OPEN THREAD

This is where you can discuss any BBC-related issue that concerns you. Please use it sensibly, no abuse and no trolls!

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38 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. Qoooze says:

    It seems whenever the BBC news talk about Sharia law being imposed in Pakistan there’s the same stock footage shown. The guy with light blue traditional PJs, he’s being held down by three men while one half-heartedly strikes him on the lower back with a cane. Considering they stone, behead, amputate etc. this seems to be the most pathetic illustration of Sharia imaginable. It didn’t look like it hurt at all, and in a few minutes he’s free to go home. He would probably think we were barbaric to sentence people to hundreds of hours of community service, or to lock them in a cell with only a Playstation for weeks.

    Bring Sharia to Britain!

    (That’s what we’re to think, right?)

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  2. Craig says:

    In an article about slavery in Mauritania (“Anti-slavery gong for Mauritanian” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8070100.stm) the BBC airbrushes out every inconvenient contextual bit of information.
    Who’s enslaving who in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania? Is it not Arabs (Moors) who are enslaving black Africans?
    But, of course, the Beeb treads very gently where the Arabs are concerned, so mum’s the word.

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  3. Grant says:

    Craig 6:19
    I have never been to Mauritania, but I have spoken to Mauritanians in Senegal and Gambia and they tell me it is not only Arabs enslaving black Africans, but also “black on black” slavery.
    That is even worse for the BBC.
    How inconvenient that the real world just doesn’t conform to the view from Islington !

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  4. AndrewSouthLondon says:

    Speaking of slavery, indeed of a time when some had “servants”, how about this choice front page bit of headline writing? –

    Tory MP to repay ‘servant costs’

    A Tory MP agrees to repay about £20,000 he claimed from public funds towards servants’ quarters in his second home.

    “Cost of Servant” it says turns out to be a section of his house which is accommodation for a gardener and their family. Lucky gardener but I guess Victorian “servant” is a better bit of class-war stirring. Desperate to turn “Troughgate” into “Toff-gate”.

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  5. George R says:

    What the BBC says about PAKISTAN and Islamic jihadists, it won’t say about Britain and Islamic jihadists.

    The BBC reports that even Muslims in hitherto relatively Islamic jihad free parts of Pakistan don’t want ‘refugees’ from Swat Valley to come to live in their areas because of fear (Islamophobia?)that such ‘refugees’ are certain to include Islamic jihadists.

    Of course, the BBC makes no such observations to that effect in relation to the British Labour government’s open door ‘policy’ of mass immigration from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia over the past decade, and continuing.

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  6. DB says:

    The Goode Family – the new cartoon by Mike Judge mocking politcally correct eco-types (click on the “I am human now let me watch this video” button to view the first episode which aired last night). Quite funny.

    And now a real life version – Marcus Brigstocke shows us round the house the licence fee paid for. Note the big deal he makes about using bikes to get around, and then when he emerges onto his street there’s a bloody great motorhome parked outside his house. And yes – it is his.

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  7. George R says:

    BBC, European Union and the E.U. elections next Thursday:

    Of course, the BBC is disqualified as a potentially impartial source of information on the E.U., given its long-term use of BBC licencepayers’ money to give tacit BBC support to the E.U.

    The excellent E.U.-critical site: ‘eureferendum.blogspot.com’ keeps up its campaign:

    ‘There for the taking’

    [Extract]:

    “With only a week to go to the euro-elections, attention is beginning to shift to the creatures we are to send to Brussels, supposedly to represent us in the heart of evil but, in fact, to represent the EU to us.

    “And, if our MPs are turning out to have feet of clay – or some of them – the tiny spotlight that is illuminating our MEPs suggests that many are every bit as foul and grimy as the worst of the domestic species.”

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  8. DB says:

    Brigstocke.

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  9. GCooper says:

    Brigstocke is one of my hate objects, I must say.

    He was plucked from obscurity, not on account of public acclaim but because the BBC had chosen to do with him what it so often does with favoured sons: it promoted his career at every available opportunity, presumably because a small coterie in the Corporation liked what he does.

    Over the years there have been many who have benefited from this treatment – relentless promotion until the the chosen one becomes a ‘celebrity’: Jonathan Ross, Ruby Wax, Billy Bragg, Bonnie Greer, Clive Anderson, Sandi Tolsvig and Johnny Vegas all seem to have received ‘the treatment’ at one time or another.

    I wonder what they might possibly have in common?

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  10. DB says:

    An article describing Brigstocke’s motorhome as “solar-powered“. And when it’s cloudy they put the sails up.

    Strangely no mention in the video of his photovoltaic panels.

