Monthly Archives: December 2008

QUESTION TIME LIVE!

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So tonight is the night when Biased BBC goes live with real-time coverage of Question Time. Have a look at the panel, and weep. Or laugh. We have the ludicrous Jim Knight, the appalling Lembit Opik, Mr Smug himself Will Self, Jungle Bunny Ester Rantzen, and conservative Nadine Dorres. 5:1, I think is the ratio, so it’s important that WE are all on air to offer a little balance! Hope you can join me at 10.30pm when the we shall go live, should be a fun experiment and I will be ready and waiting…..bear with me if there any technical problems, this is a first at my end as well!!

 

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DRACONIAN KEYNSIANISM

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It takes a German to call it like it is. I refer to the comments made by Germany’s finance minister’s on the government’s plans to combat the economic downturn. Peer Steinbruck had criticised the UK’s decision to cut VAT and raise the national debt to record levels. He said Britain’s switch from financial prudence to heavy borrowing was both “crass” and “breathtaking”. The BBC was quick off the proverbial (Deutsch) mark to question the basis for any German politician daring to question Brown’s judgement (Hello Number 10 rebuttal squad!) with Pesto wheeled on to Today to offer sympathy and excuses to the Great Leader. Draconian Keynsianism is about the best description I have heard of what Brown and the comrades are up to – either that or cloaked communism or stealth socialism.


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ALWAYS THE TORIES.

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You know what angers me? The way in which the BBC seems institutionally incapable of reporting on current Labour woes without referencing things back to the period when the Conservatives were in power. We saw it yesterday when Gordon told us that he had “saved the world”. Bang on cue a clip of Mrs Thatcher declaring “We are a grandmother.” Today we seek the Pound sink to an alarmingly low rate against the Euro as the financial markets cast judgement on our future economic prospects and yet the BBC manages to push the line that the weakness of sterling is actually great news for exporters and that the Pound was weaker against the Deutschmark in 1995 (under the Tories). WHY is is so hard for the BBC to report a story on the state of our economy without trying to ameliorate the state it is in by pointless historical references? I know they want to Save Gordon, their socialists comrade, but it makes the value of their reporting even more worthless than our national currency has become under the Great Leader.

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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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A GREEK HERO

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Looks like the BBC has found itself a new political hero in the unlikely shape of George Papakonstantinou, who speaks for opposition party the Panhellenic Socialist Movement. George was given a generous airing on PM last night and he is back again on Today this morning. I’m sure you notice how gently the BBC treats those such as George who advocate the ongoing ..ahem ..”peaceful resistance” to the government, along with its subsequent removal, of course.

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Is it just me … ?

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Imagine it’s December 2000, and that Texas Republicans stand accused of auctioning off newly elected President George Bush’s recently-vacated governorship to the highest bidder. I can’t help thinking that would be the number one BBC news story for days if not weeks. There’s no way it would be squeezed out of the headlines by more euthanasia plugs or the government’s latest series of welfare reforms.

Of course, during the campaign, BBC correspondents would have shone a spotlight on the institutionalised corruption of the Republican heartland, with its long and dishonourable history. How exactly, they would ask, did George W Bush rise to the top of the most corrupt political machine in the United States ?

Wouldn’t they ?

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“crud is always crud”

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The Head of Acquisitions at the BBC outlined the Corporation’s policy in a recent radio programme. She told us:

“The children of today are more used to the up-market, faster-moving things” and that “in today’s hugely competitive schedule we are up against about another twelve to fourteen children’s channels and we have got to stand out.”

As a policy that is, in my considered view, almost criminally preposterous.

Some accuse the BBC of being institutionally biased against markets. That may have some truth when it comes to news and current affairs, but that’s not how the late and much-mourned Oliver Postgate sees them when it comes to childen’s programming. Markets – and merchandise – are all.

” … the BBC let us know that in future all “programming” was to be judged by what they called its “audience ratings”. Furthermore, we were told, some U.S. researchers had established that in order to retain its audience (and its share of the burgeoning merchandising market) every children’s programme had to have a ‘hook’, ie, a startling incident to hold the attention, every few seconds. As our films did not fit this category they were deemed not fit to be shown by the BBC any more. End of story – not only for Peter and me – we had had a very good innings – but also for many of the shoe-string companies that had been providing scrumptious programmes for what is now seen as ‘the golden age of children’s television’…”

“Now, today, burdened with the search for the millions of pounds which they have to find to fund their glossy products, the entrepreneurs have to lead a very different sort of life. They must hurtle from country to country seeking subscriptions from the TV stations to fund the enormous cost of the films. Each of these stations will often require the format of the proposed film to be adapted to suit its own largest and dumbest market. They have to do this because, for them, children are no longer children, they are a market.”

To be fair to the BBC, there are still a few small areas of programming targeted at children where production values and solid scenery can go hang, because it’s all about the story. Like Eastenders. Trouble was, you were never going to be able to get much incest or domestic violence into Pogles Wood.

(If you want to see the “educational” BBC at its worst, take a look at its mealy-mouthed CBBC Remembrance Day page. Among the missing are the words “us” and “our”)

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WHAT RECESSION?

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Hey – who would have guessed but the recession is over! Well, maybe not quite but the BBC has been busy this morning assiduously pushing the line that retail sales are only marginally down year on year, that employers are simply “holding off” on recruitment for a few months, and, of course, that more and more people are putting their trust in the Great Leader. Amazing Alice in wonderland stuff, all aimed at saving Gordon – the BBC’s current number one objective.

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JUST TODAY

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Listening to the BBC “Today” this morning was quite the experience. It was a full-on left-wing fest with many of their shibboleths on full display disguised as “news”

It kicked off just after 7am with an item on the EU’s current attempts to broker “a deal” with the Eastern European nations on reducing carbon emissions. BBC “Analyst” and climate change cheer-leader Roger Harrabin was almost breathless in his excitement that Sarkzoy and the gang can pull together some worthless tokenism by the end of this week in order that the EU can continue to “lead” the way on this issue. At no point was there any discussion as to whether the EU acting unilaterally was the right thing to do – it is now an article of faith beyond debate in Beeb world.

And moving directly on from that, the BBC were pleased to welcome on-air a spokesman for the vandals from “Plane Stupid” – the group that has disrupted flights at Stansted airport this morning by cutting through the fence and blocking the runway. I believe that giving publicity to this kind of Student Grant vandalism is inappropriate and I do not care to hear what these idiots think, or demand. The BBC should be ashamed of itself for playing the PR game with these loons.

Moving on, we had the obligatory “Get me out of here, its a quagmire” item on Afghanistan. The pretentiously entitled and left-wing “International Council on Security and Development” have done “research” that shows the Taliban is bigger and stronger than ever before. And the BBC are keen to advance this spurious nonsense as part of their own anti-war agenda.

Next, there was the now also mandatory “Gordon Brown – Saviour of the Universe” item. This time, Prudence has invited Sarkozy and Barroso to Downing Street for talks on the economic crisis (which Brown helped engineer) but German Chancellor Angela Merkel has chosen not to attend and so this item was a bewildered BBC pondering why on earth the German’s don’t want to follow Gordon over the economic cliff.

There were two further items that my morning digestion did not facilitate. The first was the latest episode of government dumbing down our children’s education by teaching them about “emotional well-being and social skills” instead of traditional subjects. The second was that on “The Elders” (LOL) in the form of Jimmy Carter – America’s worst ever President – being “disappointed” in the leadership of Robert Mugabe.

All in all – listening to Today is the worst possible way to start the week – so I thought I would share my pain with you!

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