Monthly Archives: March 2009

Dan the Man

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Hands up everyone who wants a thread just about Daniel Hannan.
Haven’t we exhausted the subject yet? By the time it gets going the BBC will have reported it. Or some of it.
Surely the BBC will be forced to mention it in a minute, even if only because of the ‘viral’ aspect. Bias by omission will then have to be downgraded to bias by sluggishness, then bias by selective editing, bias by dismissive editorials, then just bias; then it will be buried. Bias by premature burial.
Oh well. I suppose 600.000 youtube hits does deserve this thread.

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Edit Them Pretty

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Been watching the Apprentice? I have. Of course it’s all in the editing. A bunch of people are given an impossible task. To do something none of them knows the first thing about in a ridiculously short time, and then being forced to go head to head in the boardroom where the object is to make the other person take the blame for your own incompetence.

We all know from the start that the winner will be the best looking, and the first ones to go will be the unprepossessing ones, and the annoying ones with grating laughs and raucous voices will be kept on for entertainment purposes till they get too gross. The one with a misplaced faith in her own infallibility and a glum expression got fired first.

There’s a parallel with our leaders in there somewhere. I caught Harriet Harpy on the radio rubbishing some proposed Tory policy, presumably the one about inheritance tax. “It’s a tax for millionaires!” she was shrieking. Oh those wicked millionaires, she had to say, because she was supposed to be in the labour party. How ironic that sounded when all her labour colleagues are doing their best to rake in as much as they can via allowances for multiple unnecessary extra homes and all.

Then there’s our new hero Daniel Hannan. What a speech, and without a single teleprompter. What a shame the BBC omitted to show it. It’s the editing you see. Policy. Not newsworthy. Never mind, we all saw it on the internet. Despite his eloquence, his clear fluent delivery, his open features and ringing tones, there still lurks the matter of his fondness for The One. Can such steely powers of judgment have deserted him altogether when apllied to the telegenic one? Oh well we can’t all be perfect.


The most unnerving thing in that clip was the shot of Gordon’s terrible grin. What a haunting image. “Gordon, what was you doin’? You put yourself up for project manager, you’re a total disgrace. You’re fired.”

Imagine the lot of them in the boardroom, all trying to make the other person take the blame for their incompetence because they’ve failed the impossible task they were given that none of them knew the first thing about, with the voters baying for blood and Sir Alan waiting to point.

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QUESTION TIME ALERT!

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Tomorrow night IS Question Time night and you are all cordially invited to come along for an hour of quality banter and a chance to chat with all your B-BBC’er’s! On the panel we have Fattie Charles Clarke, Fattie Eric Pickles, Loony Caroline Lucas, Creepy Ed Davey and Wacky Michael Winner! Make sure you tune in, turn up and have your say.

 

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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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Feeding the Wolves

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In my Hague Left Hanging post below I alluded to the Haaretz report consisting, it turns out, mainly of hearsay about unethical behaviour by IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza.
Eagerly awaited fodder for the pack of wolves, hungry for just such tales of war crimes perpetrated by the IDF.

Melanie P addressed the evidence, dismantling it point by point, but it had already been swallowed by the MSM, the hungriest of which is the BBC’s siamese twin, the Guardian.

Not content with editorials and numerous articles, the most poisonous of which is by ‘Hamas mouthpiece’ Seamas Milne, the Guardian has been calling for support for its “work” by sending out an appeal to blog and website owners. It came from the delightfully named Mustafa Khalili who sent one by mistake to a pro Israel blog.

“The Guardian has regrettably thrown all professional journalistic ethics and pretensions to balance and objectivity to the four winds, and has gleefully annexed itself to the cause of Hamas,” said Ami Isseroff, chief editor of ZioNation. (Jpost quoting web site ZioNation)

The BBC has got in on the act of course. In a dumbed down article, they’ve got hold of a report, this time by UN investigators, who have come up with yet more ammo about unethical behaviour by Israeli soldiers. It doesn’t tell us much, but who cares, as long as it’s got this “The UN team responsible for protection of children in war zones says it found “hundreds” of similar violations.”
This is primarily concerned with the Guardian and to a lesser extent the BBC, but when Andrew Marr, Paxman and Esler get properly stuck in no doubt there’s much more in store.

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DEM(ONSTRABLY) BIASED.

