electorate about why they should vote for him. Surely he should be able to deliver it without notes?

Frankly today, I cringed when he stumbled, and felt embarrassed for him.”

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General BBC-related comment thread!

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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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Blog roundup: Osborne coverage

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A few of the other blogs have also picked up on the Beeb’s treatment of Osborne:

Iain Dale points out that Osborne hasn’t actually broken any rules, and wonders why the BBC Business Editor is taking such an interest in what looks like a politics story.

Guido thinks he has the answer to that.

And Melanie Phillips at the Spectator really seems to have had enough.

Happy reading!

UPDATE: As a JBH in the comments points out, Stephen Glover also has a piece in the Mail today questioning the Beeb’s coverage, and The Sun also picks up on the complaints about bias.

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THE GREAT COP OUT ON THE BAIL OUT.

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So, let me see if I get this right. Shares are down again, the pound is at a five year low, the economy is heading into deep recession, unemployment is rising, the banks are not lending to each other — and yet Gordon Brown stands as an economic colossus. The great Brown Bail Out has been such a success that it is now the global template, apparently. Have I missed something? The BBC seems to have decided that it is possible to report all this economic gloom and doom but simultaneously detach it from the actions of a government that has been in power for more than decade. Can you just IMAGINE the headlines if this was all happening under a Conservative government? It is shocking to see inherent BBC bias provide a tatty pass to Prudence Brown when to any remotely neutral commentator, it is obvious that considerable culpability lies with the British government for the aware of the British economy. But we must not speak the obvious lest it offend the Great Leader – the man who also provides the cash for the BBC.

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A WONDERFUL MAN

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As we approach the end of the US Presidential campaign, Justine Webb becomes ever more outrageous in his shilling for Obama. This time round he manages to firstly quote from the far left blog The Huffington Post (again) and then he digs up a comment from John McCain back in 1999 praising Colin Powell. Apparently the defection of RINO Colin Powell to the Obama camp was ” a psychological blow” Let’s face it – Justin has given up on reporting – he is now collaborating with the Obama campaign in full breach of every BBC guidance. The thing is, the BBC does nor care. It is obsessed with getting The One is the White House and having a socialised USA and so all notion of professional neutrality is out the window. I bet the champagne bottles WILL be popping once again in Broadcasting House should Americans place their faith in the Obamessiah next month. Now in this regard, most of the rest of the UK media is equally pro-Obama, witness Boris Johnson’s witless article in the Telegraph yesterday (seized on the Beeb) but the difference is that I get to choose whether or not I pay out to read or listen to such opinion – the BBC forces me to do so and that is the real point of grievance here.

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THE KILLING OF GEORGIE.

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Comments Off on THE KILLING OF GEORGIE.

You have to hand it to the BBC, they sure know how to keep a story going. This morning sees the Osbourne non-story once more hoisted right up to the top of the news agenda. More tit for tat allegations and the BBC positively beaming with delight at the opportunity to smear the Tories. My critics here suggest that I am showing bias myself by attacking the BBC over this but they miss the point. I carry NO brief for Osbourne, I merely contrast the enthused tone which every BBC commentator has adopted over this story with the apparent disinterest with similar, and indeed much worse stories, emerged concerning those in the Labour junta. Cameron has a real and dangerous enemy in the form of the BBC and he needs to slay it. Simple as that.



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“MR OSBOURNE, WHEN DID YOU STOP BEATING YOUR WIFE?

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“

Hi All, been away all day so just catching up now! Well, what about poor Georgie Porgie and that “conversation” with that Russian billionaire? A few points strike me.
1. Osbourne has been foolish in the extreme and has left himself – and his party -open to the smears of sleaze now being generously applied. For that he deserves no pity.
2. The BBC coverage has been exultant, almost hysterical. The Great Leader will be pleased.
3. The comparison between the fevered coverage afforded to this non-story contrasts with the subdued interest Al Beeb has shown in the serial corrupt dealings of Labour during the past decade. Anyone detect the hand of Mandelson in all this spinning? The Prince of Darkness is back but the BBC are throwing all the light on stupid little Osbourne. It is my view that the BBC will help Labour further narrow the opinion poll gap with the Conservatives by ignoring all decent suggestions that Cameron makes and then crucifying the Tories each time they commit an error. In this way, over the next two years, the way for four more years is being prepared and you and I, dear reader fund it.

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Not even trying

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Is the loathing of Bush’s Republicans so firmly established in the minds of all right thinking people that the BBC, as with global warming, has abandoned even the pretence of impartiality? Here’s Peter Marshall’s Newsnight blog following in the steps of Justin Webband the rest in this review of Oliver Stone’s film ‘W’:

Indeed Stone’s Bush is remarkably similar to the “hollow man” I identified in the 1999 election campaign, a characterisation which so annoyed the then Texas governor that for a while he refused to speak to the BBC. He is a man with a drink problem who’d failed in various ventures, reached 40, found God and resolved to join the family business: running the country. At the time it was gratifying for one’s critique to be noticed by the candidate – and also rather worrying. If he were to be so distracted by a foreign correspondent’s personal analysis, how would he cope with the slings, arrows and barbs that inevitably befall any inhabitant of the White House? Well now we know. He can’t take criticism and, in a politician, criticism is part of the climate

And here he is on Condi Rice:

But my favourite character is Condi Rice (Thandie Newton). Somehow she plays her as a cyborg, ultra-loyal to W because that’s how she has been programmed. She has no doubts, no opinions and her only emotions revolve around serving her mentor. It rings true.

It’s worth reminding ourselves, again, that the Beeb’s guidelines on impartialityapply just as much to blogs as elsewhere. In particular: News and Current Affairs staff should not:

  • advocate support for a particular political party
  • express views for or against any policy which is a matter of current party political debate
  • advocate any particular position on an issue of current public controversy or debate

Of course, the BBC’s commitment to impartiality is so fundamental that it doesn’t actually bother monitoring it, but even so how hard can it be to see this piece has no place in its output?

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General BBC-related comment thread!

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96 Comments

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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OPPORTUNISM?

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I am sure you will have read about the brutal murder of Christian charity worker Gayle Williams by the Taliban near Kabul in Afghanistan. Her killers, those intrepid followers of the religion of peace, plainly state that they shot this defenceless lady because she was a Christian and that she was trying to convert people. The BBC was quick to declare that this was most likely NOT the case and that this was simply an “opportunistic” shooting. They managed to interview one of the bosses of the Christian charity concerned “Serving Afghanistan” who declared that Gayle Williams was not killed for her faith since, as he put it, they are not there to spread Christianity, merely to give aid to Afghanistanis.

OK, so where is the bias? Well, it lies in the fact that Islamists kill a Christian worker stating that her faith was reason enough for her to die and yet the BBC moves to instantly counter this with the idea floated by the charity spokesman that there was no such malice intended. Patently some of the NGO’s working in this region are hugely naive – to be kind about it– however surely the BBC could have provided space to someone who thinks this was the act of murderous Islamic scum. Or does no such person exist?

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