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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harrabin busted !
in october 2007 he was scaring us with the story that the oceans were soaking up less of the deadly CO2.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7053903.stm
now he is arguing they are soaking up too much!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7939691.stm
the global warming debate – heads i win, tails you lose.
isn’t the real debate about how marine bioligists have to prostitute themselves as global warming believers in order to obtaing any research funding ?
Do they make more effort to acghieve “balance” in a solid middle class affluence area?
Cockney | 16.03.09 – 9:39 am |
I think it reflects the fact that the middle class have better manners.
Anonymous
That is classic !
I bet a lot of people were annoyed by that ridiculous clip of Harrabin snorkelling in the Red Sea. Would any reporter at ITN or Channel 4 or Sky get financial approval for that trip ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/also_in_the_news/7945333.stm
Perhaps so, i would like to see more evidence.
It has been known for a long time by historians that the Egyptian royal family did on numerous occasions marry into the nations around Egypt, given its in Africa I would be shocked if this were not the case.
Many mixed race women are among the most beautiful in the world so it would be no surprise on that score either if Cleopatra were mixed race herself.
But the historians of the past had no evidence to suggest Cleopatra was anything other than of Macedonian/Greek descent, neither did the artist.
So to have a go as this does at the historic painting of Cleopatra as European when she was thought to be of Macedonian blood is one of the stupidest and most ignorant comments I have seen by the BBC, and that as you can imagine to say that is to do so against some damn stiff opposition from other BBC stupidity and ignorance.
Rome had black emperors and was prepared to enslave you whatever your colour.
The whole article purports to commenting on history but is in fact hugely ignorant of history.
Anonymous
And that spurious Cleopatra “story” probably cost us several thousand pounds – cost of reporter (probably the only thing he did all week), the website stuff with pictures tracked down and adjusted etc, and all the overheads.
For what ?
For what? To promote the bbc’s love-in with the “multi-cultural society”, even if it means falsifying evidence (btw – Rome never had a black emperor: the bbc’s favorite Septimius Severus was from a colonial Roman family who had emigrated to what is modern Libya – in other words, he was ‘black’ like Cliff Richard or Rudyard Kipling were ‘Indian’)
How fortunate that our Glorious Leaders are not going to increase the price of alcohol by 100% as requested by their tame quack.
How fortunate that the BBC is prepared to let us know that our loving government will not let this happen.
So, what will alcohol go up by in the next budget? 10%, 20% or 50% . We’ll no doubt think we just escaped a big increase in the price thanks to Saint Clown …
Do BBC journalists not recognise the old Council Tax Shuffle?
TCPOD writes: “Do BBC journalists not recognise the old Council Tax Shuffle?”
You can bet they do. They just prefer to ignore it whenever it suits their political biases.
Not the BBC News:
1.’Mail’:
“Keith Vaz and the damning letter: How senior Labour MP ‘abused his position’ to help crooked lawyer in court”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1162213/Keith-Vaz-damning-letter-How-senior-Labour-MP-abused-position-help-crooked-lawyer-court.html
2.)’Jihadwatch’comment on ‘Times’ report:
“Thousands of girls in Britain have suffered genital mutilation”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025256.php
3.)’Jihadwatch’ comment on ‘Sunday Times’ report:
“UK: Imam’s daughter converted to Christianity, and her father came after her with an axe”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025255.php
john A – thank you – the anon 9.53am comment was me !
re:cleopatra’s mother was african.
also available on bbc iplayer…bears have trouble using indoor flushing lavatories and prefer alternative sites for defecation….pope will not be celebrating eid this year…..please keep checking the bbc website for further breaking news……
From today’s Evening Standard (London)
“Conservatives would freeze the BBC licence fee for one year in response to the recession, party leader David Cameron has announced.
Mr Cameron challenged the Government to match his pledge, which he said would provide a lead in showing how taxpayer-funded institutions can “deliver more for less”.
Speaking at a press conference in London, Mr Cameron said he wanted to see the BBC “prosper and succeed and continue to be a fantastic cultural asset”.