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Anyone catch Justin Webb’s salivating coverage of Obama’s press  conference just after 7am this morning? Justin reaffirmed his faith in the Obamessiah  declaring to all us unbelievers that The One COULD speak without a teleprompter and of course that there was a real prospect that economic progress was being made via the latest Trillion Dollar “stimulus”.  (aka transgenerational income theft) Naturally there was no voice to dissent from the BBC view that Obama is “getting to grips” with the domestic economy. Then, just before 8am, up popped race hustler the Rev Jesse Jackson who was also fawned over.  Jackson’s theory that those who commit knife crime are “victims” of the system was allowed to float by unchallenged. Evan Davies delicately brought up the possibility that the Dem-originated CRA might have contributed ever so slightly to the sub-prime disaster but again the shakedown artiste was allowed to waffle his way around that one! If you want to hear BBC bias, just listen to how they treat extreme leftists like Jackson.

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But The Script’s Already Written !

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It has become apparent to commentators like Liam Halligan that the Great Deflation Scare of 2009 is, in his words :

“… largely a myth – an alibi for wildly expansionary fiscal and monetary policy concocted by Western governments and their media lackeys.

After all, where is deflation? Data released last week put annual US core inflation at no less than 4pc. So why is the Fed doing this, following the Bank of England’s lead? Because the real solution – forcing banks to face the music, while rescheduling massive private and public debts – is too politically frightening for our so-called leaders to contemplate.

A decision has been made, but not announced: we’ll inflate away our debts instead”

Media lackeys ? That’s a bit strong. Anyone in mind, Liam ? Robert Peston’s been waving the spectre of deflation for some time.

I invite readers to study the evolution of yesterdays lead BBC news story, from “Deflation risk as prices to fall” all the way through to “Surprise hike in consumer prices”.

It turns out that the only component of inflation to fall is mortgage costs – completely under the control of HMG/BoE. Everything else is going up. The only deflation is caused by the Government.

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MAKING BIASED BBC BETTER!

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Following on from my post a few days ago, I intend to move the entire project on to the next level. As you may know, I want a small team of tech/web experts who can get together, agree on a plan to redesign the site with all mod cons (!) I noted that there were a few other folks who clearly have good knowledge of this area (Hello Gosh, Hello Daniel 1979) and perhaps they could drop me a mail via the email the editor function on my own site A Tangled Web, so we can get this thing moving forward. Can you let me know when you mail me if it is OK for me to share your mail with the other members of the development team please? In essence, I want this group to talk together, put a plan in place and then propose back to me what your agreed vision for the site should look like. Then I’ll let you know mine! We can do all this quickly and efficiently. The thing I value is the knowledge YOU may have to help out on this! BTW – and crucially, I do not want anyone to think that this is all about the pursuit of style over substance. It is not! However presenting the case against the BBC in the best possible setting seems a sensible idea to me – so over to you…!!!!  

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TORIES IN THE CROSS-FIRE!

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Another morning and another chance to present the notion that the Conservative Party is divided. Yesterday it was on Inheritance tax, today it is on Europe. Mark Mardell was using the line that for the Conservative Party to withdraw from the (utterly useless) EPP would set up a crisis with the likes of MEP Christopher Weasley sorry, Christopher Beasely applying to join the EPP! Labour, and by definition the BBC, will open up more attacks on the Conservatives as we start the run-in to the June Euro-polls and I suspect this was just the beginning. The line being retailed is that the Conservatives are “extreme” if they seek to do anything that might de-rail the EU gravy train. Also, shouldn’t the BBC declare that it receives funding from the EU before it runs any story on this subject? Full disclosure is always a good idea when trying to pretend one in impartial.

With sincere thanks to my proof-readers!

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HOT AIR FROM THE  BIRDS.

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Why is that the BBC presents the decision as to whether we ruin our British coastline through the building of legions of on-shore wind farms as lying within the gift of the politically biased RSPB? The BBC ran an item this morning which suggested that so long as the developers of these monstrous wind-farms are “sensitive” to specific areas outlined by the RSPB, then they have the green light to go ahead. So that makes it OK then?  There is substantial opposition to these on-shore wind-farms on just about every basis one could imagine – economic, scientific, political – and yet the BBC chooses to frame this within the context of what the RSPB considers acceptable. Not in my name, to borrow a phrase. 

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