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  11. will2001 says:

    There are press reports about pop musicians chagrined at their work being sold by the BNP

    like thisI like the comment added about the BBC’s token working class artist

    I’ve always despised the politics of Billy Bragg. What a delicious irony that he should ‘help’ fund the BNP!

    PeteH, Navenby, UK

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  12. Grant says:

    A few classic BBC gems from World at one :-

    ” We have a rare interview with the Pakistani Taliban ” ( breathlessly and with great excitement ).

    ” Civitas, the right-of-centre think tank “. ( For the BBC there are no left-of-centre or extreme left think tanks ).

    Large section that Julie Kirkbride (con) MAY stand down as an MP, then quickly slipped in that Margaret Moran ( Lab ) has announced that she WILL stand down and move on rapidly to the next item.

    BBC bias, it is pathetic !

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  13. Peter says:

    Grant said…
    A few classic BBC gems from World at one :-
    2:10 PM, May 28, 2009
    Your post coincides with two emails I have just had from Aunty in complement…

    Labour MP Moran to step downLabour MP Margaret Moran is to step down from her Luton South constituency at the next election.

    MP Kirkbride ‘set to stand down’Conservative MP Julie Kirkbride is considering standing down as an MP at the next election, the BBC understands.

    I suppose you could argue that at least in the former the party was headlined.

    But I was just trying to get my head around a ‘special’ (and with quotes on top, so you know it has to be dodgy) email that is based on an ‘understanding’ that a person is ‘considering’ standing down.

    The first is fact. The second sure as heck isn’t anything I’d called worthy of cluttering up my in-box with until confirmed.

    Maybe they just need one to ‘balance’ the other, and that was the best they had.

    Sloppy at best. At worst…?

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  14. David Preiser says:

    It’s a river theme on the World Service right now. They just had on US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, whol likes rivers because he enjoys fly fishing. You may all have heard of him because on Tuesday he told the world that we should paint all our roofs white to stop global warming. He may be good at physics, but not at geography and math.

    After that, a couple of Beeboids on the World Service were laughing at those primitives in India who think the Ganges river is sacred. Yes, there were a couple of audible giggles.

    David Whittie (sp?) was in India berating some poor local for throwing trash in the river. Then it was back to the studio with the host chuckling at the belief that the river was sacred and that lots of people around the world seem to be silly like that and think rivers are sacred.

    So, this is at last an example of a BBC employee insulting or condemning a specific religious belief of someone other than a white Christian. It’s interesting how their multi-culti relativist policy goes out the window when it conflicts with the BBC environmental agenda.

    Before anybody chimes in saying something like “So you think it’s okay to destroy the planet,” let me say that of course I’m against pollution and the like. But this isn’t about my opinion of whether or not Hindus should treat the Ganges as a self-purifying entity. This is about the BBC going after religious belief. If a couple of wealthy, white Conservatives were caught laughing at primitive magical thinking like that, they’d be branded racist. It’s going to get interesting if they continue.

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  15. David Preiser says:

    Matt Frei has written another entry in his Washington Diary, this time about the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court. Reading this just reinforces the impression that Frei really wants to write light fiction, something with endless humorous descriptions of scenes and details, and very light on intelligence.

    In any case, he plays – what else? – the race and class cards throughout. Who cares about her job experience? Who cares about her record? Not Frei Boy. All he wants you to know is that Rush Limbaugh called her a “reverse racist”. He provides no context for this slur, as if it’s out of the blue, and just one of those things that nasty, “controversial” Conservatives says. And he brings up those nasty “conservative activists” again.

    Why did Limbaugh say that, Matt? The license fee payers don’t have any idea because you Beeboids have hidden the truth from them. People are calling Judge Sotomayor a racist because she said this:

    “A wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” Sotomayor said.”

    This is a racialist statement in my opinion, but if the BBC is going to report that people are calling her a racist, the British Public has a right to know why. Not only does Frei Boy hide this truth from you, but as I pointed out on the last open thread, other Beeboids actually lie to you about it. All you know is that nasty conservatives hate her for no apparent reason. She must actually be good if evil bastards like Limbaugh and Gingrich and “conservative activists” hate her.

    While I’m on the subject of Matt Frei’s dishonesty and bias, I should remind everyone that he was always quick to ridicule President Bush. The BBC in general never missed an opportunity to show a Bush error, make fun of his verbal slips, and even created a little slideshow to make him look ridiculous at some African festival a few years ago.

    We’ve already seen that the Beeboids simply will not mention any of The Obamessiah’s numerous gaffes, especially his total uselessness without a teleprompter. The teleprompter issue isn’t just a vicious attack on Him by conservative activists, wingnut haters, or horrible people like myself. Even White House staff is aware of it.