But he said that, in the current tough economic climate, all public institutions had to show that they can “live within their means” and the compulsory fee of £139.50 a year for a colour set should be frozen for one year.”
Don’t expect ANY changes when the Conservative Lib Dem Lab elite get into power. The BBC will be as powerful – and as dangerous, as ever.
No mention on BBC news so far of the massive stasi e-border project starting Easter to demand our travel details including itinerary 24 hours before travel under threat of not being allowed to travel and/or £5000 fine. The following article by Libby Purvis in The Times today sums it up :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/libby_purves/article5913445.ece
The first headline all weekend has been prices on alcohol to go up to stop us drinking too much. It turns out this is a only recommendation by a doctor, and the government are apparently not going to take up the recommendation according to The Times :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5912343.ece
The Anti-British broadcasting corporation, not giving you the news.
RickyMartin
Yes;
‘Guido Fawkes’:
“Cameron:I want to freeze BBC licence fee”
http://www.order-order.com/2009/03/cameron-wants-to-freeze-bbc-licence-fee/
It’s good to see Cameron moving in this direction. Hopefully freeze will lead to cut, and cuts will lead to purges
George R
The Daily Mail bit on Mr Vaz was reported on the Toady programme in the “What the newspapers say” slot, although the broadcaster did seem to “struggle” with it, to avoid actually giving much detail presumably.
jimbob
How much does the hugely bloated BBC website cost to run ?
£20 million a year? £100 million ? or more ?
What proportion of the “news” stories and backgrounds etc on the BBC site would get past the editors to publication on any normal eg newspaper. The Times and the telegraph and the Guardian are stuffed to the gills each day with news – but a lot gets spiked. They are the “newspapers of record”, between them they cover anything of significance at home and abroad. But their websites contain only a few hundred pages at any one time.
At the BBC it seems that NOTHING gets spiked, the 1000 “journalists” get paid to turn out all matter of dross, lots of techies turn it all into website format, to add all the incestuous links and photos, to maintain the entire Tower of Babel – and we end up paying for it.
There are probably thousands and thousands of “articles” on the BBC site at any one time. Probably about 10% or less worth airing or keeping.
Ah – here’s some info onn how much the BBC splurges on its webaite :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/29/bbc.digitalmedia?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
NRG | 15.03.09 – 11:23 pm |
Funny no consideration of the earlier lies this week about sea level rising, which you would think would dilute the imagined poison.
Unfortunately, most of these fools probably believe in homeopathy as well. So in their ignorant minds, the more you dilute the nasty poison, the more the water retains the “memory”, and the more powerful the poison becomes.
I probably shouldn’t give them any ideas…
BBC report:
“Each UK job ‘chased by 10 people'”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/default.stm
‘Evening Standard’ report:
“Most Britons want jobless immigrants to be asked to leave”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23662500-details/Most+Britons+want+jobless+immigrants+to+be+asked+to+leave/article.do
“It’s good to see Cameron moving in this direction. Hopefully freeze will lead to cut, and cuts will lead to purges
centre-right | 16.03.09 – 3:13 pm”
Really?
“Mr Cameron said the BBC was an “important national institution” which had to “prosper” and to remain a “fantastic cultural asset” to the UK.”
He also said: “We are not cutting it, just freezing it.”
He added that he was a ” supporter of the licence fee”
He said: “The BBC is an important national institution. I want to see it prosper and succeed and be a fantastic cultural asset.”
The man is an idiot.
Your touching faith is entirely misplaced.
I have no such unevidenced unfounded hopes for him.
We shouldn’t fund the BBC. By its promotion of multiculturalism, all things foreign, and Islam , it is conniving at the destruction of the British nation.
Let the Guardian readers pay subsciption if they want to. To those who say ‘you will miss it when it is gone’ you are dead wrong. Give me my money back.
anonymous
Cameron would be insane to openly condemn the BBC now, better to wait until he (possibly) gets elected then really f##k them up.
The BBC still has influence and will use all their guile and lies if threatened.
