Monthly Archives: November 2008

An alternative view

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The great thing about guest columns on the Beeb’s website is that they allow different voices to give their take on the big events of the moment – voices we might not normally hear, such as this piece by [democrat, arch-Obama supporter and] “social commentator” Nancy Giles. So, instead of the usual left-leaning commentary on the significance of Obama’s win on race relations in the US that we’re used to, the Beeb treats us to some full on left-wing commentary on the significance of Obama’s win on race relations in the US. What a fantastic idea!

NO APOLOGY NECESSARY?

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I see the BBC have managed to mess up the apology they made such a big deal out of broadcasting on Radio 2 yesterday. “The Corporation was forced to change the wording of a statement broadcast on Radio 2 after the 78-year-old Fawlty Towers star complained that it did not directly refer to his wife and daughter, who he said had been deeply hurt by the affair. Mr Sachs, who was also angry that he had not been consulted over the apology, telephoned the BBC’s London headquarters after listening to the statement yesterday morning and demanded that it be changed for the repeat scheduled for 9pm. The BBC Trust, the Corporation’s governing body, was made aware of Mr Sachs’s reaction and it was agreed that the later broadcast would go further.” It’s just serial incompetence at every level, isn’t it? Meanwhile I was reading that Russell Brand has revealed that there were more “personal” comments actually cut from what was finally broadcast during the now infamous session. What a class act the BBC has become.

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.

It’s the double standards that get you.

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Obama’s set-piece press conference debut contained three nice little nuggets- Obama referred to former First Lady Nancy Reagan as being into a “seances thing”. He referred to himself as a “mulatto” “mutt”, and he said that people were more interested in his new dog than in his policies. All this was there, accompanied by the anxious looks from the assembled Obama team members, yet the BBC headlined their story “impressive debut” and excerpted for video the deliberate joke that Obama planted about the “serious news” of the family’s planned dog. Have you noticed how quite a few of Obama’s joke moments don’t seem intentional? Just saying. If George Bush had said that his dogs were more interesting than his policies…

But actually the double standards I had in mind wasn’t a comparison with the coverage that has been habitually afforded to GWB’s “gaffes”. It was with the treatment of Sarah Palin whose brisk on the fly conference with the press in Alaska was reduced by the Beeb to comments about the “jerks” who were criticising her. You can get much more video here than the BBC offers. In fact the comments were contextualised in a fairly substantial response to a precise question about anonymous allegations against her. These were not criticsms but allegations which she refuted. The Beeb’s treatment made her look intemperate and peremptory where actually she was thorough and open in her response. But by cut, cut, cutting away at that response, and tacking on another, the BBC shaped and ran with the story about Sarah hitting back at “‘jerk’ critics”.

Update: you might like to check out this audio interview with Palin giving her point of view most completely.

DARE TO DREAM?

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Here’s a gem of Obamania from the BBC’s Kevin Connolly. If you can bear to wade through it you will come across this classic lines.. “He is a complex figure, a child of a white mother and a black father who in his very essence draws together two of the longest threads in America’s national tapestry and has used his own life story to persuade Americans that hope is audacious rather than foolish. “

How about the BBC does us all a favour and insists that its journalists stop rapping for The One and start just reporting the facts? For example, Kevin finishes his ringing endorsement of Obama by declaring that he “has to protect the constitution”. Regarding constitutional liberty, I wonder how Kevin will equate this with the fact that Obama has twice taken an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” He does, as the Patriot Post points out, not honor that oath because he subscribes to the errant notion of a “Living Constitution” which, in his own words, “breaks free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution.” Maybe Kevin could “date to dream” about being a journalist rather than a pathetic echo-chamber for The One?

CITIZENS OF THE WORLD UNITE!

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Did anyone else have the misfortune to tune into the rancid”Today” on BBC Radio 4 Obama this morning? God it was hard to take.

Now that we are all black, the lead item was from race-hustler Trevor Philips suggesting that there is institutional racism throughout the British political system and that Obama could never have gotten himself elected here because of it. It’s my view that the BBC has been a key propagandist for the left wing drivel that every part of the British establishment is “institutionally racist” and so it never misses a chance to further advance this illusion. I guess it also helps keep useless but well paid quangos like the Equality Commission in gainful employment.