    Here’s a little evidence of just how bad and how well known The Obamessiah’s teleprompter issue is. Yesterday, VP Biden was giving a speech outdoors, and the wind blew over his teleprompter. Biden, always quick with a dopey retort, said “what am I going to tell the President when I tell him his teleprompter is broken?”

    Even the VP is joking about it, in front of a bunch of military types. Yet, the BBC has never, ever said anything, and never, ever will. They can’t allow any chinks in His armor to show.

    I eagerly await Matty or Katty to bring this up on BBC World News America. Yeah, that’ll happen.

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  16. George R says:

    BBC, late in the day, has:

    “Abu Hamza’s car scam sons jailed”

    (BBC: ‘England/London’ webpage).

    The BBC neglects to mention that Abu Hamza is STILL in Britain, opposing his extradition to the U.S. for, as ‘The Telegraph’ puts it,:

    “allegedly setting up a terrorist training camp.”

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  17. George R says:

    BBC reporter, O.Bennett-Jones, in Pershawar (scene of the latest Islamic jihad atrocity), has:

    “Tide turns against the Taliban”

    (BBC ‘South Asia’ pages.)

    But has the tide turned against the Taliban among all BBC reporters, including Lyse Doucet?:

    ‘The Sun’ (25 Aug 2008)-

    “No humanity for ‘evil’ Taliban” TOM NEWTON DUNN
    Defence Editor

    “A BBC news girl attacked TV yesterday for failing to show viewers the Taliban’s ‘humanity’.
    Presenter Lyse Doucet’s astonishing statement comes as an Apache gunship hero revealed the fanatics aim to capture a British soldier and SKIN HIM LIVE on the internet.”

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  18. Robert S. McNamara says:

    Just had the misfortune to catch a few seconds of The One Show. Giles Brandreth was harping on about something or other, probably the MP’s expenses thing, and the potato-headed hoast, Adrian Chiles said something like, ‘But if the American system of checks and balances is much better, how did we end up with eight years of George W. Bush?’

    Is there anyone – anyone at all – at the BBC who isn’t a hyper-partisan hack?

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  19. Robert S. McNamara says:

    *host, sorry.

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  20. Grant says:

    Robert 7:12
    I missed it, but was potatohead suggesting George Bush fiddled his expenses ?

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  21. DB says:

    David Preiser @ 6:06 PM, May 28, 2009
    Reading this just reinforces the impression that Frei really wants to write light fiction

    How true – a contender for Gavin Hewitt’s title as Purplest Prose Writer at the BBC.

    It’s like Ann Coulter said yesterday on Good Morning America:

    Why aren’t Democrats [*] – why aren’t they choking up over Clarence Thomas or Miguel Estrada? Come on. Why are we only supposed to weep only when it’s a liberal Hispanic or a liberal black?[* or BBC journalists]

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  22. DB says:

    Why aren’t Democrats [*] – why aren’t they choking up over Clarence Thomas or Miguel Estrada? Come on. Why are we only supposed to weep only when it’s a liberal Hispanic or a liberal black?

    [* or BBC journalists]

    What is it with the Blogger comments here and spaces after html? Does it happen elsewhere?

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  23. TooTrue says:

    DB,

    I don’t think it happens elsewhere.

    How did you manage to separate the html from the normal text in your last comment?

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  24. DB says:

    How did you manage to separate the html from the normal text in your last comment?

    I put the closing tag before the question mark. Can’t make words bold in the middle of a sentence though.

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  25. DB says:

    Oh, apparently you can. Is it just italics then?

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  26. TooTrue says:

    Ah! Now I see, thanks. I thought they were identical.

    Can’t make words bold in the middle of a sentence though.Works on Preview….

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  27. TooTrue says:

    Seems OK.

    I just did the standard < b >bold< / b >

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  28. DB says:

    Justin Webb takes at face value a report about Obama not asking Sotomayor for her views on abortion. Webb thinks this is “strikingly cool“.

    The BBC’s North America editor has a teenage fan-girl crush.

    How would he have reported on Bush not asking the same thing? Cowardly? Weak? Fence-sitting? All of these, I think.

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  29. TooTrue says:

    Webb is a cheerful idealist who hasn’t outgrown his adolescence. He’s also not too bright and he knows next to nothing about America. Don’t know why the BBC made him North America editor. He probably told his bosses he likes it there and they said, “Fine.”

    He could be naive enough to believe that Obama really didn’t know about Sotomayor’s stand on abortion.

    Funny thing is, he hasn’t always shown unquestioning devotion to Obama. A couple of extreme leftie idiots on the site objected to that most bitterly.

    His site has been slow since this afternoon. Moderator problems, I guess. They usually post comments quite promptly.

