- Bishop Hill on the close yet unclear relationship between the Cambridge Environment and Media Programme and the BBC.
- Tom Gross of the WSJ writes, “If this isn’t terrorism, what is?”
For much of the Mumbai siege, the BBC went out of its way to avoid reporting that the Jewish community center was one of the seven targets. At one point viewers were told that “an office building” had been targeted (referring to the Jewish center as such).
Then on Friday morning, TV pictures of Indian commandos storming the besieged Jewish center were broadcast by networks around the world. Heavily armed commandos, their faces covered by balaclavas, rappelled from helicopters onto the roof while Indian sharpshooters in buildings opposite opened fire and a helicopter circled overhead. Huge crowds of onlookers could be seen looking aghast as they watched from nearby streets. While Sky News and other channels were gripped by these dramatic pictures, BBC World was not, almost pretending there was no siege at the Jewish center — even though by then it was one of only two sites that remained under attack in Mumbai. Had the terrorists chosen to besiege a church or mosque instead, can you imagine the BBC ignoring it this way?
- You mean those scary statistics in the letters from TV Licensing weren’t true?
- Following on from Laban’s post, I was listening to Radio 4 the day before yesterday at about 6.15pm. There was quite a lengthy discussion of Governor Rod Blagojevich’s corruption without, yet again, any mention of what party he represented. I expect this tactic works quite well. Anyone listening properly would have gathered Mr Blagojevich was of the same party as Mr Obama, but the many, many people who listen with half an ear while they get on with something else would never hear “blah blah corruption blah blah Democrat blah” whereas you can be sure that in a similar scandal involving a Republican they would get “blah corruption Republican blah THAT’S RIGHT, REPUBLICAN blah”.
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Take a look at one of the current BBC ads for itself which shows a guy tuning his car radio, ecstatically grooving to the sound of Beeb and doing all this and driving!!
Isn’t this a criminal offence or must there be a piece of fruit involved?
Banana anyone?
cassius comment on Robinsons blog entry:
http://cassiuswrites.blogspot.com/2008/12/robinson-you-are-biased-fraud.html
If so many of you hate the BBC why don’t you just stop watching it and paying for it. Oh no wait, that would give you nothing left to do in your frightened impotent lives.
If so many of you hate the BBC why don’t you just stop watching it and paying for it
Spot on the money, I will do that today and promise not to watch any BBC. Oh, hang on a minute I am an honest citizen and thus I still have to pay the bloody license fee because there is a legal requirement to do so.
You may indeed think the BBC is great value, and so would be happy to pay, I don’t but I still have to pay. Isn’t that fair.
‘The BBC is great value.’
Utter Idiot Alert!! Run along, little fellow.
“If so many of you hate the BBC why don’t you just stop watching it and paying for it”
Setting aside the licence fee issue which has been addressed by “Arthur Dent” (above), the influence of the BBC as a “trusted” news organization impacts Brits everywhere. It is no longer simply a broadcaster, it shapes public opinion by what it says and what it chooses not to say. To many of us, the BBC has its own agenda and promotes it stealthily whenever it can. It is a POLITICAL player. Those of us concerned by its activities can’t simply throw our toys out of the cot and walk away. Its too important.
If so many of you hate the BBC why don’t you just stop watching it and paying for it.
Gee, let me think…oh, right, right – it’s because in order to watch tee-vee which isn’t shoddily produced, left-wing-biased shite (with a handful of exceptions) – i.e. non-BBC tee-vee – I still have to pay the BBC’s draconian, anachronistic tee-vee poll tax.
Thanks for playing, Billy.
I dont pay for it.But I still get correspondence from a “Customer Relations” department.Odd really, if I`m not a customer.
I wouldn’t mind the fee quite so much, if new legislation required everyone who works at the BBC or reads the Guardian or Independent to pay £140 to the Daily Mail, whether they ever read it or not, and whatever they think of its editorial tone.
But as that will never happen, I watch other channels and refuse to pay the fee. That means I am breaking the law. That situation is absurd and unfair.
And in any case, my life hasn’t been frightened and impotent for months now.
I am not sure that the BBC would report an attack on a church. Especially since a church in Bombay would have originaly been set up by those nasty white imperialists.
