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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Cassandra 5:49 pm
Yes, after having sacked Carol Thatcher, the BBC turns to its next political priority: spinning a yarn about a ‘British resident’?, one Ethiopian, Binyam Ahmed Mohammed, of Gitmo fame.
Radio 4’s ‘PM’ gave it top billing, and about 15 minutes of one-way, anti-Gitmo propaganda this evening. There was no reference in the following BBC ‘report’ to the charges against the Ethiopian, only charges put against the West:
“Ministers face torture pressure”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7870049.stm
You’d have to look at other than the BBC to find out more about this Ethiopian (not ‘British’):
‘Daily Mail’
Richard Littlejohn:
‘Resident of Club Gitmo’
“Some news sources still mistakenly describe the last ‘British’ inmate at Guantanamo Bay as a ‘British citizen’. He’s nothing of the sort.
“Binyam Mohammed came here from Ethiopia as an asylum seeker in 1994 but was never granted citizenship.
“He worked for a while as a janitor and then went to Pakistan ‘to resolve some personal issues’. (At least he didn’t claim to be on a computer course.)
“That’s where he was picked up on terrorism charges and transferred to Club Gitmo.
“His lawyer is applying to the High Court to force the Foreign Office to secure his release. Technically, he’s not even a British ‘resident’.
“He’s an Ethiopian citizen who happened to live here once and was resident in Pakistan when he was arrested. Now he’s resident at Guantanamo Bay.
“He’s not our problem and we don’t want him back. ”
(Littlejohn, 28/7/08).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1039383/When-Call-Me-Dave-met-Call-Me-Baz.html
George R: If we can get him back and make him a citizen perhaps he’ll vote for McFatty One Eye in the election? McFatty One Eye needs all the votes he can get.
At last, the disgraceful ‘Lancet’ Iraq death rates for civilians in Iraq is now being questioned, this time by academics who you would think share the same ideologue, this must mean that the report is so flawed that it’s results are worthless.
Can we now expect the BBC to place an asterisk against the civilian deaths total that they use when mentioning Iraq?.
Martin,
fatty one eye and his crooked cronies are even now looking into how many postal votes they can fake up, party workers in warehouses working from data supplied from corrupt officials and those third world mob raising race baiters/nutcases who can raise a block vote(for the right price of course), any dirty trick,crooked practice,criminal activities will do!
McMental would sell his beard for a few votes, fake or otherwise so watch for a ZANU PF style dirty tricks party, all helped in large measure by an allied BBC of course.
BBC News website at the moment:
Headline #3: Snake in as long as bus shocker
Headline #4: By the way its going to snow tomorrow
Afterthought Headline #5: PM claims world depression in Commons
Fantastic state of affairs.
Cassandra: When you look at the fuss the BBC made of the so called vote rigging in the 2000 US election (none of it ever found to be true despite scum like Greg Palast claiming it to be) we actually had a judge here in the UK call our voting system similar to a Banana Republic.
Yet from the BBC……zzzzzzzzzzzz
Top item for discussion on Radio 4 News at 10 – British Council to withdraw from Iran.
In what world is this a top news item ?
So here I am finishing off my act for the night.
Ironing my Kit for tomorrow etc..
And I have the bBC news on and they run a story about how the Brits are pulling out of Iraq and leaving a well trained Iraqi Army in place.
But hang on.
The bBC mentions nothing about how the Brits constrained by PC rules ended up bunkering down in a camp miles from anywhere scared to even look funny at a bBC militant in case the Human rights lawyers are haloed in.
I did enjoyed how the bBC promoted this vision of a lawless country and on cue a bBC drone replete with body armour (On top of a thin trendy red shirt) in front of US troops tells us all how bad it is. Problem is I noticed how sleepless in Basra didn’t have his Ceramic plate (The only part of Body armour which stops bullets) inside his front pouch. Christ its bad enough watching the bBC (think Gaza) having its reporters wear BA in which to promote a vision of death around the corner minus their helmets.
But body armour is only good if it is worn in conjunction with Helmet (protects your Swede) Ceramic plate (Stops rounds from entering your delicate parts) and decent clothing which protects you from flash and some blast.
So on that note why is the bBC promoting this POV that the Brits are the reason why everything is great for handover in a few months times, however its still a lawless state.
