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.
General BBC-related comment thread.
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Thank you GCooper for a great new word, trustafarian!
——
I had the misfortune to catch the the closing seconds of the Toady Prog today, in which John Humphrys was heard to opine, “… and the wealth is being siphoned off by some very rich people, as always happens under capitalism.”
It’s the last item here.
Whoops, forgot to add:
For balance, perhaps Mr Humphrys would care to tell us what always happens under socialism?
“We’re all black now”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7829348.stm
Welsh poet Gillian Clarke (who looks very light-skinned for a black person) talking about her sickly inauguration poem for Obama. It was commissioned by Academi, an organisation funded by the Arts Council of Wales. The BBC article doesn’t question whether this is a good use of taxpayers’ money.
“Clarke’s work is studied in schools across the UK.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Peter | Homepage | 15.01.09 – 7:39 am
Peter, oh how joyous the frustration of a BBC journalist being curtailed from ventilating Hamas propaganda.
It would be entirely reasonable of Israel to give selective access to journalists in Gaza. They wouldn’t need to run a blanket ban on the BBC. The BBC does have some journalists who try to report with integrity, but it has an excellent case against many Beeb journalists for being Hamas mouthpieces.
Above said. Access would need to be under Israeli military protection. It is simply not possible to report objectively from such a spot when genocidal terrorists will kill anyone who displeases them.
field.size, whats on that link? I cant get to it from work.
Mailman
Simon Mayo just spent most of his time attacking the Tory spokesman about opposing the Heathrow expansion.
As I predicted the BBC won’t want to cross Brown so they will simply attack the Tories about it instead.
mailman | 15.01.09 – 1:30 pm |
A very good investigation into the smuggling tunnels…..
The link works fine for me, tested it several times, try copying the link below and pasting it into your browser direct, just omit the quotation marks used to keep it as text.
“http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2009/01/secret-of-smuggling-tunnels-of-hamas.html#readfurther”
FS
The BBC Mission to “Educate, Inform & Entertain’
………well, this story is all three…………..especially Entertaining……….alas its not on The BBC!
President Hugo Chávez, buffeted by falling oil prices that threaten to damage his efforts to establish a Socialist-inspired state, is quietly courting Western oil companies once again.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/15/america/15venez.php
………I dunno, this stuff is just too easy!
I wish John Virgo harm. Never won a bloody thing in his life but criticizes everyone. He could work for the UN if he’s not careful. Complete Hoon.
Gillian Clarke’s inauguration poem for Obama (abridged version):
The sky is blue
I can see the moon
And a star which I reckon is Venus
And some plane trails.
Thank goodness Bush is gone.
Climate change is a worry.
Barack Obama is great.
Really really great.
I mean great in a sort of miracle-performing way.
Did I mention how great he is?
“Will this do?” (written in Welsh)
Coming soon to brainwash children at a school near you.
As BBC sends only 60 Beeboids to worship at the upcoming Obama inauguration:
[Extract]:
“AS EVERY journalist in the land rushes to grab a front-row seat at Barack Obama’s inauguration, the BBC is to send a team of 60 over to America on 20 January, including Huw Edwards of BBC Ten O’Clock News and Radio 4’s Jim Naughtie. Veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby, however, will not be among them.”
http://londonersdiary.standard.co.uk/2009/01/dimbleby-finds.html
How many of those Beeboids will misrepresent Obama in terms of ‘blackness’ and ‘slavery’?:
“Barack Obama and Slavery” (Bill Warner)
http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/barack-obama-and-slavery/
Classic BBC. Boris Johnson on the Heathrow airport expansion. BBC rent boy slagging off the Tories NOT the Government. The Tories are split claim the BBC.
So where are all the Greens today then BBC?
As usual the BBC shove their cocks up Gordon’s arse without a Condom.
Martin, ever thought of applying to be the next National Poet of Wales?
The Tories are split
claim the BBC.
So where are all the Greens today
then BBC?
As usual
the BBC
shove their cocks up Gordon’s arse
without a Condom.
Better than Pinter’s poetry, anyway.
The eloquent smackdown of BBC apologist Bill Buchanan in the comments to this thread at House of Dumb is a pleasure to read.
Some apropos remarks about BBC bias to be found there too.
