OPEN THREAD

111 Responses to OPEN THREAD

1. George R says:

   May 17, 2009 at 11:38 am

   Do the following two examples (of many), from the recent history of BBC salaries and expenses still reflect presentday BBC ‘culture’ in such matters?:

   1.) a 1993 example: Mr. Birt, ex-D.G.:

   ‘Independent on Sunday’, 1993:

   “BBC helps its chief to avoid tax: Exclusive: Birt’s salary paid to his private company”

   CHRIS BLACKHURST

   (Sunday, 28 February 1993)

   [Extract]:

   “JOHN BIRT, the new Director-General of the BBC, has avoided tax by being paid as a freelance consultant – despite being a full-time employee of the Corporation. Instead of paying tax on his BBC salary, he has been taxed on whatever he chooses to pay himself from his private company.

   “According to the BBC, details of Mr Birt’s pay as Director-General have still to be finalised. He took over his new job at Christmas instead of next month, as planned. But for six years as Deputy Director-General he was paid through his private company.”

   2.)BBC Creative Director, Mr. Yentob, 2008:

   ‘Mail’

   Outrage over Alan Yentob’s £27,000 BBC expenses claim… including a £120 cake”
   (13 April 2008.)

   [Extract]:

   ” Extraordinary details of the expense account of BBC Creative Director Alan Yentob are revealed today in documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday.
   The controversial executive is awarded thousands of pounds of licence-fee payers’ money each year for a range of items including ‘dry cleaning’, ‘evening dress’ and ‘accessing email while on location’.

   “Mr Yentob, whose basic salary is more than £300,000 a year, also filed a £120 claim for a single cake..”

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2. Gerald Brown says:

   May 17, 2009 at 11:46 am

   Anonymous 12.01

   I think that you will find that to be the BEST poll that the BBC could find for Labour as I believe 22% was mentioned earlier in the week accompanied by both Conservative and Labour down 4%.

   You are obviously new to BBBC as those of us with a memory that goes back only a few months will confirm the situation prior to and during the Brown (dead cat as it now appears) bounce.

   Perhaps even (your employer?) the BBC can see which way the wind is blowing, but your opinion on the likelihood of “empty champagne bottles littering the corridors of the BBC”, assuming an emphatic change of government, at the next election would be intersting.

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3. Craig says:

   May 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm

   Anonymous 12.01

   There’s a difference between playing something down and not mentioning it at all.

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4. johnj says:

   May 17, 2009 at 12:37 pm

   George R 12:38

   Yes, I had forgotten about Yentob with his nose firmly in the BBC trough. Perhaps if that story had emerged last week, the reaction to it may have been different! How did he justify stealing from the public purse at the time?

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5. johnj says:

   May 17, 2009 at 12:52 pm

   Does the BBC have a Green book?
   Alan Yentobs BBC expenses claimI notice that a BBC spokesman said: “We have very strict guidelines on expenses and every member of staff’s claims are analysed to ensure they adhere to them.”

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6. JohnA says:

   May 17, 2009 at 1:37 pm

   Don’t forget that John Simpson classed himself as living in Eire for many years, to avoid UK taxation.

   It would be wonderful if the Freedom of Information Act forced the BBCas a public body to reveal the salary of its top presnters and managers in fairly full detail.

   Or even – X presenters earning more than £1 million a year, Y earning half a million or more, Z presenters earning more than £100,000 a year.

   plus X Y and Z type figures for managers and production staff etc.

   Then have a TOTAL figure for all those people. It would be millions and millions. That would set a fire of public opinion against the BBC being featherbedded – a big amplification of the Jonathan Ross-type complaints about wasting OUR money.

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7. George R says:

   May 17, 2009 at 5:35 pm

   Will the BBC report on how the political left stops the BNP through censorship?:

   ‘Times’-

   “Postal workers refuse to deliver BNP leaflets”

   [Extract]:

   “Postal workers are refusing to deliver British National Party election leaflets because they object to its ‘right-wing rubbish’.

   “About 100 workers in the West Country have told union leaders that they will not carry the leaflets, which bear an anti-immigration message.”

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8. David Preiser says:

   May 18, 2009 at 12:56 am

   Surprise, surprise, here’s the BBC being dishonest with figures yet again to promote one of their pet causes. This time, it’s about the US, abortion, and – what else – The Obamessiah.

   There has been a lot of noise from Catholics this week because the University of Notre Dame invited the President to be the commencement speaker. He’s been making the rounds of university graduations, and ran into another difficulty the other day, which the BBC didn’t want you to know about, and which I’ll get to in a minute.