Their strong belief in AGW is making the BBC look more ridiculous day by day, and people laugh at them even more during the colder spells. With this type of bandwagon, i.e. one that is obviously going to crash, it is better to leave sooner rather than later. Towards the end, only the BBC, Call me Dave, and the group of eco-protesters I saw in Manchester Arndale Centre just before Christmas will be left. Maybe the protesters came up with the BBC who are relocating part of their Evil Empire to this part of the country. By the way, everyone was ignoring them as they tried to hand out leaflets. So, in the Labour heartlands, all those lifelong committed Labour voters showing yet again that they don’t really agree with the eco loons they keep voting for in the council and the government.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7870923.stm
Nazi camp doctor ‘died in 1992’
Quote:
The German TV channel also said Heim had converted to Islam.
No surprises there, then.
pounce: Basra was finally sorted out by the Yanks.
Paul C | 04.02.09 – 4:01 pm |
At £60 per head I think this spending should be put to a vote. A wee dram all round ?
Technically, I would have to say that this is the rare part of their remit that the Beeboids get right. Doing a Gaelic channel, I mean, not the way they’re doing it.
Obviously £60 per viewer is almost as much of a waste of your money than the entire battalion of BBC employees sent to the US over the last 18 months, so something has to be done about that. As a language fan, I’m probably biased in thinking it’s a nice idea to have such a channel in the first place, but it really is part of their responsibility to the Charter. I realize there’s no excuse for waste.
The thing is, the article you linked to says that the regular English BBC channels air Gaelic dubs of shows, so they are – as in the US – foolishly competing with themselves.
This is a classic example of the “fiefdom with horse-blinders” phenomenon in bureaucracies. And the BBC is a classic example of a bureaucracy. It just doesn’t occur to anyone to walk down the hall to see if there’s anything useful, or to pass along any useful information outside of one’s own cubicle. Perfectly competent people can work just down the hall from one another and never, ever interact in ways that would actually benefit anyone. I guess it’s the old joke about following the letter of the law while being ignorant of the spirit.
So the BBC wastes your license fee because somebody doesn’t send an email to somebody on the next floor up about showing the same damn show at the same time on two different networks. Just like BBC World Propaganda America showing the same BBC World reports from 7 – 7:30 every weeknight on both BBC America and dozens of PBS stations nationwide. In BBC marketing meetings these are intended to reach the same audience. Instead, they compete with each other. It’s also like spending loads of money to make a “Walking With Dinosaurs” soundtrack CD and not telling the people who make either the UK or the US version of the show about it, so no viewers know that the “Soundtrack is available on BBC Music”, etc. Doh!
But it’s not part of the BBC culture to ask. It never is in bureaucracies or religious cults. They just keep on doing it until it all goes horribly wrong. Things like fake phone-ins, Russell Brand, an iPlayer that’s £30 million over budget, edited Inaugural addresses, edited docos about the Queen, instructing children that it’s only a US opinion that Al Qaeda slaughtered nearly 3000 innocent people in NYC, instructing children that Israeli Jews are the enemy of Islam, or just demonizing Israel, and so on come to mind.
Solution to the bank crisis is to sell off our banks to foreign bankers thus we get better value for money and greater competence.
I think the British people should look to foreign banks and ditch the failing and incompetent UK ones.
BBC Radio 5 becomes:
Non-British Broadcasting Corporation, (NBBC)
Since 10 am GMT, the NBBC has devoted its political efforts to supporting that wonderful Gitmo inmate, and imaginary ‘British’! ‘resident BINYAN MOHAMMED. (See comment on this ‘Thread’ at 6:40 pm last evening.)
The special NBBC pleading for Mohammed continued on Radio 5 for about 25 minute! And included, of course, his family telling us what a wonderful person he is!
And next on NBBC Radio 5 we are presented with more political propaganda for a Ukrainian refugee woman who has set up as a hairdresser in the UK.
NBBC Radio 5: we give Gitmo inmates and mass immigration our priority. It’s what we do. And we can get away with it.
David Preiser (USA) | 05.02.09 – 2:09 am
Interesting points about bureaucracies. And in the BBC bureaucracy the employees are also of a very narrow spectrum of people, ie young, trendy, university educated, middle class, attracted to the idea of fame and read the Guardian, and there are so many of them mixing with each other all the time that they can end up in their own little world, which to them appears normal, so they are genuinely surprised when it goes ‘horribly wrong’ as you say.
On NEWS24 the newsreader said ‘he will have an interesting story to tell’ regarding some Gitmo character who might be coming to Britain.
And you can almost hear the production teams getting ready to tell his ‘interesting’ story in news items, documentaries and full length films, all duly respectful towards him.
I did not recall them making such a comment about our soldiers in action abroad. They never saw an ‘interesting story’ there. And yet what is more interesting, showing our brave soldiers risking their lives in action, or some muslim terrorist suspect sitting in prison talking to highly paid lawyers?
Muslim Wars: The only interesting stories the BBC want to hear about our soldiers are made up ‘abuse’ ones.
