Right then, I break my weekend silence (working on the book) to comment on the BBC coverage of the brutal murder of two British soldiers in the nearby town of Antrim. Four other soldiers have been injured, one critically. Now then, apart from the obvious revulsion any civilised person will feel at this attack by “dissident” Irish Republican terrorists, there are a number of points I wish to raise.
1. The BBC ordinarily rushes to get the reaction of Irish Republicans as we witnessed earlier this week when it came to Special Forces being sent to Northern Ireland. But they seem strangely subdued to do so this morning. No comments thus far from Martin McGuinness, the IRA commander who is now Deputy First Minister. Perhaps the BBC will ask him why he does not express his sympathies to the British Army and his respect for the great work they do? Then again, perhaps not.
2. The entire ethos of the grotesque “peace process” which the BBC retails is that is essential to accommodate terrorists if we are to have peace. So, who will be first to suggest that the murderers of these soldiers be allowed to enter government, or at least talk with government?
3. As I argue in my book, you CANNOT get rid of terrorism by appeasing it. For years I have found myself isolated here in Northern Ireland by the BBC because I see no reason to change my mind on this matter. Yet this morning, as the next of kin deal with the horrific loss of their sons, I cannot help but feel that it is not just Irish republican terrorists who should be reviled but also the media establishment including the rotten BBC which on the one hand treats republican terrorists such as Martin McGuinness with grovelling respect whilst paying faux outrage at the Irish republican murders in Antrim.
On the Andrew Marr show, Clive Anderson was on to wax how terrible this event is but perhaps it is just a localised one-off? Phew, that will come as relief to the families of the bereaved.
Supercilious BBC bastards. Anyway, it’s only dead British soldiers so no need for clinical journalism asking questions such as where these murderers came from, who shelters and succours them, where did they get the weapons to carry out this slaughter at Masserene? Now, back to Binyam Mohamad – shall we give him a knighthood?
BBC attempts to ignore the ‘t’ word, avoid upsetting the agenda etc is reaching hilarious proportions. In a way which I’m used to correcting in my son’s homework – newsreader on the A Marr show begins “Two soldiers were shot dead in a NI ‘gun’ attack…. —Not with bows and arrows? Slingshots? maybe peashooters. Cue a surrealistic Harry Hill like piece with actors in a variety of ‘gun’ uniforms ‘attacking’ some actors in army garb. Interesting to see who is responsible for the attack and how soon the BBC will join the rest of the media in naming the culprits.
peterN | 08.03.09 – 10:35 am | #
They are besotted with the idea of appeasing terrorists, I can still recall their excitement interviewing Adams, the whiff of cordite, the scent of semtex is a heady brew for BBC vermin.
On a more minor point, why can’t they report it without shoving Brown’s name into it?:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7930995.stm
Wonder how Brown feels about the murderers that sit in power at Stormont care of his wonderful peace process..
I wonder if the BBC will continue to peddle their ‘talking to terrorists works…see the success of Northern Ireland’ line when it comes to dealing with Hamas/Hezbollah/Al-Quaida/Taliban and all the other Islamic crackpots we are supposed to ‘understand’?
After this incident perhaps it will shut them and their liberal fellow-travellers up…
Sadly, there’s nothing I can add that hasn’t been said a thousand times before.
I only hope that whoever takes over the levers of power after the next election will be decent enough to abolish the TV licence system that perpetuates this disgusting organization.
Blairs weak government has allowed terrorists and gun slingers to walk free in the land of Ireland.
We can now see the consequences
Things have been getting worse and worse in NI for months. The BBC just don’t want to report the truth.
I reckon a lot of beeboids get turned on about terrorists like Adams. You know like some women get turned on about violent men.
Martin,
I think you are absolutely right and I have seen it.
It was the BBC’s vile pro-IRA bias that was the key to me realising that the BBC was not the unbiased news organisation that I had assumed they were. Maybe the BBC’s coverage of the latest atrocity will persuade a new generation that the BBC are evil and need to be reformed or shut-down.
Interesting the atrocity should take place just as the loathsome Ted Kennedy was awarded his knighthood.
“I reckon a lot of beeboids get turned on about terrorists like Adams. You know like some women get turned on about violent men.”
There has never been a bloody tyrant the liberal left didn’t give head to.
The staff of the BBC would wear ‘Che’ T-shirts and have his posters on their bedroom walls. There is a certain chic and ‘daring’ which the BBC ascribes to terrorists. How often have their murderous outrages been described by the BBC as “audacious”? What kind of institutional mindset could do that?
It will be interesting to compare how the BBC handles the murder of British soldiers in Antrim with the murder of British soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.
And now Barack is ready to talk to “moderate taleban”. Al Beeb will love that.
Mcguinness was on the politics show, condemning it etc. I agree the BBC can be slow sometimes terribly slow compared to other news outlets…
BBC don’t use the word terrorist?
