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.
Kill the Beeb:
Erm, so what exactly DID Carol Voderman say?…
You can replay on the BBC I-Player here:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fv9vj/b00fv9sj/The_Andrew_Marr_Show_30_11_2008/
I thought she did brilliantly – better than any of the Tory front bench today, sadly.
“Indian air and missile forces on war footing, Pakistani armored units diverted from Afghan border”
via debka
http://www.debka.com
archduke | 01.12.08 – 12:24 am |
Scary stuff – I wonder what would have happened if these terrorists had come from Bradford.
James writes: “To be honest, half of these hilariously amusing and infinitely repeated easy-gags eg nu-lab, zanu-lab etc, seem to be the kind of thing i could never picture someone actually saying out loud, in conversation. beeboid, too”
Then why ask? Troll!
“On the whole, and in the main, and everything considered, you do not in a democracy go around arresting the Opposition. For some time now, web humorists have been spelling new Labour “Nu-Labour”. As reports of Damian Green’s arrest swirled yesterday, the prefix ZA attached itself to the bloggers’ joke: ZANU-Labour. If by lunch I had heard the comparison with Zimbabwe once, I had heard it a dozen times.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5254217.ece
someone has gone to the trouble of posting a full transcript of the jacqui smith/andrew marr interview on the guido fawkes comments area
scroll down to the comment by “jammy dodger”
posted at:
December 1, 2008 1:08 AM
on this blogpost:
http://www.order-order.com/2008/11/brown-confesses-to-procuring-misconduct.html
(its too long to repost in haloscan comments here..)
Jon | 01.12.08 – 1:20 am
it is somewhat amazing to see a term like “zanu labour” , that has been on this blog for years, finally make it into the mainstream – like that Matthew Parris times article.
the “swivel eyed loons” that were using the term years ago, arent looking so loony now , are they?
“Scary stuff – I wonder what would have happened if these terrorists had come from Bradford.
Jon | 01.12.08 – 1:12 am ”
the consequences would have be an utter disaster for OUR intelligence services.
that scenario doesnt even bear thinking about – think utter isolation as mossad, the cia and indian intell decide to share info , and keep us out of the loop – because they dont trust britain.
and for all i know – its probably happening already.
sky news are running an interview with the photographer who got the pictures of the terrorists in that mumbai train station. and they have him re-tracing his steps and where he took the photos from – jumping from train to train…
its an awesome piece of journalism.
now remind me – why do the BBC get 3 billion a year? and isnt sky news run on a shoestring?
and just to give credit to sky for that bombay report.. the journalist is female – named “alex crawford”.
no moralising, no agenda setting – just did the job and was a JOURNALIST for once… just got the facts from mumbai residents, and reported on them.
well done.
and heres a bit of info on one possible reason WHY mumbai was targetted by Islamic fanatics – the name itself is Hindu in origin…
from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai
quote:
The name “Mumbai” is an eponym, etymologically derived from Mumba or Maha-Amba • the name of the Hindu goddess Mumbadevi • and Aai, “mother” in Marathi.
The BBC AGW/MMCC lying propaganda offensive continues apace coinciding with the ‘climate conference’ in Poland with someone called Nick Hiyams(?) lying through his teeth about a “warming planet” and “rising temperatures that could rise by 5C by the end of the century”, he exitedly tells us about the ice caps melting conveniently missing out that the ice caps are growing NOT receding!
Firstly the planet isnt warming its cooling and secondly where did he get his 5C figure from (the AGW bible)?
The BBC crooked liars are pulling out all the stops to spread their dishonest trash science that is so obviously false its like watching an old Soviet propaganda film of ‘rekord traktor production’, the world cools dramatically and the BBC tells us its warming.
Instead of satellite images of the ice caps we were treated to a cartoon of icebergs melting away, I wonder why the BBC didnt include new satellite images of the polar ice cover, could it be that they would show up the BBC for the lying, dishonest,cheating scum they really are?
THE BBC: WE LIE AND WE CHEAT, ITS WHAT WE DO AND WHO IS GOING TO STOP US?
Go here:
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/Terrorism_in_Mumbai.asp
This is a good discussion of bbc bias.
In this report, the pro-EU BBC gives a whole webpage for politically interfering Barroso, president of ruling EU Commission, to propagandise for Britain to join the Euro currency:
“UK ‘closer’ to adopting the euro”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7757830.stm
This is another crucial political issue for the British people, involving national sovereignty, which Labour is unlikely to want as an explicit manifesto issue at the next general election, evidenced by Labour’s stealth approach to mass immigration, over the past 11 years.