Ultra-lib Jenni Murray on Women’s Hour has a look at a couple of women-related issues of the first days of Obama. Political issues.
So what political balance do we get ?
Two guests – both Dems. Main issue – funding of organisations that promote abortion, one of Obama’s first Executive Orders. Reagan banned it, Clinton re-allowed it, Bush banned it, now Obama re-allows it. What more political issue could you get ?
Bland presumption that Roe v Wade is entirely good (implicitly – all other views are not even worth airtime).
Another criticism of the item – it probably interested about 2% of British women, just another metro-bubble item that we are forced to fund.
……
The most striking women’s story we have seen this week is the case of the Iraqi women cooperating with the rape of other women so she can then counsel thm into becoming suicide bombers “to regain their honour”. A vivid illustration of the cruelty of the jihadists, of the medieval sickness out there. Directly relevant to UK women because we know damn well that many women are appallingly treated – and some killed – in the Muslim community here.
But do we get any report of this latest atrocity against women and girls in Iraq on Woman’sHour ? Or on From Our Own Correspondent ?
No prizes for guessing.
And no prizes for guessing why it is filtered out.
I have written to the BBC to complain about the use of the entirely false and grossly misleading terms ‘British’ and ‘British resident’ about Binyam Mohammed.
Don’t hold your breath but I will publish their response if I get one.
Sadly they aren’t the only ones at it, I even caught James Whale making the same blunder whilst ‘reviewing’ the papers on sky.
I turned skynews off when he did this.
But the BBC is paid for by compulsory tax and has a higher duty of accuracy doesn’t it.
The BBC just loves ‘democratically elected governments’ right? Well it seems only if they are ideologically pallatable, should a government fail to toe the BBC AGW/MMCC dogma it becomes fair game for the BBC special treatment!
New Zealand recently had elections where the AGW/MMCC believers were thrown out of government and those who are more sceptical about global warming hysteria were voted in by the electorate, ooooh dear, the BBC is not happy but what can they do about it?
The BBC cannot engage openly with the new administration because that would expose the fake AGW/MMCC consensus wouldnt it? it would also give a platform to those ‘denialists’ it has sworn to silence at all costs.
The BBC has a bright idea, make a programme featuring only the polititians who LOST the elections to get them to air their minority views that were discarded by a democratic vote and peddle their views as the ONLY legitimate views from NZ, add to this several covert and underhanded attacks on the elected administration while giving them no chance to defend their position and you have a typical BBC programme!
Is it the job of the BBC to smear and attack a sovreign nation with a democratically elected government?
If the BBC were honest and impartial it would give the NZ government a full opportunity to explain its position with regard to its commitment to find out all the facts before ruining its economy by enacting ruinous ecomentalist legislation that would destroy the NZ economy.
Hamas gets a free ride by the BBC, that nasty dictator wannabe Chavez is lauded to the heavens, the murderous and cruel dictator Castro is praised by the BBC when they know full well he has murdered and tortured his own people for years, but should a democratic nation like New Zealand dare to step out of line and dare to deny global warming as dictated by the BBC then its ‘vendetta time and dirty tricks galore!
Who elected the BBC? at what election did they go to the people and offer up their agenda for democratic judgement? If the BBC were subject to normal democratic rules then the current occupants would be collecting their P45s and standing in line at the dole office.
HAVE YOUR SAY
All of this didn’t solve the Palestinians’ real problem, which is the Israeli occupation of their lands
Abdallah, Gaza Strip
Recommended by 3 people. Highlighted on Middle East Page since 17th January. Nothing similar on any other page.
Is this a record?
‘Mail’
Stephen Glover:
‘The BBC is now run by a narrow sect, blind to the good sense and values of those it serves’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1136012/STEPHEN-GLOVER-The-BBC-run-narrow-sect-blind-good-sense-values-serves.html
Am I the only one thoroughly enjoying the pummeling the BBC is getting today after the Carol Thatcher PC pantomime?
Check out Mel’s excellent column in the Daily Mail today.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1136091/Controller-gives-chilling-insight-totalitarian-universe-closed-BBC-mind.html#comments
Terrific!
Dr Michael Jones: I love the kicking the BBC gets from everywhere.
It’s a vile organisation full of useless leftie types, Moozlum lovers and veggie eaters.
I hope the Thatcher stuff runs and runs. It typifies the BBC. Thousand by thousand, people are getting pissed of with the Beeb. Ms Hunt’s performance on the Today prog this morning will have added a few more thousand.
Yes it is great watching the BBC squirming on the floor getting the kicking they deserve.