Great value
I agree, the BBC provides “great value”. This it achieves by halving costs which it in turn achieves by cleverly reflecting only one side of the story instead of both.
The latest from Sderot: ‘Sderot under fire: 3 hurt in rocket strike’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3640288,00.html
But on the BBC website Middle East page, the only items at this moment referring to Israel and its neighbours are as follows:
Brown holds talks with Israeli PM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7785070.stm
Israel told to re-route barrier
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7784633.stm
Israel blocks UN rights official
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7784348.stm
Israel fire chief ‘ran brothel’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7783860.stm
Crowds greet freed Palestinians
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7783697.stm
Voices: Gaza closure and shortages
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7727219.stm
Syria’s own ‘war on terror’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7778951.stm
Lebanon refugees fear for future
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7777060.stm
Inside Gaza: Malnutrition and shortages (with a beautiful picture of four fat kids and two adults in glaring contradiction to the poorly laid table)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7766509.stm
What is this preparing the ground for?
BBC six o’clock news lead with a story following Brown on his trip to Afghanistan.
27,000 job losses at the iconic Woolies after all stores are shut.
And on a day when a Gov minister resigns in protest of post office policy – where is this on the website.
This isn’t on at all.
Great Value 4:21
The problem with not paying the licence fee is that you can end with a fine and jail sentence.
If you think the BBC is such great value, why not compaign for it to be subscription only or pay-as-you-go ?
What are you frightened of ?
Bishop Hill Blog. Excellent, just shows how far the slimy tentacles of the BBC have reached.
Mumbai reporting. The BBC’s inherent anti-semitism prevents it from portraying Jews as victims. I would take issue with the comment that if the terrorists had attacked a mosque or a church, the BBC would have given it more coverage. That is only half true !
Anybody for an ANTI BBC VIDEO?
This is really good!
“Roger has travelled extensively and has undertaken many acclaimed interviews on environmental issues with many key figures including Ban Ki Moon, President Barroso, Tony Blair, John Kerry and Al Gore”
http://www.gordonpoole.com/?artistID=1849
So we know which side he votes for – notice there are no interviews with scientists.
Martin J Johnstone | 17.12.08 – 7:01 pm
This is really good!
No it isn’t.
It would be a lot better if doitmyselfagain knew the difference between to and too and your and you’re.
The above link is to a “Talent Agency and Speaker Bureau” and Harribins fee for “speaker” is “Fee Group: £5k – £10k”.
Now what would happen if the AGW bubble burst – he would stand to loose a lot of money. And these people have the nerve to blame Big Oil for funding “sceptics”
‘The BBC is great value.’
An early entry for joke of the year 2009.
Pathetic response. So you’re all here lambasting BBC output as being nothing but lies, yet you worship the biggest BBC lie of all. That you will go to jail if you don’t pay your licence fee. LOL!
This place stinks of hypocrisy.
Grant:
I’m not the one with the problem with BBC ouput. You and most of your whining cronies here are. Why don’t YOU go petition for BBC subscription, instead of expecting everyone to do your bidding for you. I’d happily pay for the best TV organisation in the world via subscription, as it would certainly shut up the likes of the old fart mentality that permeates this board. As long as we have the likes of people like yourself constantly demanding the BBC see the world from your point of view, they will forever pander to the poison of political correctness that YOU hate them for.
If so many of you hate the BBC why don’t you just stop watching it and paying for it. Oh no wait, that would give you nothing left to do in your frightened impotent lives.
The BBC is Great Value | 17.12.08 – 4:21 pm |
even if i stopped watching the BBC, the bbc would come for its license fee from me, and would threaten me with a criminal conviction if i didnt pay up. and having a criminal conviction flags you up in job agencies… irrespective of what the conviction was about.
with sky , i’m tied into a contract, and i adhere to that – if i dont like sky at the end of the contract, i can CHOOSE to not renew the payments.
i have no such option with the bbc.
the bbc basically operates on government sanctioned theft. there is no contract – its “pay up or else”..
i hope you beeboids are happy with that… because morally it is so wrong on so many levels.