BBC contortions
On the “Sunday” programme on Radio 4, the reporter from Mumbai first of all says that all religins were attacked by the terrorists (my word) in Mumbai, yet then goes on describe how the Jewish centre was targetted. Don’t they even think what they are saying any more?
The “Sunday” programme seems more concerned with preventing victimisation of muslims rather than just reporting the bleedin’ obvious.
Oh and by the way “Thought for Today” this morning traces back religious extremism to the Jewish Zealots 2000 years ago.
Four full days after the beginning of the Mumbai terror attack, and two days after its end, BBC website still does not have a HYS on this important event.
Anat (Israel) | 30.11.08 – 4:30 pm
Yes, I noticed that. I sent an angry comment to World Have Your Sayon the World Service’s use of the terms “determined gunmen” and “young men” to describe the cold-blooded terrorists. They blocked it and also blocked this calmer follow up:
“Religion of Peace strikes again”
That was the comment on the Have Your Say forum on Benazir Bhutto’s murder that attracted 717 recommendations and about which Peter Horrocks wrote his Value of citizen journalism article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/01/value_of_citizen_journalism.htmlhttp://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&forumID=3985&edition=2&ttl=20081129094106&#paginator
He mentioned that the BBC had “considered turning off the comment recommendation facility on that story on the BBC News website.” This was because of the extraordinary amount of popular anger directed at Islam on that forum after the murder:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&forumID=3985&edition=2&ttl=20081129094106&#paginator
In the end they let the recommendations stand because, “The BBC has made a commitment to listening to the views of its audience.”
Now if anything warranted a Have Your Say topic it was the barbaric attack on Bombay’s innocent civilians and tourists. Yet the BBC failed to put up a topic on the atrocity. So does Peter Horrocks’ commitment still stand? Or is the BBC slipping back into censorship mode?
John Reith spins in his grave | Homepage | 30.11.08 – 10:06 pm
The BBC was making some progress along the road of letting people have their say. Looks like Peter Horrocks and crew have given the go ahead for a return to censorship.
What a pleasure to return to this blog and find even more than the usual abundance of fine, perceptive comments about the foul BBC on every thread.
I’ve been trying to engage a motley crew of anti-America, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic lefties on two or three BBC blogs. They are attracted to the BBC like flies to sh*t.
Thanks to ‘Wazzup?’ (7:52 am), for drawing attention to the following report on the BBC’s euphemistic and inconsistent use of language in its reporting of Mumbai:
“Terrorism in Mumbai”
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/Terrorism_in_Mumbai.asp
More damning of the BBC reporting on Mumbai, including today, is its failure to understand or even discuss the central role of ISLAMIC JIHAD in the Mumbai terrorism.
For this, it is necessary to turn to e.g. the analysis of: 1.) Melanie Phillips, 2.) ‘Jihadwatch’:
1.)”The Mumbai atrocity is a wake-up call for a frighteningly unprepared Britain”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1090762/MELANIE-PHILLIPS-The-Mumbai-atrocity-wake-frighteningly-unprepared-Britain.html
2.)’Jihadwatch’ (several excellent articles, including this one by Andrew Bostom):
“Bostom: Hindus, Jews and Jihad Terrorism”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023720.php
Perhaps someone would like to speculate as to why the word heroes is in quote marks in this article:
SA ‘heroes’ save Mumbai hostages
It’s not part of any statement made by anyone and it’s not even mentioned in the article text.
I guess a South African security company led by a white man can’t possibly do anything heroic in the BBC’s eyes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7753945.stm
Yes Cassandra, the global warming swindle can be described as neo-lysenkoism, in that it is state approved pseudo-science.
If anyone cares to google Lysenko they can read all about the trainwreck that he caused in Soviet agriculture over a number of decades. Some hard hearted folk might think that was not wholely bad!
What percentage of our fearless MPs voted for the latest lot of eco-quackery?
Was it 98 or 99 percent?
That’s the kind of majority the late and unlamented East German parliament used to churn out isn’t it?
Now whats all this stuff about this Green chappie that has penetrated even to far off France?
Not of great interest, I know – but just to clear things up. The new poster named ‘Bob’ appeared recently, and since I can’t be arsed to point out which is which, I’ll just post as Robert from now on…
Just checked my comments on HYS:
DEBATE:Will the VAT cut get people shopping?