A counter to the BBC’s one-way pro-Islamic jihad Hamas propaganda:
‘Jerusalem Post’:
“‘Shelling of UNRWA building was response to anti-tank fire'”
[Extract]:
“Palestinian reports said that the IDF hit a multi-story media building that houses several media outlets, including Reuters, Al Arabiya and the BBC. Witnesses said that a Qatari journalist was wounded and that the building was evacuated.
“Defense officials said Hamas operatives had barricaded themselves inside the press office in Gaza, and were using people there as human shields. There were 23 people inside, said the officials. ”
How will BBC’s Gaza City man report this?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231950855726&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
George R:
As BBC sends only 60 Beeboids to worship at the upcoming Obama inauguration
Only 60? I bet they had to draw lots to placate the hundreds of employees expecting to attend.
As BBC sends only 60 Beeboids to worship at the upcoming Obama inauguration
60 is enough for a tongue bath.
60 frigging beeboids? To do what? I’d love to know how many Sky News send AND I bet Sky’s coverage will be a million times better.
DB: Cheers. I always fancied myself as a bit of a bard 🙂
You should hear my Vogon poetry 🙂
The BBC has definitely changed its tune regarding Heathrow. So soft on Government Ministers (such as the OK we’ll use very quiet clean aircraft only – like hell they will) and so hard on the Tories.
Grant | 15.01.09 – 10:36 am
The arrogance of the odious Matt Frei in claiming to speak for “the world” is amazing.
Really the pits, even by the BBC’s low standards.
Frei Boy says something about “what the world wants” or similar about once a week on his BBC World Propaganda America show. Never on Fridays, though, because he takes that day off.
Frei and Co. created the show in the first place with the arrogant idea that they were providing the vital function of informing fool United Statesians of the world’s opinions on things, especially our domestic issues.
Within a month of going on air over a year ago, Frei was bubbling like a schoolgirl with a new crush about the possibility of a new Clinton White House. He said any number of times that “the world wants a Democrat President”.
Too bad only Justin Webb is being called back to the Mother Ship. As annoying as he is, he has more of a clue about the US than Frei Boy.
Martin, what planet do you live on? The BBC have had people on the tv all dy opposed to the runway. They haven’t been soft to any govt ministers, and as for hard on the Tories?? Come off it, if anything, they have been too hard on labour about the runways thing.
So I fired up the WCBSTV website this morning and found this account of the shelling of UN headquarters in Gaza:
“Israel Says Gunmen Used U.N. HQ To Attack”
“A senior Israeli military officer says Israeli troops shelled the U.N. headquarters in Gaza after coming under fire from Palestinian militants.”
CBS being one of America’s liberal news sources (like most).
Let’s see how the BBC is reporting the same incident.
As you can see, absolutely no mention made of the Israeli claim that Palestinian terrorists were launching attacks from the headquarters.
Of course we don’t know the truth, since the Israeli claim is currently just that, a claim. Yet the BBC falls over itself to repeat every single claim by Palestinians, “human rights” groups, Maoist Norwegian doctors, the U.N. etc. Often without any recognition whatsoever that they are unsubstantiated.
BBC bias, there for all the world to see.
Israelis ‘shot at fleeing Gazans’
BBC journalists in Gaza and Israel have compiled detailed accounts of the claims. Now let’s see Research and reporting by Hamada Abu Qammar in Gaza and Heather Sharp, Fouad Abu Ghosh and Raya el-Din in Jerusalem One Palestinian ‘journo’ in Gaza and two plus an English one in Jerusalem probably collecting the Betzelem nonsense. Does anyone know about her?
Not exactly evidence that will hold up in court.
I’ve never understood Matt Frei’s silly mish-mash of a programme title anyway. It’s called something like ” BBC World News America” – what are you supposed to make of that? Is it the BBC’s World News? What has it got to do with America? Is it mostly about America? Is it just that it is FROM America? Is it the BBC imitating an American broadcaster’s world news?
bill buchanan;
the BBC has consistently allowed Lefties to come out with nonsense statements that the Conservatives would have been flayed for saying.
A typical example is Labours so called commitment to lowering CO2 emmissions by 80% by 2050 –knowing full well that 41 years is a long time in politics?
The BBC is consistently uncritical of Tony Benn and his cod Socialism, Galloway and his Marxist dictator idolatory and Mombiot and his hatred of the middle class masked as environmentalism.
Either get more fair minded journalists to interview these clowns or don’t bother at all!!!
Millie Tant | 15.01.09 – 3:45 pm
It’s called something like ” BBC World News America” – what are you supposed to make of that? Is it the BBC’s World News? What has it got to do with America?