The BBC is Great Value | 17.12.08 – 8:12 pm |
if the bbc is such great value, why doesnt the bbc allow itself to be privatised and move to a subscription model?
oh wait – that would endanger the feather bedded jobs of all the left wing moonbats working there, as they find out the hard way that most folks DONT want to subscribe to the BBC.
yeah – you got a good thing going there – lets rob the very poor in society, and just pump out commie propaganda so that the top dogs in the BBC can get 500k plus salaries.
and theres me thinking that commie thinking died when the berlin wall fell.
the BBC – a little bit of the stasi GDR… still existing way past it sell by date.
The BBC is Great Value | 17.12.08 – 8:12 pm,
You are saying nothing that hasn’t been said before by hundreds of people who have come onto this blog over the years knowing nothing about it or the people on it, except that they are against the BBC. And you say it in exactly the same gritting-your-teeth way:
pathetic
lies
stinks
hypocrisy
whining
cronies
shut up
old fart
demanding
pander
poison
hate
If you could lose the colourful language, you might be able to make a coherent point or two.
But at least you can spell hypocrisy. I’ll give you that.
“That you will go to jail if you don’t pay your licence fee. LOL!”
even if you dont go to jail, its the conviction that matters. and that goes on your record – even if it is a suspended jail sentence.
and its a conviction that filters through to all the job agencies and the banks.
yeah – resist the bbc, and you’ll have no job and the banks wont give you credit.
archduke | 17.12.08 – 8:56 pm,
pounce has come up with an interesting way to represent the “British” Broadcasting Corporation:
bBC
The BBC is Great Value | 17.12.08 – 8:12 pm |
blow it out ya arse sonny
Great Value 8:12
Well, it’s the first time I have ever been called an “old fart”, but happy to rattle your cage any time ! Intrigued as to how you know the ages of people posting here !
I am not asking for the BBC to “see the world” from my point of view, or indeed any point of view, but simply to report objectively and without bias ,in accordance with its charter, something which it manifestly fails to do.
By the way, I think HBO’s output is far higher quality than the BBC.
Great Value 8:12
PS. So if we stop slagging the BBC, they will stop “pandering to political correctness” ?
1. Glad you admit the BBC is biased and panders to political correctness.
2. Amazed that you think the critics of the BBC have such power to influence it.
3. If what you say is true, and all criticism ceased , I suspect the BBC would only get worse. It is probably only the fear of losing the licence fee which restrains the BBC at all.
The point ‘Great Value’ slithers around in true Mandelsonian fashion is that even if one does eschew the BBC and its relentless Left-liberal propaganda, one is still forced to pay Danegeld to the Corporation.
It was quite a popular business tactic in Soho, back in the early 1960s, I gather…
Er, sorry… we’re being called old farts – by someone who has chosen as their name, “The BBC is Great Value”.
I can hardly stop laughing.
The BBC is Great Value – answer one question, yes or no (you can even capitalise your answer if it makes you feel better)
Do you think that I should be forced to pay money to the BBC for watching only non-BBC channels?
Yes or no? The question is simple and relatively easy, with a one word answer. (Here’s a clue, in the form of a hypothetical question: should I be forced to pay the Daily Mail £140 a year for the pleasure of reading the Guardian, even if I never read – and in fact hate – the Daily Mail?)
Sticking to a one word answer might even be the start of a great voyage of self-realisation for you, The BBC is Great Value, as you discover new ideas like coherence, reason, argument, rationality, and credibility. My fingers are crossed for you, The BBC is Great Value, so good luck with your deliberations.
Yes isn’t it strange that when you buy a TV you have to give your name and address – the BBC must presume that people buy a TV to watch their rubbish.
Yet when I buy a washing machine I don’t have to hand over my name and address to the Aerial washing powder company.
Yet more foaming at the mouth nonsense. What I’ve learned from this place so far is that nobody actually listens to anything as they are too busy trying to be heard. And just like they accuse the BBC of doing – they realign the facts to support their own distorted view of reality.
archduke:
“and having a criminal conviction flags you up in job agencies… irrespective of what the conviction was about.”
Any job agency would have to disclose their intent to make a CRB check on the application form. They CANNOT access your police record without your consent. When they do they will obtain a Basic Disclosure which will show all convictions held on the police national computer. No potential employer is going to confuse licence fee evasion with GBH are they?