SENT:30-Nov-2008 23:31
COMMENT:Why have the three posts which received the most recommendations earlier today disappeared?
Is it because they also referred to the Damian Green affair?
Are the BBC’s moderators sensoring anything that migh embarass our Dear Leader and his post-democratic junta?
COMMENT STATUS:Rejected
DEBATE:Will the VAT cut get people shopping?
SENT:30-Nov-2008 18:23
COMMENT:The 2.5% VAT reduction is a pointless gimmick.
Why are we even discussing it when the country is facing its biggest constitutional crisis since Charles 1st tried to bully Parliament 300 years ago?
Damian Green’s arrest is the most significant political story by far – why aren’t we discussing that?
COMMENT STATUS:Rejected
I’ve decided to cancel my direct debits for the two tv licences I pay for and send ’em back to the beeb with a print out of the above – marked REJECTED
R5L’s Midday News, 24 January. Part of an exchange between Aasmah Mir and Colin Patterson discussing the settlement of a court case involving Michael Jackson.
AM: What about all the people who had got tickets for the court appearance? Did they turn up anyway?
CP: 18 fans in there, and the press. They had been very strict on allocating who was going to get in there – the BBC were only being given 6 passes…
ONLY 6 passes?
John Reith spins in his grave | Homepage | 01.12.08 – 11:30 am |
I’m still debating. Just had a complaint ‘response back’ that was a near copy of another a while ago, about a totally different subject. Not that it really mattered: Apology for being late, they know the bosses and customers like a box ticked quicker, but on balance they’re ok with it so p*ss off.
Don’t know if this helps or not..
Less lunch, Moore licence fee please
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/opinion/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-less-lunch-moore-licence-fee-please-1042367.html
Reckon we could do a ‘mass jobbie’ and ask the DJ to book the Ivy for an Xmas party?
My only concern with whacking out my DD is that by now will have all sorts of alarms jangling.
And not the ‘oh, heck, we are in trouble with our audience here’ type.
More; “Capita, get you best ex-terrorist rozzers round this bloke’s asap. No point having a propaganda tool if we can’t get the poor saps to also fund it’.
Monday, 1st December,
Mumbai HYS at long last open (presumably thanks to public demand).
Please make your mark.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=5732&edition=2&ttl=20081201121623
.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7758072.stm
“The man, who has been named in newspapers, was a Conservative activist who is believed to have previously applied for jobs in Mr Green’s office.”
He applied for a job – the singular. And why not use the word ‘member’ instead of ‘activist’? The latter makes him sound like a sleathy Tory ninja hidden away in the Labour-dominated bowels of the Home Office.
The BBC, and its own little world: of all the issues which the BBC’s Radio 4 ‘World at One’ could have chosen to lead with today, what does it lead with?- ‘Climate change’!.
Isn’t it amazing (or not) that it takes days for the BBC to have a ‘Have Your Say’ thread on their website about the Green case, and then when they eventually do it’s hidden away down the pecking order of other stories like; ‘do you have a sense of belonging.’
The BBC is no longer just biased but brazen about it.
Your views on Damien Green up on HYS at last – to give BBC the credit, they could’t resist indefinitely. Though they are carefully running a two horse race with money on each. “Moderate Labour” spokesperson Jack Straw speaks of “suprise” at Greens arrest. On the same page we get the “grooming” smear and trot out the line “there must be more to it” at the same as the “storm in a tea cup” elsewhere. The spindoctors are spinning into each other crash bang wallop.
This is a defining moment. Give ’em both barrels.
Business Tycoon Calls For 10 year ban on immigration
The controversial Labour donor known as the ‘curry king’ has called for a ban on immigration for a decade.
Indian-born Sir Gulam Noon, who was at the centre of the cash-for-honours investigation involving Tony Blair, argues that unless the Government ‘shuts the door’ on new arrivals, British society will become chronically divided.
Sir Gulam, 72, who came to Britain in 1966 with just £50 in his pocket, says the country is now ‘full’.
Will the BBC go against it’s “unlimited immigration at all costs” morals and report this story? Of course not!
People will often say that the BBC needs to be kept because it can report on things that commercial broadcasters won’t report on. This proves that argument is false. The BBC won’t report the stories that contradict it’s political agenda.