The long game is by far the better one.
I do however fully agree with the culling of Guardian and Independent readers, just to reduce our public sector pension requirement.
“For what? To promote the bbc’s love-in with the “multi-cultural society”, even if it means falsifying evidence (btw – Rome never had a black emperor: the bbc’s favorite Septimius Severus was from a colonial Roman family who had emigrated to what is modern Libya – in other words, he was ‘black’ like Cliff Richard or Rudyard Kipling were ‘Indian’)
Robert | 16.03.09 – 12:58 pm”
Well a little more than that given Septimus Severus was part Roman and part Berber, true he was at the very most as black as Barack Obama or Lewis Hamilton, probably rather less than them, but definitely ‘blacker’ than Cliff Richard was ‘Indian’.
Statues also give some credence to the written family tree.
And if he was, then to some degree the others from his dynasty were of a diluted form as well.
And guess what, mixed like Cleopatra herself.
But then the Romans had emperors from almost every corner of the empire at one time or another, they didn’t have to be Roman or even Italian.
To mistake the Roman emperors with the hereditary succession system such as our own monarchy is to make a very lazy mistake.
The point about the Romans was they weren’t too bothered about colour, they could just as despicable to you whatever your colour, something that the BBC seem unable to grasp.
frankos | 16.03.09 – 4:33 pm | #
If the Conservatives simply switched the government advertising budget from the Guardian and No So Independent to say the Telegraph and The Times, the Grauniad and the No So Independent would fold overnight. The Grauniad boasts only a 350,000 readership and totally depends on Nude Labour tax receipts to fund such ads as One Legged Lesbian Dog Walkers for Islam type jobs. Or similar important public sector “jobs” that add greatly to our national pride & wealth.
“Cameron would be insane to openly condemn the BBC now, better to wait until he (possibly) gets elected then really f##k them up.
The BBC still has influence and will use all their guile and lies if threatened.
The long game is by far the better one.
I do however fully agree with the culling of Guardian and Independent readers, just to reduce our public sector pension requirement.
frankos | 16.03.09 – 4:33 pm”
Quite a logical argument, I rather like it, its just it isnt true, Cameron is a stooge, OK a slightly reforming stooge, but nonetheless a stooge.
I simply do not believe your he will deal with them after the election line.
Pity really.
Here’s your chance to express your views on the
BBChttp://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23662760-details/Cancel+planned+rise+in+BBC+licence+fee%2C+says+Cameron/article.do
Not one word on the BBC website about that vermin Vaz.
http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?tab=all&q=keith+vaz+%2B+Shahrokh+Mireskandari
Thankfully The Mail lets us know what a criminal he is.
Keith Vaz and the damning letter: How senior Labour MP ‘abused his position’ to help crooked lawyer in court
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1162213/Keith-Vaz-damning-letter-How-senior-Labour-MP-abused-position-help-crooked-lawyer-court.html
Another explanation for the Governments latest obsession with alcohol is a distraction from it’s truely vile e-borders initiative.
I notice there is no Have Your Say on that little stunner, not much news coverage either.
The BBC have just issued a ‘re-education’ of the facts in the Ahmed case.
http://www.annaraccoon.com/?p=1042
vaz isn’t on sky news either, nor most of the papers. seems to be the mail only.
this is when you need to do research about other media sources before yelling bias against the beeb.
and believe me, this is coming from someone who hates Vaz more than most of you do.
this is when you need to do research about other media sources before yelling bias against the beeb.
Gus Haynes | 16.03.09 – 6:34 pm |
I really don’t need to do anything squire. You need to do more research before yelling no bias here.
For everyone else here, it’s yet another example of ignoring Labour sleeze. Now if vaz was a tory…….!!
Now the telegraph has it.
Keith Vaz ‘should step down for abusing power ‘
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4997800/Keith-Vaz–should-step-down-for-abusing-power-.html
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/david_hughes/blog/2009/03/16/keith_vaz_is_a_hard_man_to_embarrass
The BBC has a penchant for running after out of office politicians to get their opinions when they are socialist opinions.