   The reason there’s been some opposition to the President’s invitation to a Catholic school is because of his stance on abortion. One of the reasons Justin Webb loves Him so much is because of that, and especially because The Obamessiah overturned Bush’s ban on government funding for embryonic stem-cell research, in which Webb has a personal interest. Here’s the BBC report:

   Obama to face Notre Dame protests

   In order to support The Obamessiah, the BBC says this:

   After taking office he also quickly moved to reverse a Bush-era ban on embryonic stem-cell research, angering many social conservatives.

   There are approximately 60 million Roman Catholics in the US, with almost half of them supporting abortion rights, research suggests. Some 42% believe abortion should be illegal.

   Notice the spin: almost half of them support abortion, according to “research”. Now, they don’t say what “research suggests” this, because the truth is a bit different. The latest poll the honest media is talking about is the latest Gallup poll:

   More Americans “Pro-Life” Than “Pro-Choice” for First Time

   According to this real research, it’s 42% pro-abortion. Yes, that’s nearly half alright, but what the BBC doesn’t tell you is that 51% of United Statesians consider themselves pro-life. Oops. Funny how that 42% got swapped, there.

   To further support The Obamessiah and the idea that most right-thinking United Statesians like abortion, the BBC digs up a quote from one Professer Scott Applebey of Notre Dame’s history department, in an article in the Chicago Tribune:

   And Professor Scott Applebey of Notre Dame’s history department said Catholics were “accustomed to making their own decisions”.

   That’s one of the results…of living in a democracy like ours.”

   The impression the BBC wants to create for you is that independent-thinking Catholics (read: the cool ones) are pro-abortion, while those who follow the teachings of their church are foolish sheep. This is also falls right in line with the BBC North America editor’s theory of the strange death of social conservatism.

   The problem is, that’s not the real context of the quote. This is (elipses from original Chicago Trib article):

   “There are so many centrifugal forces working on American Catholics, moving them away from … the church being the center of their moral lives,” said R. Scott Appleby, history professor at Notre Dame. “Catholics are accustomed to making their own decisions. That’s one of the results … of living in a democracy like ours.”

   What Prof. Applebey actually meant was that those Catholics who support abortion have lost the moral grounding of the Church. Not quite the impression the BBC wanted to create, so they axed that first part.

   As for that other problematic Obamessiah graduation ceremony, Arizona State University (where I went to school, as it happens) decided not to give Him an honorary degree (the traditional gift to commencement speakers) because they say He’s too inexperienced, and hasn’t accomplished enough yet to deserve one. They renamed some scholarship in his honor instead. Of course, the BBC didn’t want you to know about any of that.

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9. JohnA says:

   May 18, 2009 at 10:14 am

   David Preiser

   What the BBC has failed to report is that Obama’s stance on abortion is more liberal than any other Democrat. He and only he has prevented attempts in his state legislature to make it illegal to deny medical care to infants that are born alive after a botched abortion. That to me is an extreme and utterly immoral position – a sickening attitude by Obama.

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10. David Preiser says:

    May 18, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    I made a mistake about the BBC spinning poll numbers to suit their agenda. Apparently they were quoting this Pew Research Center poll, and not the Gallup poll I was looking at.

    This Pew poll actually does have it that 49% of Catholics polled approve of abortion, while only 42% think it’s not right. However, what the BBC doesn’t tell you is how weighted those numbers are.

    63% of Catholics who attend church at least weekly are against abortion. This number gets diluted by the 61% of pro-abortion Catholics who don’t go to church very much.

    Those would be the people whom Prof. Applebey says have lost the beliefs of their Church as their moral center. The BBC left that part out of his quote, of course, and only printed the part where he says these people are independent thinkers.

    So in reality the only reason the pro-abortion percentage is nearly half of Catholics polled (not even a majority, remember, yet the BBC tries to make it seem more important) is that there are a lot of lapsed Catholics in the mix. “Attend less often” will include “never”. Nearly two-thirds of those who do go to church at least once a week hold the traditional Catholic views on abortion. But that’s obviously not the impression the BBC wants to create.

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11. David Preiser says:

    May 18, 2009 at 1:32 pm

    JohnA @ 11:14 AM

    What the BBC has failed to report is that Obama’s stance on abortion is more liberal than any other Democrat.

    Yes, that’s part of why the Beeboids love Him so. Of course, as the president of Notre Dame said, President Obamessiah does share other important values with the Catholic Church. Being against gay marriage, for example. The BBC always seems to leave that out.

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