The BBC could be brought down by a popular boycott
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/12/01/the_bbc_could_be_brought_down_by_a_popular_boycott
From a link in the piece…
What do I conclude from the experience? That the BBC is not deliberately biased. When you point out to them that they are behaving one-sidedly, they immediately try to make amends. Their bias, rather, is uncalculated, instinctive, natural. They don’t realise they’re doing it. But this is almost worse than studied partiality. The prejudice comes out when presenters are caught off-guard, just as you catch the rats scurrying when you flick the lights on without warning.
Can’t see I have seen too much evidence to support some of this of late.
I see Harrabin has been let out of the cage a few times in the past week. I guess this is to refute the ‘growing consensus’ amongst Joe average that AGW is a load of bollocks.
Could the agenda be any more clear?:
from Harrabin’s bile:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7757865.stm
“The report says fuel will inevitably become more expensive to achieve the carbon targets. But it says the government will need to compensate poor households rather than trying to keep prices down.“
In other words, yet again, screw the hard working middle class with YET more eco-taxes.
This lot truly are sending the country down the toilet.
Nelson, the reason Harribin and the dick black and pushing the global warming bollox is because the looney UN’s IPCC is meeting soon
they do it all the time, but i think Harribin is the biger moonbat as he gets to go to the IPCC’s conferences, the Dick doesnt
u recon dick black was bullied at school with a name like that?
Wellz oo wud of thunk that?
Fanks for tellin’ uz Bee Bee Cee
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7755641.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7759159.stm
Galley’s statement made no mention of this ‘grooming’ nonsense; he essentially says it was passed on for public interest purposes. Both Galley and Green are running their stories very close, which is encouraging. But the BBC still manage to fit the grooming bollocks at the end of the article. You’d think if Galley wanted to clear himself he’d go along with precisely that line, but he hasn’t.
“Barack Obama is no Abraham Lincoln, at least according to Fred Kaplan” – so says an article at Politico. In the comments comes this helpful suggestion from “Dr Samuel”:
Obama is a great speaker; but after he has spoken, you can’t always remember what he has said. I have often pleaded with him through my public blogs to give us memorable quotes–something in the line of Kennedy’s “think not of what your country can do for you”–but so far he has not obliged. I have even suggested some speechwriters who can help him achieve this (e.g., a BBC correspondent who writes for Huffington Post)–for this is what history is made of.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/16055.html
Who is Dr Samuel on about? I tend not to follow the Huffington Post unless Justin Webb links there (which is quite often, admittedly). I suspect that the Dr has confused Huffpo with the BBC (easily done) and it’s the blog of Maya Angelou-wannabe Gavin Hewitt he’s remembering, but I could be wrong. Has a BBC correspondent been waxing lyrical over Obama for Ariana?
(Btw, my previous comment about a beeboid bemoaning the fact that the BBC was only allowed 6 passes to an inconsequential Michael Jackson trial should’ve said 24 November, not January)
BBC criticised for refusing to call Mumbai gunmen terrorists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3539646/BBC-criticised-for-refusing-to-call-Bombay-gunmen-terrorists.html
Are the BBC reporting this? No I thought not.
Mumbai attacks: Jews tortured before being executed during hostage crisis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3539171/Mumbai-attacks-Jews-tortured-before-executed-during-hostage-crisis.html
If ever there was a politically correct disease (blacks/homosexuals) for a PC straitjacketed organisation, it’s HIV/AIDS and the BBC.
Today on the Ken Bruce show on Radio 2 we were treated to a soupy trailer for a show entitled “How AIDS changed America”.
There are, of course, two extreme views of HIV/AIDS in the US.
The first sees a load of highly promiscuous, irresponsible, hedonistic, nihilistic, reckless, amoral and immoral people engaging in highly risky sexual practises against all reasonable medical advice and getting extremely sick as a result, and continuing to behave in a reckless and self destructive manner even when the lethal consequences became clear, and then making a cause celebre out of their self inflicted suffering, whilst continuing to proselytising their lifestyle and spread disease.
The other extreme sees homosexuals in America as a kind of species of cuddly endangered animal, hapless and helpless victims of circumstance, innocent casualties of prejudice and discrimination, who fully deserve every special right and privilege conferred upon them, and for whom productive society literally cannot do enough.
I wonder which perspective the BBC will veer towards? Any guesses?
JR spins: Yes, I too noticed that on BBC “have your say” the top three comments had been deleted — presumably because they mentioned the raids on Damian Green.