Witness the slavish desire to hang on Ken Livingstone’s every word.
Wonder if they’ll report this?
Cheney blast at Obama for putting U.S at greater risk of terror attacks
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1162249/Cheney-blast-Obama-putting-U-S-greater-risk-terror-attacks.html
Hardly likely. Another case of bias by omission.
BBC are admitting to funding organised crime by buying an illegal piece of hacking software and hacking into over 21,000 users computers to take control of them
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/03/click_botnet_experiment.html
Allegedly this is in contravention to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 – some hackers have been put in jail for less. A FOI has been sent to find out how much licence fee cash the BBC paid to a criminal to buy this piece of illegal software.
so the telegraph and the mail are the only ones covering vaz….both anti-labour papers historically arent they? is that bias then?
“Cameron would be insane to openly condemn the BBC now, better to wait until he (possibly) gets elected then really f##k them up.”
Can any visitor to this site offer any piece of evidence which support this hope? To me, it is simply a piece of wishful thinking. Cameron is a product of the new system which lets time-served politicos work through the Party (any ‘mainstream’ party) as a ‘researcher’ etc after having done PPE or History at Uni and without ever having had a job outside the political bubble. Most noticeable is that none of these products (Johnson, Clegg, Cameron, Osborne any NuLab minister) actually have any clear-cut differences in policy towards anything of importance.
OK Gus – then it’s fine for the bbc to ignore stories in anti-labour papers? That’s what they always do, and we often point it out here. And then, dragged kicking and screaming into the real world, they end up cringingly tacking on something when they find it impossible to avoid – eg Jaquie Smith, Peter Hain, Russel/Brand etc.
But – and this really IS strange – when it’s some inconsequential lefty story about some NGO calling for ‘awareness to be raised’, or something alleging brutality against British or American soldiers, the bbc rush into print before checking anything. What a coincidence
no its not ok for the BBC to ignore the story, but have you considered that these papers are biased?
are there some elements of bias in the beeb? yeah. are there elements of bias in these papers too? yeah. or more accurately, its called ‘agenda’.
BBC NEWS TV CONVERTS TO ISLAM.
It had been suspected for some time, but the BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, Robert Pigott has made the Corporation position abundantly clear, in a long peak-time TV broadcast (at about 5:42 pm GMT today): Sharia finance and Islamic banking are recommended.
Mr. Pigott extolled the ‘virtues’ of Shariah finance in general, and of the achievement of the Islamic Bank of Britain in particular. News presenter, Huw Edwards, also showed his knowledge of the subject, smiling throughout, and saying ‘interesting’.
The BBC conversion to Islam has been coming on for some time. The visit of the BBC deputation to a Muslim conference on Islamic finance recently in Indonesia seeems to have helped the conversion, and Pigott has an uncritical view of Shariah here:
BBC News:
“Banking on Sharia”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2009/religion/7924673.stm
Of course, there is no obligation on BBC staff journalists to educate themselves independently on ‘shariah finance’ by going to a site such as this, below, but the BBC must stop using licencepayers money to propagandise for Islam:
http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2009/03/03/zakat-payments-at-your-local-atm/
Of course, the British Labour government too, is enthusiastic about Islamic banking and Islamic bonds:
‘Dhimmi Watch’
“Britain first in west to issue Islamic bonds”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/016191.php
George R: I cannot decide if you are paranoid, prejudiced, or just thick. Why shouldn;t the BBC discuss Sharia banking? Discussing it is not the same as calling for it to replace ‘normal’ banking. Discussing it is wrong how exactly? I get the impression that to you, any discussion of any Islamic related topic is biased unless it mentions Jihad somehow. Is that fair of me to say?
Gus Haynes
Thank you for introducing yourself to me so pleasantly. You’re not an Islamic banker, are you?
Am I averse to discussing Sharia banking? Of course not; but the BBC version of ‘discussion’ is some variant of dhimmitude. Where in that BBC ‘discussion’ is the criticism?