Well correspondent Chris Buckler reporting from outside the base just after 3pm on the News Channel quite clearly said “these were terrorists who had planned exactly what they were going to do”.
disillutioned_german. Barack and his “moderate taleban”. I also heard that on the beeb. The naivety of politicians is beyond parody. What the h*ll is a moderate taleban? And this is the man who is supposed to be the leader of the free world. I sometimes think I’m on a different planet than that I grew up in.
Gotta love the BBC perspective. The Taliban and the IRA should be granted amnesty and brought into government, but Sarah Palin should be disqualified from holding political office because of (the Beeboids’ interpretation of) one of her religious beliefs.
Brilliant.
Point 1:
“Perhaps the BBC will ask him why he does not express his […] respect for the great work they do?”
That would be biased.
Point 2:
It does not refer to any specific instance of BBC bias, but your opinion on the ‘peace process’.
Point 3:
I entirely agree with your point of view, but again, no specifics on the BBC’s particular coverage of this event that reveals its bias.
“Supercilious BBC b[*****]ds.”
I understand your anger, but it is surely more difficult to ask others not to use such language if you do so yourself.
Mr Vance, you’re obviously a very good communicator and your book has the potential to be excellent if you focus on the undeniable evidence of BBC bias and not your opinions.
hippiepooter,
Writing in anger is NEVER a great idea and so I apologise for my language. Thing is, I heard Clive Anderson try and shrug this off as if it were just one isolated incident and I felt so sorry for the next of kin had they been listening; hence the outburst.
Now, back on substance, I have noticed that the BBC have been their usual reluctant selfs today and been unable to interview any unionists who are unhappy about appeasing terrorism. I call that bias by omission, don’t you?
Jim T. | 08.03.09 – 4:22 pm |
Barack and his “moderate taleban”. I also heard that on the beeb. The naivety of politicians is beyond parody. What the h*ll is a moderate taleban? And this is the man who is supposed to be the leader of the free world. I sometimes think I’m on a different planet than that I grew up in.
A “moderate” taliban member is one who uses a halal knife to behead his victims, rather than a rusty one.
Or one who takes young boys to the countryside only on alternate “Man-Love Thursdays” instead of every week.
Dan
The BBC has a dual policy on the T word – it can now be used for events in the UK (they were forced to re-instate the word after the London bombings) but is not used for any event overseas, however depraved.
Dreadful writing:
Chief superintendent Derek Williamson said at about 2120 GMT [Was this when he said it, or when the attack occured?] on Saturday night a pizza delivery service sent two delivery men to the Antrim barracks. As they arrived, shots began to be fired from a car. [‘Shots began to be fired’??]
He said the pizza delivery men were [plural] an innocent [so soldiers are guilty?] party [singular] and both were among those injured.
The delivery drivers bullet-riddled cars are still at the scene. [Apostrophe, anyone?]
NI’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA member, said nobody should say or do anything which would see Northern Ireland to its troubles. [Missing verb, anyone?]
Shocking story, shocking journalism.
One of the aspects of BBC bias that I have mentioned here previously is that they do use the T word for the Irish but not for Islamist terrorists – whom they usually blandly refer to as Millie Tants, or sometimes, fighters.
(I am no terrorist – honest!)
Beeb is on the government/Eu line that Tony Blair solved the northern ireland problem. Any violence is no to be played down
*now
We need to pull out of Ireland, and concentrate on Afghanistan.
Its Irish soil anyway!
I caught a bit of the BBC news earlier. The comment i heard was to the effect that –
the hope is that it is just an isolated incidence and the peace process will continue (or something similar, thaat was the sentiment at any rate).
It was not said whose hope this was. Seemed to me that it was inapropriate editorializing.
Again, no attempt to demonstarte any bias by the BBC.
‘For years I have found myself isolated here in Northern Ireland by the BBC because I see no reason to change my mind on this matter’
I see, isolated by being invited to appear on ‘Hearts and Minds’? Isolated by being invited onto the ‘Stephen Noaln Show’? Isolated how David?
Can you provide an iota of evidence to support the allegation you have been ‘isolated’ because ‘I see no reason to change my mind on this matter’? Any evidence at all? Or is this just a product of your paranoia?
We need to pull out of Ireland, and concentrate on Afghanistan.
Its Irish soil anyway!
Ordinary Brit | 08.03.09 – 9:13 pm
Perhaps we ought to pull out of Scotland and Wales also, as they are Scottish and Welsh soil.
That kind of thinking is exactly the reason the IRA real or imagined can carry out such atrocities with impunity.
The weakness of your position reflects the weakness that has been manifest in nearly all British thinking towards Ireland in the last 120 years at least. Appeasement to terrorists.
IanA, based on his comments in a later thread I think its very likely that “ordinary Brit” is not British at all, just a more disingenous troll than bobo
Bobo is hillhunt the clown.