It’s BBC world news broadcast on a channel called BBC America.
BBC America is the channel of choice, apparently, for Americans with something higher than a bachelor’s degree.
Dunno why, ‘cos the rest of BBC America is low grade cheap trailer park TV trash.
Martin:
Ah yes, Pinter’s poetry. You’ve got it off very well indeed. How about
“I saw Scargill in his prime
Another time, another time.”
Bill Buchanan | 15.01.09 – 3:17 pm |
are you the same person that wrote this.
Bill ‘the man’ Buchanan:
I love it how you silly fuckers waste so much time replying to me….
cracks me up
Bill ‘the man’ Buchanan | 10.01.09 – 2:04 pm |
It’s BBC world news broadcast on a channel called BBC America.
The British used to have an Empire of which North America was part. They have never recovered from losing the Colonies and now seek the moral high ground by broadcasting relativism to people who are richer, happier, healthier, more democratic and a lot more free than the British ever have been or will ever be.
BBC America ought to broadcast as The ‘You may be more successful but we have class war’ Channel.
BBC’s online credit crunch guru has gone bankrupt
My muse has been awakened by Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales (and also by Martin).
The Biased BBC • a Sonnet (with apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
How are you biased? Let me count the ways.
You’re biased in drama and humour and news,
Your preference for those who have socialist views
Is evident daily from talk shows to plays.
You’re biased in favour of Chavez and Che,
And love with abandon the Worker of Light
Who banished the evil American Right
And gave a big stiffy to Jim on Today.
You’re biased selecting the stories you use,
Promoting agendas, ignoring the facts,
Devoting your efforts to Green ballyhoos.
You search for excuses for terror attacks,
You pander to Islam and finger the Jews.
And all of it paid through a maddening tax.
Anonymous:
It’s BBC world news broadcast on a channel called BBC America.
BBC America is the channel of choice, apparently, for Americans with something higher than a bachelor’s degree.
Anonymous | 15.01.09 – 3:54 pm | #
————————————–
Thanks, Anonymous.
So it means World News from BBC America. Now, that would make sense. We would know what they mean.
I guess that wouldn’t do because they want to get the BBC moniker stuck at the front (it’s not just World News, it’s BBC World News, as in those embarrassing Marks & Spencer ads for food), so they have twisted and bent the title of the programme out of shape until it means God knows what to the uninitiated.
Millie Tant | 15.01.09 – 3:45 pm |
It’s supposed to be a branch of BBC World News, which is syndicated and done in various languages around the world. Frei’s show is a combination of recycled BBC News video segments, some from BBC World, some done by the Mother Ship, with the second half hour being taken up with US issues.
In special cases, of course, nearly the entire hour is dedicated to a domestic issue. But on all domestic issues, the attitude is, “Since we have in international viewpoint, it must be of value.” Mostly it’s Frei and his crew telling us what to think about our news, with a healthy dose of “the world’s opinion” on us. That’s what it’s really all about, and is the attitude with which Matt Frei came into the project.
This show is watched mostly by idiots like me, ex-pats, and maybe a handful of advertisers. But I don’t think it’s respected much. They shut the entire program down for two weeks over Christmas and New Years. In it’s place, they ran the regular half hour BBC World News (which is already syndicated around the US via PBS), followed by a sitcom. No proper news broadcast would do such a thing. But dog-and-pony shows would.
Yeah, they think they’ve got a real high-brow audience there, dying for an international viewpoint.
Another “Obama angle” item appears:
As Barack Obama warns that the US could be facing the greatest economic crisis since World War Two, BBC correspondent Philippa Thomas has been on the streets of Baltimore, the real world of the hit TV series The Wire.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7830538.stm
Kirsty was swooning over “The Wire” in the Newsnight paper review earlier this week.
The Wire is of course produced thanks to the not-so-unique way HBO is funded, via subscription.
Beeboids will be at home at Obama inauguration:
‘Jihadwatch’
‘Head of Muslim group with admitted Hamas ties to offer prayer at Obama inauguration’
“Federal prosecutors last summer rejected claims that ISNA was unfairly named an unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror funding case.
“ISNA has admitted ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. The Muslim Brotherhood is waging, in its own words, ‘a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging’” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.’