We British BBC licencepayers are confronted with an Islam-compliant BBC, and their apologists.
Where is the BBC’s criticism of Shariah finance, such as these Youtube clips?:
1.)
2.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r0X-I83pI0&feature=related
2.)(above: 9:27 pm)
‘Robert Spencer on Shariah Finance’
(youtube)
Gus Haynes:
so the telegraph and the mail are the only ones covering vaz….both anti-labour papers historically arent they? is that bias then?
Gus Haynes | 16.03.09 – 6:57 pm | #
the Mail was staunch tory but those days are passed. The have been bending over backwards to curry favor with labour for the last several years.
The editor (Dacre) is after a peerage from Brown, this is part of the reason he was appointed by Brown to chair the independent inquiry on the release of government information which reported at the end of January 2009. I’m sure it is totally a coincidence that this report came to the conclusion that was exactly what labour wanted…strange that 🙂
both the telegraph and the mail have been keen support the new labour project since the Barclay brothers took over the telegraph and since Dacre wanted to progress to higher things.
so the telegraph and the mail are the only ones covering vaz….both anti-labour papers historically arent they? is that bias then?
Gus Haynes | 16.03.09 – 6:57 pm |
Yes. As I’ve said before, you’re either incredibly naive or incrdeibly stupid.
Clearly it’s the latter if you cannot grasp the fact that when the chairman of the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee writes a letter to a judge trying to influence his ruling in a case involving a corrupt solicitor who has served time in prison for fraud and who is very friendly with said chairman this is a very newsworthy item.
For the BBC not to report it is bias towards Labour. You are just a burk.
It’s still ‘hush-hush’ on Mr. Bunglawala at the BBC, but not at the ‘Daily Mail’:
“Government adviser on Islamic terror arrested after man is stabbed at his home”
[Extract]:
“A Muslim who advised the Government following the July 7 London bombings has been arrested after an alleged stabbing.
“Inayat Bunglawala, 39, was held on suspicion of attacking another man at his £300,000 home…
“Last week, Mr Bunglawala was featured on the BBC and in many newspapers as the moderate ‘voice’ of British Islam after the Luton anti-war demonstrations.
“Critics claim his arrest will once again focus attention on the MCB.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1162072/Government-adviser-Islamic-terror-arrested-man-stabbed-home.html
can you BELIEVE what Newsnight is on about now.
Fritzel is the result of men running Austrian society
MEN wanted Fritzel to do what he did and let him get away with it
re the Cheney interview and his warning that Obama could be putting the US and us in greater danger.
Seems to me that it is in no way biased of any newspaper to report that the former VP has deep misgivings – we know that Bush himself has to refrain from comments, but when Cheney speaks people should at least know what he is saying.
Per contra, it is wrong that some of us have learned what Cheney has been saying from US sources – and now see it reported in the UK press – but NOT by the BBC.
BBC – last with the news – or NEVER with the news.
I have a feeling that Frmr VP Cheney is sending out a friendly ‘warning’ to President Obama. It’s no secret that he’s been devoting himself to domestic issues and the economy, I guess it’s Cheney’s way of reminding the President that he has to pay a bit closer attention our enemies overseas. Still, I respect Obama until I see a reason to do otherwise. He hasn’t been tested yet though. Only when the next crisis in the Arab world comes around will we know what hes made of, and how far he is prepared to go.
re the Cheney interview. Biased of the Telegraph and Mail to carry it ? I don’t recall either of them being in the Obama camp before the election.
And if they are biased to report that Cheney is very worried about Obama’s view of terrorism issues – he sees it as a law and order matter, just like the Clinton admin – I suppose the Guardian (that well-known right-wing rag!) is also biased to report the interview :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/mar/16/dick-cheney-cnn-interview
Anonymous,
Septimus Severus.
Berber.
More semitic than black African.
Gus,
“vaz isn’t on sky news either, nor most of the papers. seems to be the mail only.”
It was a Mail scoop,they had the original letter.Presumably nothing could be printed until after the trial.So no Mail bias.