Also, the BBC isn’t charging (or claiming the right to charge) you a penny for anything. The government many years ago created a law which provided for people who wished to have the capability to receive radio (and later tv) signals must purchase a licence to do so. Possession of equiment capable of receiving such signals indicates liabiility to pay a licence fee TO THE GOVERNMENT. (NOT to the BBC).
The government subsidises partially or wholly many public services such
as the police, the health service, social services, environmental
services, defence services etc – the BBC is just one of those many
services.
archduke:
“with sky , i’m tied into a contract, and i adhere to that – if i dont like sky at the end of the contract, i can CHOOSE to not renew the payments.”
And what happens if you DON’T like Sky during that contract? You’re locked into it for 12 months, just like you are with the BBC. Don’t pay and it’s fine, court, criminal record. And it will be SKY after you this time, NOT the government.
“if the bbc is such great value, why doesnt the bbc allow itself to be privatised and move to a subscription model?”
Why should it offer itself as a sacrifice just because people like you can’t be bothered to do it? Pathetic.
I knew I’d get torched for my views but you lot remind me of a bunch of moany old dears standing at a bus stop complaining bitterly about the service. “Oooh it’s terrible isn’t it dear.” “Oh it shouldn’t be allowed should it dear.” Then the moment the bus arrives and they climb on-board it’s all smiles and “Hello driver. Morning dear!” “We don’t like to cause a fuss”
If you choose to climb on board with the licence fee then that’s your hard luck. If you don’t like it STOP paying and STOP watching. Better still, take to streaming, as the BBC can’t touch that as much as you would all love to gaggle that they can.
Personally I find all your clamor about BBC licensing just an excuse for your own lily livered attitudes to unfair government taxation and the fact that your own extreme views aren’t given decent enough airtime on the BBC.
Say what you like about the TV licence, it may be an unfair tax but the BBC didn’t write it into law and nor do they keep it there. But the BBC themselves are still doing an excellent job.
KtB, slightly unfair at best, and the old dears at the bus stop gag was more effective the first couple of times – getting slightly stale, to be honest.
If you don’t like it STOP paying and STOP watching.
I don’t pay the licence fee. I don’t watch the BBC – can’t stand them. But I do watch various Sky channels, Crime and Investigation, etc. That means I’m breaking the law. Stupid situation. There’s no reason why the BBC should get my money for my watching Sky.
“Personally I find all your clamor about BBC licensing just an excuse for your own lily livered attitudes to unfair government taxation and the fact that your own extreme views aren’t given decent enough airtime on the BBC.”
Oooh – you’re so macho! As a mere lily-livered whinger, however, I don’t hold any extreme views, and don’t expect the BBC to give airtime to my views – I expect merely that they should present a decent balance, subject all sides to equal scepticism and scrutiny, and remain impartial politically. You have a problem with that? That alright with you? I really hope you approve, so I can sleep easy at night.
“Yet more foaming at the mouth nonsense. What I’ve learned from this place so far is that nobody actually listens to anything as they are too busy trying to be heard.”
Well thank god that not one word of that applies to your own blustering contributions, and that you’ve come to set us all straight.
“When they do they will obtain a Basic Disclosure which will show all convictions held on the police national computer. No potential employer is going to confuse licence fee evasion with GBH are they?
I’m glad you’ve asked them all and ascertained that this will never happen. If it ever does, I’ll be sure to quote your expert testimony in the ensuing court case I bring against them.
“Also, the BBC isn’t charging (or claiming the right to charge) you a penny for anything. The government many years ago created a law which provided for people who wished to have the capability to receive radio (and later tv) signals must purchase a licence to do so. Possession of equiment capable of receiving such signals indicates liabiility to pay a licence fee TO THE GOVERNMENT. (NOT to the BBC)”
Weak and disingenuous. Things have changed since many years ago, KtB, as well you know. The Licence Fee funds the BBC, the BBC squanders most of it on garbage that has no element of public service about it, they feed us the same crap we can find on commercial TV, they break their charter commitments, and have the gall constantly to request hikes in the fee, to fund their endless quest for expansion.
“And what happens if you DON’T like Sky during that contract? You’re locked into it for 12 months, just like you are with the BBC. Don’t pay and it’s fine, court, criminal record. And it will be SKY after you this time, NOT the government.
