ATTACK!

Well, not a great night for socialism, was it? And the BBC are not happy campers. I listened to an orchestrated onslaught against the UKIP here and the Conservatives here. Osbourne got a real mauling from Humphyrs. It appears that once again we have an election result in which there are no winners. The other BBC meme being pushed remorselessly is that the BNP is “extreme right”. It’s not. It is hard-left but because this is an inconvenient truth to the BBC champagne swilling socialists, it is turned around and re-presented as being extreme-right. The BBC’s idea of “centre-right” is the likes of the Euro-fanatical socialist EPP group. Having watched BBC election coverage last night and then listened to it this morning, I am so grateful that we have better choices to glean information these days – particularly the net. But this makes the continued imposition of the license tax unbearable when the bias is so evident! Tired after the late night but thanks to those who came across to the Liveblog!

Bias Never Pays in the end

Last night was a great example of where deceitful politicking gets you, yet so far the BBC have learnt little. Today they report that “The BNP won more than 120,139 votes in the Yorkshire region, slightly less than in 2004”. This detail obscures the fact that their share of the vote increased (which they don’t mention). It’s the wishful thinking that finds this kind of reporting satisfying, and fails to represent the political issue fairly, which has given the Labour-sympathising, Toynbee-Alibai-Brown promoting BBC the bad name it has, and contributed to the rise of the BNP for saying “what you will never hear” on the BBC.

Thanks to the commenters who reported on BBC bias through the evening. The comment thread makes interesting reading.

EURO ELECTIONS LIVEBLOG

Just to let B-BBC readers know that I will be liveblogging the Euro-election results over on my home site, A Tangled Web, kicking off at 9pm. It should prove to be most interesting and high entertainment value. You are all cordially invited over! PS. Did you see that Charlie Falconer has now joined the Geek chorus urging Gordoom to go!!!

SAVE GORDON UNDERWAY

Anyone catch Lord Rio on the Marr show lying through his teeth and being allowed to get away with it? Anyone notice that the BBC main news portal leading with the news that “influential left-wing backbencher John Cruddas has joined those backing the PM, saying ousting him would be “madness.” It’s Save Gordon day ahead of the results to come.

HAS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH DAMAGED DEMOCRACY?

Only the BBC could run an item on Nick Campbell’s “Big Question” entitled “Has the Daily Telegraph damaged democracy”? The angle being taken is that instead of us debating climate change and terrorism (although never Islamic terrorism, of course!) the DT has steered the debate away from these important issues into “tittle-tattle”. Remarkable. Here’s a question I would like to see Nicky debate…”Has the BBC damaged democracy”

BROWN BOOED ON OBAMA BEACH…

The veterans of World War Two – and of D-DAY in particular – make us all feel humble. I guess there will be plenty like me who had a lump in the throat watching them remember their fallen comrades today. The best of British and an inspiration. And then, inevitably, there was Gordon.
Did you hear him being booed? God, that was awful. The BBC showed it but no commentary on why such a remarkable outpouring of anger would occur. And then, of course, there was “Obama beach”. Yes, I know it was a slip of the tongue anyone could make but even so, the BBC have let it pass. Imagine George W Bush had been there and made such a mistake – would the BBC have played that up? Would the BBC comedians have run with it for subsequent eons?

Framing the debate

In the great BBC interview bias debate, we’ve already identified one factor, what has been called the “interruption coefficient” (by commenter Ctesibus). There are other factors though of course; one that usually strikes me is what I could term “framing”. The opening 1 minute and 30 seconds of this interview with Conservative Caroline Spelman were conducted by John Humphrys analysing the local elections results WITHOUT mentioning the expenses scandal, while claiming that the Conservatives had failed to meet expectations at a time when Labour were at a low ebb. Actually, before the election I can recall the BBC intoning hypnotically that all politicians were in the doghouse together. Now that the Conservatives pass an electoral test, suddenly the expenses scandal disappears from their thinking and the Conservatives have allegedly disappointed.

The rest of Humphrys’ interview too was dripping with oleaginous cynicism directed against Conservatives- insinuating that the Conservatives would be punished at the General election, that Spelman was dishonest (“come on, you’re a politician”), that Brown had the new Cabinet behind him (Humphrys fluffs this hilariously as he realises he’s spouting more than his usual nonsense quotient) and that David Cameron would get his comeuppance soon over expenses.

All of this Spelman sailed through with the fair wind of success behind her, but Humphrys’ framing of the discussion was a persistent effort to mitigate bad news for Labour. For now, it has failed, but to the truly ideological every little counts.

OBAMAFICATION

Did you listen to this discussion on Today this morning concerning the issue of when global powers should intervene abroad with military force? Obama addressed this issue in his speech in Cairo and then this is compared to a speech given by Tony Blair in Chicago in 1999. In essence, the BBC approves of the “pragmatism” that pervades Obama’s triangulating and dhimmifed speech and it’s one more opportrunuty to attack UK support for the Iraq war. The BBC narrative is that military intervention is NEVER a good idea – unless it would be against Israel, of course. Both contributors are drooling Obama worshippers and thus we have an item which seamlessly avoids any criticism of Obama. It’s all about “reaching out” to Islam and so Obama and the BBC have a shared agenda in this regard.