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  30. David Preiser says:

    DB and TooTrue,

    In the White House briefing on Tuesday (@ 32:30), a reporter asked the White House spokesman if Judge Sotomayor was Catholic, and if the President asked her about her views on the “right to privacy”. That’s pro-abortion language, so the reporter’s angle is clear. Gibbs said that “there was no litmus test,” which – if true – means that she could very well be anti-abortion, and the President would still nominate her. So, the bit Justin Webb allows you to know about how the President “didn’t ask about that specifically,” he’s not being totally honest. He’s only making an issue out of it because nasty Conservatives are anti-abortion, and would ask. For personal reasons, Webb is a big advocate for abortion. Thus, if one doesn’t ask about abortion, one is “cool”.

    In any case, we’ll see how strikingly cool ol’ Justin thinks it is if it turns out that this Catholic judge is not a fan of abortion.

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  31. David Preiser says:

    Mark Easton manages to sneak in a little pro-AGW propaganda into a post about butterfly migration.

    There are more and more of them apparently:

    It is thought that heavy winter rains in Morocco allowed good germination of the caterpillar food plants this year, but experts think that global warming explains increased sightings of the Painted Lady over the past few decades.

    It’s subtle, but Easton’s bias is there. “It is thought…” versus “experts think”. I guess those people who think that the heavy rains are responsible for the increase in caterpillar survival aren’t experts. Or maybe they were just making it up, Mark? Only the AGW idea is validated by experts, eh, BBC?

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  32. George R says:

    This will annoy the BBC:

    ‘Mail’-

    Michael Winner, film director:

    “Calm down dear, it’s merely my manifesto to purge the Commons of fiddlers and PC idiots”

    [Extract]:

    “Roy Hattersley savages the idea of people like Michael Winner standing as MPs. Calm down dear, says the man himself, I’d merely purge the House and send PC idiots to the gulag.”

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  33. Not a sheep says:

    08:20 Today programme: Why so dismissive of the Czech Republic? Evan Davis was really quite sneering about the Conservatives only allying with the Czechs and not French or German etc. Are all EU Countries not equal members Evan?

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  34. George R says:

    Not for the pro-E.U. BBC, in the run-up to the E.U. elections, next Thursday:

    ‘telegraphblog’

    “Some conspiracy theories are true – and the worst of them all is the European Union”
    (James Delingpole).

    AND: ‘eureferendum.blogspot.com’:

    “It won’t magically disappear”

    [Extract]:

    “Some conspiracy theories are true – and the worst of them all is the European Union.” Thus writes James Delingpole in his Daily Telegraph blog.

    “Delingpole then goes on to refer to ‘the best, most comprehensive account ever written on the EU’, naming ‘The Great Deception’ by Christopher Booker and Richard North.

    “Our arguments are then summarised in the piece Delingpole writes, extracted from his own book, ‘How to be right’, delightfully sub-titled, ‘The Essential Guide to Making Lefty Liberals History’.”

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  35. George R says:

    BBC bigging up Labour’s expensive and wasteful car scrappage scheme:

    “Scrap scheme boost to car sales”
    [BBC ‘business’ page].

    Unanswered questions:
    1.)What is the cost to the UK taxpayers so far?

    2.)How many British jobs (as distinct to foreign jobs of the manufacturers of cars built abroad, and imported to the UK) have been saved?

    3.)How economically beneficial would UK public expenditure on alternative projects to car scrappage have been?

    ALSO:

    ‘pickinglosers.co.uk’ (7 April):

    “Scrappage and broken windows”

    [Extract]:

    “The fact that the costs of scrappage are spread amongst all taxpayers is equally irrelevant to the question of the economic cost of the scheme. The additional money that we all pay in tax, so that the Government can encourage people to scrap cars that were sufficiently serviceable that their owners otherwise wouldn’t have scrapped them, is money that will not be spent on goods which we value and which the producers would be as keen to sell as the car producers are keen to sell their cars.”
    {…}
    “The scrappage idea can seem quite attractive and relatively painless, at first sight. But it is, in reality, hopelessly and irredeemably wrong.”

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  36. George R says:

    Much to chagrin of BBC?:

    “Cameron tougher on Lisbon?”

    (BBC Mark Mardell blog) –

    [Extract from Cameron speech]:

    “We will therefore hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, pass a law requiring a referendum to approve any further transfers of power to the EU, negotiate the return of powers, and require far more detailed scrutiny in Parliament of EU legislation, regulation and spending.”

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  37. Anonymous says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8068548.stm

    Another propaganda piece for the FARC.
    Firstly they are not the oldest insurgent force. (the Karen in Burma are much older.)
    Discribing the FARC’s involvement with cocaine as a daring enterprise. Doesn’t mention that they also do kidnappig to get money. etc. etc.

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  38. TooTrue says:

    David Preiser 10:04 PM, May 28, 2009,

    Thanks for that clarification.

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