In a perverse way I’m quite glad they do this sort of thing. From memory the “most recommended” had well over 200 recommendations – so thats hundreds of people who have witnessed at first hand the sort of censorship used by the BBC. Hundreds of people really annoyed. And probably hundreds of people who have either have their eyes opened or their views of the BBC reinforced even further. Either way, when the BBC so blatantly and arrogantly insults the license payers, it’s good news.
The BBC is being dishonest about the Baby P inquiry, in order to shield Labour from looking bad.
Three suspended over Baby P case
Mr Balls ordered the investigation two weeks ago, after saying it was clear mistakes had been made and that those responsible would be held accountable.
Except the BBC leaves out a very important bit of information:
Until Call Me Dave brought it up at PMQs, Labour was perfectly happy to let Sharon Shoesmith, head of children’s services in Haringey, lead an internal investigation. She had merely served three employees with written warnings, so obviously she was not on the ball.
Ed Balls called for another investigation later that evening, only after Cameron called for an independent investigation, and Mr. Brown waffled through his awful “action has been taken and we are taking action to ensure that the correct action will be taken, and we have taken action to ensure that it will” speech.
Of course, this is the same Sharon Shoesmith who just got suspended, along with several others, due to the independent inquiry.
The BBC decided to hide the truth that Ed Balls called for the inquiry only because the Tories raised the issue, and clearly embarrassed Mr. Brown over it. Instead, they allow a lie to protect Labour.
I regret that the BBC decided to make a political issue out of this.
More lies from the BBC:
Under colonial rule, whites seized much of Zimbabwe’s best land, forcing black farmers to less fertile areas.
Reversing this was one of the main reason for Zimbabweans taking up arms in the 1970s to end white minority rule.
But 20 years after independence in 1980, just 4,400 white farmers still held a third of Zimbabwe’s land.
One million black peasant farmers scratched a living on about the same area.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7758070.stm
With the BBC resorting to such out and out lying on a daily basis, much like the crumbling Labour ‘government’ surely the time can’t be too far away when the licence tax is scrapped.
“Under colonial rule, whites seized much of Zimbabwe’s best land, forcing
black farmers to less fertile areas.”
black farmers? huh?
they were hunter gatherers in that neck of the woods. sparsely populated as well , with no developed economic system.
it would be like me going to a forest in deep siberia, installing a greenhouse and growing tomatoes – and the russians then saying i “stole” it off them…
utterly bizarre. in fact – the russians would probably give me money to do that…
what bizarro world does the bbc live in?
by the way -niall ferguson is on a roll on his C4 docu…
connecting Enron to the credit crunch… he’s good that Ferguson chap. VERY good. and worth his weight in Pestons.
Harrabin is a just a camp twat.
TPO | 01.12.08 – 8:42 pm | #
dont forget that before Mugabe, Rhodesia was literally the breadbasket of Africa.
i have Rhodesian mates who remember it as kids.
terrible thing though – although they are doing well abroad, they still pine for their homeland and want to return. cuts them up no end that they cant and cant go back and help out…
my own opinion is that Mugabe is final proof that post-colonialism has failed as an idea big time.
some nazi types might say that its the “blacks” that cant rule themselves – others on the left would say that its the “west” exploiting them.
but none of this has happened in Asia – singapore, hong kong and other ex colonies are doing very very well.
but the BIG difference is that asian colonies encourage white europeans to stay on and to build their economies. and thus , they educated the local population in the actual practise of running government.
that did not happen in africa. for the most part, we got the fuck out before the machetes came down on our necks.
just look at the contrast with the far east – singapore , english white, and qualifications? yes sir yes sir! please do take a job here and move here!!!
they have it spot on. and thus hong kong , singapore, taiwan have boomed , while africa has reverted back to the middle ages.
archduke | 01.12.08 – 9:10 pm |
My wife is a Rhodesian
My wife is a Rhodesian
TPO | 01.12.08 – 9:22 pm
ah!
i shall say no more so.
apologies if i was appearing to preach to the converted.. i did not know that.
Anyone else noticed how quiet the BBC has gone over the great leaders big financial bail out plan? You know the one he personally gave to the world, the great Moses, our great hope?
Of course his bail out plan was just another failed idea that cost us billions and left the stock market in the tank, the housing market fucked and millions on the dole.
I know, how aobut arresting a Tory MP then getting the BBC to spin a load of lies?
That should divert enough attention.