Later on Today ran an item on how “citizens of the world” were reacting to the election of The One and, as you might expect, the only reaction broadcast was one of sheer elation, of unrequited adoration. “He’s like the guy you want to watch on Youtube” exclaims one excited German, in an example of the inanity broadcast without any critical counter-comment. Now I would expect little else from the socialist-loving appeasement-minded internationalist class but the BBC has a duty to provide balance and I was wondering if all Israeli citizens are jumping up and down with joy, for instance? They trotted on sir David Manning, former British ambassador to Washington and historian Alastair Horne, who then engaged in a further masturbatory O-Love in. Horne’s voice was hoarse from cheering for Obama, he declared! The item finished with the amazing suggestion by Horne being made that the US needs to be “friendlier to Russia”(Where Putin is wildly popular, Horne adds) and one way to do this would be for the US to unilaterally announce the removal of US Missile defence stations. Hey, we’re going back to the 70’s and The One isn’t even President yet. Is Horne a communist?

Talking of the going back in time, on a superficially innocent sounding item looking back at the 1980’s “Dallas” TV show, the BBC managed to get the dig in that perhaps the success of this show had given Texas Oil-barons a better media image than they deserved and so this might have accidentally ..gasp …helped George Bush. Liberal Larry Hagman was quick to dismiss the very thought of it. WHEN the Biased BBC book does come together, it needs to unite all these threads into a coherent narrative that exposes the dangers that the continued existence of the BBC presents to British democracy. It’s a serious business folks, especially in a country where we have no Fox News and where “fair and balanced” have no meaning any longer. Here endeth the lesson, but good to be back with you all!

Best placed?

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The IMF is not optimistic: it’s cut its 2009 growth forecast for the global economy to 2.2% from the previous estimate of 3%, as this report from the Beeb just about manages to mention at the end. And, more relevantly, in this piece yesterday about the rate cut. But can you guess what nugget of information readers of the Beeb’s reports miss out on?

  • The Independent: Britain, in particular, is heading for trouble, the IMF said, predicting that the UK would suffer a more serious recession than any other developed country in the world during 2009.
  • The Times: Britain is now forecast to bear the brunt of the global slump, with its GDP plunging by 1.3 per cent in what would be the worst year for the UK since the economy shrank by 1.4 per cent in 1991.
  • The Telegraph: Britain’s economy will suffer and will see the steepest decline in G7 club of leading powers, shrinking 1.3pc as the crunch in the City of London leads to more job losses.

Regular readers won’t be surprised, though, because unfortunately this is becoming a bit of a habit at the Beeb.

STILL SWOONING

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I know that BBC coverage of the US election has been well covered by my colleagues here on B-BBC but I just wanted to say a few things myself.

Whilst on holidays last week, I tuned into SKY, CNN and the BBC. They were all pathetic cheer-leaders for The One but whilst CNN was poor, Sky managed to be even worse but the BBC managed to win the race for MOST Biased news channel insofar as it really only focused on Obama. McCain was as rare a sight on BBC coverage as Gordon Brown in Glenrothes! I could not bear to watch the BBC coverage yesterday but I did force myself  to watch the 10 0′ clock news tonight and instantly regretted it – the BBC is still swooning over Obama. I watched some sycophantic coverage suggesting that Democrats may well be moving into a permanent majority, no less. Those pesky white Americans are going to be a minority by 2050, the report thrilled, so the bad old days could be behind us! We also had images of Obama cultists scribbling best wishes on a tatty piece of cardboard defacing the Mall in Washington -funny thing is when Bush won in 2000 and 2004 I can’t quite seem to recall the same glowing aftermath in the Beeb’s coverage then, can you?

May the force be with you.

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So, the totally independent Bank of England slashes interest rates on the very day of the Glenrothes by-election and Nick Robinson, in full on mode, demands to know of Alistair Darling why the government does not “force” the Banks to fully reflect this cut in their rates to borrowers. Great idea, Nick. But why leave it there? How about the government “forcing” the BBC to stop ripping us off with the bloated license tax? How about the government “forcing” itself to stop ripping us off with the grotesque share of tax it takes in fuel? Why should “forcing” stop at private business, Nick?