On the Radio4 1 o’clock news today they commented that newspapers are saying: why was J.Ross kept on and Carol Thatcher sacked? (to create the right image in your mind of the BBC reaction to the outrage they have caused by their pompus and self-righteous stance, imagine Paxman’s indignant puzzled expression) Then they came back with their reply:
J.Ross apologised and C Thatcher didn’t
Oh so that’s the difference is it. Nothing to do with what they said, then.
Also, as a result of their fuss, the BBC keep saying ‘golliwog’ in the news, and about 3 million people at home have said ‘golliwog’ yesterday and today.
jp | 04.02.09 – 8:52 am
I followed jp’s link yesterday and am very surprised to see it hasn’t received more attention on here. I think this is worse than the Susan Watts Newsnight edit.
The BBC has issued an apology but I don’t believe a word of it – Nick Robinson knew exactly what he was doing, the scum.
‘Evening Standard’
“BBC accused of pay ‘gagging order'”
[Extract]:
“BBC radio shows cost ‘significantly’ more than their commercial rivals, mainly because of celebrity presenters’ large salaries, the public spending watchdog has said.”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23635518-details/BBC+accused+of+pay+%27gagging+order%27/article.do
DB | 05.02.09 – 5:10 pm |
The last part of the BBC apology is a total giveaway:
“There was no intention to deliberately mis-represent his views but we accept the edit on the 10 o’clock news gave the wrong impression, for which we are sorry.”
I believe them. They didn’t think they were misrepresenting the man’s views at all. They honestly thought he was a racist, and didn’t realize they were getting it wrong.
As Pounce would say the BBC and half a story.
Israel seizes Gaza-bound aid ship
A Lebanese ship carrying aid for Gaza It might have been instructive to say that Lebanon and Israel are still formally in a state of war (since 1948} and that the Lebanese Hizbulla group and Hamas both receive arms and financial support from Iran.
The aid ship was reported to have set off from the Lebanese port of Tripoli on Tuesday carrying 50 tonnes of medical supplies, food, clothing and toys for Gaza. Here it gets interesting. According to Ha’aretz The Israel Defense Forces said that troops found about 150 bottles of mineral water and a few dozen kilograms of food and medicine on board, despite earlier claims that it was carrying dozens of tons of humanitarian aid. I will be pleasantly surprised not to say amazed to hear the BBC report.
Also on board were eight activists and journalists, as well as the former Greek-Catholic archbishop of Jerusalem, Monsignor Hilarion Capucci, who had served time in an Israeli jail in the 1970s for his membership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). No, Capucci served time for for using his diplomatic status to smuggle arms to Palestinian militants. His presence would have been enough for a prudent navy to stop the boat.
An organiser of the shipment, Maen Bashur, said the ship was confronted by an Israeli military boat 32km (19 miles) off the Gazan coast late on Wednesday. A half truth, Israel claims that the boat agreed to be diverted to Egypt but doubled back.
My guess is the boat made a successful delivery off the Egyptian coast and then set off to harvest some political advantage. Sweeter but less likely, the Free Gaza Movement bastards ran out of money after hiring the boat.
” It is now mid-February, and already I have sown eleven species of vegetable. I know, though the seed packets tell me otherwise, that they will flourish. Everything in this country – daffodils, primroses, almond trees, bumblebees, nesting birds – is a month ahead of schedule. And it feels wonderful. Winter is no longer the great grey longing of my childhood. The freezes this country suffered in 1982 and 1963 are – unless the Gulf Stream stops – unlikely to recur. Our summers will be long and warm. Across most of the upper northern hemisphere, climate change, so far, has been kind to us.”
– George Monbiot, the Guardian, 14th February 2005
I just sent in the following comment at the bottom of this page:
Obama urges stimulus bill action
“Despite what you’re highlighting on this page, there’s more pork and pet-project stuff in the so-called “Stimulus Bill” than anything that will actually help. We won’t buy the Brown/Obama propaganda line that “We must do something now before it’s too late, and it’s better than doing nothing”.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released a statement yesterday saying that, in fact, this “Stimulus Bill” would cause more damage to the economy than if we did nothing.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/04/cbo-obama-stimulus-harmful-over-long-haul/
The President is wrong in his actions and his intent. This is little more than an excuse for Democrat profligacy and power-grabbing. Most US citizens are willing to accept some kind of action, but only the kind that will directly stimulate the economy, not a package laden with politically motivated spending and inflating the public sector, which is what the President’s plan is. Sadly, those who rely on their information from the BBC wouldn’t know any of this. I’m sure most people at BBC News don’t understand this either.”
Should be good for a laugh or two in Manchester, or wherever the News Online minions are these days. But they did ask.