That’s the nature of a contract, KtB, well done. They are voluntarily entered into, and you can choose not to renew them. The problem is, the licence fee funds the BBC, and we cannot choose not to enter into a contract with them, if we want only to watch Sky. It also makes me smile that you drag government and public services into the argument. Policing is a public service. Libraries are a public service. Strictly Come Dancing is not. If I don’t watch Strictly Come Dancing or any other BBC programs, the government will prosecute me on behalf of the BBC for failing to pay for a product I do not use, and I will have a criminal record; whilst if I choose to enter into a contract with Sky and then renege on it they will employ a debt collection agency to get their money. And you think those two situations are equivalent…
“it may be an unfair tax but the BBC didn’t write it into law and nor do they keep it there”
On the contrary, they lobby government to increase it. You’re simply wrong.
Despite our 18 year record of non TV tax payment, we haven’t had a visit in the last several years.
Sure, we get the threatening letters, but they don’t follow up with a visit. I can’t quite work out why this is, because our postcode demographic is ” deprived ” which should be prime hunting ground.
I am getting increasingly fed up with their lack of attendance, because I am becoming more and more angry with the state of this country.
Headbutting an arrogant state apparatchik with a clipboard would cheer me up no end. Bring it on TVL.
henryflower 11:27
I have a feeling we shall hear no more from “Great Value” !
Kill the Beeb 12:51
“foaming at the mouth nonsense”. Well, admittedly, there are some rather extreme anti-BBC comments here sometimes, but generally, I would say this website is characterised by a calm, evidence-based, often forensic expose of BBC bias.
I think that is what really upsets BBC supporters, who tend to come off worse here when it comes to rational argument. henryflower’s reply at 2:08 to your post is a classic example.
If anything, it is the BBC supporters who “foam at the mouth” and become hysterical as they lose the argument.
Bryan:
I have to agree that the pro-BBC poster above used very colourful language, and that without it, he would make a coherent point. If -only- David Vance could learn the same lesson.
The incoherent ranting of beeboids shows that this site is doing a great job. Carry on, guys!
I now only watch the BBC out of a morbid curiosity about how they’re going to screw up their reporting of this or that event or issue.
It’s an indulgence, so I suppose I ought to pay something for it.
But £140?
Feline 11:26
Winding up Beeboids is poor sport, it is too easy !
Anat (Israel) 6:34
Haven’t had time to follow all your links, but please keep posting here. You are welcome !
ipreferred:
David Vance writes very well, and is civil to other posters, accommodating even the most rabid Beeboid ones.
The fact you disagree with him does not make him an ‘incoherent ranter’.
Tom 12:23
Well, in some senses it is worth £140 for the entertainment. It’s just not the entertainment the BBC expects !
OK, I hate the Beeb, but….
I think the media/authorities were pretty irresponsible. If special forces are going to storm a building, it is generally better not to broadcast their approach on live TV. It gives the terrorists ‘real time’ intelligence and allows them to plan a response.
The Indian authorities should have cleared that entire area and pushed the media right back behind a cordon. They could have then allowed one TV crew in, under their direct control. The could have then had the TV crew broadcast old footage to fool the terrorists inside. Instead of this, they broadcast it live and the terrorists would have had plenty of time to start killing the hostages.
Maybe for once, the beeb were just being responsible (although, this was probably unintentional)
“President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday defended his choice of a popular evangelical minister to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, rejecting criticism that it slights gays.”
What is the Beeb’s response? Has their guy gone native? Where is Rev Wright? Is Obama as slippery as I am beginning to think? Come Justin…where are you?
John Bosworth – beginning to think? Where have you been for the past year?
What really amuses me is that it takes a long and completely accurate post from Kill the Beeb to get you lot to stand up and pay attention. I have seen many a post on here, in fact most of them completely ignored because everyone else is too busy trying to be heard to listen.
Only when someone points this out does everyone actually listen and respond to the contrary.
I would guess that the bulk of you come on here because you have no one else that will listen to your hypocritical views. But guess what… No-one is listening. You are all just twittering on into thin air.
Anyway my point was round of applause for Kill the Beeb for finally stating the truth.
guido hasnt paid the telly tax in ten years…
http://www.order-order.com/2008/12/civil-disobedience.html