“And the head of ISNA is going to offer a prayer at Obama’s inauguration.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024405.php#respond
The BBC has no critique of D. Miliband’s appeasing article in the ‘Guardian’:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7829946.stm
But Melanie Phillips has:
“The Astonishing Shallowness of Britain’s Foreign Secretary”
[Extract]:
…” Miliband’s error lies in the deeper point he is making that the military approach to dealing with global Islamist terrorism is wrong. He reveals in this a profound failure to understand the nature of this global threat. He thinks it’s all about local ‘grievances’ and therefore can be dealt with by negotiation, compromise and arresting people and bringing them to justice rather than waging war upon them. Although his argument is a general one, he specifically mentions Mumbai and Gaza; indeed, I guess that it is Gaza that is really on his mind.”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3235431/the-astounding-shallowness-of-britains-foreign-secretary.thtml
BBC’s adjective for Kirsty Wark: “renowned”!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/01_january/15/wark.shtml
DB: love the poem
And here is the news… http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oVDol5gptFs
From the story linked above by David Preiser (USA) | 15.01.09 – 6:34 am:
There have been several high-profile examples of terrorists being employed by UNRWA. Former top Islamic Jihad rocket maker Awad Al-Qiq, who was killed in an Israeli air strike last May, was the headmaster and science instructor at an UNRWA school in Rafah, Gaza. Said Siyam, Hamas’ interior minister and head of the Executive Force, was a teacher for over two decades in UNRWA schools.
Just reported now on PM – the Israelis have killed him!
GO ISRAEL!
DB | 15.01.09 – 5:31 pm |
Was he taking refuge in the school, amongst children?
Will the BBC report that Siyam worked for UNRWA?
Some quiz questions for Wark:
1.)Which are the best women’s shoe shops in Milan?
2.)Which renowned BBC presenter has a floodlit outdoor tennis court at her Villa in Majorca which annoys the neighbours?
3.)Who does her damnest to get on all the BBC Obama jaunts to America?
4.)Who interviewed Minister Blears about Gaza this week without mentioning Hamas?
5.)Which BBC presenter calls Muslims, ‘Mooooslems’?
The British used to have an Empire of which North America was part. They have never recovered from losing the Colonies and now seek the moral high ground by broadcasting relativism to people who are richer, happier, healthier, more democratic and a lot more free than the British ever have been or will ever be.
This is logical thinking, but it is completely based on a false premise.
Canada is still part of The CommonWEALTH.
The USA is still technically a British colony, whether it knows itself to be so or not. There is documented proof of this fact.
100% of the world is controlled by MONEY. Therefore almost all of the world is controlled by The International Banking System, this of course very much includes The USA. The banking system is still basically owned by Europeans most of which are British, or very much part of the British establishment. The Queen of England and her crown estates is to my knowledge the single biggest land owner in The US, and is most certainly the largest in Canada.
Her personal bank manager a certain Mr Rothschild is the richest man on the planet by a very long way indeed, whatever any so called Rich Lists may falsely indicate. With an estimated combined family wealth of approximately 75% of the wealth of the entire planet.
The British Empire ‘used’ to own nothing. It still effectively owns all it did before, and now much more besides.
However please be reminded The British Empire never did have anything to do with The British People. We were simply the cannon fodder, who died pointlessly and painfully on foreign battle fields for the interests of already extremely rich banksters, and various other establishment interests.
Otherwise please explain this.
Why is it that the general lot of the average French or German citizen is not materially worse then the average British person. When supposedly the British have won every war they have been involved in since the British first came into existence. With the ONLY possible exception in Suez?
Surly if the British fighting man had actually been dying for his own common peoples interests, instead of the interests of vagabonds, crooks, liars, murderers, and other high life establishment criminals. We the British people would by now own the world, not the people who own our International Banking System. Instead of being possibly one of the most indebted to it, and certainly the most indebted outside the 3rd World.
Was he taking refuge in the school, amongst children?
David Preiser (USA) | 15.01.09 – 5:37 pm
It was a newsflash relayed during a two-way with a BBC reporter in Israel. No further details yet but I won’t be surprised to learn that he was hiding behind women and children.
DB: love the poem
NotaSheep | Homepage | 15.01.09 – 5:30 pm
Thanks.
Atlas shrugged | 15.01.09 – 5:40 pm |
The “International Banking System” simply doesn’t exist the way you think it does.
The USA is still technically a British colony, whether it knows itself to be so or not. There is documented proof of this fact.
Let’s see it, please.